Game Of The Year & A Curry Flurry With Tim Legler
I filled in for Adam Mares on the All-NBA podcast with Tim Legler today. We dug into the Denver vs. Minnesota Game of the year and Steph Curry's 52 point, 12 three-point night explosion in Memphis.
I’ve attached my game notes, edits, and stats for two of the best games of the NBA season. I hope you enjoy them!
Golden State (GSW) vs. Memphis (MEM):
GSW—Moody is an on-ball demon. He makes life hell for guys who are hard to stay in front of, with so many deflections and time burnt off the shot clock.
MEM—Edey has gotten torched the past two nights in PnR actions. It doesn't matter what coverage you try; he's a liability in all of them at the NBA level.
GSW—Six minutes into the game, Curry has already hit three of the five different shot profile threes. PnR, Spot Up, and ISO. And three of the four varieties. Lateral, step back and Shot prep C&S. He's on one tonight, his shot profile is unmatched!
GSW—Jimmy Butler is basketball fascia. He holds everything together. Makes it cohesive. Connect everything out there.
MEM—Jackson Jr. Keeping them attached. I'm not sure he has anything elite to hang his hat on to be a #1 on a team, but he's got a Swiss Army knife offensive game that is perfect for a #2 good team or #3 championship team.
GSW—Does Curry break the three-point record tonight? He's got 8. The last two that went up, I made an audible gasp—scared the hell out of Marzie.
GSW—Get actions with Curry are Green’s ultimate counter for when players sag off and Dare Him to shoot. Edey is getting a healthy dose of those tonight.
MEM—Morant threes are going down, and it’s a great night: results, not process rule players with inconsistent mechanics.
GSW—Green PnR dunk in 3rd and Buddy’s three is why Curry is so different than anyone else. Defensively, you have to give him so much gravity it opens up easy stuff for a talented player.
GSW—The gravity Curry is pulling right now (50 points) is either getting wide open layups, putting Memphis in long close out rotations or giving up offensive rebounds.
Denver (DEN) vs. Minnesota (MIN):
The physicality of this game to start is off the charts. It feels like the officials are starting to get into playoff mode.
DEN—Braun’s backside PnR defense was high-level from the start of the game—deflections and guarding two on multiple possessions.
DEN—Watson looks like he’s turned a corner and understands precisely what he’s there to do/his strengths. In the last five games, he’s at 3.2 blocks per game, the best non-big rim protector in the league.
DEN—Late first PnR with Jokić and Westbrook in the action + Watson and Pickett spacing and Nnaji in the Dunker. The court is so compressed. The lack of shooting on this roster is criminal. Jokic has every skill in the bag, and her can more or less make a PnR work against any coverage, but it’s a lot to ask him to get tough buckets every play.
More inverted Jokić PnR actions to combat this problem.
Jokic PnR Ball Handler:
Picks: 341 (71st Percentile)
Points Per Direct: 1.208 (93rd Percentile)
MIN—Alexander Walker, Clark and Minott off the bench in the first half got Minnesota back in touch after the starters got punched in the mouth.
MIN—Denver's playing up at the level in PnR actions is leaving a lot of free runners for ORebound opportunities. (This is the same thing Curry created in Memphis.)
DEN—Their decision to help from the strong side (2i) and not the backside (1i) in PnR actions leads to too many easy passes for C&S threes.
DEN—The choice not to guard Gobert with Jokic means giving up extra opportunists for buckets by just being big, which wouldn’t be possible if Jokic were guarding him.
Post Rudy buckets
DEN—Westbrook is a tough hang when it’s not going perfectly. Lots of forced actions. Bad TOs and missed reads.
DEN—Three Gordon transition threes!! I love to see this, I love it when a guy gets in the gym and develops something that wasn’t a strength.
MIN—Alexander Walker is so good at WIMS reads and consistently finds the open spaces where the advantage exists.
MIN—Randle is a difference-maker. He’s turned a corner mentally of how he sees himself within this team, and it’s been a catalyst for this late-season push they’re making.
Bully ball on smaller guys. Shooting and driving on slower guys. Playmaking quickly from advantages created by others. Allowing Edwards to play in closeout actions (big deal).
MIN—No double with Edwards isolated at the nail on the Jokic bucket to tie the game in the first OT… That’s a choice.
MIN—On so many of these Edwards doubles, the escape pass is either in line or behind the play. This is advantage defense. I would love to see Minnesota get more escape passes below the play (cutter into the pocket) and go toward the rim to press the 4v3 advantage.
^^ Love seeing Edwards cut to the rim after the escape pass. More of that, too, please!
DEN—Oh. My. God… What a finish from Westbrook.
Marzie says “What’s Up Legs?!”
