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Speaker 2: co slash audio. All right, Wellcoon to hoops tonight. You're
Speaker 2: at the volume heavy Wednesday. Everybody hop all of you
Speaker 2: guys are having a great week. Got a jam pack
Speaker 2: show for you guys tonight.
Speaker 3: Off the top the.
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City Thunder and a must win game delivered I
Speaker 2: thought one of their best two way performances of the
Speaker 2: entire season. We're going to talk about some of the
Speaker 2: specific ways on both ends of the floor that Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City delivered the blowout victory in a must win game.
Speaker 2: We'll talk a little bit about the specific ways that
Speaker 2: Denver kind of let go of the rope tonight and
Speaker 2: one of the things that they have to clean up
Speaker 2: heading into Game three. And then in our second segment,
Speaker 2: in just shocking fashion, the New York Knicks come back
Speaker 2: again down twenty on the road in Boston to beat
Speaker 2: the Celtics. Now, I thought it was very different than
Speaker 2: what happened in Game one, So I want to get
Speaker 2: into a little bit more detail in terms of just
Speaker 2: the difference between bad shot quality or I should say
Speaker 2: bad shot selection and just needing to add more variety
Speaker 2: to your offense, which I think was more of the
Speaker 2: problem tonight. So we're gonna be talking about that. I
Speaker 2: also want to shout out some specific elements of the
Speaker 2: Knicks defense, a couple of unsung heroes that have been
Speaker 2: making the things work for the Knicks on the defensive
Speaker 2: end of the floor. Michale Bridges had a showing in
Speaker 2: that early fourth quarter was magnificent, as the Celtics actually
Speaker 2: played some really good basketball during that phase, and McHale
Speaker 2: just hit shot after shot after shot to keep the
Speaker 2: Knicks within striking distance. And then Jalen Brunson again making
Speaker 2: a case for potentially being the best guard in basketball.
Speaker 2: I want to dive a little bit into that concept.
Speaker 2: I think it's between him and Steph right now, and
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson's just making a hell of a run once
Speaker 2: again in these playoffs. So we'll get into that Nicks
Speaker 2: Celtics game from the perspective of both teams, and then
Speaker 2: at the tail end of the show, we're going to
Speaker 2: take about ten minutes of questions from the chat. So,
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Speaker 2: questions in the chat for the mail bag at the
Speaker 2: tail end of the show. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 2: So how did Oklahoma City bounce back in Game two?
Speaker 2: I think there's obviously, in these sorts of situations, a
Speaker 2: pullback and a change in intensity. When a veteran team
Speaker 2: gets a important win on the road without home court advantage,
Speaker 2: there's naturally a little bit of a relaxation in Game two.
Speaker 2: And then I was talking with the guys before we
Speaker 2: started up. You know, like I've said some things about
Speaker 2: Oka See this year. I have my frustrations and frustrations
Speaker 2: the wrong word. I had my concerns around them surrounding
Speaker 2: some of their ability to go ice cold on offense,
Speaker 2: some of their issues with perimeter size on defense. But
Speaker 2: I still firmly believe this is the second best team
Speaker 2: in basketball, and they are really fucking good on both
Speaker 2: ends of the floor, and so in a must win game,
Speaker 2: I expected them to come out and throw an incredible punch.
Speaker 2: That is exactly what they did. But it can be
Speaker 2: too reductive to just be like, well, okay, okay, see
Speaker 2: brought the effort, Denver didn't. They won Game two. I
Speaker 2: want to get into some of those specific dynamics. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: you know, this is kind of a natural part of
Speaker 2: that playoff process. I similarly expect Minnesota to kind of
Speaker 2: beat up on Golden State tomorrow as a veteran team
Speaker 2: gets a home court advantage in Game one and very
Speaker 2: similar set of circumstances. But the only way you're going
Speaker 2: to flip the scoreboard is by changing basketball dynamics. So
Speaker 2: let's get into some of the specific basketball things that
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City did to turn this series back to one
Speaker 2: point one headed to Denver. So, first of all, in
Speaker 2: the early part of the game, much better interior passing.
Speaker 2: As a team, they had eleven assists in the first quarter.
Speaker 2: They had twelve in the entire second half of Game one,
Speaker 2: a lot more.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: J Dubb in particular had a couple of nice feeds
Speaker 2: to Hartenstein in different spacing spots on the floor. He
Speaker 2: also was just taking quicker reads that were availed well
Speaker 2: throughout the game. I thought Jadubb just was much crisper
Speaker 2: with his decision making in the middle of the floor.
Speaker 2: As a team, they looked a lot more like they
Speaker 2: did in the Memphis series moving the ball through the
Speaker 2: middle of the floor. They were also doing a ton
Speaker 2: of scoring and transition off of their defense, which we'll
Speaker 2: talk about here in a few minutes. I thought they
Speaker 2: were doing a couple of specific interesting things on the
Speaker 2: defensive end of the floor, and then in the second
Speaker 2: quarter run I want to stay focused on JDub here
Speaker 2: for a minute, because again Jdub's young, and he doesn't
Speaker 2: have a ton of experience, and he's going to be
Speaker 2: inconsistent because of that, right, And like I thought, Game
Speaker 2: one was, you know, an example of that type of inconsistency.
Speaker 2: But Jadub is really really good and one of the
Speaker 2: things that he was struggling with in in Game one
Speaker 2: was getting into the middle of the floor in precarious
Speaker 2: situations where he didn't really have much of like a
Speaker 2: downhill advantage, and he was taking some bad shots in there.
Speaker 2: I thought Jadubb was fantastic to lead that second quarter
Speaker 2: unit in the early second quarter, and again that was
Speaker 2: the group that really blew the lead out into that
Speaker 2: like thirty point range. It started with the semi transition drives,
Speaker 2: like Christian Brown looked like he was hot dead to
Speaker 2: rights on his heels multiple times in that stretch because
Speaker 2: Jadub was just getting the ball in bounds and bringing
Speaker 2: up the floor, bringing the ball to the floor with pace,
Speaker 2: and just hitting those semi transition moves. Get up the floor,
Speaker 2: get into a high hesitation like he's steel cruising at
Speaker 2: the same speed he was running past half court with
Speaker 2: sitting the high hesitation and either just boom crossover or
Speaker 2: push dribble to the right, just making really simple aggressive
Speaker 2: downhill moves. He had a drive on Christian Brown and
Speaker 2: again I think it was off of a made basket too,
Speaker 2: if I remember correctly, But it wasn't like any sort
Speaker 2: of crazy turnover or anything. It was like a normal
Speaker 2: live ball transition situation, and he Christian Brown didn't pick
Speaker 2: him up until he was like at the charge circle,
Speaker 2: and he ended up just kind of having to wrap
Speaker 2: a JDub up and send him to the foul line.
Speaker 2: Like Jdubb's rim pressure in that early second quarter shift
Speaker 2: was amazing. In general, I thought Shay and j Dubb
Speaker 2: just made a concerted effort to apply excellent dribble penetration
Speaker 2: at the point of attack. That combined with the way
Speaker 2: that they were moving the ball better, they were just
Speaker 2: getting fantastic shots. They found an action that they could spam.
Speaker 2: In that early second quarter run they started, the Nuggets
Speaker 2: started with DeAndre Jordan on Kason Wallace, and so they
Speaker 2: just started running ghost screens and then when Adamman takes
Speaker 2: DeAndre Jordan out of the action, they end up putt
Speaker 2: Jamal Murray on him, same exact sort of thing. They
Speaker 2: just were spamming again. Jay Dubb coming off of a
Speaker 2: screen from Kaison Wallace caseon slipping out of it to
Speaker 2: the three point line, him just pitching that lefty over
Speaker 2: the top, pass two on the ball, easy slip, wide
Speaker 2: open three at the top of the key.
Speaker 3: He hit two of those there. He had.
Speaker 2: Kaison had one of those impressive transition sequences. He had
Speaker 2: a nasty kind of like up and under, super explosive
Speaker 2: looking right handed layup on the right hand right side
Speaker 2: of the rim, and that group ended up blowing the
Speaker 2: lead up to twenty nine. And just in general, I
Speaker 2: thought it was an extremely impressive offensive game from okay
Speaker 2: See that first half was insane. And again, like I
Speaker 2: mentioned at the top, I've been critical of OKC and
Speaker 2: their propensity to go into these extended offensive droughts this year.
Speaker 2: They had kind of a brief version of one in
Speaker 2: Game two and crunch time in a couple of minutes
Speaker 2: of crunched clutch basketball that they played. I think they
Speaker 2: had a sixty six offensive rating in Game one. It's
Speaker 2: how they ended up losing the game couple of bad
Speaker 2: half court possessions. But this was the third best offense
Speaker 2: in the NBA this year, and they are certainly capable
Speaker 2: of explosions like the one they had tonight. Hell, I
Speaker 2: was on the wrong end to one as a Lakers
Speaker 2: fan one of these eighty point halves back in early
Speaker 2: April in the second one of the games against OKC,
Speaker 2: where they came out and threw a very similar type
Speaker 2: of offensive punch, where it's just unbelievable transition, pushes, rim pressure,
Speaker 2: Chris passing, shot making all over the floor, Dudes just
Speaker 2: hitting every single open three, whether it's Jaylen Williams coming
Speaker 2: off the bench. I thought Jayleen played an amazing shift
Speaker 2: in that first half, just came in and just started
Speaker 2: kicking Jokic's ass with physicality, hitting those spot up threes.
Speaker 2: I thought jay Will was amazing. But eighty seven points
Speaker 2: in the first half for Oklahoma City. Beautiful half court
Speaker 2: basketball and beautiful transition basketball. All their units functioned well,
Speaker 2: even though it was in different ways based on the
Speaker 2: personnel that was on the floor of the shot making
Speaker 2: was absurd. Just a magical half of basketball from OKC
Speaker 2: in a must win situation. But I want to talk
Speaker 2: about the defensive end for a minute. More good ball
Speaker 2: pressure from dort throughout the game, and that was consistent
Speaker 2: through Game one too, but a lot of really good
Speaker 2: ball pressure that forced Denver into a lot of late
Speaker 2: clock situations just because it took them a long time
Speaker 2: to get into their offense. And then the big thing
Speaker 2: that was triggering a lot of their transition sequences. They
Speaker 2: really kicked Joki's ass in this game and all of
Speaker 2: the areas where he likes to catch the ball. And
Speaker 2: we'll talk about Yokichier in a minute, because some of
Speaker 2: this is on him as well, but every single high
Speaker 2: post entry they were jumping it and getting like basically
Speaker 2: just not even making because Jokic wasn't making contact on
Speaker 2: his seals. He was just kind of standing at the
Speaker 2: high post and calling for the ball, and those Thunder
Speaker 2: players were just shooting the gap with their speed and
Speaker 2: just taking the ball away from him. We're doing it
Speaker 2: all over the floor on his post ups, extra efforts
Speaker 2: digging down at the ball. Every single time he caught
Speaker 2: the ball in the pocket. There's like three Thunder arms
Speaker 2: in there grabbing at the ball, jumping those high post
Speaker 2: passing lanes, getting out and transition consistently. They forced twenty
Speaker 2: one more turnovers tonight and scored thirty four points off
Speaker 2: of those turnovers, so they actually extended their advantage in
Speaker 2: points off of turnovers over what they had in Game one.
Speaker 2: It was a twenty point advantage in that specific margin
Speaker 2: for Denver. And then the last thing I wanted to
Speaker 2: shout out on the defensive end of the floor, just
Speaker 2: all the extra efforts that they were making at the rim.
Speaker 2: I Uh, the numbers will take a little while to update,
Speaker 2: so we'll have to get into them on playback later tonight.
Speaker 2: But I bet you when we pull the rim finishing
Speaker 2: numbers from Denver in this game, I bet you they
Speaker 2: shot below forty percent at the rim or within five
Speaker 2: feet of the rim. The you can you can force
Speaker 2: guys into misses at the rim just by getting a
Speaker 2: bunch of dudes making those good vertical contests without fouling,
Speaker 2: and making it so the guys can't just go into
Speaker 2: their traditional rhythm around the rim. You make them change
Speaker 2: angles on layups, change footwork on layups. Even against good
Speaker 2: NBA players, You'll force misses there. And every Thunder player
Speaker 2: was making those extra efforts in rotation at the rim tonight,
Speaker 2: so many misses at point blank range. In game one,
Speaker 2: Denver at fifty four points in the paint. They finished
Speaker 2: tonight with twenty eight, but a lot of those came
Speaker 2: in garbage time. When I started focusing on my notes
Speaker 2: after Denver pulled their starters, I believe they were at
Speaker 2: like seventeen points in the paint. So like just a
Speaker 2: dramatic difference in paint dominance between game one and game two.
Speaker 2: Like the Thunder just threw an incredible punch. They absolutely
Speaker 2: needed this win, and it might have been their best
Speaker 2: two way punch of the season. That was an ass
Speaker 2: kicking of epic proportion, super balance scoring down the roster.
Speaker 2: They ended up getting eight players in double figures tonight,
Speaker 2: albeit there was some garbage time involved, but just a
Speaker 2: really well rounded ass kicking championship type of effort from
Speaker 2: the Oklahoma City Thunder on the Denver front. Like I said,
Speaker 2: Yoki shares, I think the majority of the blame for
Speaker 2: a lot of those turnovers that were taking place at
Speaker 2: the high post in the sense that your job there's
Speaker 2: a passing angle to it where it's like the passer
Speaker 2: needs to get the ball to where the passing window is.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, when that dude's also facing
Speaker 2: lou Door or somebody else in a lot of ball pressure,
Speaker 2: there needs to be from Jokic a better effort to
Speaker 2: just create a cleaner passing angle by finding the defender
Speaker 2: that's trying to stalk that pass and making contact so
Speaker 2: that he can't jump into that passing lane, make a
Speaker 2: clear window available. I thought in general, Jokics just kind
Speaker 2: of had a little bit of like a lackadaisical night
Speaker 2: in a lot of those details. I just thought he
Speaker 2: just kind of succumbed to the physicality in a lot
Speaker 2: of ways, and you know, just didn't you just let
Speaker 2: oh the rope? And I thought I thought he shared
Speaker 2: a good amount of the blame just for a lot
Speaker 2: of those turnovers that were taking place in the middle
Speaker 2: of the floor. Denver's point of attack defense was absolute
Speaker 2: garbage tonight. The good amount of this is on Christian Brown,
Speaker 2: but it goes down the roster is Shay and JDub
Speaker 2: were both picking on different switches there, but they were
Speaker 2: just losing control of the ball over and over again
Speaker 2: right at the top of the key, right in the
Speaker 2: first few seconds of the possession, and when that dude's
Speaker 2: slashing downhill. Their only way you're going to contain them
Speaker 2: is by conceding the types of wide open threes on
Speaker 2: kickouts that they were conceding throughout this game. And so
Speaker 2: Denver just has to do a much better job on
Speaker 2: the ground at the point of attack of keeping the
Speaker 2: ball in front, flattening out those drives, making it so
Speaker 2: that hey, maybe Shay has to make two or three
Speaker 2: counter moves to get into the paint instead of just
Speaker 2: high hesitation beat the dude off the dribble. JADB was
Speaker 2: doing a ton of that type of damage tonight, so
Speaker 2: got to be much better at the point of attack.
Speaker 2: I thought they missed a couple of really good looks
Speaker 2: early in the game that affected their overall just kind
Speaker 2: of like energy and belief and their ability to win.
Speaker 2: They had five like wide open threes for Christian Brown
Speaker 2: and Michael Port in the first quarter that all missed,
Speaker 2: and I thought that really kind of took the wind
Speaker 2: out of Denver sales, and I thought collectively as a group,
Speaker 2: they just let go of the rope from there and
Speaker 2: they were just never within any sort of real striking distance.
Speaker 2: I still like their shot quality when they don't turn
Speaker 2: the ball over. There are a couple concerning things. They
Speaker 2: need to get Michael Porter Junior and Jamal Murray to
Speaker 2: start hitting a higher percentage of their jump shots. In particular,
Speaker 2: both of them just look really uncomfortable their misses right now.
Speaker 2: Or MPJA started to hit a couple later in the game,
Speaker 2: but both of them have had a lot of outside
Speaker 2: the rim misses, which tells me that they're just kind
Speaker 2: of out of rhythm. Those guys need to get going
Speaker 2: in Denver for Denver to have a good chance to
Speaker 2: win this series. So through two games and through rewatching
Speaker 2: one of them, I rewatched game one obviously, haven't rewatched
Speaker 2: Game two yet, but I'm still sticking with OKC to
Speaker 2: win the series by a very slim margin. But I
Speaker 2: think it's much much closer to a coin flip than
Speaker 2: what I saw before the series, which was I didn't
Speaker 2: have Oka see as as substantial as a favorite as
Speaker 2: Vegas did. I thought it was going to be a
Speaker 2: long series, end up picking Oklahoma City in seven if
Speaker 2: I remember correctly. But but this is a series now
Speaker 2: that I view much closer to a coin flip.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: I think Oklahoma City deserves to still be the favorite.
Speaker 2: I would pick them to win the series at this point,
Speaker 2: but I would not even be the slightest bit surprised
Speaker 2: if Denver ended up closing this thing out in six games,
Speaker 2: for instance, like winning three and four, losing Game five,
Speaker 2: and winning game six. We'll see how it goes. I
Speaker 2: think the clear advantage for Oklahoma City that is shown
Speaker 2: through the first two games is their dribble penetration, Like
Speaker 2: even in the even in Game one, like they were
Speaker 2: able to contain the ball through double teams and just
Speaker 2: kind of baiting Shay and j Dub into some poor
Speaker 2: decisions and packing the paint, they were able to slow
Speaker 2: down dribble penetration a little bit today with some zone.
Speaker 2: I'll be curious to see how the numbers look with
Speaker 2: that when the data actually updates. But that's their advantage
Speaker 2: in the same way that Denver has this huge, huge
Speaker 2: advantage in the form of size, which manifests with Jokich
Speaker 2: as this indomitable shot creation force, and then just their
Speaker 2: ability to get a ton of offensive rebus Blahoma City,
Speaker 2: it's just their speed, it's their drible penetration and what
Speaker 2: they can do in transition. Even though Denver has a
Speaker 2: win in this series, both of these games, they got
Speaker 2: sliced and diced in those like points off of turnovers,
Speaker 2: you know, fast break opportunities off of bad misses and
Speaker 2: bad turnovers. And so Oklahoma City has their advantages in
Speaker 2: this series, and they're younger, and they're more athletic, and
Speaker 2: they're going to stay fresher over the course of the series.
Speaker 2: I think that's what keeps me from bailing on my
Speaker 2: pick to start the series. But I feel much more
Speaker 2: confident in Denver's ability to win the series now after
Speaker 2: two games than I did before the series started. All right,
Speaker 2: let's go on to Boston, New York. What an insane
Speaker 2: game this was. There's so much interesting stuff to get
Speaker 2: into with Boston, but I want to kind of set
Speaker 2: that to a side for the for a minute, because
Speaker 2: as as poorly as Boston is playing, New York is
Speaker 2: also playing incredibly well, and there are a bunch of
Speaker 2: specific things that need to get shouted out. I want
Speaker 2: to start on offense, and then we'll work to the
Speaker 2: defensive end of the floor on offense once again, when
Speaker 2: they go down twenty. They've been Pacers esque with their
Speaker 2: willingness to just keep pushing the ball in transition, playing
Speaker 2: with pace, not letting go of the rope, and just
Speaker 2: knowing that they have such a high powered offense that
Speaker 2: in any little short five minute span of time they
Speaker 2: can score a bunch of points and make something a
Speaker 2: game like it was Ojan Andobi in Game one. They
Speaker 2: hit a couple of big a couple of big threes
Speaker 2: right after they won up twenty that cut the lead
Speaker 2: down to fourteen. Tonight, it was Josh Hart. Jason Tatum
Speaker 2: was straight up ignoring Josh Hart, helping off of him.
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson was just kind of probing in the paint
Speaker 2: and made a couple of easy kickout passes to Josh Hart.
Speaker 2: On basically concession threes from the Celtics defense. He knocked
Speaker 2: them both down in that early fourth quarter stretch. Michale
Speaker 2: Bridges was amazing, And remember he was so good defensively
Speaker 2: in Game one, but really didn't get going offensively in
Speaker 2: that game. He got his jump shot going in that
Speaker 2: early fourth quarter stretch. I think he hit like five
Speaker 2: or six jump shots. A couple of them were his
Speaker 2: classic kind of move mint threes, but several of them
Speaker 2: were really tough mid range jump shots off the bounce.
Speaker 2: He had a nasty reverse layup with his left hand
Speaker 2: out of a ball screen against Drew Holliday. McHale Bridges
Speaker 2: for a fourth quarter scoring was key in a big
Speaker 2: way because the Knicks were playing well on offense in
Speaker 2: that stretch. That was a stretch where Peyton Pritchard got
Speaker 2: a couple of wide open threes that he hit. I
Speaker 2: think Porzing's got an and one in that stretch. Al
Speaker 2: Horford got a bucket right at the rim like That
Speaker 2: was this phase of the game when the Celtics offense
Speaker 2: was actually playing pretty well and continued to kind of
Speaker 2: stiff arm the Knicks, but mcale bridges just kept scoring
Speaker 2: and then he hit this three believe off of the
Speaker 2: right wing that cut the lead to seven right around
Speaker 2: the middle of the fourth quarter, and then Brunson came
Speaker 2: in and Brunson just completely took over the game from there.
Speaker 2: And once again late in the game, he gets a
Speaker 2: big three off of an offensive rebound from Josh Hart.
Speaker 2: He finds a matchup that he likes in drawing two
Speaker 2: on the ball with Horford that ends up setting up
Speaker 2: Josh Hart with a layup that he missed, but he
Speaker 2: occupied the rim protector, so Carl Anthony Towns was able
Speaker 2: to get an offensive rebound put back for an end one.
Speaker 3: And then late in the.
Speaker 2: Game, just continually every single game in this postseason when
Speaker 2: the Knicks need him to generate offense late, like he's
Speaker 2: literally coming through every single time. Like, I don't think
Speaker 2: people realize how crazy this is. Crunch time basketball is
Speaker 2: extremely hard, the refs swallow the whistle, all of the
Speaker 2: defenders are playing at a higher level of intensity. Drew
Speaker 2: Holliday once again, like just refusing to give up switches,
Speaker 2: fighting through screens where like there were a coup several
Speaker 2: possessions late where Jalen Brunson had to create a shot
Speaker 2: against Drew Holliday like he regardless of this incredible difficulty
Speaker 2: of these situations, He's literally coming through every single game.
Speaker 2: This is crazy, guys. This is one of the most
Speaker 2: reliably great clutch performers I've ever watched. And you know, again,
Speaker 2: those Drew ISOs Like Drew Holliday is consistently throughout the
Speaker 2: season done a phenomenal job one on one against Jaylen Brunt,
Speaker 2: and he's the one guy on the Celtics that he
Speaker 2: really struggles to get separation from. And twice down the
Speaker 2: stretch there were like three possessions where he attacked him directly,
Speaker 2: and on two of those possessions he managed to score
Speaker 2: a nasty one leg fade away, got his shoulder into
Speaker 2: Drew and then just leaned back on a one leg
Speaker 2: fadeaway around the right elbow, and then he drew a foul.
Speaker 2: On that final possession, the one that got the lead.
Speaker 2: He knew Drew is going to be aggressive. He knew
Speaker 2: Drew was going to be physical, and he just trusted
Speaker 2: his handle, He trusted his counter movee spun off of Drew,
Speaker 2: Drew got out of position, Drew had no choice but
Speaker 2: to start hacking him, and he drew a foul there
Speaker 2: to get to the line. So again four points out
Speaker 2: of those late ISOs against Drew Holliday. That like, that's
Speaker 2: really high level production in those situations. He got a
Speaker 2: transition right handed layup on Al Horford, just taking, you know,
Speaker 2: being opportunistic about an advantage that presented itself in transition,
Speaker 2: just kind of shot the gap, got around Horford, got
Speaker 2: to that right handed layup. I just can't say enough
Speaker 2: about Jalen Brunson and the job that he's on in
Speaker 2: the clutch for this team. But I want to hold
Speaker 2: off about the conversation about him and where he stands
Speaker 2: among the guards right now because he was incredible on
Speaker 2: defense in this game again, but I want to talk
Speaker 2: about the Nicks defense in the big picture. We talked
Speaker 2: a lot about Ognnobi and McHale Bridges after Game one,
Speaker 2: and those guys were amazing again tonight. Like Og forced
Speaker 2: Tatum into a really tough left shoulder fade on a
Speaker 2: clutch possession late kind of a late clock situation where
Speaker 2: Tatum had no choice but to attack him, defended him
Speaker 2: extremely well. McKale Bridges had that late peel off of
Speaker 2: jaln Brown where he got the deflection off of Tatum
Speaker 2: on the final possession that forced the turnover. They both
Speaker 2: had big, like kind of help defense sequences in the
Speaker 2: in the fourth quarter, out of the post, like McHale
Speaker 2: Bridges scram Duce McBride out of a post mismatch Porzingis slipped.
Speaker 2: He had McBride. He scrammed him out of it and
Speaker 2: actually forced Porzingis to give up the ball and they
Speaker 2: ended up forcing a miss. Ognanobe he had that big
Speaker 2: baseline double team on a post up late in the game.
Speaker 2: Those guys were amazing. They do so much to clean
Speaker 2: up messes for this Knicks defense. But I want to
Speaker 2: shout out two other guys tonight, Mitchell Robinson and Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 2: First of all, Mitchell Robinson. One of the big reasons
Speaker 2: why he continues to be such a reliable piece for
Speaker 2: New York in this matchup is his ability to defend
Speaker 2: in switches plus nineteen tonight in twenty two misses or
Speaker 2: twenty two minutes. I'm pulling up the plus minus from
Speaker 2: game one because I wanted to see in Game one
Speaker 2: he was plus thirteen and twenty one minutes. So they've
Speaker 2: consistently been very good with Mitchell Robinson on the floor.
Speaker 2: And a big part of it is is we saw,
Speaker 2: you know, they can attack Karl Anthony Towns and pick
Speaker 2: and roll. That was how Tatum drew that late foul call,
Speaker 2: the one that brought the three point lead down to two,
Speaker 2: was he just basically flipped a screening angle on Cat.
Speaker 2: He Cat had to rush over to the other side
Speaker 2: of the screen. He quickly split him with the crossover
Speaker 2: dribble and then Cat had no choice but to hack
Speaker 2: him as he was going downhill. But like for the
Speaker 2: most part, Mitchell Robinson when he switches in those ball screens,
Speaker 2: has been able to keep the ball in front, force
Speaker 2: them into a contested mid range pull up or a
Speaker 2: contested three point pull up, and that's winning those matchups
Speaker 2: because Tatum and Brown can't make that shot right now.
Speaker 2: Both of them are just so broke with their jump
Speaker 2: with their jump shot. And like there's a little thing
Speaker 2: that you saw there late that the play where Tatum
Speaker 2: got the dunk to get the lead, the dead giveaway
Speaker 2: or the obvious difference was that they just gave Tatum
Speaker 2: a massive runway and let him run the length of
Speaker 2: the floor and they set the ball screen damn near
Speaker 2: at half court, and so he was already he had
Speaker 2: such a head of steam by the time he got
Speaker 2: to Mitchell Robinson that it was so easy for him
Speaker 2: to break him off with a simple move there. But
Speaker 2: Mitchell Robinson's defense and his ability to switch in pick
Speaker 2: and roll on those guys has been a huge part
Speaker 2: of how they've been able to be so good defensively
Speaker 2: in the lineups. When he's on the floor, Joe Mizula
Speaker 2: like flat out admitted after the game that he's hacking him,
Speaker 2: not even because of the free throws. He's hacking him
Speaker 2: because he's trying to get TIBs to take him off
Speaker 2: the floor, like freely admitted it is like like like
Speaker 2: he said after the game, he was like, I hacked
Speaker 2: him on that late passez just to get TIBs to
Speaker 2: take him off, get off the floor, because look at
Speaker 2: his plus minus and then look at the plus minus
Speaker 2: of all the starters. I thought that was a super
Speaker 2: interesting bit. Like, first of all, for tip for uh
Speaker 2: Missoula to even admit that in that situation, I thought
Speaker 2: was fascinating. But yeah, it's Mitch has been kicking everybody's butt.
Speaker 2: And then Jalen Brunson. I shouted at him out if
Speaker 2: you guys remember after game one for a couple of
Speaker 2: key defensive sequences. He had two stops against Tatum on
Speaker 2: an island where he beat him to spots and forced
Speaker 2: him into tough pull ups. He battled Horford on a
Speaker 2: couple of post mismatches where he fronted the post. A
Speaker 2: bunch of the same stuff again tonight, just battling in
Speaker 2: post mismatches, being willing to hold up on an island
Speaker 2: again with both guys. With Kat and with Brunson, they're
Speaker 2: still mixing in the hedge and recover with Brunson, They're
Speaker 2: still mixing in a bunch of drop with Kat, you know,
Speaker 2: just just to try to you know, one of the
Speaker 2: interesting subplots here is I think part of the reason
Speaker 2: why TIBs is sticking with that is because Boston shooting
Speaker 2: the ball so poorly, Because like they're getting clean looks
Speaker 2: out of a lot of those actions late in the game.
Speaker 2: They got Horford a couple of wide open looks in
Speaker 2: pick and pop situations late in the game, just like that.
Speaker 2: But they're just Brunson is competing defensively and it's making
Speaker 2: a world of difference. Cat is still really struggling, but
Speaker 2: Brunson has made it so that there's one really weak
Speaker 2: defender on the flour instead of two. And like I
Speaker 2: talked a lot about, you know, during the Knick struggles
Speaker 2: this year, I've talked a lot about the idea that
Speaker 2: they kind of you know, that teams have missed the
Speaker 2: point about what made Boston great. You know, what made
Speaker 2: Boston great wasn't necessarily just Tatum and Brown. Obviously those
Speaker 2: guys are a big part of it, but it's that
Speaker 2: they can keep putting together these five man lineups where
Speaker 2: all five defenders are great. And like, by the way,
Speaker 2: Boston's not losing this series because of defense. They held
Speaker 2: the Knicks to ninety one points tonight. They the Celtics
Speaker 2: can guard one through five in basically all of their lineups,
Speaker 2: the majority of their lineups, with exception to like Porzingis
Speaker 2: is like the guy that they're really struggling to guard
Speaker 2: with in this particular phase of the season. But like
Speaker 2: with the Knicks, one of the reasons why they never
Speaker 2: had any sort of sustained success against great teams this year, frankly,
Speaker 2: any success against great teams this year was because Brunson
Speaker 2: and Cat were these like obvious entry points, and so
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter how good Mkale is on the ball,
Speaker 2: doesn't matter how good Og is on the ball. They're
Speaker 2: just in rotation too much. And like Brunson being able
Speaker 2: to hold his ground the way that he's been holding
Speaker 2: his ground in conjunction with the job that Mkale and
Speaker 2: Og are doing and all these help and recover situations
Speaker 2: and Josh Hart as well, it's just made it so
Speaker 2: that the Knicks defense is so much more sturdy in
Speaker 2: these spots. And like obviously there's a Celtics element with
Speaker 2: them knocking down shots. And you know this will bear
Speaker 2: out over the course of the series. Like whether you
Speaker 2: want to ask me whether or not the Knicks can
Speaker 2: win this series, it really is gonna come down to
Speaker 2: whether or not that defense can hold up, because we're
Speaker 2: gonna talk about Boston here in a minute. Boston was
Speaker 2: consistently better on the road than they were at home.
Speaker 2: This here, this series is not over Boston. I would
Speaker 2: not be even the slightest bit surprised if Boston went
Speaker 2: down to MSG in one to two and brought this
Speaker 2: series back to Boston at two to two. So like
Speaker 2: this is not over. But the pathway for the Knicks
Speaker 2: is that defense that we just talked about, holding up, Brunson,
Speaker 2: holding up to help and recover, holding up, just them
Speaker 2: in general holding up on that end of the floor.
Speaker 2: But hell of a punch from the Knicks, you know,
Speaker 2: it's so funny. I was talking with Josh Rodriguez. He's
Speaker 2: a guy used to do some work for this show,
Speaker 2: a big Knicks fan, and we were talking after Game seven,
Speaker 2: Game six of the Piston series, and he was like, man,
Speaker 2: Knicks fans are so sick of this team because they
Speaker 2: just didn't have the same like juice, competitive juice that
Speaker 2: they did in last year's team. And you know, like
Speaker 2: you Cat's joking after the series, like we just like
Speaker 2: to do things the hard way, and it's like, well,
Speaker 2: you guys kind of don't do the work for large
Speaker 2: stretches of games and make things really difficult on yourself.
Speaker 2: But for whatever reason, it's like all come to fruition
Speaker 2: here in the first two games of the series, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, this looks like a Knicks team
Speaker 2: that has a decent chance to win the title, Like
Speaker 2: they're a legitimate threat in a way that I did
Speaker 2: not see them as a legitimate threat at all coming
Speaker 2: into this postseason run. So shout out to the Knicks
Speaker 2: for discovering a sturdy defensive identity. And then there's the
Speaker 2: second piece of it, which is Jalen Brunson. And again,
Speaker 2: like this is a conversation for the summer, and I
Speaker 2: would lean Steph still at this point because I just
Speaker 2: am such a believer in late round playoff success. But
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson, you know, especially with Steph starting to age out,
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson is making a strong case to be the
Speaker 2: best small guard in the league with the way that
Speaker 2: he's been playing as of late, for him to be
Speaker 2: as sturdy defensively as he has been, and then to
Speaker 2: just routinely be arguably the very best closer in all
Speaker 2: of basketball. To the point where the Knicks did the
Speaker 2: job of getting them into two close games against the
Speaker 2: Celtics late and twice Jalen Brunson they aired down Jason
Speaker 2: Tatum and was just flat out better than him. And
Speaker 2: I just want to shout out Brunson. I think I
Speaker 2: think he at the very least now has a case
Speaker 2: to be the best small guard in the league. And
Speaker 2: again we'll approach that again this summer, but man like,
Speaker 2: he's just playing at a crazy high level. So let's
Speaker 2: talk about Boston's offense couple of things. First of all,
Speaker 2: the hilarious thing was that after OG's offensive foul when
Speaker 2: he dunked all over, who was it that got in
Speaker 2: front of him?
Speaker 3: Was it Derek White?
Speaker 2: I think it was Derek White. Dunk's all over, Derek White.
Speaker 2: Derek White gets the charge call and the Celtics immediately
Speaker 2: go on a run and blow the lead.
Speaker 3: Up to twenty.
Speaker 2: What's hilarious is after the charge they got five buckets
Speaker 2: right at the rim. In that run to get it
Speaker 2: up to twenty. Derek White went right through brunts into
Speaker 2: the rim. Tatum went had this angry looking post up
Speaker 2: at Michale Bridges where he just backed him down and
Speaker 2: got right to the front of the rim. Derek White
Speaker 2: had another driving layup and pick and roll. Then Tatum
Speaker 2: and White both said up Cornette and porzingis for buckets
Speaker 2: right at the front of the rim. They got that
Speaker 2: lead up to twenty getting stuff right at the rim.
Speaker 2: And we're gonna talk about that in a little bit
Speaker 2: as it pertains to the versatility element. But honestly, guys,
Speaker 2: Like when I watched the second half of Game one,
Speaker 2: I was like, I called it CTE basketball as a joke,
Speaker 2: but like it was just an enormous amount of poor
Speaker 2: process and terrible shot selection. I didn't feel that way
Speaker 2: at all watching the second half of this game. I
Speaker 2: thought their process was generally good, and I thought they
Speaker 2: mostly got great shots. Yes, there were some bad ones
Speaker 2: mixed in there. That Tatum had that bad left shoulder
Speaker 2: fade over og Nnobi in clutch time that he missed.
Speaker 2: Jlen Brown had a shot where he went right at
Speaker 2: Brunson and tried to like grift a foul around the
Speaker 2: left elbow. That was a bad possession obviously. The final
Speaker 2: possession where Tatum shot tried to pass out of a
Speaker 2: double team and turned it over against Michel Bridges, that
Speaker 2: was a bad possession. But there was a lot of
Speaker 2: good you know. I saw Jason Tatum trying to split
Speaker 2: ball screens against cat and Mitchell Robinson late and getting
Speaker 2: to the rim. Jalen Brown did.
Speaker 3: Have a play where he tried to bully.
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson right to the front of the rim and
Speaker 2: he just missed like a really easy shot right at
Speaker 2: the front of the rim, and like Horford butt naked
Speaker 2: three in the right corner missed, Derek White butt naked
Speaker 2: three on the left wing missed. Jason Tatum and Jalen
Speaker 2: Brown both missed about the easiest wide open threes you'll
Speaker 2: ever see down the stretch of this game. Tatum's was
Speaker 2: off the catch in the right corner and kind of
Speaker 2: a semi transition sequence. Jylen Brown missed one at the
Speaker 2: top of the key out of a ball screen where
Speaker 2: there was nobody up at the level and the screen
Speaker 2: wiped out the defense. I mean he's standing unguarded. And
Speaker 2: so it was very different from Game one in the
Speaker 2: sense that, like you know, the Celtics of Tate, the
Speaker 2: Celtics took sixty threes in Game one, but they were
Speaker 2: bad threes. I've seen the Celtic take fifty to fifty
Speaker 2: five threes in a game and have them mostly be
Speaker 2: good threes. It has nothing to do with the volume
Speaker 2: of threes for me, It has to do with where
Speaker 2: they get them. But there is a reality to the
Speaker 2: fact that if your offense is primarily designed to generate
Speaker 2: threes and the propensity of the team is to hunt
Speaker 2: those threes, even if they're good threes, every three has
Speaker 2: a certain degree of variance to it. To take it
Speaker 2: a step further, shooting in general is kind of a
Speaker 2: mind fuck. The best shooters in the world don't make
Speaker 2: half their threes, meaning like, if you take a three,
Speaker 2: you're probably going to miss, and so as they start
Speaker 2: to stack up on you, often it can get in
Speaker 2: your head you start to tweak your release. Like, guys,
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum's jump shot has not just been off, it's been.
Speaker 3: Way off over the course of this year.
Speaker 2: He's clearly in his head about it, because that's what
Speaker 2: happens when when shots start to miss, it can spiral
Speaker 2: on you.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: There's been a lot of like analytical attempts over the
Speaker 2: years to try to explain shooting variants, and I've seen
Speaker 2: pieces that try to say that there's no such thing
Speaker 2: as the hot hand. I don't have any idea of
Speaker 2: how to explain it to you, guys, other than to
Speaker 2: say that if you've played, you know, you know that
Speaker 2: it's a real thing, and it could just as easily flip.
Speaker 2: They could go into game three and suddenly Tatum, Brown
Speaker 2: and White could go, you know, twelve for twenty from
Speaker 2: three and they could blow out the Knicks and you know,
Speaker 2: send this to a game for it two games to one.
Speaker 2: But there is variance. It's an inherent part of shooting,
Speaker 2: and it tends to be streaky. It tends to be
Speaker 2: as a team you'll go cold and as a team
Speaker 2: you'll go hot. There is a momentum behind that sort
Speaker 2: of thing. Now, this is where the variety comes into
Speaker 2: the to the picture. The closer you can get to
Speaker 2: the basket with pet action, meaning like let's say that
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum just made a concerted effort to post up
Speaker 2: legitimately like six seven, eight, nine times a game. If
Speaker 2: he made that effort, that makes it so that there's
Speaker 2: a huge chunk of the way that he can generate
Speaker 2: offense that generates shots that are closer to the rim.
Speaker 2: The closer you get to the rim, the less variance
Speaker 2: there is. Tatum is absolutely big and strong enough to
Speaker 2: be a guy that can bump a defender off and
Speaker 2: take a left shoulder hook. There's nothing that says that
Speaker 2: he can't take that type of shot. Tatum, also with
Speaker 2: his jump shot, will have less variants on short, little
Speaker 2: ten foot turnarounds. Then he will on seventeen foot turnarounds
Speaker 2: or on three point shots. As a team, this offense
Speaker 2: is entirely geared around the ability to generate three point shots.
Speaker 2: This is where I got to go to the stars
Speaker 2: and guys like Jason Tatum had the best season of
Speaker 2: his career, and this was the first season where I
Speaker 2: said that I thought that he was a legitimate top
Speaker 2: tier superstar in this league. He combined the versatility that
Speaker 2: he had really built out over the previous years as
Speaker 2: a big, strong athlete that could do everything as a
Speaker 2: rebounder and as a defender. He combined that with a
Speaker 2: dramatically improved overall just like floor presence as a playmaker
Speaker 2: and as just like a half court kind of flow
Speaker 2: of the game guy. And then he took a leap
Speaker 2: as a shot maker to the extent to where he
Speaker 2: looked fantastic in the first round. But as I've consistently said,
Speaker 2: like when Tatum can't make his jump shot, he is
Speaker 2: no longer a top tier superstar in this league. And
Speaker 2: the reason is is because he doesn't have any elite
Speaker 2: first step that can consistently beat people off the dribble
Speaker 2: good defenders, and he doesn't have any sort of legitimate, reliable,
Speaker 2: close range game, and so if his jump shot isn't there,
Speaker 2: if he can't rely on that piece of his offense,
Speaker 2: he dramatically dips overall as an offensive talent. And suddenly
Speaker 2: this Celtics team and again, like remember last year when
Speaker 2: Tatum was faltering, Jylen Brown was playing the best basketball
Speaker 2: of his career. The problem is is Jalen Brown is
Speaker 2: also in just as big of a shooting slum. And
Speaker 2: so it's really tricky because the two guys that are
Speaker 2: primarily responsible for generating shots for this offense are two
Speaker 2: guys that rely on consistently getting to the rim and
Speaker 2: knocking down pull up jump shots. And neither of them
Speaker 2: can get to the rim right now, and neither of
Speaker 2: them can make their jump shot. And so all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, you have a Celtics offense that, even though
Speaker 2: they're surrounded by all of this play finishing talent, they
Speaker 2: are unable to generate something that doesn't have a great
Speaker 2: deal of variance involved, which is that three point shot attack.
Speaker 2: When we look at the top players in the league,
Speaker 2: when you look at like Nikola Jokics, for instance, his
Speaker 2: game is impervious to variants because he shoots like sixty
Speaker 2: five percent on shots that are within ten feet of
Speaker 2: the basket that are not layups. Shake Gildos, Alexander is
Speaker 2: going to get into the mid range and he's over
Speaker 2: fifty percent from there. He's much less susceptible to variants.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 3: These guys at the top of the league.
Speaker 2: They have a reliable element to their game that at
Speaker 2: this point in Tatum's career he hasn't really developed. And
Speaker 2: so as a result, it's like Tatum's making jump shots.
Speaker 2: He's the third best player in the league. Tatum's not
Speaker 2: making jump shots, He's like the eighth or ninth best
Speaker 2: player in the league. And like you want to know
Speaker 2: why the Celtics are down two, oh, it's because their
Speaker 2: best player is like completely decomposing in these games. Now, again,
Speaker 2: the series is not over. I would not be the
Speaker 2: slightest bit surprised if Boston went down in one game, three, four, five,
Speaker 2: and six. But it's going to turn on Jason Tatum.
Speaker 2: If Tatum goes down there and gets back to that
Speaker 2: top tier, superstar level, the Celtics will win. If he
Speaker 2: goes down there and drops another five for seventeen, then
Speaker 2: they're not going to win.
Speaker 3: The series.
Speaker 2: It like, once again, these series keep coming down to
Speaker 2: the play of these superstars, and I just think it's
Speaker 2: really fascinating. All right, let's bring Jackson. Let's take about
Speaker 2: ten minutes of questions, and then we'll head over to playback.
Speaker 4: Let's do it.
Speaker 5: Let's do some questions. We got mostly questions about the
Speaker 5: Celtics game. We'll take a couple about some other stuff,
Speaker 5: but let's start with this one, which I think is
Speaker 5: sort of a prevailing sentiment. Is this the quote unquote
Speaker 5: same old Celtics from twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4: And sort of years past before they had gotten over
Speaker 4: the hump and won the championship.
Speaker 2: So game one felt like same old Celtics to me,
Speaker 2: where they just took a lot of really bad shots.
Speaker 2: I thought this game was mostly specifically about Tatum, like
Speaker 2: I saw, I saw Celtics talking about it on Twitter.
Speaker 2: I can't even remember who it was, but someone was
Speaker 2: saying something along the lines of Tatum's in like the
Speaker 2: complete upside down right now, and you can tell all
Speaker 2: of the other players like don't know what to do
Speaker 2: about it. Like you can tell all the other players
Speaker 2: are like one of us should probably take control, but
Speaker 2: like who's going to be the guy that goes like, hey, Tatum,
Speaker 2: give me the ball, you know what I mean, And like,
Speaker 2: that's like I thought. I thought this game in particular
Speaker 2: came down to the fact that, like the Celtics stars
Speaker 2: are just legitimately unable to make shots right now. Game
Speaker 2: one felt much more like years past, where it's like,
Speaker 2: why do these guys keep taking these really stupid shots?
Speaker 2: But I didn't really have a problem with their shot
Speaker 2: selection in the second half of this game. What did
Speaker 2: you feel, like, your Celtics fan, Jackson, what did you
Speaker 2: feel about the shot selection late in this game?
Speaker 5: I thought the shot selection and the process was mostly
Speaker 5: fine this game.
Speaker 4: I agree with you in that sense.
Speaker 5: The thing that I think you can point to you
Speaker 5: if you were trying to say this is this quote
Speaker 5: unquote same old Celtics is I think the same old
Speaker 5: Celtics did two things poorly. They settled for way too
Speaker 5: many threes, much like Game one. And then also they
Speaker 5: were making a lot of the right plays, and they
Speaker 5: were just like making a lot of the right plays
Speaker 5: from a process standpoint, but not finishing those right plays.
Speaker 4: And that's that's the version that you saw tonight. They
Speaker 4: it's it.
Speaker 5: Game one, it felt like they were playing stupid, they
Speaker 5: were just playing so dumb, and this game, it's like it.
Speaker 4: Almost felt a little bit worse.
Speaker 5: It felt much more like a mental meltdown for me
Speaker 5: than Game one because Game one they played so dumb,
Speaker 5: like like we I have no problem saying they played
Speaker 5: idiotic offensive basketball.
Speaker 4: In Game one.
Speaker 5: Right tonight, it's like they're in their head because they're
Speaker 5: missing a lot of shots. You're seeing Jason Tatum brick
Speaker 5: butt naked threes from the corner. Jalen Brown is missing
Speaker 5: wide open threes. Al Horford is one for ten from
Speaker 5: three this series. They are just bricking shots, missing them
Speaker 5: badly in a way where you're like, man, are they
Speaker 5: thinking about it?
Speaker 3: Are they?
Speaker 5: And that's why I feel like it's a little bit
Speaker 5: worse than Game one, because you see the Game one result.
Speaker 5: Process wise, you've solved the problems from the Game one,
Speaker 5: But once you get into the fourth quarter and the
Speaker 5: Nicks start coming back, it's like, Uh, oh, are they
Speaker 5: gonna do this? Are they gonna do this again? Are
Speaker 5: we gonna do this again? You know, it's it's becoming
Speaker 5: more of like, at least on the surface, I don't
Speaker 5: know what these guys are actually thinking, obviously, but from
Speaker 5: a viewer standpoint, it feels much more like they are.
Speaker 4: Falling mentally as opposed.
Speaker 5: To just playing a little bit stupid if you can
Speaker 5: want to see you know, part of the difference of those.
Speaker 2: I think you're absolutely right about that. I think this
Speaker 2: is like they are entering into the yips. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: it's gonna be a question of it's gonna be a
Speaker 2: question of whether or not they can get that right.
Speaker 2: They generated fourteen unguarded catch and shoot jump shots in
Speaker 2: this game, made three of them, three of them. Like,
Speaker 2: that's that's that's brutal and like, but that's the thing, Like, guys,
Speaker 2: that was not what happened in game one. In game one,
Speaker 2: they actually shot well on their open shots. In the
Speaker 2: second half tonight, totally different second half. Seven unguarded jump
Speaker 2: shots catch shoot zero point four to three points per attempt.
Speaker 2: So like they just they're just they're just completely out
Speaker 2: of whack with their jumptioning. But this is the thing, Like,
Speaker 2: this is the advantage of having a player that can
Speaker 2: consistently generate quality twos close to the rim. When you
Speaker 2: have that type of player, it gives you a certain
Speaker 2: floor offensively to where like even when you're missing your threes,
Speaker 2: you're still getting a handful of layups during that stretch
Speaker 2: or easier shots during that stretch that kind of raise
Speaker 2: your floor, Like even like with Steph Curry, because like
Speaker 2: Steph Curry's always had a great deal of variance in
Speaker 2: his game. I mean, the first half of the Rockets
Speaker 2: game is a Rockets game seven is a good example, right,
Speaker 2: But with Steph, he because he inverts the spacing by
Speaker 2: bringing multiple defenders to the perimeter constantly.
Speaker 3: He will generate easy twos.
Speaker 2: For his teammates over the course of the game. Where
Speaker 2: like you're seeing Steph like have a night where he
Speaker 2: shoots poorly, but the offense still functions at a really
Speaker 2: high level. And so Steph is like the one guy
Speaker 2: that I can think of in my life that is
Speaker 2: like a jump shooter primarily. That is, like there's variance
Speaker 2: in his game, but there's still a pretty high floor
Speaker 2: in those situations. And ultimately, Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum
Speaker 2: are incapable of generating quality two's on a consistent basis
Speaker 2: close to the basket, which makes them very dependent on
Speaker 2: tough jump shot making and that's been an issue for
Speaker 2: them consistently in the series.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think it's where you see the biggest
Speaker 5: difference between those two players in Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: And it's a thing that I've sort of I am
Speaker 5: no problem admitting that I am generally pro analytics, and
Speaker 5: that's why I'm a fan of the Celtics and missou
Speaker 5: La ball as an overall concept. But the thing that
Speaker 5: I think most people miss about analytics and the three
Speaker 5: point in take away the mitt no more mid rent
Speaker 5: shooting is three point shooting high volume is better from
Speaker 5: a macro long term perspective, you are going points per shot.
Speaker 5: The more shot you get in a high points per
Speaker 5: shot better for your offense. Undeniable, it's just math. But
Speaker 5: at the end of a game, when there's only so
Speaker 5: many shots left to come in the game, it's not
Speaker 5: about the best expected value of the shot, it's are
Speaker 5: you going to score at all on the shot? Right,
Speaker 5: Which is why it's not that doesn't become a one
Speaker 5: point one to four game anymore. It becomes a two
Speaker 5: or a zero, or a three or a zero. So
Speaker 5: it's it's not about expected value, it's about is it
Speaker 5: going to go in, which is why you want a
Speaker 5: closer or a mid range shot or a you know
Speaker 5: in the paint, a paint touch, which is what Jalen
Speaker 5: Brunson is doing at a dramatically, dramatically dramatically higher level
Speaker 5: than Tatum and Jalen Brown.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jalen Brunson can beat elite defenders off the dribble
Speaker 2: consistently like that. That that's an important detail. Like he
Speaker 2: solved Dennis Schroeder over the course of that series. Like
Speaker 2: he was able to get close range twos or to
Speaker 2: the foul line against Drew multiple times late him hitting
Speaker 2: the gap against Horford. That's not to say that Tatum
Speaker 2: can't do it. Tatum can, but Tatum needs like some
Speaker 2: circumstances like oh, we got to give him a massive
Speaker 2: runway and set the screen at half court, you know,
Speaker 2: like that sort of thing for him beat a Mitchell
Speaker 2: Robinson off the dribble, Whereas like, yeah, like if he
Speaker 2: gets a favorable matchup, he can beat that guy off
Speaker 2: the dribble. But like that's the thing, Like the Celtics
Speaker 2: did that stuff well tonight. They did the hunting the
Speaker 2: right matchups, building the advantages, generating the quality shots My
Speaker 2: thing is like, sometimes you got to stare down the
Speaker 2: best defender that's guarding you and be able to generate
Speaker 2: a quality too.
Speaker 3: Like that.
Speaker 2: That's the difference that that like prevents Tatum from being
Speaker 2: like a consistent guy that produces at that top tier
Speaker 2: superstar level one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: Sort of big picture here.
Speaker 5: The Knicks now on DraftKings, are minus one twenty to
Speaker 5: win the series. The Celtics are plus one hundred, so
Speaker 5: Nick slightly favored over a pick them up too well
Speaker 5: in the series going home? Where do you land on
Speaker 5: the series at large? On that price on the Knicks,
Speaker 5: you know, potential to actually win the series.
Speaker 3: I think that's perfect. That's exactly how I'd put it.
Speaker 2: I think the I think the Knicks deserve to be
Speaker 2: slight favorites at this point. I think I think if
Speaker 2: you're a Knicks fan and you think the series is over,
Speaker 2: you're an idiot, like I, Like I this is not
Speaker 2: the team that got almost swept by the Miami Heat
Speaker 2: and it ended up forcing a Game seven. Like that
Speaker 2: team was less mature, less able to like stabilize in
Speaker 2: terms of process, Like there's a chance that the Celtics
Speaker 2: come out and play the exact same game in Game
Speaker 2: three that they played in Game two and win by fifteen.
Speaker 2: Like they are, they are definitely capable of going down
Speaker 2: there and winning, but it's really hard to win four
Speaker 2: times in five prize and that dude Madison Square Garden
Speaker 2: is going to be bumping in Game three, and that's
Speaker 2: that's where I kind of feel like it makes sense
Speaker 2: for it to be a coin flip, because, like, I
Speaker 2: think the Knicks are about a coin flip to win
Speaker 2: Game three, even with like you're gonna get what whatever
Speaker 2: the best version of the Celtics is, You're getting that
Speaker 2: in Game three, like that, they're gonna come out like
Speaker 2: guns blazing in that game. But the Knicks are also
Speaker 2: going to be playing with an opportunity to really put
Speaker 2: the series away and to go up three to zero.
Speaker 2: So like I view that game as a coin flip,
Speaker 2: and I think whoever wins that game probably wins the series.
Speaker 2: And so at that with that being the case, it
Speaker 2: kind of feels to me like roughly a coin flip.
Speaker 2: But you get you're gonna obviously give the team that
Speaker 2: has like a big home court advantage at this point
Speaker 2: in the Knicks the advantage to.
Speaker 5: Put the hammer on the coin flip analogy to to
Speaker 5: to lose two twenty point leads, you also have to
Speaker 5: gain two twenty point leads. Right this, Celtons have been
Speaker 5: up by twenty in both games.
Speaker 3: Period.
Speaker 4: Did they lose both games?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 5: Did they lose it an embarrassing fashion, yes they were,
Speaker 5: but they were up by twenty in both games.
Speaker 4: So the series is by no means over.
Speaker 5: One more question about this series. Who is I guess
Speaker 5: it's sort of about this series. Who is more clutch
Speaker 5: Jalen Brunson or Tyres Haliburt.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go Brunson just because Brunson it feels like
Speaker 2: a career long thing for him. Halliburton's on one hell
Speaker 2: of a clutch run. And if you ask me who
Speaker 2: the most clutch player this season is, that probably go
Speaker 2: with Halliburton because I mean he's literally hit two game
Speaker 2: ending jump shit or shots in.
Speaker 3: This in this playoff run.
Speaker 2: But like Brunton, this has been a multi year sequence
Speaker 2: where he's like this, So I would give the slight
Speaker 2: edge to Brunson at this point.
Speaker 3: Great question, though, for sure.
Speaker 4: We got some a few questions on the refereeing.
Speaker 5: One a specific question, which is do you have a
Speaker 5: take on the officiating in the Denver game tonight, because
Speaker 5: a lot of Nuggets fans are in the chat screaming
Speaker 5: about Scott Foster letting the thunder mal Nikola Jokic. So
Speaker 5: first question is sort of a more specific view about
Speaker 5: the officiating tonight, and then sort of big picture do
Speaker 5: you like the physicality that the refs are allowing in
Speaker 5: the playoffs so far?
Speaker 4: Is there? How would you?
Speaker 5: I know consistency is important, but how would you How
Speaker 5: is your feeling about the officiating sort of a large.
Speaker 2: So first of all, and I just fair warning for
Speaker 2: Nuggets fans, I am the worst person to ask this
Speaker 2: question too, because I will never blame the refs ever
Speaker 2: for a game ever, So that that's the first little
Speaker 2: bit of context. But I am a generally of belief
Speaker 2: that the team that plays with more force gets the
Speaker 2: better whistle. And I thought Oklahoma City came out and
Speaker 2: kicked your ass tonight, and I thought it also manifested
Speaker 2: in a lot of these like whistle situations where Oklahoma
Speaker 2: City was on the right side of it. I generally
Speaker 2: feel that way, Like there's there's so many examples where
Speaker 2: like you'll see a team win a game, and then
Speaker 2: the other team will win the next game by bringing
Speaker 2: the requisite effort, and in that game they'll get a
Speaker 2: better whistle, and everyone will think it's like the league
Speaker 2: off is stepping in and being like, we need to
Speaker 2: tie this series, and it's like, no, what's happening is
Speaker 2: the team that's desperate, that absolutely has to win this game,
Speaker 2: Like this is not like Boston New York, Like Boston
Speaker 2: could afford to lose tonight, and still they've been better
Speaker 2: on the road all seed, Like Boston has lost so
Speaker 2: many games at the TV Garden it's not even funny
Speaker 2: this year, like the I think they have like I
Speaker 2: think this is like their fourteenth loss at home this year.
Speaker 2: It's something crazy like that. They have been a very
Speaker 2: good road team all year. They've looked much more likeast
Speaker 2: year's team on the road than they did at home
Speaker 2: this year. And so Denver, Oka, see, it's very different.
Speaker 2: You you drop that game tonight like and send Denver
Speaker 2: home like you're not winning two in Denver. You might
Speaker 2: get lucky to get one there, like the series could
Speaker 2: be over if you lose tonight. So like Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: brought the requisite effort, they're an awesome team. They physically
Speaker 2: kick dress guys. I'm watching Jokic not even seal at
Speaker 2: the high post, like I'm not gonna blame the refs
Speaker 2: when Jokic I thought, played just a poor game by
Speaker 2: his standards, and like, guys, that's the thing I'm I
Speaker 2: like in order for me to feel like it means
Speaker 2: something for me to say that Game one was one
Speaker 2: of the greatest playoff performances that I've ever watched. We
Speaker 2: also have to be willing to look and be like
Speaker 2: he sucked tonight. If we don't do that, then it
Speaker 2: means nothing when we say he was awesome, and it
Speaker 2: also means nothing when we say somebody sucks. We have
Speaker 2: to be honest about the way that these guys played.
Speaker 2: Yokic was awesome in Game one, his team one. Jokic
Speaker 2: was not good tonight and it was a big part
Speaker 2: of why they lost. And by the way, he's not
Speaker 2: the only one ever. Michael Porter Junior was awful again tonight.
Speaker 2: There's point of attack defense was awful all night long.
Speaker 2: Christian Brown had a bad night. They a lot of
Speaker 2: guys down the roster were bad. But you know, obviously
Speaker 2: Joki is a guy hold to a very high standard.
Speaker 2: I think he's the best player in the world and
Speaker 2: one of the best players in NBA history, and I
Speaker 2: don't think he did his job tonight.
Speaker 5: Let's do one more question and then we will go
Speaker 5: over to playback. This is not about any games from tonight,
Speaker 5: but do you feel that Jimmy Butler still has it
Speaker 5: in him to be playoff Jimmy but as a lead scorer,
Speaker 5: as a we need you to lead us to a
Speaker 5: win tonight type or is he sort of pass that
Speaker 5: phase a little bit.
Speaker 2: We're gonna find out, that's for sure. This is a
Speaker 2: really tough matchup in terms of just the types of
Speaker 2: defenders that he's gonna consistently go against. I also think
Speaker 2: that Jimmy's gonna need to provide a certain amount of
Speaker 2: scoring over the course of these games. But I think
Speaker 2: it's still the ball in player movement of Golden State
Speaker 2: putting Minnesota in the blender. That is their best pathway
Speaker 2: to succeed Minnesota if you play into the matchup attacking
Speaker 2: trap with them. That's right up there outy. Trust me,
Speaker 2: I just went through that as a Laker fan. Like
Speaker 2: as much as I like Jimmy Lucas better and Luca
Speaker 2: was having a hard time finding advantages from to attack
Speaker 2: one on one. This is not a one on one
Speaker 2: type of attack kind of series. Your advantage is Yes,
Speaker 2: Jimmy looks to be aggressive. Yes, every time there's four
Speaker 2: seconds on the shot clock, you want to throw him
Speaker 2: the ball and he needs to go try to create
Speaker 2: something off the dribble. But this is a series you're
Speaker 2: gonna win defense to transition and by putting Minnesota in
Speaker 2: the blender in the half court. All right, guys, uh,
Speaker 2: playback playback dot tv slash hoops tonight. The link is
Speaker 2: in the description. Head over there right now. We're gonna
Speaker 2: be starting out there in just a couple of minutes.
Speaker 2: We'll take some callers, we'll take some questions from the chat,
Speaker 2: we'll hang out and just watch some film, talk, some basketball,
Speaker 2: and an informal setting for about forty five minutes. We'll
Speaker 2: see guys over there in just a minute. Thanks as
Speaker 2: always for supporting the show. We'll see you guys in
Speaker 2: just a couple of minutes.
Speaker 3: What's up, guys.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 2: OOPS tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 2: if you guys would take a second and leave a
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Speaker 3: The volume