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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to Hoop tonight. You're at the volume
Speaker 1: heavy sun there everybody. Hope all you guys are having
Speaker 1: a great end to your weekend. We got a jam
Speaker 1: pack show for you guys today. We're gonna hit on
Speaker 1: four games. I'm gonna be primarily leaning into the first
Speaker 1: two games of the day. Those are the two games
Speaker 1: that I thought were most interesting. So we're going to
Speaker 1: talk Lakers Wolves off the top, and then I've got
Speaker 1: a lot of thoughts on Nick Pistons. We'll be going
Speaker 1: shorter on Celtics Magic as well as Pacers Bucks, but
Speaker 1: we'll have some thoughts there at the tail end of
Speaker 1: the show too. Also, no mail bag at the tail
Speaker 1: end of the show today, just so you guys know,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna hitting all four of those games and
Speaker 1: then we'll get out of here for the night. You
Speaker 1: guys are the job before we get started. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: the Hoops and I YouTube channel so you don't miss
Speaker 1: any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss an ShW announcement.
Speaker 1: Son't forget about a podcast for you wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful
Speaker 1: if you leave a rating and a review on that front.
Speaker 1: We also have social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and
Speaker 1: Facebook where Jackson's doing great work. Make sure you guys
Speaker 1: follow us there. And then, as I mentioned off top last,
Speaker 1: but not at least keep dropping mailbag questions and those
Speaker 1: YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball. I was
Speaker 1: telling the guys before the show started. It's a very
Speaker 1: rough day for my personal playoff rooting interests. League team
Speaker 1: had a playoff game today too, that we lost on
Speaker 1: a game winning jump shot at the Buzzert from my
Speaker 1: former college teammate, my point guard back when I was
Speaker 1: playing in college. Shout out to Dom Banks. Just an
Speaker 1: incredible player, good friend of mine. Hit a big time
Speaker 1: shot to beat us today. So took that knife to
Speaker 1: the chest and then had to go home and watch
Speaker 1: the other knife go into my chest in the form
Speaker 1: of the Lakers losing that game in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: to the Minnesota Timberwolves. So obviously, before we get any
Speaker 1: deeper into it, just congratulations to Wolves fans. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you guys are very happy that I am wrong about
Speaker 1: what ended up happening in this series. And it's been
Speaker 1: especially painful for me because Anthony Edwards just continues to
Speaker 1: take a special place in my basketball heart, so to speak,
Speaker 1: as I've always loved watching him play and just watching
Speaker 1: the way that he has broken my heart so to
Speaker 1: speak as a Lakers fan in this series has just
Speaker 1: made me love him even more as a player, and
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm really happy for you Wolves fans, and
Speaker 1: you guys are in great shape moving forward, not just
Speaker 1: in this but moving forward for the rest of this
Speaker 1: playoff run and for the rest of this era that
Speaker 1: you guys have put together. So to me, Game four
Speaker 1: basically came down to a gamble that JJ Reddick made
Speaker 1: in the second half, a bet based on two things.
Speaker 1: One that the Luca Lebron Austin, Dorian Phinney Smith Ruby
Speaker 1: hot Chimura lineup was consistently generating great shots against Minnesota's defense,
Speaker 1: and he wanted to ride that out as much as
Speaker 1: possible and the Lakers effectively after tonight's game or today's game,
Speaker 1: had like two and a half full days of rest
Speaker 1: before Game five and Wednesday, like they would have had
Speaker 1: all night Tonight off, all day Monday off, all day
Speaker 1: Tuesday off, most of the day on Wednesday, So I
Speaker 1: don't think he was worried about long term wear and tear.
Speaker 1: But the gamble was that the Lakers would be able
Speaker 1: to survive those twenty four minutes without succumbing to the
Speaker 1: physical onslaught of Minnesota, and that ended up being the
Speaker 1: give a take, give and take right, and the Lakers
Speaker 1: just couldn't quite hold on. I thought Ant's shot making
Speaker 1: in the early fourth quarter was the first sign of
Speaker 1: that onslaught. I talked a lot after Game three about
Speaker 1: how you pretty much just have to cross your fingers
Speaker 1: and hope Aunt misses those pull up threes because you
Speaker 1: can't realistically take them away. You're just gonna give the
Speaker 1: best athlete in the league a crazy runway over and
Speaker 1: over again. You have to play with You have to
Speaker 1: play essentially to concede a contested pullback or step back
Speaker 1: type of three. Right. He hit three of them in
Speaker 1: the early fourth quarter, including a twenty eight footer over
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves with just under eight minutes left that cut
Speaker 1: the lead down to four, and that like immediately changed
Speaker 1: the tone and tenor of the game, and it turned
Speaker 1: it into a high pressure half court slug fest. And
Speaker 1: once again, just like in Game three, Ant and the
Speaker 1: Wolves just looked better down the stretch. Nasreg came in,
Speaker 1: one of the few fresh legs guys on the floor
Speaker 1: there down the stretch. He immediately scored eight points. He
Speaker 1: scored against Austin on a switch. He had two long
Speaker 1: threes at the top of the key. The Lakers kind
Speaker 1: of started to show their fatigue on those two threes.
Speaker 1: On the first one, Luca beats Naz Reid off the
Speaker 1: dribble and smokes a layup, like right at the rim,
Speaker 1: smokes a layup, and then in transition, Luca made a
Speaker 1: bad read. He should have matched up with Nas. Him
Speaker 1: and Nas were the last two guys back in the play,
Speaker 1: but Luca just misread the floor and ran to go
Speaker 1: guard Austin Reeves's man, even though Austin Reeves was already there.
Speaker 1: That left Nas read open. Just a mental mistake, probably
Speaker 1: that came from fatigue to a certain extent. And then
Speaker 1: on the second one, Nas broke open on a screening
Speaker 1: action kind of a two guys at the elbow. Nas
Speaker 1: was on the far elbow and Lebron just was resting
Speaker 1: or fatigued or whatever it was. He just was like
Speaker 1: flat footed standing upright. And when Nas ran off the
Speaker 1: screen like it probably should have been a switch, but
Speaker 1: Lebron should have been up like communicating with Austin, like, hey,
Speaker 1: Naz is getting ready to come up, you gotta be
Speaker 1: ready to switch. Both Lebron and Austin were just a
Speaker 1: little slow to react, and nas breaks open at the
Speaker 1: top of key and hits another three and made a
Speaker 1: very similar kickout read on a baseline drive that looked
Speaker 1: very similar to the one in Game three where he
Speaker 1: hit nas Reed on the left wing. He hit Dante
Speaker 1: DiVincenzo on the left wing, who drove the close out
Speaker 1: and got an end one. Another great decision from Ant
Speaker 1: down the stretch, Ant be the double team he was
Speaker 1: getting double team by Dorian Finney Smith and Ruey Hotchi
Speaker 1: murr Out in the kind of like left like just
Speaker 1: in front of half court on the left side of
Speaker 1: the floor, and Ruy lost contain. Ant actually beat the
Speaker 1: double team off the dribble, forced Luca to help. It
Speaker 1: turned into effectively a triple team that caught Lebron in
Speaker 1: like this weird three on one underneath the basket where
Speaker 1: Ant makes a beautiful pass to nas Lebron flashes, Lebron
Speaker 1: drops it off to Jaden or excuse me. Nasried makes
Speaker 1: a nice connective pass to Jaden McDaniels on the baseline,
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves fouls him. That ends up basically being the
Speaker 1: game winner. That lineup with Nazrid and Dante Devincenzo. In
Speaker 1: for Rudy, Ruey and Rudy have been killing me in
Speaker 1: this series. In for Rudy, Gobert and Mike Conley is
Speaker 1: probably their best lineup. It creates space while still maintaining
Speaker 1: their side in physicality. It closed the deal yet again
Speaker 1: for the Wolves tonight, and now they are in serious
Speaker 1: control of this series. It's not over. The Lakers will
Speaker 1: have their shot. We'll talk about that in a little
Speaker 1: bit later on. But this same theme from the end
Speaker 1: of tonight's game has repeated itself over and over again
Speaker 1: in this series. Even in the Game two when the
Speaker 1: Lakers won, it felt like over the course of the
Speaker 1: end of the game, the Lakers start to look old
Speaker 1: and tired, while the Wolves continued to look like the Wolves,
Speaker 1: and then they take control. The Lakers came apart at
Speaker 1: the seams at a bunch of basic execution details late
Speaker 1: that I do think we're associated with fatigue. On the JD.
Speaker 1: McDaniel's game winner, Ruey Hachimura loses contain on a double team.
Speaker 1: When you're bracketing in a double team, the ball's here
Speaker 1: and these are the two defenders bracketing. This guy has
Speaker 1: to prevent him from driving outside. This guy has to
Speaker 1: prevent him from driving outside. You have to contain the
Speaker 1: ball and force Ant to make a pass. But if
Speaker 1: you go back and WoT watch Ruey as he's sliding,
Speaker 1: you can literally see how exhausted he is with the
Speaker 1: way he was moving on the NAS read threes. Like
Speaker 1: I mentioned, Luca smoking the easy layup and losing NAS
Speaker 1: with a mental mistake, Lebron getting caught relaxing. Austin missed
Speaker 1: several wide open threes in the fourth quarter. Lebron had
Speaker 1: zero points in the fourth quarter, was generally uninvolved in
Speaker 1: the offense. But this is where it gets tricky. Though
Speaker 1: I knew coming into the series that this would be
Speaker 1: a physical tug of war. I knew that the Wolves
Speaker 1: would wear on the Lakers over the course of games
Speaker 1: just by being more athletic. I knew the Lakers would
Speaker 1: be able to score, but I also knew they would
Speaker 1: wear dam What I didn't predict was just how badly
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards would win the Superstar matchup with Luka Doncic.
Speaker 1: This is where the entire series turned. The Lakers were
Speaker 1: tied with four minutes left in Game three. The Lakers
Speaker 1: were up to with four minutes left today, Luca had
Speaker 1: zero points in both of those sequences. From that point forward,
Speaker 1: in this series, Luka Doncic has been five for seventeen
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, Anthony Edwards ten for twenty three.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards has made twice as many fourth quarterfield goals
Speaker 1: as Luka Doncic in this series. Luca has one fourth
Speaker 1: quarter assist, Anthony Edwards has seven. That's the series. That's
Speaker 1: it right there. Two games, Game three, in Game four
Speaker 1: coin flip games that came down to clutch shot creation
Speaker 1: from the two team superstars, and Anthony Edwards went toe
Speaker 1: to toe with the guy that many people, including myself
Speaker 1: before the season, placed as the second best player in
Speaker 1: the league, and Ant just straight up alpha dogged him.
Speaker 1: He stared down the guy who beat him in the
Speaker 1: playoffs last year and straight up kicked his ass. The
Speaker 1: insane shot making, the growth as a playmaker, it's been
Speaker 1: incredible to watch. And here's how important it's been. The
Speaker 1: Lakers actually outscored the Wolves in the last three games
Speaker 1: by seventeen point in the first three quarters, but Anton
Speaker 1: the Wolves have won the fourth quarters by twenty three
Speaker 1: points turned two of those games into Wolves wins. He
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards has been the swing between this series being
Speaker 1: three to one Lakers and it being three to one Wolves. Now,
Speaker 1: before we like, I want to be clear before we
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about Luca here, Luca is not
Speaker 1: the only one to blame for what happened today. As
Speaker 1: I mentioned, Lebron made several mistakes. He had a bad
Speaker 1: turnover in the final minute. He like it was kind
Speaker 1: of on everybody the the There was this weird trip
Speaker 1: where Jada McDaniel's trip Luca probably should have been a
Speaker 1: foul where that led to his sideline out of bounds
Speaker 1: with seventeen seconds on the shot clock. Because they're seventeen
Speaker 1: seconds on the shot clock, the Lakers could not inbound
Speaker 1: into the back court. They had to inbound into the
Speaker 1: front court, so that caused a very tight space. Basically,
Speaker 1: Lebron was just on the other side of half court
Speaker 1: out on that sideline. It basically took the amount of
Speaker 1: space that the Lakers could inbound to and cut it
Speaker 1: in half, and the Wolves defended it pretty well. Luca
Speaker 1: is kinda in a position where he could catch, but
Speaker 1: Jaden was right on his backside and Lebron took a
Speaker 1: bad angle. He threw it to Luca's right shoulder, Luca's
Speaker 1: left shoulder. He probably catches it, but he threw it
Speaker 1: to the wrong shoulder. That's a bad turnover on Lebron.
Speaker 1: He took a bad three with five seconds left off
Speaker 1: the left wing. In the final minutes, he lost Nasried
Speaker 1: on one of his threes. Like we talked about, he
Speaker 1: scored zero points. Lebron shares. Some blame Austin Reeves missed
Speaker 1: five threes in the fourth quarter. Some a couple of
Speaker 1: wide open ones in the final minutes. Ruey Hatcher Murra
Speaker 1: made a few defensive mistakes. I want to be clear
Speaker 1: tonight is not only Luca's fault, but Luca is the
Speaker 1: one player on that team who was truly capable of
Speaker 1: closing that deal. And he went one for six and
Speaker 1: he looked like completely exhausted and lifeless down the stretch. Now,
Speaker 1: before you tell me, well, Jason, he played the entire
Speaker 1: second half. That's on jj Reddick. Well so did aunt
Speaker 1: aunt played twenty four minutes in the second half. Julius
Speaker 1: Randall play two only three and a half minutes in
Speaker 1: the second half. Nasried can can pull the I was
Speaker 1: fresh card. Everyone was fatigued. And yet I know that
Speaker 1: ant is a better athlete and he will look better
Speaker 1: when he's fatigued than Luca. But he looked like aunt.
Speaker 1: Luca didn't even look like Luca down the stretch of
Speaker 1: that game when his team desperately needed him to look
Speaker 1: like Luca. And it's been the entire series, five to
Speaker 1: seventeen in the fourth quarter. So again, even though tonight
Speaker 1: wasn't entirely his fault, it was a team, a set
Speaker 1: of mistakes from the team. My initial impression of Luca
Speaker 1: in the big picture, even beyond this series, has been
Speaker 1: that he consistently wears down at the end of games.
Speaker 1: He was also just eleven for twenty seven in clutch
Speaker 1: situations for the Lakers in the regular season this year.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying this to pick on Luca. I root
Speaker 1: for the guy for obvious reasons. I just want to
Speaker 1: see him reach his full potential. He's getting passed by
Speaker 1: his peers right now. Tatum is playing better than him,
Speaker 1: Shay's playing better than him, AT's playing better than him,
Speaker 1: Steph is playing better than him. He's leaving meat on
Speaker 1: the bone when it comes to his potential. And I
Speaker 1: genuinely believe that if he could figure out his conditioning,
Speaker 1: that he has a great chance to become the best
Speaker 1: basketball player alive as Jokic phases out as he gets older,
Speaker 1: there will be no player in the league that has
Speaker 1: a better combination of scoring and playmaking ability than Luka Doncic.
Speaker 1: If he could become a player that holds up over
Speaker 1: the course of games, holds up over the course of
Speaker 1: seasons and series, can stay healthy, can be operating at
Speaker 1: peak efficiency at the end of games while also being
Speaker 1: a plus defender, which he is capable of being. That's
Speaker 1: the best player in the world. That's what he's capable
Speaker 1: of doing. It is a real and achievable outcome for him,
Speaker 1: and it would literally just take one summer, one summer
Speaker 1: of obsessive work, the same obsessive work that all of
Speaker 1: the greats in NBA history have used to maximize their potential.
Speaker 1: The ball is in Luca's court and we all knew
Speaker 1: this before. I mean, that was literally the main storyline
Speaker 1: behind the trade, right, but we got to see it
Speaker 1: up close and personal. Here. I can put it this simply,
Speaker 1: had Luca played to his potential in this series, the
Speaker 1: Lakers win this series. But instead he faded at the
Speaker 1: end of games while his counterpart on the other team
Speaker 1: was fantastic, and it flipped entirely in the other direction.
Speaker 1: Other notes that I wanted to give before we move
Speaker 1: on to the next game. JJ's decision to play everybody
Speaker 1: all twenty four minutes in the second half. Look it
Speaker 1: was high risk, but it also high reward. And I
Speaker 1: hate playing the results because so many things went wrong
Speaker 1: down the stretch that could have just as easily ended
Speaker 1: in a win for the Lakers. Even with everything that
Speaker 1: went wrong, the Lakers led in the final minute, and like,
Speaker 1: had they gotten it done, JJ would have looked like
Speaker 1: a genius as the Lakers went home for a long
Speaker 1: stretch of time off with the series tied. I also
Speaker 1: thought the Lakers were on the wrong end of two
Speaker 1: late calls. Luca got tripped at half court. He should
Speaker 1: have gone to the foul line after that. I thought
Speaker 1: Lebron when he stripped Anthony Edwards underneath the basket, he
Speaker 1: was more or less in the hand wrist ball area,
Speaker 1: and the game was insanely physical. You would just let
Speaker 1: a non call go. And Jaden tripped Luca. I didn't
Speaker 1: like that call, and by the way, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: the Lakers are screwed. You know what, I always said,
Speaker 1: bad calls are a part of basketball games. You have
Speaker 1: to be prepared for that contingency. I don't blame the
Speaker 1: refs for today's outcome. I'm just saying it was a
Speaker 1: razor thin margin. The Lakers very easily could have won
Speaker 1: that game. They didn't, But I'm not gonna blame it
Speaker 1: on JJ based on that result. It was a gamble,
Speaker 1: the game became razor thin close to paying off, and
Speaker 1: there was an obvious downside, which was fatigue, and the
Speaker 1: fatigue did play a role in the loss. I think
Speaker 1: that's worth bringing up. But like Chris Finch also played
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards the entire second half and Julius Randall most
Speaker 1: of the second half, Like, it's not exactly the craziest
Speaker 1: thing we've ever seen, they just were. JJ was looking
Speaker 1: at it like, I don't know that I can afford
Speaker 1: vandom minutes here. I don't know that I can afford
Speaker 1: gave minutes here now, Like I probably would have just
Speaker 1: found little short bursts to get them some rest. But like,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to over criticize the risk based on
Speaker 1: a result that was like this close to going the
Speaker 1: other way and looking like JJ was a genius. Right now?
Speaker 1: Can the Lakers win the series? Of course? It's really simple. Actually,
Speaker 1: if you get down to it, Do I think the
Speaker 1: Lakers can beat the Wolves in Game five on Wednesday? Yes,
Speaker 1: I actually think they will. I think the Lakers will
Speaker 1: win this game. I think the Wolves are gonna win
Speaker 1: this series in Game six back in Minnesota. But from there,
Speaker 1: if the Lake Bakers win on Wednesday in Game five,
Speaker 1: you have Game six on Friday. It's one game in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: We know they can win. They were right there in
Speaker 1: each of the last two games. So you win on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: then you look at it on Friday and you go
Speaker 1: just beat the Timberwolves in Minnesota one time. And if
Speaker 1: you do, then it's Game seven on Sunday. You're the
Speaker 1: home team, You're likely favored. So they absolutely can win
Speaker 1: the series. I just think it's unlikely. I don't think
Speaker 1: Luca is gonna suddenly get into better shape. He's wearing down,
Speaker 1: not because he's not capable of doing the basketball things necessary.
Speaker 1: It is a literal conditioning problem. In order for the
Speaker 1: Lakers to come back and win the series, Luca would
Speaker 1: have to make me look foolish by suddenly transforming into
Speaker 1: the best player in the series, which he hasn't been
Speaker 1: to this point. So it's on the table. It's an
Speaker 1: outcome that can happen. I just think it's far more
Speaker 1: likely than not that the Wolves close this out. And
Speaker 1: on that note, just again, like I mentioned off the tip,
Speaker 1: just I am happy, happy for Wolves fans because you
Speaker 1: guys probably got sick and tired of hearing guys like
Speaker 1: me and everyone else out there tell you how the
Speaker 1: Lakers were gonna win. Hell, the Wolves themselves were sick
Speaker 1: of it. And you just have such a great team
Speaker 1: and you have such a great star. And I am
Speaker 1: really looking forward to watching them as they move forward
Speaker 1: in this postseason. Should they be able to close the
Speaker 1: deal on Wednesday or on Friday. All right, Nicks, Pistons.
Speaker 1: As wrong as I've been about the Lakers Wolves series,
Speaker 1: I've been pretty right about this one. The Pistons have
Speaker 1: been right there every single game. They led by eight
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter of Game one, they obviously one
Speaker 1: Game two, they were down by three with five minutes
Speaker 1: left in Game three, and they led by eleven today
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter of Game four. But over and
Speaker 1: over again. The Knicks have been able to out execute
Speaker 1: them at the end of these games because they are
Speaker 1: the smarter and more experienced team. Malik Beasley hits a
Speaker 1: three with eight and a half minutes left that puts
Speaker 1: the Pistons up eleven. From that point forward, the Knicks
Speaker 1: played their ceiling. They knew they needed that game. They
Speaker 1: played peak Knicks basketball while the Pistons on the other
Speaker 1: end made mistake after mistake after a mistake. The Knicks
Speaker 1: were able to get offense on several fronts. Mikal Bridges
Speaker 1: actually started the run with two really tough movement threes
Speaker 1: out of the right corner. In a game where he
Speaker 1: could make a shot to save his life, hit two
Speaker 1: massive ones in the right corner. Jalen Brunson got into
Speaker 1: a great rhythm after coming back from an ankle injury
Speaker 1: he suffered right along the sideline in front of the
Speaker 1: scorer's table. He's really solved Dennis Schroeder at this point
Speaker 1: in the series. He's figured out that he's just too
Speaker 1: big and strong for him. He had an easy layup
Speaker 1: on the left side where he just used the right
Speaker 1: to left crossover to get him on his right side
Speaker 1: and then just use that shoulder to create separation. Then
Speaker 1: he had to drive on the right wing where he
Speaker 1: literally went through Dennis's chest for a floater from about
Speaker 1: like seven eight feet. But like he has solved the
Speaker 1: Dennis Schroeder matchup, he'd beat Kay Cunningham with a simple
Speaker 1: jab step move to get into the basket. He gave
Speaker 1: Tim Hardaway Junior a couple of tough buckets. He had
Speaker 1: a step back going to his left on the three
Speaker 1: point line. He had another little short shot along the
Speaker 1: left base line. Brunson was fantastic down the stretch, but
Speaker 1: it was actually Karl Anthony Towns who saved the day
Speaker 1: and stole a win for the knickt hitting three jumpers.
Speaker 1: One was a simple catching shoot off of a dumb
Speaker 1: overhelp from Jalen Duran. The Jalen Brunson just kind of
Speaker 1: baited him into just staring at the basket and pretended
Speaker 1: like he was gonna iso. Jalen just kind of sat
Speaker 1: there on the block and just was super keyed in
Speaker 1: on Brunson, and Jalen just rifled to pass across the
Speaker 1: court wide open catch and shoot three for Karl Anthony
Speaker 1: Towns knocks it down just capitalizing on a bad defensive
Speaker 1: mistake from Jalen duran But then he hit an insane
Speaker 1: left shoulder fade away, just like he did in Game three,
Speaker 1: this time over Jalen Durrance, over a tougher contest. It
Speaker 1: was probably even tougher than the shoty mate in Game three.
Speaker 1: Just insane right there along the baseline. Then he hits
Speaker 1: his step back three over Jalen Durant, a little shot
Speaker 1: clock kind of rescue possession, ends up in the late
Speaker 1: clock situation, and hits like a twenty eight footer off
Speaker 1: of a step back against a great contest from Jalen Dury.
Speaker 1: Just two insane shots that turned that loss into a
Speaker 1: win for the Knicks. The Knicks scored twenty six points
Speaker 1: over the final eight minutes to steal Game four and
Speaker 1: take a three to one lead heading back to New York.
Speaker 1: Here's a simple list for you guys of the execution
Speaker 1: errors that Detroit made down the stretch their first possession,
Speaker 1: after McHale Bridges hit a three in that right corner
Speaker 1: to cut the lead down to eight, they ran an
Speaker 1: ISO for Asar Thompson against Mkale Bridges, and anybody who
Speaker 1: watched that whole game knows. Asar Thompson was really struggling
Speaker 1: in that game to do anything on offense. He was
Speaker 1: in no position to command that possession that gave it
Speaker 1: to him and he missed. That's an execution error from
Speaker 1: the vets on the floor putting a Sar Thompson in
Speaker 1: that possession position. Then Nisar Thompson threw the ball out
Speaker 1: of bounds, cut to the basket off the right slot.
Speaker 1: K dropped it off to him and he tried to
Speaker 1: make a connective pass him Alik Beasley, but he just
Speaker 1: didn't look before he threw it and rifled the ball
Speaker 1: out of bounds. JB. Bickerstaff finally puts Dennis Schroeder in
Speaker 1: for him, so two big mistakes from Assar Thompson to
Speaker 1: start to run. Jalen durn gets a defense rebound and
Speaker 1: makes the classic young center mistake of bringing the ball down,
Speaker 1: brings the ball down. Josh Hart comes in swipes it
Speaker 1: off his leg off the ensuing baseline out of bounds.
Speaker 1: Mkale Bridges comes off of a screen, Malik Beasley gets
Speaker 1: caught on it. Jalen Duran again when he sees a
Speaker 1: shooter coming off a screen is supposed to be up
Speaker 1: at the level of the screen. He's way back in
Speaker 1: the paint. Mcale Bridges gets another clean look right where
Speaker 1: he just made one in the right corner knocks it
Speaker 1: down so literally, two Jalen Durham mistakes turned what should
Speaker 1: have been a stop into three points for the Knicks.
Speaker 1: And again, I'm not trying to pick on Jalen duran
Speaker 1: or any of these guys, Zasar Thompson. I'm just pointing
Speaker 1: out the obvious fact that these are young players, and
Speaker 1: young players are going to struggle with attention to detailing
Speaker 1: big in big spots like this, right, they gave up
Speaker 1: an easy transition. Take foul to Josh Hart on a
Speaker 1: really bad offensive possession where he just stood out by
Speaker 1: like the logo while Mikal Bridges was face guarding him
Speaker 1: and he just watched Dennis Schroeder and Malik Beasley have
Speaker 1: a rough offensive possession, which, like, that's fine. Like rough
Speaker 1: offensives sessions are part of the playoffs. It's super physical.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you just get exhausted. That's not the problem. The
Speaker 1: problem is is both Schroeder and Beasley were slow to
Speaker 1: get back. You can't compound the problem by not getting back.
Speaker 1: It turned into like a three on one and Kate
Speaker 1: had to just wrap up josh Hart. Kate turned it
Speaker 1: over trying to split a ball screen. That's a little
Speaker 1: spoiler alert. He does it again later in the game
Speaker 1: on Kat's first three. Like I talked about, Jalen, Duran
Speaker 1: is sinking all the way into the paint. That's just done.
Speaker 1: That was the whole reason why they had Tobias Harris
Speaker 1: on Cat originally to begin with, was to avoid that
Speaker 1: specific problem. Durren just struggles to guard shooting Biggs, which
Speaker 1: is why he shouldn't have been in that position in
Speaker 1: the first place. That's on JB. Bickerstaff, like they need
Speaker 1: to make sure that they had their matchups set up
Speaker 1: in a way that they're not going to give up
Speaker 1: that sort of problem, especially since Kat was frying Jalen
Speaker 1: during anyway on an Island. It's not like you're trying
Speaker 1: to protect Tobias Harris there in any any way. Kat
Speaker 1: hits the fade away over Jalen during that cuts the
Speaker 1: lead to two kid tries to Isojan and Obi, which
Speaker 1: is probably the worst matchup he could attack on the floor.
Speaker 1: We talked a lot about that. Jalen Brunson has been
Speaker 1: much more surgical about being deliberate to get to the matchups.
Speaker 1: He wants that hits a three to put the Knicks up.
Speaker 1: Kid tries to split a double team again. Josh Hart
Speaker 1: is right there, digging down off the strong side corner,
Speaker 1: and Kay just tries to split the double team again
Speaker 1: and turns it over again, and like it was just
Speaker 1: mistake after mistake after poor decision after poor decision. But
Speaker 1: this is just the reality of the process of developing
Speaker 1: as a basketball team. In order to win at the
Speaker 1: highest levels, attention to detail is required, and young, inexperienced
Speaker 1: teams have a habit of missing those details, especially in
Speaker 1: their first few playoff runs. It's all good, valuable lessons
Speaker 1: are being learned. It's just an explanation for why, even
Speaker 1: though Detroit presented so many problems for the Knicks over
Speaker 1: the course of the season, I had the feeling the
Speaker 1: Knicks we're gonna pull this series out. Last note on
Speaker 1: the Knicks, I wanted to shout out ogn and Obi
Speaker 1: and McHale Bridges. Neither of them had big score knights
Speaker 1: Aw the McHale hit a couple of huge threes in
Speaker 1: the right corner, but those guys defended about a half
Speaker 1: a dozen one on ones against Kid Cunningham down the stretch,
Speaker 1: and they didn't get beat off the dribble a single time.
Speaker 1: They forced him into a bunch of tough, contested pull
Speaker 1: up mid rangers, turnaround jump shots out of the post.
Speaker 1: Brunson was getting to the rim and New York's defenders
Speaker 1: were forcing Kate into jump shots, which has variants. You
Speaker 1: might miss him right, Kate's a good mid range jump shooter,
Speaker 1: but he might miss him. There's way less variance right
Speaker 1: at the rim. Jalen hit some tough jumpers that step
Speaker 1: back to his left side, step three off of against
Speaker 1: Tim Hardaway Junior off the left wing. That's an incredibly
Speaker 1: tough shot, but he was at the rim, and that
Speaker 1: really is the experience element. Like Cat played three playoff
Speaker 1: series last year, Jalen Brunton played four playoff series in
Speaker 1: the last two years. This team has just a lot
Speaker 1: of guys that have been in a lot of serious
Speaker 1: basketball over the last few years. That gives them an
Speaker 1: advantage in this sort of situation. Looking like the Knicks
Speaker 1: are going to close things out in five on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: all right, very briefly on Celtics Magic and pacers bus
Speaker 1: Uh pacers Bucks. I thought Tatum was fantastic down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this game punishing switches. He had like a
Speaker 1: little jabstep jumper over Gary Harris. He there was kind
Speaker 1: of like an obvious difference in just the level of
Speaker 1: patience and deliberate nature with which Tatum was attacking switches
Speaker 1: versus the Orlando Wings. Like there was a sequence where
Speaker 1: on both ends of the floor, like Franz Vagner gets
Speaker 1: Peyton Pritcher and he caught Peyton Pritchard as like a
Speaker 1: primary assignment a few times down the stretches pressuring Franz.
Speaker 1: Franz is having a lot of success attacking Porzingis. It's
Speaker 1: kind of an interesting kind of matchup decision there to
Speaker 1: just try to throw Franz off. But Franz tries to
Speaker 1: like drive against Pritchard, but he rushes, he drives, and
Speaker 1: he spins and he spins in this like rushed floater
Speaker 1: and leaves it short. Right on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor, Tatum gets Anthony Black and he methodically takes
Speaker 1: his time to back him down way into the lane,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Black ends up hacking the shit out of
Speaker 1: him and dragging him down into camera row and he
Speaker 1: gets two free throws, And it was just kind of
Speaker 1: crazy to see the difference between the super experienced dude
Speaker 1: who's played in the like damn near two hundred playoff
Speaker 1: games and the you know, young inexperienced team that's like
Speaker 1: kind of figuring this out on the fly and seeing
Speaker 1: the difference in just like how deliberate they were in
Speaker 1: their matchup. Attacking down the stretch, Tatum hit a crazy
Speaker 1: step back mid range of over Pala Bonkaro. He drew
Speaker 1: three shooting fouls just by getting people to jump up
Speaker 1: underneath his base. I just continue to be amazed by
Speaker 1: Tatum's growth as a half court decision maker. The big
Speaker 1: thing that stands out to me is just as overall comfort,
Speaker 1: there's you see this a lot with like stars that
Speaker 1: are at the peak of their powers in their like
Speaker 1: early thirties, where they have so much playoff experience already
Speaker 1: and they're so sure of who they are as a player.
Speaker 1: They may not be quite as athletic as they used
Speaker 1: to be, but they're just so smart because they've had
Speaker 1: so much experience playing. You'll see a lot of those
Speaker 1: guys like in high pressure situations, even late round playoff
Speaker 1: series like Conference finals finals, You'll just see them look
Speaker 1: comfortable and relaxed while they're playing. Tatum's in his mid
Speaker 1: twenties and he's out there looking like one of those guys.
Speaker 1: I that's been the thing that stood out to me
Speaker 1: all season with Tatum. It's just his overall level of
Speaker 1: comfort executing in the half court, getting this team into
Speaker 1: the right spots to get the right shots. I loved
Speaker 1: the set that Joe Mizula ran out of the time
Speaker 1: out that got porzingis the dunk where he dunked his
Speaker 1: own miss. Classic example of what happens when you try
Speaker 1: to involve screening actions with two very different types of players,
Speaker 1: Derek White and Chris Hops. Porzingis not a kind of
Speaker 1: action that you want to switch. You don't want to
Speaker 1: switch with Wendell Carter Junior. There, Derek White seit's a
Speaker 1: great screen. Wendell Carter Junior falls the magic don't switch.
Speaker 1: Porzingis is wide open under the ram. He actually smokes
Speaker 1: the layup, but he gets a really quick second jump,
Speaker 1: which is a strong indicator of how he's feeling physically,
Speaker 1: and just dunks it down. Just an unb believable play
Speaker 1: from Porzingis, Al Horford had a huge rebound or he
Speaker 1: beat Franz Wagner to the ball that led to a
Speaker 1: Derek White layup. I had a Celtics fan tweet at
Speaker 1: me after the game that this was the type of
Speaker 1: series that the Celtics would have been tied to two
Speaker 1: or maybe even down three to one a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. But here they are up three to one
Speaker 1: and this was super important. They need to get the
Speaker 1: hell away from the Orlando Magic before someone gets hurt.
Speaker 1: Tatum felt the urgency, executed accordingly and got the job done.
Speaker 1: And that's why I always put such a premium on that,
Speaker 1: like veteran presence, that experience, because a lot of times
Speaker 1: these games are decided by the thinnest of margins. The
Speaker 1: Magic have been in this series for the most part.
Speaker 1: Outside of game too, They've been in every game. It's
Speaker 1: like a more exaggerated example of some of the other
Speaker 1: series we've seen, like Rockets Warriors and like Nick's Pistons,
Speaker 1: and it just comes down to late game execution, and
Speaker 1: the grown ups just tend to do it better in
Speaker 1: that situation. Right. It's actually been the interesting part of
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Timberwolve series is they've been the younger team
Speaker 1: that has beat the veteran, more experienced team. But here
Speaker 1: they are. They're up three to one, a good spot
Speaker 1: for the Celtics to be in good shape to close
Speaker 1: out this series all right, really quickly before we get
Speaker 1: out of here tonight, Pacers Bucks. First of all, I
Speaker 1: feel terrible for Dame to work as hard as he's
Speaker 1: worked behind the scenes to get back on the court
Speaker 1: for that series and to suffer the type of injury
Speaker 1: that he suffered. I just hope that he's doing okay mentally.
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine where he's at right now, especially
Speaker 1: after they had just got a big win and it
Speaker 1: was early in the game and you're in a position
Speaker 1: where you can potentially tie the series and give yourself
Speaker 1: a real chance to win. And it kind of reminded me.
Speaker 1: Obviously very different type of injury, but it kind of
Speaker 1: reminded me what happened after reminded me of what happened
Speaker 1: in the Lakers Sun series in Game five. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it was Game five, So the Suns were up
Speaker 1: three to one, right if I remember correctly, and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis comes back, They're like Oh, Anthony Davis is back.
Speaker 1: You know, here we go. We're gonna we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a chance to win the series, and probably shouldn't have
Speaker 1: come back, as Groin was obviously hurt, But in the
Speaker 1: first few minutes of the game, Anthony Edwards just or
Speaker 1: excuse me, Anthony Davis just suddenly realizes that, like, no,
Speaker 1: I can't be playing out here right, so he has
Speaker 1: to leave the game, and like you could just literally
Speaker 1: see the entire body language and the belief and the
Speaker 1: mentality of the Lakers just fall apart because they're like shit,
Speaker 1: like we can't, like we can't win this game, this
Speaker 1: game without Anthony Davis, Like he's our anchor to everything
Speaker 1: that we do, right, And that's kind of what it
Speaker 1: reminded me of tonight. Like obviously, Jannis is more important
Speaker 1: to the Bucks than Dame and I and Dame at
Speaker 1: this phase of his career is a different type of player.
Speaker 1: But you could literally see the Bucks just kind of
Speaker 1: let go of the rope a little bit after that
Speaker 1: Dame injury in a weird way where it's like you
Speaker 1: almost feel like if Dame was just out with the
Speaker 1: blood plot for the series, you almost feel like the
Speaker 1: Bucks would have had like a different approach going into
Speaker 1: that game, like, all right, we don't have Dame tonight,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna give this our best shot. And you
Speaker 1: could just tell it just suck the life out of them,
Speaker 1: and they just didn't do anything well enough. And to
Speaker 1: make matters worse, the Pacers played a phenomenal game and
Speaker 1: seven guys in double figures thirty six. I checked this
Speaker 1: with two minutes left, so this might be a little
Speaker 1: bit updated, but at like a minute forty five seconds
Speaker 1: left in the game, they had thirty six assists on
Speaker 1: forty eight made field goals. That's insane. That's a seventy
Speaker 1: five percent assist percentage. That's like outrageous. They shot the
Speaker 1: shit out of the basketball they shot. Damn you're forty
Speaker 1: five percent from three. Watching them versus the Calves is
Speaker 1: going to be a ton of fun, specifically the speed matchup.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I'm really excited about with
Speaker 1: that matchup is the Calves and a lot of what
Speaker 1: they do to teams is play with pace, get into
Speaker 1: the teeth of the defense with their speed, and the
Speaker 1: Pacers do match up directly with that in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. To me, the Calves are just a better
Speaker 1: version of the Pacers, right, Like you're gonna like Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley and Jared Allen is a better front court than
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam and Miles Turner, Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Obviously better backcourt than Andrew Mhart and Tyrese Halliburton. You
Speaker 1: you know, the Calves have a different guys that they
Speaker 1: can plug in at the three. But like the point
Speaker 1: is is like they are kind of similar archetypes of teams,
Speaker 1: but the Calves are just a little better at everything, right,
Speaker 1: And that's what makes it a super interesting series because
Speaker 1: that speed element, a lot of the things that the
Speaker 1: Pacers do they should be comfortable with going against the Calves,
Speaker 1: and I think that's going to make for a very
Speaker 1: interesting series. That's my big prep for tomorrow. We're not
Speaker 1: doing a film session tomorrow morning, but what I'm going
Speaker 1: to be doing tomorrow morning is starting to watch film
Speaker 1: on Calves Pacers. I'm really excited to dig into that series.
Speaker 1: As for Yannis an Achilles, Tear for Dame massively devalues
Speaker 1: the one trade asset that the Bucks would have had
Speaker 1: to attempt to pivot this summer. So now the chances
Speaker 1: of Yannis getting traded are astronomically higher than they were
Speaker 1: before the injury, obviously, But just for the record, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to get into anything regarding Yanni's trades at
Speaker 1: this point until the postseason, or excuse me, until we're
Speaker 1: done with the postseason. That's a summer conversation. It just
Speaker 1: I haven't even really thought about it much. Maybe we
Speaker 1: can do for fun over a mail bag one of
Speaker 1: these nights. But like, I feel relatively certain that Jannis
Speaker 1: will get traded this summer, but like, we just don't
Speaker 1: know what how things are gonna shake down. Like it
Speaker 1: could be a team in this playoff field that gets
Speaker 1: eliminated and is disappointed and wants to make a super
Speaker 1: aggressive move. It could literally be the thunder for God's sake,
Speaker 1: Like we we have no idea what it's gonna be.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about it a lot this summer. I just
Speaker 1: don't want to get into it tonight. But again, I
Speaker 1: feel terrible for Dame and I'm sure Bucks fans are
Speaker 1: in a really tough spot right now. It's not a
Speaker 1: good spot to be and I just sympathize with you guys,
Speaker 1: and I'm thankful for you guys that you did get
Speaker 1: a championship out of the honest and Tenakumbo era and
Speaker 1: you can literally never take that away. All Right, guys,
Speaker 1: that's all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: No morning film session tomorrow, but we will be live
Speaker 1: after the final buzzer of Game four of Warriors Rockets.
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys then tomorrow night. So guys, as always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight.
Speaker 1: It would actually be really helpful for us if you
Speaker 1: guys would take a second and leave a rating and
Speaker 1: a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us.
Speaker 1: You could take a minute to do that, I really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. The volume