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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume
Speaker 1: heavy Wednesday. Everybody. Oh, all of you guys are having
Speaker 1: a great week. Got a jam pack show for you
Speaker 1: guys tonight. The Minnesota Timberwolves ended the Golden State Warrior season.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk mostly about the future for both teams.
Speaker 1: Are going to talk about what it looks like from
Speaker 1: Minnesota looking forward in a couple of their matchups, and
Speaker 1: then we'll talk a little bit about Golden State. I
Speaker 1: want to talk about Jimmy Butler, who struggled to score
Speaker 1: the ball when his team needed to in this series,
Speaker 1: and talk a little bit about what they're looking for
Speaker 1: down the line in terms of free agency and in
Speaker 1: the trademarket this summer. After that, we have our course
Speaker 1: correction segment with Microsoft. We're gonna be talking a little
Speaker 1: bit about Jason Tatum. And then at the tail end
Speaker 1: of the show, the Boston Celtics, in a must win
Speaker 1: game at home, deliver a championship level punch against the
Speaker 1: New York Knicks to extend that series to a Game six.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about some of the specific things
Speaker 1: they did really well, and then we're also going to
Speaker 1: talk about the reality of what Game six is, which
Speaker 1: is going to be a knockdown, drag out fight and
Speaker 1: should be a very entertaining basketball game to end our
Speaker 1: second round. You guys know the Joe before we get started,
Speaker 1: subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels so you don't miss
Speaker 1: any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore JCNLTS you guys, don't miss show announcements. Don't forget
Speaker 1: about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast on
Speaker 1: our Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave
Speaker 1: your rating in a review on that front, Jackson's making
Speaker 1: great content for our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and Facebook. Make sure you guys follow us there and
Speaker 1: then last one at lease keep dropping mailback questions and
Speaker 1: those YouTube comments. We can keep hitting them throughout the
Speaker 1: remainder of the postseason. No playback tonight. We usually go
Speaker 1: for an after show where we take callers and do
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, but we're taking tonight off on
Speaker 1: that front. But we will be back on playback for
Speaker 1: an after show tomorrow night after the final buzzer of
Speaker 1: Game six between the Thunder and the Nuggets. So make
Speaker 1: sure you go to playback dot tv slash Hoops tonight
Speaker 1: to get set up there so you can come hang
Speaker 1: out in the playback. I've been having a ton of
Speaker 1: fun with those Jackson's been hanging out to and we've
Speaker 1: been taking questions and having callers and watching film and
Speaker 1: it's informal and we talk shit, we have fun, we
Speaker 1: have fans come up and vent, and it just I've
Speaker 1: really enjoyed it as kind of a change of pace
Speaker 1: in this postseason. So make sure you guys get set
Speaker 1: up on playback so he can return to the after
Speaker 1: show tomorrow night after thunder Nuggets. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So not going to focus too much on
Speaker 1: tonight's game. We've talked that specific matchup to death over
Speaker 1: the last week and I'd rather just focus moving forward.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Warriors just didn't have the horses to
Speaker 1: compete in this series without Steph Curry. I do think
Speaker 1: this series worked wonders for Minnesota's ball movement on offense.
Speaker 1: Tonight they locked thirty six assists on forty nine made baskets,
Speaker 1: and the ball was just moving around and it's happening everywhere.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards as well, making really impressive reads in the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor. He's the gap in his penetration
Speaker 1: speed in the early part of the series, and how
Speaker 1: rushed he was going downhill compared to how he was
Speaker 1: just slowing down right in that middle portion of the
Speaker 1: paint towards the tail end of this series, and just
Speaker 1: letting the defense react to him and taking the easy
Speaker 1: reads that were available hit to him. There. I thought
Speaker 1: the drop off pass he had to Jada McDaniels and
Speaker 1: the dunk out of the dunker spot was a classic
Speaker 1: example of that, just waiting for the defense to react
Speaker 1: rather than just flying like a bull in a china
Speaker 1: shop towards the basket. And those ball movement sequences are
Speaker 1: going to be specifically relevant for a relevant excuse me,
Speaker 1: for a potential series against Oklahoma City or Denver. So
Speaker 1: looking forward for Minnesota, they obviously match up really well
Speaker 1: against Denver. They have won eight of their last eleven
Speaker 1: matchups with them, dating back to the beginning of the
Speaker 1: Western Conference semi finals last year. They have the size
Speaker 1: and physicality to match up with Denver at every position.
Speaker 1: Denver is a group that is big at a lot
Speaker 1: of positions, Like Jamal Murray's a big, strong guard, so
Speaker 1: is Christian Brown. Michael Porter Junior is having a rough
Speaker 1: playoff run, but he's big and tall, you know. Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon Russell Westbrook brings athleticism, Peyton Watson brings athleticism. Minnesota
Speaker 1: can match that, and they've shown the ability to bother
Speaker 1: both Jokic and Murray, and we also saw them just
Speaker 1: like absolutely dominate Michael Porter junior, and that dude is
Speaker 1: already running on fumes and he had a rough series
Speaker 1: against Minnesota last year, so that had something to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on. But Denver's success in that series came
Speaker 1: on the defensive side of the ball when they made
Speaker 1: their runs. When Denver won Game three, four, and five.
Speaker 1: In those three games, they held Minnesota to a one
Speaker 1: ZHO six offensive rating. They really worked on bringing Jokic
Speaker 1: further out to the level and just making it so
Speaker 1: that Ant couldn't turn the corner and ball screens get momentum. Ironically,
Speaker 1: Christian Brown was the best defender that Denver had for
Speaker 1: Ant in that series. And obviously, you know KCP was
Speaker 1: just too small for Aunt. Kcp's not in the picture anymore,
Speaker 1: so you'll see a lot of Christian Brown on it.
Speaker 1: They tested Minnesota's ability to pass through their defense, and
Speaker 1: so that growth that we've seen in this postseason run
Speaker 1: I think will be imperative in that matchup. That said,
Speaker 1: I believe Oklahoma City is going to win. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to talk through the Denver piece because I think
Speaker 1: that's a legitimate possible outcome. I'd go I'm leaning like
Speaker 1: seventy five to twenty five towards Oklahoma City at this
Speaker 1: point in the series, and Oklahoma City will present some
Speaker 1: similar issues to Minnesota that we saw. Golden State present
Speaker 1: a steady diet of quality defenders at every position group,
Speaker 1: a lot of loading up on the strong side and
Speaker 1: rotating with speed to account for that, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of over emphasis on the strong side of the floor.
Speaker 1: And they have real rim protection, and that's the difference.
Speaker 1: Raymond Green is a good rim protector, but mostly just
Speaker 1: with his IQ and his physicality, this is a team
Speaker 1: that's going to present real size and length at the
Speaker 1: rim in a way that if we look back last year,
Speaker 1: the one bad playoff series that Ain't had was against Dallas,
Speaker 1: a team that could match his athleticism on the perimeter
Speaker 1: and the team that could provide real length at the basket. Now,
Speaker 1: one of the things that we saw specifically with Dallas,
Speaker 1: if you guys remember correctly, he was Derek Jones junior,
Speaker 1: and Derek Jones has a great deal of length on
Speaker 1: the ball, and he was able to actually bother ants
Speaker 1: like pull up jump shooting in a way that I think,
Speaker 1: you know, shorter defenders like door to case on Wallace
Speaker 1: might struggle a little bit. And that's why I think
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to see if we get to a
Speaker 1: point in the series where they go with more of
Speaker 1: like a J. Dub on Ant just to try to
Speaker 1: match his length a little bit more. But it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a real challenge, and the challenge will be for
Speaker 1: Ant to not repeatedly test Hartenstein and Chad at the rim,
Speaker 1: but rather to make the good reads when he's there,
Speaker 1: and so those slow down drives that we saw are
Speaker 1: gonna be key. I think the mid range could play
Speaker 1: a key role in this series for both Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: and Julius Randall to get short range, high percentage shots
Speaker 1: before getting all the way to the rim, because whenever
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert is on the floor, you're gonna see chat
Speaker 1: Holmer and sitting his ass right underneath the basket protecting
Speaker 1: the rim there with his length. And I do think
Speaker 1: that both Randall and Edwards can get some quality mid
Speaker 1: range looks over Oklahoma City's smaller guards. But I'm just
Speaker 1: super excited for that potential series. I mean, two elite
Speaker 1: defenses that are very different. Obviously, Minnesota is bigger, Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City is faster. Two elite on ball guards and Shae
Speaker 1: and Ant. That what an incredible duel that could end
Speaker 1: up being. And I would argue in that matchup, like
Speaker 1: if Ant or Shay badly outplayed the other in terms
Speaker 1: of just over the top shot making and probing in
Speaker 1: against these defenses, I think that could swing the winner.
Speaker 1: I think that's a I think that's a series where
Speaker 1: the gap between Ant and Shay could be the difference
Speaker 1: if both guys played it more or less the same level.
Speaker 1: I think it probably tilts towards Oklahoma City. But if
Speaker 1: Ant can outplay Shay, that's a series that they can
Speaker 1: absolutely win. There's interesting co stars JDub and Chet. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Chet you know a skinny, defensive minded rim protector that's
Speaker 1: got some ability offensively. J dub is you know another
Speaker 1: on ball guard. But then from Minnesota, it's these big forwards, right,
Speaker 1: It's Julius Randall, it's nasrit guys that have we've seen
Speaker 1: show the ability to score against size mismatches, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna have plenty of size mismatches that they could attack.
Speaker 1: And I just think this could be an all Timer
Speaker 1: series a great showcase for the next generation of NBA
Speaker 1: talent to see all of these guys on the same floor.
Speaker 1: You know, if you had to tell me coming into
Speaker 1: this postseason run, like Okay Lebron and Steph and KD
Speaker 1: and Kawhi and Jimmy Butler and all of like the
Speaker 1: establishment stars that we've seen over the last several years,
Speaker 1: even like Tatum for instance, and all of these guys,
Speaker 1: if you were to tell me Giannis as well, if
Speaker 1: you were to tell me those guys weren't going to
Speaker 1: be in the postseason when we get to the final
Speaker 1: two rounds. If I at least got to see something
Speaker 1: like this, to see Shay versus, to see Shay versus Ant,
Speaker 1: I think that's a really fun matchup. And even extending
Speaker 1: to the potential Knicks Pacers matchup, which we'll talk about
Speaker 1: a minix that's not set in stone. I think it's
Speaker 1: a good showcase for the league and what the next
Speaker 1: era could look like. But we will get further into
Speaker 1: that matchup once we have more concrete information about who's
Speaker 1: going to play. Which will you know, we could have
Speaker 1: an answer tomorrow night. We could be in a situation
Speaker 1: where we don't know until games set, but when we know,
Speaker 1: we will do a full series preview that breaks that
Speaker 1: series down from the perspective of both teams on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor. On the Golden State front, I
Speaker 1: was generally impressed with the way they battled in this
Speaker 1: series without Steph, Like they routinely kept things close until
Speaker 1: it was you know, in that mid second half stretch
Speaker 1: where Minnesota consistently pulled away. But like, if you guys
Speaker 1: think of it, they just if you look at Minnesota's
Speaker 1: defensive firepower, I mean, this was a team that strangled
Speaker 1: the life out of Luka Doncic Laighton games. This is
Speaker 1: a team that strangled the life out of Lebron James
Speaker 1: Lighton games. This was a team that completely and utterly
Speaker 1: shut down Austin Reeves. And yeah, obviously they didn't have
Speaker 1: the ball and player movement that Golden State had, but
Speaker 1: the Warriors just didn't have the offensive firepower to keep up.
Speaker 1: And I do want to take a minute to talk
Speaker 1: about Jimmy Butler scoring. I don't want to hyper focus
Speaker 1: on it because I think there's some realities in terms
Speaker 1: of the fit alongside Steph Curry that accentuates more of
Speaker 1: his versatility. But Jimmy Butler in his career has thirty
Speaker 1: eight games in the postseason where he scored at least
Speaker 1: twenty five points. And under the circumstances with the way
Speaker 1: that this series was going, they specifically needed scoring from him.
Speaker 1: That was like the thing he could do to lift
Speaker 1: the floor of this team and keep them in these games.
Speaker 1: And he had one game in the entire series where
Speaker 1: he scored more than twenty points one time, and that
Speaker 1: just wasn't enough. And I thought he failed to really
Speaker 1: emphasize that part of his game, to push that part
Speaker 1: of his game when his team needed him to. And
Speaker 1: you know, it could have been the difference between this
Speaker 1: series ending in five, where Steph potentially getting an opportunity
Speaker 1: to return in game six. You needed to win one game,
Speaker 1: and like I just the shot the shot totals, I mean,
Speaker 1: when he takes twenty shots total in the last two
Speaker 1: games like that, there's a certain amount of he needed
Speaker 1: to just empty the clip, so to speak, because that's
Speaker 1: what the matchup called for. It's like otherwise you're asking
Speaker 1: Brandon Pajemski and Buddy Healed and Jonathan Kaminga carry the
Speaker 1: load offensively and there's obviously going to be a great
Speaker 1: deal of up and down that comes with those types
Speaker 1: of role players. All of that said, I do think
Speaker 1: that Jimmy Butler trade was a success. Overall. I think
Speaker 1: they would have won this series or at least given
Speaker 1: themselves a very good chance to win this series if
Speaker 1: Steph Curry had played. In that case, they would have
Speaker 1: made it to the Western Conference Finals. Now, I think
Speaker 1: the Thunder would have crushed the Warriors. They were Houston,
Speaker 1: but because they had the speed guards to match up
Speaker 1: with Steph. But they also had real rim protection and
Speaker 1: they had the offensive firepower that Houston didn't have. But
Speaker 1: I think they would have won this series, and I
Speaker 1: think they would have been a conference finalist, which I
Speaker 1: think in the first season, which Jimmy Butler would have
Speaker 1: been a resounding success. But even getting to the second round,
Speaker 1: I think we saw the obvious way that the fit works.
Speaker 1: We saw how Jimmy Butler just kind of like connectively
Speaker 1: as a playmaker in the middle of the floor, just
Speaker 1: accentuated and greased the wheels for this offense. They reached
Speaker 1: the level defensively with him as a defensive playmaker, not
Speaker 1: the on ball talent that Aaron Andrew Wiggins was but
Speaker 1: the work he did as just a defensive playmaker for
Speaker 1: this team roaming around the floor, you know, the fit
Speaker 1: just makes a ton of sense, and I do think
Speaker 1: this team is worth investing in next year. The obvious
Speaker 1: need is guys who can score the ball in the
Speaker 1: flow of their offense, which means the ability to hit
Speaker 1: a jump shot running off of a screen, the ability
Speaker 1: to attack downhill when someone's chasing you over that screen
Speaker 1: and apply real ball pressure, the ability to quickly process
Speaker 1: and make decisions when you're in those screening situations, while
Speaker 1: also being a player that can defend at a high level.
Speaker 1: The obvious ceiling for that type of player is like
Speaker 1: a Cam Johnson. We've talked about him a lot over
Speaker 1: the course of the last couple of weeks. I think
Speaker 1: he's the perfect fit as like basically Jackson referred to
Speaker 1: him as basically like a version of Klay Thompson, And
Speaker 1: in that sense, it's a kind of like a proof
Speaker 1: of concept in that, you know, we know what that
Speaker 1: looks like because we've seen that dynamic counter spacing presence
Speaker 1: with Steph and how that works. Right. Another discounted guy
Speaker 1: look at for this type of role would be Malik Beasley.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that would be a FRA agent this
Speaker 1: summer and you could potentially get him on like a
Speaker 1: mid level exception or something like that. But if the
Speaker 1: Warriors make the slight tweaks that they need to make
Speaker 1: this summer, and if they can get some year to
Speaker 1: year improvement from younger players, guys like like Randon Pajamski.
Speaker 1: You couldn't make shots in this post You made him tonight,
Speaker 1: but you couldn't make shots in this postseason run like
Speaker 1: your team needs you to make shots. So this summer
Speaker 1: he needs to work on specifically conditioning so that he
Speaker 1: can hit shots when the physicality and intensity picks up.
Speaker 1: We talked about it last night on playback, but there
Speaker 1: was an extended stretch to end the season, basically the
Speaker 1: last fourth of the season where he was a high
Speaker 1: forties percentage three point shooter on like seven attempts per day. Like,
Speaker 1: we know he can make shots, it's about getting it
Speaker 1: to translate to the postseason environment when the physicality and
Speaker 1: the intensity raises. There's just another level he can get
Speaker 1: to with his conditioning. Moses Moody's game completely decomposed in
Speaker 1: this postseason run. Hit the threes tonight, but he's going
Speaker 1: to have to be better next year. So if those
Speaker 1: guys can make their marginal improvements, if Steph just identifying
Speaker 1: that he has a real chance next year and approaching
Speaker 1: the off season in a way where he can capitalize
Speaker 1: on that, you know, Jimmy Butler coming into next season
Speaker 1: with a game that is you know, tweaked so to speak,
Speaker 1: in terms of his off season regimen to fit this
Speaker 1: particular system and getting that type of role player upgrade
Speaker 1: at a couple of position groups, they absolutely have a
Speaker 1: real chance to make a run at the title next year.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on and talk some Celtics. First
Speaker 1: of all, let's talk Tatum in our course correction segment.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Course Correction, brought to you by Microsoft. Just
Speaker 1: like star players and teams navigating performance hurdles, business decision
Speaker 1: makers today are under immense pressure to get things right.
Speaker 1: They must rise to the occasion, turning challenges into opportunities.
Speaker 1: Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions, simplified cloud and
Speaker 1: data management and trustworthy responsible AI. When you're in the NBA,
Speaker 1: you have your own hurdles to face. In this segment,
Speaker 1: we will highlight the role the player every week that
Speaker 1: has risen to the occasion when his team needed him.
Speaker 1: Whatever challenge you're facing, Microsoft empowers you with the expertise
Speaker 1: to say, bring it on. I want to use this
Speaker 1: week's course correction segment as an opportunity to shout out
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum of the Boston Celtics. I thought this was
Speaker 1: the best season of Jason Tatum's career. Wasn't anything that
Speaker 1: showed up in some sort of dramatic way statistically. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's averaged in the previous four seasons before this year
Speaker 1: twenty eight eight to five on fifty nine percent through shooting,
Speaker 1: and played in on average, over seventy games every year.
Speaker 1: So this guy has been as reliable as statistical performer
Speaker 1: as we've had in the league in recent history. But
Speaker 1: he just showed insane growth as a half court processor.
Speaker 1: He's never averaged over five assists in a season in
Speaker 1: his career, and he averaged over six assists this year.
Speaker 1: A simple stat to demonstrate this is he had seven
Speaker 1: games this year with at least ten assists. He had
Speaker 1: seven games in the entirety of his career in the
Speaker 1: regular season before this year or he logged at least
Speaker 1: ten assists, But he also just showed an understanding of
Speaker 1: advantage creation, which is obviously very important for the Celtics team,
Speaker 1: but it extends beyond assist totals. Constantly trusting basic reads
Speaker 1: like kick ahead passes, swing passes when guys were sinking
Speaker 1: off the strong side corner or sinking into nail help,
Speaker 1: simple over the top passes to guys slipping out of
Speaker 1: screening action when he was the ball handler. These are
Speaker 1: the kinds of things I've talked about with the Pacers.
Speaker 1: Like before, we just discount these as simple fundamental basketball things.
Speaker 1: They are literally driving success in the modern MBA because
Speaker 1: these guys are all so much better scoring with an
Speaker 1: advantage than they are without an advantage, and the guy
Speaker 1: who's on the ball has that job. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk about it in more detailed context here with Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown here in a minute. But he was the kickstarter
Speaker 1: of everything the Celtics did on offense. The Celtics offense
Speaker 1: scored one hundred and twenty two points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions when he was on the floor this year. Then
Speaker 1: he starts this playoff run with an incredibly dominant performance
Speaker 1: against the Orlando Magic, who had an elite defense there
Speaker 1: was second best defense in the league this year. In
Speaker 1: the final three games of that series, he averaged thirty six,
Speaker 1: ten and six. But then suddenly, out of nowhere, his
Speaker 1: game completely fails him. In the first two games of
Speaker 1: the Knick series, can't make a jump shot to save
Speaker 1: his life, goes just twelve for forty two from the field,
Speaker 1: brutally cold down the stretch, and a couple of bad
Speaker 1: losses to the Knicks. But then it all came together
Speaker 1: in one of the best playoff games of Tatum's career.
Speaker 1: In Game four Madison Square Garden, he had forty two
Speaker 1: points on sixteen for twenty eight shooting. The Knicks were
Speaker 1: switching everything and forcing the Celtics to attack matchups. No
Speaker 1: other Celtic had any sort of legitimate rhythm in the
Speaker 1: second half of that game. He had no choice but
Speaker 1: to grab the reins, and he just hit incredible shot
Speaker 1: after incredible shot from every spot on the floor, from
Speaker 1: every type of footwork on the ball, attack, picking off
Speaker 1: the catch, getting all the way to the rim for
Speaker 1: and ones. Just truly remarkable shot making in a game
Speaker 1: where his team absolutely needed him to be that guy
Speaker 1: forty two points on sixteen for twenty eight, shooting seven
Speaker 1: for sixteen from three. He was the only reason they
Speaker 1: had any chance to win that game. And then his
Speaker 1: achilles goes out, and I just feel terrible for him
Speaker 1: because I can only imagine what that must have been like,
Speaker 1: the relief of seeing all those shots go in after
Speaker 1: the frustration of what happened in Game one and Game two,
Speaker 1: and I must have just felt like all of that
Speaker 1: hard work paying off in such a real way, and
Speaker 1: then something that's completely and entirely out of his control
Speaker 1: comes in and ruins everything. I just feel terrible for Tatum,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to use tonight's segment. It's just an
Speaker 1: opportunity to talk about how much I respect Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: as a competitor and as one of the game's greats.
Speaker 1: I fully expect him to return from this injury at
Speaker 1: an all NBA level, and I'm very excited to watch
Speaker 1: him play basketball again when he returns. That's it for
Speaker 1: this week's course. Remember Microsoft's AI solutions empower you to
Speaker 1: take bold steps and make informed decisions, sparking new ideas
Speaker 1: to help drive your business forward. With Microsoft as your
Speaker 1: trusted partner, you can navigate your journey with confidence, finding
Speaker 1: innovative solutions and reaching new possibilities. Visit Microsoft dot com
Speaker 1: slash Challengers to learn more. All right, let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about Celtics Nicks tonight. I want to start
Speaker 1: with Jalen Blown Jalen Brown's floor game. We talked about
Speaker 1: this a little bit in the Tatum segment, But if
Speaker 1: you're going to be the primary shot creator for a
Speaker 1: basketball team for an entire game, it's important to understand
Speaker 1: that you're in charge of managing the flow of the game.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a lot in the don of
Speaker 1: Inmagell game. I think it was Game one if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, but where you know, like he puts up
Speaker 1: a monster scoring night, but the Kavs just don't have
Speaker 1: any flow in their offense. The ball's not popping around,
Speaker 1: they're not generating a ton of catch and shoot threes.
Speaker 1: Their shooters are all uncomfortable. You need to understand that
Speaker 1: in that job, like you need to take advantage of
Speaker 1: easy because your job is to create half of your
Speaker 1: team's shots, Like you might have to create forty to
Speaker 1: fifty shots in that game. Jalen Brown took advantage of
Speaker 1: the easy opportunities tonight. His transition reads good. God, the
Speaker 1: Knicks were awful in their transition defense. They lost Derek
Speaker 1: White probably a half dozen times for wide open threes
Speaker 1: in transition. But Jalen was the guy who was probing
Speaker 1: up the floor in those transition situations and making those reads,
Speaker 1: identifying where the Knicks were making mistakes in screening action.
Speaker 1: They ran a ton of ghost screens tonight where he's
Speaker 1: on ball and Derek White screening and slipping out, or
Speaker 1: Peyton Pritcher's screening and slipping out, or Sam Houser screening
Speaker 1: and slipping out, and he just made those simple reads
Speaker 1: there interior passing to Cornette out of the post. I
Speaker 1: just thought Jalen played a great floor game and managed
Speaker 1: his shot selection really well, combined with some legit three
Speaker 1: levels scoring, hitting mid range shots, hitting threes getting into
Speaker 1: the basket. There was a concerted team effort that sixtends
Speaker 1: beyond Jalen Brown. But they were really trying to bully
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson tonight. So the first time in this series
Speaker 1: I thought Jalen Brunson like really struggled. He was the
Speaker 1: guy losing shooters in transition. Often he was not holding
Speaker 1: his ground on switches the way he did earlier in
Speaker 1: the series, and the Celtics were just going right through
Speaker 1: his chest all the way to the front of the rim.
Speaker 1: But Jalen Brown set the tone with that early and
Speaker 1: often in this game. Twenty six points, eight rebounds, and
Speaker 1: twelve assists. Tip of the cap to Jalen Brown kind
Speaker 1: of a teaser for what his role will be next season,
Speaker 1: which is to be that guy for this team. The
Speaker 1: Celtics did play extremely well across the board offensively, in
Speaker 1: a way that they have struggled to reach consistently in
Speaker 1: this series, and I thought this was an interesting example
Speaker 1: of the reality of rhythm in basketball. So Boston is
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty seven points tonight. It's the first
Speaker 1: time all series they'd scored over one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: five points. Not to be clear, Jason Tatum is the
Speaker 1: best player on this team and they have no championship
Speaker 1: seiling without him. Not trying to in any way denigrate
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, However, this team does have a lot of
Speaker 1: high level basketball players, and one of the things that
Speaker 1: happens in those situations is there's a tendency for guys
Speaker 1: to feel like they don't want to tug on the rope,
Speaker 1: right like if you're Drew Holliday, if you're Derek White,
Speaker 1: even Jalen Brown to a certain extent, like Tatum's the guy,
Speaker 1: you gotta float through him. You don't want to shirt
Speaker 1: yourself too much. And sometimes it can be tough to
Speaker 1: establish rhythm. And so for a game like this, again,
Speaker 1: if you went for a whole postseason run and teams
Speaker 1: could really scout Jalen Brown and scout the way you
Speaker 1: like to attack, you'd be begging for Jason Tatum back,
Speaker 1: I promise you. But in a one game sample like this,
Speaker 1: it just kind of simplified the pecking order. Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: Derek White, Peyton Pritchard, those are the three guys that
Speaker 1: were controlling the majority of the action. They played through
Speaker 1: them consistently, and as a result, there was just kind
Speaker 1: of like a rhythm and a flow that they missed
Speaker 1: in other points of the series. And I thought, specifically
Speaker 1: in this one game sample it fitted Boston Luke Cornett
Speaker 1: I was talking with with Jackson and Shane before we
Speaker 1: got started it. I just thought he did a much
Speaker 1: better job of Porzingis's job. Porzingis's job in the series
Speaker 1: has been to roam off of josh Hart protect the
Speaker 1: rim while at the same time accounting for josh Hart
Speaker 1: when he's you know, driving off of those kickouts from
Speaker 1: the top of the key, or crashing the offensive glass
Speaker 1: or or you know, even just shooting threes in those
Speaker 1: catch and shoot situations. And Cornett just brought a level
Speaker 1: of activity that they haven't had really in this series.
Speaker 1: From that spot. He was you know, he had six
Speaker 1: blocks just in the second half. Some of them were
Speaker 1: roaming off of josh Hart on other guys looking to shoot.
Speaker 1: Some of it was josh Hart catching at the top
Speaker 1: of the key and pumping and then trying to drive
Speaker 1: on Cornett and then trying to finish through Cornett getting
Speaker 1: blocked there. Oh, he's going to take a three out
Speaker 1: of the left corner. Cornette runs out out there and
Speaker 1: blocks him there. He kept him off the offensive classic
Speaker 1: josh Hart had just one offensive rebound in the whole game,
Speaker 1: and it was because Cornett swatted his shit right back
Speaker 1: into his hands and it got logged as an offensive rebound.
Speaker 1: So he just like completely shut down in the second half,
Speaker 1: in particular, everything as that roam er off of Josh Hart.
Speaker 1: You know, Josh hit some threes tonight and still had
Speaker 1: some success, but Cornette did a ton of damage in
Speaker 1: his minutes roaming off of Josh Hart and just kind
Speaker 1: of anchoring things defensively for the Celtics. Six blocks in
Speaker 1: the second half is incredible stuff. Like I like, I
Speaker 1: didn't do any you know, digging into NBA history, but
Speaker 1: I would imagine it's been a very long time since
Speaker 1: an NBA basketball player locked six blocks in a single
Speaker 1: half in the NBA postseason. Shout out to the Celtics. Man,
Speaker 1: these guys have their flaws, but they're a bunch of winners,
Speaker 1: and they beat the shit out of the Knicks tonight
Speaker 1: and they showed that they're not going to go down
Speaker 1: without a fight. And on that note, this series is
Speaker 1: not over. I believe the Knicks will win on Friday,
Speaker 1: but that will not be an easy game. And if
Speaker 1: they lose that game, they're staring down the barrel of
Speaker 1: a Game seven in Boston where Boston will be will
Speaker 1: be favored. I thought the Knicks played a horrible half
Speaker 1: in that second half, just straight up not good enough.
Speaker 1: In so many facets of the game. They better be
Speaker 1: ready for a war on Friday, because it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a war and if they don't survive that one, they
Speaker 1: could be sent out of here. And I mean already
Speaker 1: they need to be polished up in a way to
Speaker 1: prepare for what's a very dangerous Indiana Pacers team that's
Speaker 1: going to be coming their way should they get out
Speaker 1: of this series. All right, guys, that's all I have
Speaker 1: for tonight. As always a sincerely appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: supporting me and supporting the show. Again, no playback tonight,
Speaker 1: but we will be back on playback tomorrow night after
Speaker 1: the live show that we have. Again, keep an eye
Speaker 1: on the on the feed. I think I am going
Speaker 1: to do a film session tomorrow Jackson. I think we're
Speaker 1: going to do something on Cornett's defense in the second
Speaker 1: half because I thought it was just so impressive and
Speaker 1: I just want to show some video examples of the
Speaker 1: stuff that we were talking about. So keep an eye
Speaker 1: on the feed tomorrow morning for a film session on
Speaker 1: the Celtics, and then live tomorrow night after the final
Speaker 1: buzzer of Denver versus Minnesota. One kind of bit of
Speaker 1: fun news tonight was the last night that we're covering
Speaker 1: two games in a single night, so just one game
Speaker 1: every night from this point forward will be really zeroing
Speaker 1: in on those games and getting deeper into the weeds
Speaker 1: on them. But about halfway through this playoff run, guys,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys for rocking with us and rocking
Speaker 1: with the show. I will see you guys tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1: What's up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening
Speaker 1: to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second
Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take
Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. The
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