Speaker 1: The volume. The eighty two game preseason is in the books,
Speaker 1: and now it's finally time for the real season. Don't
Speaker 1: miss out on any of the NBA playoff action at
Speaker 1: DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA.
Speaker 1: From the play in tournament through the finals, DraftKings Sportsbook
Speaker 1: has you covered with same game parlays, live betting odds, boosts,
Speaker 1: and so much more. The Boston Celtics are currently the
Speaker 1: favorite at plus one sixty, but the team that's third
Speaker 1: in my championship rankings the Dallas Mavericks. You can get
Speaker 1: them on DraftKings right now at plus sixteen hundred. To
Speaker 1: win the title. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use
Speaker 1: code hoops. That's Hops. New customers bet five dollars and
Speaker 1: get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly. That's code
Speaker 1: hoops hops only on DraftKings. The Crown is yours gambling
Speaker 1: problem called one eight hundred Gambler or in West Virginia
Speaker 1: visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net York
Speaker 1: call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text
Speaker 1: hope and Why to four six seven three six nine
Speaker 1: In Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling call eight
Speaker 1: eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or
Speaker 1: visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of
Speaker 1: Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas. Twenty one plus age
Speaker 1: varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot
Speaker 1: co slash b ball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms
Speaker 1: and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hop tonight.
Speaker 1: You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody, oph All, if
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great week so far, Just
Speaker 1: gonna break down that highly entertaining matchup between the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat and the Philadelphia seventy six ers. I will say
Speaker 1: the playing tournament has certainly been fun. One of the
Speaker 1: things that's kind of worked for it is good teams
Speaker 1: keep falling into it for various reasons, usually either veteran
Speaker 1: teams or teams that dealt with injuries, and so we
Speaker 1: get to see super high stakes, super intense basketball games
Speaker 1: in a one game sample, and it's living up to
Speaker 1: the billing. That was a really really fun game. I
Speaker 1: enjoyed watching that we're gonna break it down from the
Speaker 1: perspective of both teams, talk briefly about what's next for
Speaker 1: both teams, and then we'll get out of here for
Speaker 1: the night. You guys know the Joe before we get started.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel so you don't
Speaker 1: miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at underscore json ltis. You guys, don't miss any show
Speaker 1: announcements as well as the film threads that I do
Speaker 1: from time to time. Don't forget about the podcast speed
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. And last
Speaker 1: but not out least, keep dropping mail back questions in
Speaker 1: the YouTube comments. I'm gonna be recording a mailbag episode tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Also in case you missed it earlier today, we did
Speaker 1: a almost an hour long preview of the Lakers Nuggets series,
Speaker 1: so you guys, I had like twenty nine clips in
Speaker 1: that one as well for a film session at the end,
Speaker 1: so make sure you guys check it out a little
Speaker 1: bit further back on the feed. All right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So you know, it's funny every single time
Speaker 1: a team runs into Miami, they always seem to be
Speaker 1: caught flat footed just by the way that they play.
Speaker 1: It actually reminds me a lot of Golden State right
Speaker 1: around the time that they were at their peak there
Speaker 1: in that twenty fifteen to twenty nineteen period there where
Speaker 1: it's like they just play so differently than everybody else
Speaker 1: in the league that when you run into them, it's
Speaker 1: an adjustment to kind of get used to playing that
Speaker 1: style of basketball. Now for Golden State, it's more on
Speaker 1: the offensive event they kind of invented modern ball in
Speaker 1: player movement, right, and there's just it's so weird to
Speaker 1: guard an opposing star and have it be chasing them
Speaker 1: non stop off of off ball screens and constantly having
Speaker 1: to navigate all these complicated screening actions. And they there
Speaker 1: for a while, the Warriors were throwing the most passes
Speaker 1: in the league by a mile. It's just so you
Speaker 1: go from teams that are running spread, pick and roll
Speaker 1: and not as much ball and player movement, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, like you into a playoff series against
Speaker 1: Golden State, and in Game one, it's just a complete
Speaker 1: landslide because you're just not ready to deal with the
Speaker 1: style of play that they have. Right for Miami, it's
Speaker 1: like that, but it's like on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the ball, right, Like Eric Spolster is the best defensive
Speaker 1: tactician in the league. He's got his guys so incredibly
Speaker 1: dialed in in all these specific details of their defense
Speaker 1: that they can be really really difficult to just walk
Speaker 1: in and play against. And it can take an adjustment period,
Speaker 1: and I think you saw that in a big way
Speaker 1: in the first half of that game. So, but Miami's
Speaker 1: been a bottom ten offense all a year. That's been
Speaker 1: a pretty consistent issue. Then you kind of combine that
Speaker 1: with Jimmy Butler tweaking his knee and like he was
Speaker 1: clearly really bothered. There was a turnover where I think
Speaker 1: Buddy it was either Butterhelder Kyle Lowry had a runout
Speaker 1: and someone was running back. I think it was Tyler Harroll.
Speaker 1: But Jimmy Butler's trailing to play and he was taking
Speaker 1: these like slide steps while he was sprinting, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's not good because he doesn't even trust his knee
Speaker 1: to like plant hard on it, to run, let alone,
Speaker 1: to do anything useful. And so kind of descended down
Speaker 1: into Tyler Harrow ball, and to Tyler Harrow's credit, I
Speaker 1: want to shout him out, like he had a really
Speaker 1: poor shooting night, but he just kept trusting his shot,
Speaker 1: kept trusting his form, and he made some huge ones
Speaker 1: late in the game to give the Heat a chance.
Speaker 1: But the Miami offense is already somewhat limited, right, And
Speaker 1: so the Sixers come out, they jump out to an
Speaker 1: early lead by virtue of them just having more offensive talent, right.
Speaker 1: And then right around there in the middle of the
Speaker 1: kind of like early that transition between the first and
Speaker 1: second quarter, Eric Spolser does what he does often where
Speaker 1: he goes as soon as bam Adebayo leaves the floor,
Speaker 1: comes in with Kevin Love, and he goes to his
Speaker 1: zone defense. And specifically, what they were doing in the
Speaker 1: zone that was really bothering Philadelphia was they were constantly
Speaker 1: denying the high post entry in the low post entry. Right.
Speaker 1: So like in a two three zone, there's generally an
Speaker 1: opening in the middle of the floor, and that's what
Speaker 1: makes Miami zones different, Miami's zone different. I thought JJ
Speaker 1: Reddick did a really good job of breaking down on
Speaker 1: the broadcast how it's like kind of like a shape
Speaker 1: shifting zone. And one of the things you'd specifically see
Speaker 1: in terms of that shape shifting is there was always
Speaker 1: somebody on EMBIID regardless of where the ball was on
Speaker 1: the floor. So like, for instance, let's say that the
Speaker 1: ball was on the right wing as Embiid is flashing
Speaker 1: like he's being guarded by Kevin Love on the baseline
Speaker 1: side right, and then as he flashes up, Kevin Love
Speaker 1: follows him there, and then the guy on the opposite
Speaker 1: wing would shoot down and deny, and then Kevin Love
Speaker 1: would drop back. And then if the ball got swung across,
Speaker 1: that guy would linger for a second and then they
Speaker 1: would just interchange and someone would deny, ball would go
Speaker 1: to the corner and they would go back out, and
Speaker 1: then Kevin Love would step up and grab him, and
Speaker 1: it would just be like there was constantly someone on
Speaker 1: embiid and there were just jutting in from the sides
Speaker 1: to deny that post entry or high post entry every
Speaker 1: single time he flashed up to the floor. That basically
Speaker 1: removed EMBIID from the equation. The other thing it did
Speaker 1: is it forced some turnovers, because what would happen is
Speaker 1: there'd be an interchange, right, so like a guy would
Speaker 1: be a guy would be on EMBIID and he would
Speaker 1: close out and there'd be like this interchange, and in
Speaker 1: that gap of the interchange, a player would throw a
Speaker 1: pass and as a guy shooting in he would steal it.
Speaker 1: And so they were picking up full court dropping back
Speaker 1: into that zone, denying embiid the catches. No one wanted
Speaker 1: to settle for the early three, which is the thought
Speaker 1: of the shot that's mainly available in that zone, right,
Speaker 1: And it just threw Philly for a loop, and next
Speaker 1: thing you know, it goes from being a game that
Speaker 1: Philly's in control of too a game that Miami is
Speaker 1: very much in control that I think they went up
Speaker 1: by as much as fourteen if I remember correctly. And
Speaker 1: like on the shooting standpoint, one of the other main
Speaker 1: ways that a zone will disrupt an offense is like
Speaker 1: you're accustomed to shooting a certain way as a catch
Speaker 1: and shoot player. Right. So for instance, generally speaking, when
Speaker 1: the ball, when it's a simple ball reversal, your coach
Speaker 1: will want you to run another ball, screen, run another action.
Speaker 1: They want you to take threes, the great three that
Speaker 1: you generate by virtue of dribble penetration. It's like an
Speaker 1: inside out style of basketball. That's what coaches won right.
Speaker 1: So when you're practicing, the majority of the shots you're
Speaker 1: getting not just in practice but also in the game
Speaker 1: over the course of the eighty two game regular season
Speaker 1: in the NBA, the majority of the shots you're getting
Speaker 1: are like, oh, I as a big man, I picked
Speaker 1: and popped to the top of the key. As a
Speaker 1: weak side guy in the corner, they ran a ball screen,
Speaker 1: my man tagged, and so now I'm open in the corner.
Speaker 1: Or oh, they ran a ball screen, my man tagged,
Speaker 1: they swung to me. A guy rotated from the wing.
Speaker 1: I rotated to the up the floor, up to the wing.
Speaker 1: That guy takes a shot. Right. You're accustomed to shooting
Speaker 1: in a certain tempo and a certain rhythm and a
Speaker 1: man de man defense, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: against a zone, it's like I just caught a swing
Speaker 1: pass and like I'm open for a second, but like
Speaker 1: then they close out at me, and I feel like
Speaker 1: that's not a great shot. And so even when you
Speaker 1: do shoot it, it's like a break rhythm situation. It
Speaker 1: just feels different than the types of shots that you
Speaker 1: typically get. Right. But once again, something that I talk
Speaker 1: about a lot on the show, like anytime you stick
Speaker 1: with a look for a long time, people are gonna
Speaker 1: figure it out. And so several things turned the game around,
Speaker 1: starting with the zone. Nick Batoom obviously just having the
Speaker 1: confidence to rise in fire and take those wing threes
Speaker 1: in corner threes that the offense was generating to tyre smacks.
Speaker 1: He finally realized that like, hey, I don't need to
Speaker 1: pass out of this zone. I just have to beat
Speaker 1: my man off the dribble. And if I beat my
Speaker 1: man off the dribble, it effectively accomplishes the same thing
Speaker 1: as me making that post entry to embiid because again,
Speaker 1: the majority of the ways that you'll see his zone attacked,
Speaker 1: especially at the lower levels like high school and college,
Speaker 1: the majority of the way you'll see his zone attacked
Speaker 1: is guy flashes to the high post. Make the entry
Speaker 1: forces the bottom guy in the zone to step up
Speaker 1: and guard. As soon as he steps up in guards,
Speaker 1: it basically creates a three on two on the baseline
Speaker 1: where the two shooters drop to the corners and then
Speaker 1: the guy along the baseline kind of cuts under the
Speaker 1: rim and usually you'll either be able to drop it
Speaker 1: off to the guy under the basket or kick it
Speaker 1: out for three. That's how you get the high quality
Speaker 1: threes against the zone. But you can accomplish more or
Speaker 1: less the same thing through dribble penetration. And I thought
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxi, even though he had a rough shooting night,
Speaker 1: I thought he generated a lot of high quality shots
Speaker 1: driving the zone. Another thing mb did, which I thought
Speaker 1: was smart, is instead of constantly flashing low post, high
Speaker 1: post to try to get those catches, he just said,
Speaker 1: screw it. I'm gonna stand at the three point line
Speaker 1: right if they're gonna If they're not gonna let me
Speaker 1: catch inside, I'm not just gonna sit here and be useless.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go stand above the break and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: knock down those threes when they come to me. And
Speaker 1: he knocked down a couple of massive threes there in
Speaker 1: that second half, as as he got catches clean catches
Speaker 1: up at the top of the key, a couple other
Speaker 1: key things. The Sixers, through a wrench early second half,
Speaker 1: went with a lot of ball pressure of their own,
Speaker 1: kind of changed the tempo, went some zone possessions of
Speaker 1: their own to try to throw Miami out like again.
Speaker 1: In order for Miami to set up their zone, they
Speaker 1: have to score. It's really hard to set up a
Speaker 1: zone in a live ball situation. The vast majority of
Speaker 1: teams will just drop back in demand amand like transition
Speaker 1: defense principles, right sprint back, stop the ball, protect the rim,
Speaker 1: get matched up, just play basketball from there. That's what
Speaker 1: most teams are gonna do when they don't score, right. So,
Speaker 1: by ball pressuring, getting stops, using their zone and ball
Speaker 1: pressuring to get those stops and getting out going the
Speaker 1: other way, they prevented Miami from getting to set up
Speaker 1: their zone as much. And between all those factors and
Speaker 1: then the Jimmy Butler injury, it just kind of swung
Speaker 1: the game back in Philly's favor and they were able
Speaker 1: to regain control of the situation after being down significantly.
Speaker 1: But too made a bunch of huge plays down the stretch,
Speaker 1: not just the threes, but also he had that big
Speaker 1: offensive rebound put back that where he was like kind
Speaker 1: of like sideways in mid air that was insane. Also
Speaker 1: had a huge stop on Tyler Harrow. Joel Embiid was
Speaker 1: dropping way back into the paint to protect the rim,
Speaker 1: and one of the things that that did is it
Speaker 1: left it so that Tyler Harrow was able to kind
Speaker 1: of get ball screens and get into drop coverage shots. Right.
Speaker 1: Drop coverage shots are like if you get your man
Speaker 1: caught off the screen and you come over the top
Speaker 1: and he's chasing you over the top. If you get
Speaker 1: a lot of separation, you can get to a pull
Speaker 1: up three, you get a little bit of separate, you
Speaker 1: can get downhill and take a floater or get to
Speaker 1: something in the mid range there, right. And what that
Speaker 1: does when you go into that deep drop coverage is
Speaker 1: it puts a heavy emphasis on the point of attack
Speaker 1: guy to get over the top and get rear view contests.
Speaker 1: And Nick Patum got a massive block on Tyler Harrow
Speaker 1: on a shot that could have tied the game late.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Nick Patum. I also want to shout
Speaker 1: out Daryl Morey here. You know, I am genuinely impressed
Speaker 1: by what he got back from the James Harden trade
Speaker 1: in the sense that he got a useful player in
Speaker 1: Nick Patum. That obviously is helping you win a big game.
Speaker 1: But in addition to that, they got draft compensation back.
Speaker 1: And so one of the things that is kind of
Speaker 1: optimistic about the situation with the Sixers is Yeah, they
Speaker 1: got their opportunity this year. We're going to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the Knicks matchup. They because of the
Speaker 1: way that the seeding kind of like played out. You know,
Speaker 1: you've got an injured Bucks team and a six seed
Speaker 1: in the Pacers that they could potentially face in the
Speaker 1: next round. Like there's a pathway here where they could
Speaker 1: potentially get to the conference finals. But in addition to that,
Speaker 1: they're really well positioned to this to try to make
Speaker 1: some sort of all in trade, like let's say, if
Speaker 1: a Paul George becomes available or Brandon Ingram becomes available,
Speaker 1: someone along those lines. They have the ability to step
Speaker 1: in and make a move on something like that through
Speaker 1: some of the return that they got from the James
Speaker 1: Harden trade. You can't do better than real draft assets
Speaker 1: and a useful player in a playoff setting. Nick with
Speaker 1: Chum showed that today, just really confident in his shot,
Speaker 1: a really quick compact release that he was able to
Speaker 1: get off without much separation, and then obviously just activity
Speaker 1: with his length and his athleticism on the offensive glass
Speaker 1: light and then also on the ball against Tyler Harrell. Also,
Speaker 1: I want to show to shout out Joel Embiid, Like
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why I didn't have the Sixers
Speaker 1: very high on my contenders list. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: they didn't even crack my top ten. One of the
Speaker 1: main reasons why is Embiide has his playoff limitations. Like
Speaker 1: once again, with exception of those spot up threes, he
Speaker 1: really struggled to knock down his mid range little face
Speaker 1: up you know, whether it's a off the dribble or
Speaker 1: kind of a jab step type of jumper. All those
Speaker 1: jump in the midrange struggle to make him again. And
Speaker 1: that's kind of like Ben the theme of Embiid's career
Speaker 1: as he shoots like fifty percent of on him in
Speaker 1: the regular season, then he gets to the postseason and
Speaker 1: he can't make him right. But I'm not going to
Speaker 1: really get on him about that because he's clearly coming
Speaker 1: back from an injury. He's out of rhythm, he's not
Speaker 1: in physical condition right now. That's a big part of
Speaker 1: why I wasn't very high on the Sixers coming into
Speaker 1: this playoff run. In order for Joel Embiid to beat
Speaker 1: the Knicks, to beat whoever comes out of that Pacers
Speaker 1: Bucks series, and to beat that ridiculously good Celtics team.
Speaker 1: They need the best version of Joel Embiid, the one
Speaker 1: that breaks through and destroys all of his playoff demons
Speaker 1: and is an alpha dog who runs rough shot through
Speaker 1: the entire league, something that I genuinely believe will happen
Speaker 1: one day. I think it's going to happen in the
Speaker 1: next couple of years, but this specific circumstance, trying to
Speaker 1: come back from an injury this late in the season,
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like the time that that will happen. Maybe
Speaker 1: he'll prove me wrong, but that's kind of my read
Speaker 1: on the situation. That's it zooming in On this particular game,
Speaker 1: I thought he was really impressive in the sense that
Speaker 1: Miami completely took him out of his rhythm with the
Speaker 1: zone off the zone defense right. In general, his touch
Speaker 1: isn't there, his conditioning is not there, but he just
Speaker 1: found a way to make plays down the stretch to
Speaker 1: win the game. We talked about going away from trying
Speaker 1: to catch at the high post in the zone, but
Speaker 1: spotting up above the break. Rim protection was a huge
Speaker 1: story in this game. How many times did you see
Speaker 1: a Miami Heat player challenge Joel Embiad at the rim
Speaker 1: in this game and miss that huge offensive rebound late
Speaker 1: where he got the put back in the and one
Speaker 1: just finding a way to make key plays down the
Speaker 1: stretch of the game to win, to get the win,
Speaker 1: and like again, this was a huge win. To go
Speaker 1: from facing that Boston team to facing this Knicks team
Speaker 1: that has really one primary shot creator on the roster,
Speaker 1: you give yourself a significantly better chance to get out
Speaker 1: of the first round and potentially make a longer run which,
Speaker 1: by the way, if you do beat the Knicks, you
Speaker 1: have a longer runway for Joel Embiid to get his
Speaker 1: legs underneath him. You know, if you end up facing
Speaker 1: Boston in the conference finals and in the first round,
Speaker 1: that month of reps could be the difference between an
Speaker 1: MBAT who's capable of running over those guys in an
Speaker 1: embid who's not. And so I thought that was a
Speaker 1: big time performance from Joel did his team a huge
Speaker 1: favor there down the stretch. Looking at the Knick series,
Speaker 1: gonna be a fun one. Two really good defenses, two
Speaker 1: really good guards Jalen Brunson and Tyres Maxi both went
Speaker 1: up a big level this year. To me, it's gonna
Speaker 1: come out, come down to Joel Embiid and whether or
Speaker 1: not he can reach that superstar level. If he doesn't,
Speaker 1: I think the Knicks are gonna win. We fortunately have
Speaker 1: a good piece of film to look at from back
Speaker 1: in January, right after the oj Anobi trade where the
Speaker 1: Knicks had ojan Andobi and Philly had Embiid. I'm excited
Speaker 1: to go and watch that film. Tomorrow morning. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have a deep dive series preview for the Knicks versus
Speaker 1: the seventy six ers that's going to come out tomorrow
Speaker 1: on the Miami Front. Obviously we're gonna pick them regardless
Speaker 1: of who wins this Bulls Hawks game. But that Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler injury does not look good and they desperately need him,
Speaker 1: and that kind of worries me. And like, don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, like I trust Eric Spolstra. You know. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrell showed me a lot tonight just in his
Speaker 1: resiliency with a shot not following. There's a lot to
Speaker 1: like about this particular team. I thought Hamy Hawkes, with
Speaker 1: exception to the stretch run where he had some mistakes,
Speaker 1: I thought Hamiy Hawks played really good basketball, a lot
Speaker 1: of good but without Jimmy Butler. They just don't have
Speaker 1: the firepower. You're turning around two days from now for
Speaker 1: that game, and then even if they do happen to
Speaker 1: win on Friday, they have to turn around and play
Speaker 1: again on Sunday. That's just a lot to ask. And
Speaker 1: I'm worried about Jimmy's ney again, Like there's bulky and
Speaker 1: in like kind of like sore, and then there's oh,
Speaker 1: I need to sprint back and transition defense and I'm
Speaker 1: doing a weird speedwalk slidestep and when I saw that,
Speaker 1: I'm like, uh oh, something more significant is going on.
Speaker 1: So hopefully that's not the case. Hopefully he's able to
Speaker 1: get over it relatively quickly. I want to see Miami
Speaker 1: versus Boston in the first round, because here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I can't go. If Miami loses on Friday and we
Speaker 1: get Chicago or Atlanta against Boston, Boston's gonna beat the
Speaker 1: shit out of them. And then they're gonna beat the
Speaker 1: shit out whoever wins the Cavs Magic Series, and then
Speaker 1: they're gonna literally go two rounds without facing a real team,
Speaker 1: and then they'll run into somebody in the second or
Speaker 1: in the conference finals. Who's been through back to back
Speaker 1: blood bats in round one in round two now, to
Speaker 1: Boston's credit, that's the reward they get for being the
Speaker 1: number one seed in the Eastern Conference. Some of this
Speaker 1: also is just the reality of the Eastern Conference and
Speaker 1: the fact that there are some limited teams in the
Speaker 1: playoff field, which is just not the case in the West.
Speaker 1: But I'm hopeful that Miami can get the job done
Speaker 1: on Friday, and that Jimmy's in better shape than it appears,
Speaker 1: because at least Miami with Derek Spolser is gonna make
Speaker 1: that first round more interesting, even though I will be
Speaker 1: picking Boston. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for today. One last note before we get out of here.
Speaker 1: The guys from Jenkins and Jones are gonna be going
Speaker 1: live on YouTube right after the final buzzer of Hawks
Speaker 1: versus Bulls, So make sure you guys get over there
Speaker 1: to check that out. Remember to check my feet out
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning for the or it should be about tomorrow
Speaker 1: afternoon for my series preview on the seventy six Ers
Speaker 1: versus the Knicks, And don't forget to drop some mailbag questions.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do a mailbag at the end of that show.
Speaker 1: As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show.
Speaker 1: Happy to be on this playoff grind with you guys.
Speaker 1: Long a way to go, It's gonna be fun. I'll
Speaker 1: see you guys tomorrow. The volume