The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry takes over in Warriors win vs. Bucks, Raptors-Lakers, Blazers-76ers

Episode Date: March 12, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors' 125-116 overtime win vs. the Milwaukee Bucks, who were missing Giannis Antetokounmpo. Jason breaks down Steph's dominant performance and whether he thinks the Warriors are ready to make a run leading into the NBA Playoffs. Later, Jason discusses Joel Embiid's 39-point performance in the Philadelphia 76ers' 120-119 win over Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers, the Los Angeles Lakers' 122-112 win over the Toronto Raptors without LeBron James, and Mikal Bridges and the Brooklyn Nets' 124-123 overtime win over Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Happy Saturday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great weekend so far. Stefan Curry snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against the Milwaukee Bucks tonight. We're going to talk about that game and three games from last night, including Joel Embed and his nasty game winner against the Portland Trailblazers,

the Lakers, notching yet another impressive win without LeBron James. Then I have a couple of thoughts, a couple of basketball concepts I want to get into that I thought were interesting at the end of the Nets win on the road in Minnesota against the Timberwolves last night. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes 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 any show announcements. And if for whatever reason you guys miss

one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. And last but not least, before we get started, you guys have heard me talk about game time, the fastest growing ticketing app in the United States. If you're looking to get out to an NBA game or a college basketball game or a baseball game or an NHL game or concert or even a comedy show, Game Time has amazing last minute deals on tickets to all of these. I have never been to an NBA playoff game before. So I'm going to try to get up to Phoenix this year to see Kevin Durant and the Suns play in a playoff game just right up the road for me. Game Time is an incredible user experience. I know I'm

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who also, drew holiday in the final minute, hit a tough contested three on the right wing. So you're basically dug in an 11-point hole effectively there. And Steph goes four for four on ridiculous shot difficulty to send the game to OT. Clay gets going and OT hits two shots to build a little bit of a margin and then Steph closes the deal with a ridiculous three on the left wing and a driving layup.

And Draymond also was magnificent defensively down the stretch, got a key stop on Brooke Lopez in the post, had a really nice close out on a Brooke Lopez three in the right corner. He had a pretty nasty ankle injury earlier in the game and battled through it. He was a plus 22 in this game. It was a vintage war. Warriors win, and that's why they've won so many games. They just understand all those little things that you got to do at the end of the games.

This was a, you know, it's been a tough execution year for the Warriors on a bunch of different levels, a lot of different factors at play. And, you know, I, there was some bad intel that came out from the Andrew Wiggins thing. I think it was Anthony Slater, if I remember correctly. I hope I'm right about that. But he had mentioned that there's a suspicion that Andrew hasn't even touched a basketball court in several weeks. Jonathan Camingo, he's day-to-day with the ankle injury, but he's missing multiple games here.

Gary Payton still hasn't played. So, like, especially going into a matchup like this against a Bucks team that is pretty damn good without Yannis. They were 9 and 5 coming into the night when Yonis sits out. Even without Yonis, they're still an unbelievable defensive team. They've got still Brooke Lopez, who's, you know, every bit of the defensive player of the year candidate, that he's always been.

Drew Holliday, one of the best guard defenders. in the league, like we mentioned earlier. This was a tough game to win, even for the Warriors at home. And, you know, what was interesting is Golden State came in with a really good game plan, I thought. You know, one of the interesting things about the Bucks is with Janus, they run the floor in transition like crazy on almost 20% of their possessions. And they're really effective there because of what Janus can do in the open floor.

But without Janus, they are much more of a half-court team. They're not a very athletic team once you get, Yanis off the floor, and they're not a team that looks to run very often. And, you know, one of the kind of balances that takes place in a basketball game is, how much are you willing to crash the offensive glass versus getting back in transition to contain a team that likes to get back? For instance, if you're playing against the bucks with Janus, like, you need to get back, you need to build a wall.

So you might not be able to be as aggressive to the offensive glass. I thought it was intentional. I would imagine it was part of the game plan, but Golden State was recklessly attacking the offensive glass. And I thought it was smart because when Janus is off the floor, the percentage of possessions that Milwaukee looks to run in transition plummets down to like 13% according to cleaning the glass. And they're way less effective on a points per possession basis when they run.

They're just not a very good transition team without Janus. And so I thought it was a really smart game plan. I think they had like 18 or 19 offensive rebounds on this game, which is absolutely insane. It was the way they wanted OT with all the extra chances that they got. They had a good game plan. But at the end of the day, they were still down 108 to 100 with less than two minutes left. Because once again, against that Bucks team, which is so big and so good defensively,

I've talked about this a lot about, you know, because you guys know how much I believe in Steph Curry and Dremont. It's kind of similar to the way I've talked about LeBron and Anthony Davis over the years. I have a huge believer in those two. I'm a huge believer in Stefan Dremont. But the reality is, is one of the things that we all can learn about the game of basketball is it is a team sport no matter what. And there are certain responsibilities that have to be checked on the floor. Stefan Draymond are both below average athletes for their position. And so you need to surround them with a certain level of athleticism.

Like even when we go back to the Warriors in their absolute prime, whether it was Kevin Durant or in his prime, Andre Aguadala, Harrison Barnes, or playing with Andrew Bogot at center, there was a size in athleticism that went beyond their core that could help cover those bases. And it's just really hard, especially in the modern NBA with how deep these teams are with talent to win when you're as unathletic as the Warriors are without Andrew Wiggins, without Gary Payton, without Jonathan Camingas. So they were still in a hole there. And that's why I said this was snatching victory from the jaws of defeat by Steph Curry.

They were supposed to lose that game. And Steph simply would not let them. The types of shots he was sitting there down the stretch, it was putting the ball in the basket through sheer force of will. last three he hit to match the one that Drew Holiday hit. Open floor, no ball screen, no nothing, just took Drew Holiday and hit him with a step back. Didn't get that much separation, but he got enough. And that's enough for him to get his shot off, and he wheeled the ball into the rim. Again, four for four down the stretch of that game with ridiculous shot quality. It was almost like Steph Curry just kind of felt the situation and went,

we're not winning this game unless I just catch a heater right here. and he tried like hell to do so, and he did. Again, it's going to be really tough. It's going to get harder for the Warriors here. They have a tough matchup with the sons coming up at home who are playing really good basketball right now, even without Kevin Durant, Devin Booker's on a tear. And then they go back on the road, I think, for five games. And you know how the Warriors have struggled on the road.

Now, this is going to be the thing. Is this going to be the moment that galvanizes this group? Are they going to be able to pull together and get some wins on the road? I like to think from a motivational standpoint that'll help. but the reality of the situation is without the athleticism of Andrew Wiggins, without the athleticism of Gary Payton, it's just going to be really hard for them too. I do think, Andrew, excuse me, Jonathan Camingo will come back sooner than later, and that will certainly help things.

But this group is going to have to be incredibly locked in down the stretch of this season to get out of the play in because they are at a personnel disadvantage, a athleticism and height disadvantage almost every single night. And you know what? It might require Steph being all-worlded. good the way that he is in order to float them during the stretch, which, you know, that's what superstars do, and he's done it in the past, and I think he can do it again. I will say, though, as a basketball fan, that was fun. That was a fun end of that game to watch. And, you know,

I will never stop believing in this group and what they're capable of when they're fully healthy, because when it comes down to it in a key moment and a key playoff series, if I've got Steph Curry and Clay Thompson and Draymond Green and Kavana Looney and hopefully Andrew Wiggins, you know, that, it's just going to be really hard to bet against that group. You know, as I've kind of settled in, I've had the Bucks as my championship favorite for about a month or two now, pretty much since the last Steph Curry injury, not because I don't believe in the Warriors run they're healthy, but just the reality of their predicament, which we just went over. And everyone else in the league has massive question marks. Like, you know, Denver can't defend nearly as well

is Milwaukee and they're kind of on a slide defensively right now. Phoenix is missing their best player. The Lakers are missing their best player. Philly has no bench and I have some question marks about Embed and James Hardin when we get to the postseason. I think Boston has the best chance, but Milwaukee I think is just slightly better than them and I trust them a little bit more. And not only that, Janus is just by far the best player in that particular series should they ever get to that point. Now, we'll re-approach this when we get to April. I expect to be able to see Kevin Durant with the Sons a little bit more. I expect the Warriors to hopefully get whole and put together some games in April where

they look more or less like the version of themselves that we're going to see in the playoffs. I'm really interested to see what the Lakers look like if they can get four or five games in a row with LeBron James on the court with them. There's a lot of stuff that I want to see. I want to see how good, how well Denver's defending over the course the last month of the season. Their personnel limitations are real on the defensive end of the floor. Like in most of their late round playoff series, they're not going to have nearly.

the same defensive personnel as their opponent. That doesn't mean that they can't win, but that means they have to be incredibly sharp in their details, like that go beyond athleticism and size. They're going to need to be super sharp in their execution defensively. I need to see that from them in the time leading up to the postseason. So we'll re-approach this when we get to mid-April, but as of right now, the bucks are the safest bet.

And I thought, you know, aside from some nightmarish late-game execution tonight, Drew Holiday inexplicably dribbling into a turnover after that Brooke Lopez block and then looking off Joe Ingalls in the corner on that final possession and Steph Curry making a really nice defensive play on him at the rim but in the process drew leaving time on the clock like they made a lot of mistakes down the stretch of this game but they have been a really impressive basketball team throughout this season they seem locked in and ready and unless I see some of those other teams get it together in a bunch of different ways as of right now the bucks are still my favorite. But like I said, we'll re-approach that when we get to April.

All right, let's move on to Blazers. So this was an interesting game in the early slate last night. The Blazers came out red-hot from three. Anfernie Simons made eight threes. Here's some trivia for you guys. How many players in NBA history have made at least nine threes in a game at least five times? Take a guess. I wish we could insert some trivia sound. The answer is six. Now, try to get guess who those players are. Now, there's going to be the regular ones you would expect, right? Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Damian Lillard, James Hardin, a volume guy. But there's two additional guys.

J.R. Smith and Anthony Simons, literally. He's made nine threes in a game five times. He's actually one of the best heat check guys in the league, although he was stuck on eight in that game. And they could have used one more out of him under the circumstances. Last little bit of trivia. How many times do you think Steph has hit at least nine? threes in a game.

39 times. 39 times. That's as much as all of the active guys on that list combined that have made at least five. So just another stratosphere for the greatest shooter of all time. But down the stretch, the Sixers locked in on both ends of the floor. They held the Blazers to just five points in the final five minutes of the game. And Joel Embed hits the game winner. There was an interesting kind of sequence there where he was isolating Nerkitz,

but the spacing wasn't quite right. and Doc Rivers called a timeout. And I was confused by it in the moment because I was like, oh, this is just going to give Chaunty Billups the opportunity to double team Joel. And he didn't double team Joel, left him on an island again, which gave Doc Rivers the opportunity to set up better spacing. On Joel's first attempt, like they were a little bit crowded on him on the wings, and on the play out of the timeout, they cleared the top of the floor

and gave Joel the entire middle of the floor so that when he did that spin back towards the middle, He had more space to go. Again, if you do that same move and there's a shooter on the left wing, that guy can dig down and disrupt Joel in a way that he can't if it's vacated. So I thought it was a gamble from Doc because I thought he might have set Joel up for a double team, but it ended up paying off. And Joel Embed just a ridiculous high level of skill in that spin move. I went on with Mark Ryan with CBS Sports Radio earlier this evening,

and we were talking a little bit about the Kendrick Perkins thing. And, you know, what was funny is, like, I think that there is actually a little bit of like a European type of bias that takes place where basketball fans just assume that European players are more skilled than American players. And American players are often characterized by their, you know, kind of tunnel vision in terms of isolation, scoring and a lot of focus on their athleticism. and then the European players, it's all the passing and the skill and the flare. And like, I think that that gets a little ridiculous because there's no doubt that in Europe, there's a lot of players that play really well in terms of playmaking and things along those lines. But it's a very physical game over there. So isolation scoring is a little bit less impactful.

The spacing's different. You actually need to move the ball a lot more over there. So a lot of it's just the way they play growing up over there. But I would push back on that concept a lot. think that American players are extremely underrated in terms of their skill level. And Joel Embed's a great example of that. Like, yes, Joel Embed's level of skill is very different than Nicola Yokic, because it manifests more in scoring skill set.

But his scoring skill set is miles and miles and miles ahead of what Nicola Yokic is. Nicoliyokic is a very efficient score, but he does it a lot within the flow of the offense, and he's very good at creating advantages for himself. But he's not in the same stratosphere as a player as a player. Embed when it comes to that staring your man in the face and just getting a bucket over the top of him. And so I want to do a better job, and I'm going to try to work on it on this show and kind of point it out when I see it elsewhere. But the skill level of American players is insane too. Now, Joel Embed obviously has came from overseas originally, but in terms of his

basketball development, for the most part, it's taking place in the United States. And he's thought of in a lot of ways as an American player, even though he's not. clear about that. I just think that Joel gets kind of lumped in with that group and Yokic kind of with the other groups. I just wanted to kind of differentiate that a little bit. But to be clear, like, and Bede's on a

damn tear, man. And about two months ago, I was one of those people that thought Yokic was better. And I always have been gravitating towards playmakers. You guys know that about me. I gravitate towards perimeter

players. And gravitate towards playmakers. And so even amongst the centers, I gravitated towards Yokic. And then there were some specific things. I thought Embed relied really heavily on foul baiting, which is not a thing that I like a lot. And then obviously he hasn't played as well in the postseason as he does in the regular season. Those are two things that are going to kind of point me in opposite directions. But a couple of things. His perimeter jump shot is real. This is a huge sample size that's gone extremely well for him. He's not relying on the foul baiting nearly as often lately. He's drawing a lot of free throws just by dropping his head

and going into the lane with a ton of physicality. And it just in general, there's like a demeanor with him that I've been on for months now, and James Harden. A fight, a competitiveness that is another level above what I've seen from him earlier in his career. Every single big game of late he has shown up in, in a big way, especially down the stretch of games. These were a couple crazy numbers for you. In clutch situation, so when the game is within five points with less than five minutes left, he is scoring at a rate of 37 points per 36 minutes. So if you extrapolated his scoring out to a normal 36-minute game,

it's like he's averaging 37 points per game focused within that clutch time situation, shooting 50% from the field, 36% from 3 and 86% from the line. The Sixers have a defensive rating of 84.6 in clutch situations with Joe Ellen Beat on the floor. He made every big play down the stretch as they beat the Denver Nuggets in a head-to-head matchup with Yokic on both ends of the floor. He made every single big play down the stretch in a big game against the Milwaukee Bucks, including the eventual game winner in that three-point shot from the top of the key. and a bunch of monster defensive plays in pick and roll as a switcher and in drop coverage. Even in the Boston game that they lost at the buzzer to Tatum,

he was magnificent on both ends down the stretch of that game. And then once again last night against Portland, just incredible on both ends of the floor against a red-hot shooting Portland team to get the win. I am switching my stance. Two months ago, I would have told you I thought Yokic is better than Embedde. I think Embeded has proven over the course of the last two months. months that he is a better player. I think his ceiling as an impactful shot maker, you know, downhill force-drawing fouls at the rim, a defensive, on the defensive end of for just another

stratosphere ahead of where Yokic is, I think he's the better player right now. So I'm flipping that. Now, again, I gravitate towards perimeter players, so I'd still take guys like Steph and KD and Yonis over Yokic and Mbid, but I think Mbid is nipping on those guys' heels. And I do think he's better than Yokic right now. I think he's proved that. All right, let's move on to the Raptors and the Lakers. This was yet another really impressive win for the Lakers. Toronto threw a great punch too. They had come into the game six and five since they traded for Yaka Pertl, their first real center that they've had in a long time. Nick Nurse played his starters together as much as humanly possible. I think they combined

to play 27 minutes together. And that group was excellent and they performed really well against the Lakers. O.G. and Obie and Scotty Barnes both had amazing nights that combined for 63 points. on 33 shots. Oji and Anobie knocking down every single spot of three he took. Had some really nice isolation plays in the second half. Scotty Barnes was just backing down the Laker guards into the lane for easy little hook shots and jumpers in the lane. He was awesome.

It was just a really, really good punch from Toronto. They were frightening defensively. They locked in there at the start of the second half and held the Lakers to just five points in the first seven minutes of the second half. And then three adjustments from Darvin Ham, I thought, got the Lakers the win. So I wanted to kind of dive into the strategy of that for a minute. First of all, he went to his own. This was very important because O.G. Ananoi in particular,

Scotty Barnes in particular, little Pascal Seaccombe, too, all of the big Toronto forwards were bullying the Laker guards inside to take little push shots over the top. Now, Toronto's a weird team because the Lakers are big too. Like when the Lakers are healthy, when they have LeBron and you go A.D., LeBron, Jared Vanderbilt, they're a huge team. but even in that case because of the way Toronto plays, 80s on Yacapurtle, LeBron can guard a big forward,

Jared Vanderbilt can guard a big forward, but there's three other big forwards out there. Between OG and Scotty and Pascal, like one of them is going to end up being guarded by Malik Beasley or DeAngelo Russell. So from a matchup perspective, some of it is just how weird Toronto is. They are an uncharacteristically massive team that is playing like a 3-4 type.

of forward at the two-guard position, just because that's the way they want to play. So some of it's a little unusual, but when Darwin Ham went zone, it helped in a couple of different ways. First of all, it allowed Anthony Davis to stay around the rim. So that now when you're taking those short-range little push shots and hook shots and turn around jumpers and stuff, now you're shooting them maybe over a smaller guard, but most likely over Anthony Davis and a smaller guard or just Anthony Davis. So Anthony Davis lingering around the rim was able to help. Also, zone defenses require teams to execute at a higher level. There's a level of positioning on the floor, moving the ball around to get the zone to reverse sides a bunch of times,

getting that guy to the high post that can try to pull Anthony Davis away from the rim to open up stuff on the backline. There's a bunch of stuff within the zone that requires execution. And what's the biggest weakness for that Toronto Raptor's lineup? Like when you've got Fred Van Vleet, O'G and Anobie, Pascal Seacum and Scotty Barnes and Yacquipurtle, there's just not a whole lot of ball handling and shooting in basketball IQ. That's not a strength of that group. That is a sheer force of size and athleticism type of lineup. And so challenging their ability to execute was, I thought, a really smart strategy. It really stagnated that Raptor's offense and allowed the Lakers to linger around long enough for them to break through offensively. So adjustment number one, going to his own. Adjustment number two,

Darvin Ham went with three guards. And again, this is something that Ham's been critical. for a lot, so was Frank last year. But I thought it was an interesting adjustment. He went with Delo, Austin, and Dennis Schroeder down the stretch of this game. And I thought the main reason why is Toronto's rotations, their defensive rotations flying around the perimeter, especially out of their double teams of Anthony Davis. And they just doubled the hell out of Anthony Davis every single time he even tried to get into a position where he could catch the basketball, which was a big part of why I think he only had eight points. But because of how good Toronto was in their defensive rotations, you weren't breaking down Toronto on the first action.

They needed multiple actions to get that opening to score, extending the advantage, that extra little pass here, that extra drop off there, that extra cut here. And the only way they were going to do that was by increasing the aggregate ball handling, shooting, and basketball IQ of that group. And so going with a group that had Anthony Davis and Dennis Schroeder and Austin Reeves and DeAngelo Russell gave them. the necessary amount of ball handling for them to be able to score. And then lastly, the last adjustment,

Darvin Ham started running interchanges into every single pick and roll, like a screening action before the pick and roll. So one of the defensive adjustments from Nick Nurse in this game was he put Yacquitrtle on Jared Vanderbilt. Jared Vanderbilt, he made two corner threes in the first half, but like I think he was, he's going to knock down under 40% of them typically, even though he's standing by himself out there completely unguarded. So that allowed Yakopurtle to linger around the basket.

Then what he did is he put Ogen and Obie on to Anthony Davis and basically had him hug up onto him, right? So because he was hugged up onto Anthony Davis, AD was not an option and the rim was not an option. And so really, the Lakers' best opportunity to score was to try to get separation for their guards coming over the top of the screen to hopefully get some opportunities for some pull-up jump shots.

I thought that was their best opportunity to score. And so Darvindham started running some interchanges flowing into the pick and roll to help those guards get separation. There were back-to-back possessions where DeAngelo Russell hit pull-up jumpers, a pull-up two and then a pull-up three, where what they did is a quick dribble handoff before DeAngelo Russell came over the Anthony Davis screen. Here's why that matters, because with Pertle on Vanderbilt, essentially zoning up under the rim, and with O.G. and Anobi hugged up on Anthony Davis, they were switching all of the screens, between the three guards. Now, right after you switch, there's like a little bit of a delay before you're ready

for whatever comes next, right? If I'm guarding you, you're about to go over a ball screen. I'm prepped for the ball screen. I see it coming. You start heading that way. I can position myself to kind of sidle up on top of the screener to try to fight over the top, right? Or even just lock and trail to apply back pressure. But what if I'm guarding the ball handler and they set a quick screen?

Now I'm not guarding the ball handler. Okay? Because we switched under Toronto scheme. What if I'm guarding the guy setting the screen? I think the two plays that I'm referencing, and I posted these clips on my Twitter feed. You guys can find them there at underscore Jason LT. But Dennis shorter comes down the floor,

sets a dribble handoff. Now all of a sudden, Dennis's man is actually guarding DeAngelo Russell. In both cases, I think it was Fred Van Vleet, or it might have been Fred Van Villeet the first one, then Scotty Barnes on the second one. But what ends up happening there is in that brief second after the switch, if I'm guarding Dennis and I'm switching on to Delo, now I'm not ready for that ball screen.

Because I was attention going this way, as Dennis was dribbling that way, suddenly I'm guarding Delo going back this way into a ball screen. That little interchange and that brief delay, and you guys, again, I encourage you to go to my Twitter feed and watch the video because you can see it pretty clear. That little delay bought DeAngelo Russell a ton of separation coming over that Anthony Davis screen.

And again, OG An Anobie is hugged up on Anthony Davis. so he's not helping. So if you could get over that screen and get separation from the on-ball guy, there's a wide-open pull-up shot there. D.Lo got two wide-up to pull-up shots, knocked it down. There was another one later in the corner where they ran a similar thing involving AD. They had DeAngelo Russell on the inbound's play, run over, and set a hard pick on OG and a noby.

And OG didn't want to switch, but he had to because of a good pick. Anthony Davis set him up well, gave him a little bit of a shove, and Anthony Davis came right off the pick into a ball screen with, I believe, Austin Reeves. Okay? That all of a sudden confused Toronto because it was a three-man switch, right? I talk about this all the time, beating switching schemes with three-man actions because now no one knows who to guard, right? It's way less straightforward than I'll guard your man, you guard my man, right? In the process, after DeLo sets that pick, he quick pops out to the left wing.

O.G. Ananoi hesitates for just a second. because Austin Reeves is coming off that AD screen and he's open. And so OG lingers in at the top of the key to contain Austin, easy swing past to DeAngelo Russell, knocks down a three. Again, Toronto was frightening defensively at the end of this game. They were playing with a really smart scheme, sagging Yonka Pertil off, ignoring Jared Vanderbilt, hugging up on Anthony Davis, doubling him every time on the catch,

rotating out of it frighteningly well. their only chance was backcourt skill, which they didn't have nearly as much of before the trade deadline, and smart actions to buy those guards the separation they needed to make shots. I thought Darvin Hand did a really nice job down the stretch of this game. I thought he's done a really nice job since the trade deadline. So I want to shout out him. Austin Reeves also had his very best game as a pro was magnificent in the second half of this game in particular. man, when he had that dunk in that half-court set,

when he cocked it back with two hands and threw it down, you could tell he was really feeling himself. It was really cool to see, you know, I've always been high on Austin Reeves as a role player. He has flashed high-level ball handling this season that I didn't even remotely expect watching him last season. I always knew he had a little bit of that, like second-side action, ability to make plays off the dribble,

but like this is high-level stuff against high-level defenders that he's doing. This is real, I think. Austin and Reeves is a very, very good basketball player. That was his best game as a pro. I've said it all before. I'm not going to get into it again, but the Lakers are really good.

And all I'm going to say is, if LeBron can come back and look like 70% of himself for a few games before the playoffs, I'm going to take a really hard look at them as a team that can come out of the West. They just check a whole lot of boxes, like I broke down the other day. All right, really quickly,

before we get out of here tonight, spend more than just a couple minutes on this. But one of the two games, one of the three games I watched last night was the Brooklyn Nets getting a win on the road in Minnesota against the wolves. I've been watching a lot of wolves lately because I'm fascinated by their young core. I really like the Anthony Davis, Jaden McDaniels, Rudy-Obear pairing as long as they can surround them with the right types of players. But these were, you know, two mediocre teams and Brooklyn got a win. But I thought it was a great example of a small detail in basketball that I wanted to touch on. And, you know, we talked about this in the in the lakers game ogy and an obi when he when he overhelped on that austin rees drive

and left angelo russle open austin had a little bit of an advantage coming over the screen but it probably would have been a tough shot for him and i think sometimes we obsess with shot quality uh and we ignore the reality of the uh excuse me we focus so much on shot value and we ignore the quality of the uh realities of shot quality so for instance like a lot of teams will be like oh like a layup is a high percentage shot, high value shot. So we should take that away and concede a three, which is a lower value shot, even if it's a higher value than a contested, like, mid-range jump shot,

it's still a higher value than a rim attempt, right? But even then, I think that a contested rim attempt is a much lower value shot than a wide open three. And so a lot of times when these teams overhelp, and Toronto's a classic case of a team that overhelps, But when you overheld, you open up wide open shots on the weak side, and those I actually think are the kinds of shots that gets a team into rhythm. And so this happened on two key possessions at the end of the Minnesota game against the Nets,

and this is what cost them. They lost by one in O.T. And there were two plays, one at the end of regulation, one at the end of O.T. Where we saw this happen. The first one, at the end of regulation, Rudy Gaubert is guarding Spencer Dinwiddie, and kind of has him contained. He had went up and under and went through with a step through, but Rudy Gobert was right on his backside.

It was going to be an extremely difficult scooping layup with Rudy Gobert there, potentially blocking the shot. Anthony Edwards is guarding Royce O'Neill on the left wing, and Anthony Edwards, for no reason at all whatsoever, overhelps and runs in and stops Spencer Dinwiddie from attempting his crazy wild scoop shot, but in the process concedes a wide open three to Royce O'Neill on the left, on the right wing, and he knocks it down.

And it was funny, because right after the shot, by the way, I tweeted out both of these videos as well, so you can find those on my Twitter feed. Right after the shot, Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson both throw their hands up, like, dude, what are you doing? And the funny thing is, it happened to Rudy Gobert in overtime. Spencer Dinwiddie is driving on Kyle Anderson. Kyle Anderson has him contained. Kyle Anderson has body position in front of him at the rim and has the length and size advantage.

It was going to be a super difficult contested floater, and Rudy Gobert abandons, I think it was Doree and Phine Smith out of the left corner to corral Spencer Dinwiddie and concedes a wide open three that ends up being the shot that beats them. And Kyle Anderson, I felt bad for him after the game. She just throws his hands up. It's like, what are you doing, man? And like, you know, so many times we get caught up on personnel and we get caught up on, you know, scheme and we get caught up on a bunch of different things when we're talking. about basketball games, but so much of it is just execution, not making the key mistakes. It is, I would imagine, that it's not in Minnesota's scheme to overhelp on contained ball handlers driving to the rim. But in that moment, if you make a poor decision as a help

defender, it can literally cost you a game. Minnesota's been playing good basketball, they played well enough to beat Brooklyn, and two execution mistakes at the end of the game cost them. And I think that's just such an important thing that gets lost when we're talking about teams. It's one of the big reasons why I've always been such a big believer in Golden State. They're one of the best execution teams in the league, even though they haven't shown it all the time this year. Why do you think the Miami Heat were one shot away from the NBA finals last year, despite having significantly less talent than many of the teams in that conference? It's execution. It's coaching, and it's always doing the right thing on the pivotal possessions at the end of games.

That kind of thing is how you win. and way too often we do not factor that in enough when we're evaluating teams. All right, guys, that's all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support, and I will see you guys next week. The volume. 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 occupier Pella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged.

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