Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Tim Legler joins us now, a man who made a living shooting the basketball, and I mentioned Tim 28 threes in their last game, 22 in this.

  • That's 50 into games.

  • You have to be able to shoot it.

  • But the way the ball moves, how much did what they did in terms of ball movement in this game on Wednesday night lead to making those shots?

  • Yeah, I think what's impressive about them, Scott, is how little time it spends in each guy's hands.

  • It are so decisive and what they're doing.

  • Everything has a purpose.

  • And they've got multiple guys, probably four guys that when they penetrate, they start thinking like a point guard.

  • Most teams have one or two.

  • They've got four, just these are a couple possessions.

  • Got that for any team in the league.

  • You would look at one of these and say, Hey, that might be the best possession they had the entire night.

  • The irony is with the Jazz, this is pretty much what it looks like all the time.

  • It's all based on high pick and roll penetration and then they get that thing moving.

  • I love the second one because you take a look at Conley getting downhill and the way go bear dives, you engage that big guy mantra as Harold.

  • And when go bear dives, you forced that corner defender in this case, LeBron to pinch off the corner.

  • He's got to pick up the roll guy, and now you got two guys on the weak side.

  • One defender, Poor West.

  • Matthews has to make a decision, and they still make an extra pass because Royce O'Neill easily could have pulled that.

  • But he makes one more pass to Jordan Clarkson, and it's I feel like when I watched them and I'm taking notes, how many times I will write down extra pass, Great.

  • Look, I'll put an asterisk next to it so I can go back and find that play.

  • But I do it more with them than any team in the league by far, and actually their ball movement does remind me of Golden State.

  • I think at their peak, the way they move it.

  • That's how Utah is moving the basketball and it's a beautiful thing to watch because there is no wasted dribble with this team.

  • The ball never sticks, as they say on the other side of this with the Lakers.

  • Look, we understand that Davis isn't playing and he is the one A to the one, which is clearly LeBron.

  • But I just wonder what you're seeing out of them during this stretch.

  • If that gives you any concern, looking down the road as it relates to the champions.

  • Very, very little.

  • If Anthony Davis is healthy, I think this team is going to be in the Congress finals minimum, probably the Finals.

  • Here's the deal.

  • When you have an NBA champion and you get to this point in the season, which is right in the middle of the season, the newness of the year has worn off.

  • So that adrenaline you get even though it was a short off season, you still have an adrenaline rush at the start of the year that's gone.

  • The playoffs are too far away to think about your right in the middle of it, and you're in a rut and you don't have Anthony Davis.

  • You don't have Dennis Schroder, so this is a team right now going through the motions a little bit on the defensive end of the floor.

  • Um, I don't think this is anything that's going to lead to a temporary change in the way they defend.

  • If they have Anthony Davis on the floor and they have Dennis Schroder, this is a team that can be the best defensive team in the league, and they've got two superstars with as much versatility as you could want.

  • Offensively, I literally have zero concern more impressed out of this.

  • With the way Utah is playing that I'm gonna take away.

  • Look at the Lakers.

  • What's wrong with them?

  • I'm just not in that mindset because it's the middle of the year, You know, this was a month from now.

  • I'd be a little bit more concerned.

  • Not right now.

  • These are the dog days of the season for an NBA champion, and they're going through it shorthanded.

  • I'm totally with you.

  • Give the credit to the Jazz rather than the blame to the Lakers.

  • The most interesting thing will be as we get towards the playoffs is the seating as you look towards those conference semis because you don't want to run into the wrong team too early out there.

  • That'll be an interesting subplot, but that's for down the road and we'll talk about it when the time's right.

  • Tim Appreciate You may be good.

  • Thanks.

  • Yeah, three more things from this game and their little Adam up.

  • That could be big franchise record 28 threes on Monday.

  • Jazz fire again.

  • Drain 14 more in the first half as you saw 22 in the game 50 three's over the past two games set the NBA record for any two game span.

  • Lakers have now lost four consecutive games without Anthony Davis fall to five and five without him this season.

  • It's LeBron's first personal four game losing streak since the tail end of his first Lakers season in 2019 Lakers.

  • Now 4.5 games behind the Jazz, the gap could perhaps grow in the coming weeks.

  • With the release of the second half of the NBA schedule, the Jazz had the easiest remaining strength of schedule across the entire lead.

  • That is a scary combo, considering how well they are running.

  • Look at the top of the West Jazz 26 6 Lakers and third full game behind the Clippers.

  • Phoenix was the only other 20 win team entering today.

  • Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

Tim Legler joins us now, a man who made a living shooting the basketball, and I mentioned Tim 28 threes in their last game, 22 in this.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it