Speaker 1: The volume. The NBA playoffs are heating up, and so
Speaker 1: is the action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting
Speaker 1: partner of the NBA with same game parlays, live betting odds, boosts,
Speaker 1: and so much more. Don't miss out as the NBA
Speaker 1: postseason winds down, so lots of great odds for the
Speaker 1: second round. If you still think the Nuggets are gonna
Speaker 1: come back and beat the Timberwolves, you can get them
Speaker 1: right now at plus one oh five. Thunder MAVs starts
Speaker 1: here shortly, and if you like the MAVs to win
Speaker 1: that series, you can get them at minus one oh five.
Speaker 1: And if you're new to DraftKings, you gotta check this out.
Speaker 1: New customers bet five bucks to get one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty in bonus bets. Instantly download the DraftKings Sportsbook app
Speaker 1: now and use code hoops that's hoops. That's code hoops
Speaker 1: for new customers to get one hundred and fifty in
Speaker 1: bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings.
Speaker 1: The Crown is yours gambling problem called one eight hundred
Speaker 1: Gambler or in West Virginia, visit www dot one eight
Speaker 1: hundred gambler dot net. In New York, call eight seven
Speaker 1: seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why
Speaker 1: to four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help
Speaker 1: us available for problem gambling call eight eight eight seven
Speaker 1: eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org.
Speaker 1: Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
Speaker 1: in Kansas twenty one plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void
Speaker 1: in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight
Speaker 1: hours after issuance. See dkang dot co slash bball for
Speaker 1: eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right,
Speaker 1: welcome hoops tonight here at the volume Havy Sunday. Everybody
Speaker 1: hope all you guys are having an incredible weekend. Well.
Speaker 1: The Indiana Pacers, in a game seven in Madison Square Garden,
Speaker 1: shoot an NBA record sixty seven percent from the field
Speaker 1: as they control the game throughout. Send the Knicks home.
Speaker 1: The Knicks continue to fall apart. Ognnob can't go for
Speaker 1: more than a few minutes. Jalen Brunson ends up breaking
Speaker 1: his hand. They finally cross that like whatever that mandatory
Speaker 1: minimum amount of talent is for them to compete, they
Speaker 1: fall apart, and the Pacers are advancing to the conference
Speaker 1: finals to play the Boston Celtics. We're gonna break the
Speaker 1: game down, talk a little bit about the future for
Speaker 1: both teams. Then we'll get out of here until later
Speaker 1: tonight after Denver Minnesota. You guys know the Joe before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel
Speaker 1: so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter underscore JCNLT so you guys don't misshow announcements.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about a podcast feed where you get your
Speaker 1: podcast under Hoops tonight, and then keep dropping mail back
Speaker 1: questions in the YouTube comments so we keep hitting them
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the postseason.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So again, the focus coming out of this game, and
Speaker 1: most of the narrative narrative is going to center around
Speaker 1: shooting luck right, or shooting variants or whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call this, like mythological mysterious force of shots going
Speaker 1: in or missing. And to be clear, I do believe
Speaker 1: that variance plays a role in shooting, but I just
Speaker 1: think it's further down than the basketball reasons. When you're
Speaker 1: whenever you're looking at a game like this where a
Speaker 1: team shoots an extremely high percentage. Luck is something that
Speaker 1: should be discussed further down than the actual basketball reasons
Speaker 1: that allowed the Pacers to get those kinds of shots.
Speaker 1: And really it comes down to this for me, there
Speaker 1: is a team speed with Indiana, specifically led by Tyre's
Speaker 1: Halliburton and TJ. McConnell, and their consistent ability to get
Speaker 1: the defense in rotation in combination with excellent play finishers.
Speaker 1: Those being the guys who are the beneficiaries of those
Speaker 1: advantage situations created by Tyres Alliburton and TJ. McConnell, and
Speaker 1: those guys doing a great job finishing off those plays
Speaker 1: while they get incessant excellent opportunities because of their primary
Speaker 1: ball handlers, they got the defense into rotation more often
Speaker 1: than the Knicks did. Now, to be clear, going into
Speaker 1: this series, the next biggest advantage was their physicality and toughness,
Speaker 1: and so as their one forward that they have on
Speaker 1: the roster got hurt, it became something where it was
Speaker 1: it was a problem. They were running out four guard
Speaker 1: lineups a ton. They were just overmatched physically. After Mitchell
Speaker 1: Robinson went down after Game one, and og Anobi went
Speaker 1: down after game in game two, and then Josh Hart,
Speaker 1: their most physical guard, ends up getting an abdominal injury
Speaker 1: in game six. So like at a certain point, New
Speaker 1: York didn't have the physical capability of disrupting Indiana's rhythm
Speaker 1: and flow. But make no mistake, the reason why they
Speaker 1: shot as well as they did is because they reached
Speaker 1: a rhythm and flow, which is a real thing in basketball,
Speaker 1: and when a team gets going like that, you have
Speaker 1: to do something to disrupt that flow. That's the big
Speaker 1: reason why I think luck falls lower down on that
Speaker 1: list of factors that determine shot result. It's because if
Speaker 1: it was luck, then eventually they might just start missing shots, right,
Speaker 1: But no, that's not how it works. You have to
Speaker 1: make a team start missing shots by disrupting flow through
Speaker 1: ball pressure, better closeouts, maybe waking the defensive scheme to
Speaker 1: try to disrupt rhythm in some way, shape or form,
Speaker 1: right like when push comes to shove, you got to
Speaker 1: make a team miss at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: That's the biggest part of why I think luck gets
Speaker 1: over discussed is like there is a process element to
Speaker 1: trying to disrupt shooting, and it involves defensive pressure, both
Speaker 1: on the ball and in closeout situations, Indiana just kept
Speaker 1: getting good shots. It's like, you're hoping Tyree's finally misses one,
Speaker 1: but he's wide open again on the right wing after
Speaker 1: he just knifed through the defense and dribbled back out
Speaker 1: to the three point line. You're hoping Miles Turner finally
Speaker 1: misses one, but there he is again, butt naked at
Speaker 1: the top of the key, no one guarding it. So
Speaker 1: like at a certain point, you're betting on guys missing
Speaker 1: when they're not when these are good looks for good
Speaker 1: play finishers, right, and so at a certain point, like
Speaker 1: I would like to put the focus on Indiana and
Speaker 1: the fact that they played and reached a level of
Speaker 1: offense by virtue of one their cornerstone, Tyrese Halliburton, who
Speaker 1: I think is one of the next great offensive engines
Speaker 1: in the league. I think he's like Steve Nash two
Speaker 1: point zero that in combination with an awesome backup guard
Speaker 1: who's in TJ McConnell, who's excellent at one of the
Speaker 1: most important elements to shot creation in the NBA playoffs,
Speaker 1: which is dribble penetration. TJ McConnell just beats people off
Speaker 1: the dribble all night long, and it just causes havoc
Speaker 1: for any sort of defense. They got two guys that
Speaker 1: continually get the defense in rotation and a bunch of
Speaker 1: dudes who are excellent at finishing those plays in advantage situations.
Speaker 1: So give the give credit to the Pacers, tip of
Speaker 1: the cap to them. They put on an offensive masterclass today,
Speaker 1: was bolstered by a little bit of shooting luck that
Speaker 1: pushed them into the Eastern Conference Finals. They continue to
Speaker 1: get excellent second darry scoring support from Siakum goes for
Speaker 1: twenty plus again. Aaron NEI Smith, you know it's funny.
Speaker 1: I think he's he's been like the Bruce Brown of
Speaker 1: this playoff run. If you remember Bruce Brown from Denver
Speaker 1: last year, where it's like shorter, stockier, like wing guard
Speaker 1: hybrid who can knock down a three, but has like
Speaker 1: this real slashing downhill force right that he brings to
Speaker 1: the equation. Like how many big, close out, attacking, driving
Speaker 1: layups did Aaron Nesmith have in that third quarter run
Speaker 1: when the Knicks came out with their hair on fire,
Speaker 1: trying to make it a game again. I think they
Speaker 1: got it back to six, and Nie Smith just kept
Speaker 1: beating people off the dribble, driving a close out and
Speaker 1: getting into the lane and finishing over Precious to two
Speaker 1: or finishing over Isaiah Hartenstein. Not to mention his individual
Speaker 1: defense on Jalen Brunson turned the series around. In my
Speaker 1: series preview, I talked about how I thought he was
Speaker 1: the guy that should have gotten the job. He did
Speaker 1: it in the first two games. He had the job
Speaker 1: from Game three on, and he just did an amazing job.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the the final tallly of the numbers,
Speaker 1: but I bet you the shooting percentages for Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: when guarded by aaron NEI. Smith were abominably bad compared
Speaker 1: to what he had in other matchups in this series.
Speaker 1: He's been the Bruce Brown of this playoff run, this big,
Speaker 1: stocky athletic guard that just rex havoc on the ball. Defensively,
Speaker 1: can knock down threes, but most importantly brings real rim
Speaker 1: pressure off the ball driving closeouts. I thought he was
Speaker 1: incredible tonight. Shout out to aaron Ne Smith. Looking forward
Speaker 1: for both teams. For the Pacers, the Celtics are another
Speaker 1: tier of basketball team. Then the Bucks without Giannis or
Speaker 1: that injury ravaged Knicks team.
Speaker 2: Right, But we know the Pacers are capable.
Speaker 1: Of beating the Celtics because we saw them in a
Speaker 1: winner take all situation in the n season tournament. Obviously
Speaker 1: much lower stakes, but we saw what they did in
Speaker 1: that In that game, it was good defensive process, it
Speaker 1: was a lot of running out in transition, and Tyresaliburton
Speaker 1: was the best player on the floor.
Speaker 2: And that is their pathway. Right.
Speaker 1: They need to turn that series into a track meet
Speaker 1: and take advantage of their speed advantage.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do a full series preview on this tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But the gist of it is, you got to look
Speaker 1: at it from a very simple perspective. Boston has more talent.
Speaker 2: They just do.
Speaker 1: Their top six is better than your top six. But
Speaker 1: one of the things for Boston is all of those
Speaker 1: guys are capable of doing a lot more than they
Speaker 1: do and are fitting into smaller roles to try to
Speaker 1: maximize their talent. Right, you have a lot of specialists.
Speaker 1: You've got these two primary shot creators, but then you've
Speaker 1: got a lot of play finishers. So if everyone plays
Speaker 1: to the best of their ability, there's actually a version
Speaker 1: of this where Indiana can out play Boston based on
Speaker 1: maximizing the talent they have in minimizing Boston's ability to
Speaker 1: do the same. On the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: I will be picking Boston. I would imagine just about
Speaker 1: everybody else will. They have a huge talent advantage, but
Speaker 1: the Hacer's advantage is going to be fast up and
Speaker 1: down the floor, track meet basketball. No one can keep
Speaker 1: Tyris Haliburton and TJ McConnell in front, constant dribble penetration,
Speaker 1: and then just getting the type of effort from Aaron
Speaker 1: Nesmith that you need to play Jason Tatum into a
Speaker 1: rough series. You need andrin emhar to do the same thing.
Speaker 1: You need Pascal Siakam to have a great defensive series.
Speaker 1: So there's gonna be a pathway there, but it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a tiny little crack in the door, and for
Speaker 1: them to push through that crack, they're gonna need to
Speaker 1: play borderline perfect basketball. So it's gonna be a heck
Speaker 1: of a challenge for them in the next round. For
Speaker 1: the Knicks, obviously, a frustrating way to lose the series, right,
Speaker 1: Like your biggest advantage. The reason why I picked the
Speaker 1: Knicks to win that series was because I literally said,
Speaker 1: I think they're the.
Speaker 2: Bigger, tougher team.
Speaker 1: And then Mitchell Robinson goes down after game one, Oh
Speaker 1: Jannerobi goes down after Game two.
Speaker 2: Josh Hart strains is abdomen.
Speaker 1: Obviously, in game seven, Jalen Brunson ends up hurting his hand.
Speaker 1: You just you lost your greatest advantage by losing two
Speaker 1: front court players at the start of the series. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, your five best players were four guards
Speaker 1: in a big so like I understand that it was.
Speaker 1: It was frustrating, but at the end of the day, like,
Speaker 1: you guys weren't going to beat Boston in that sort
Speaker 1: of condition anyway.
Speaker 2: You needed to be.
Speaker 1: Healthy, and you just these playoffs really are a war
Speaker 1: of attrition. Every playoffs is a war of attrition. What
Speaker 1: happened in twenty nineteen it came down to, or what
Speaker 1: happened in twenty eighteen. It was like Chris Paul ends
Speaker 1: up getting hurt right twenty seventeen, Kawhi Leonard ends up
Speaker 1: getting hurt. Twenty nineteen, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant ended
Speaker 1: up getting hurt. Twenty twenty. That was the year that
Speaker 1: the Warriors had their gap year when everyone was hurt,
Speaker 1: right like Kevin Durant obviously was out that entire season.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one, the Lakers in their repeat, their attempt
Speaker 1: to repeat. They're up to one on the Suns in
Speaker 1: the first round, and Anthony Davis pulls his growing muscle,
Speaker 1: And honestly, the attempt for og And Andobi to play
Speaker 1: tonight reminded me of Anthony Davis trying to go in
Speaker 1: game was it six? I think it was Game six
Speaker 1: against the Lakers where he went out there, but it
Speaker 1: was just clear he couldn't move right. But like going
Speaker 1: to twenty twenty two, it's or twenty twenty one. That
Speaker 1: also was the year that for the Nets, Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: sprains his ankle, James Harden has a hamstring injury in
Speaker 1: out in the Western Conference. The Warriors were still out
Speaker 1: because Klay Thompson was out that entire season, and the
Speaker 1: Warriors would have made the playoffs, but Steph landed on
Speaker 1: a stair and hurt his tailbone and missed like eight
Speaker 1: games and they lost all of them, and so they
Speaker 1: ended up missing the playoffs. Right like twenty twenty, like
Speaker 1: there's always injuries. Lebron James in twenty twenty three gets
Speaker 1: that foot injury right like, there's all injuries are an
Speaker 1: important part of every NBA playoff run, right Like. It
Speaker 1: is a war of attrition, and this time the Knicks
Speaker 1: were on the wrong side of it.
Speaker 2: It is what it is.
Speaker 1: It's really unfortunate. But here's the thing, there are a
Speaker 1: ton of reasons for optimism for Knicks fans. You've got
Speaker 1: a culture, you've got an energy behind the franchise. Now
Speaker 1: you've become desirable as a place to play in a
Speaker 1: way that you weren't in the past. And most importantly,
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of talent and a lot of
Speaker 1: draft compensation. So you can look to make some sort
Speaker 1: of mild pivot this offseason to bring in some sort
Speaker 1: of scoring forward. I'd be looking for an upgrade of
Speaker 1: the Julius Randall position, or you could look at an
Speaker 1: upgrade at the three, because I think Og can play
Speaker 1: the four, but you need to find some sort of
Speaker 1: legitimate secondary scoring option next to Jalen Brunson, just so
Speaker 1: that you can kind of disperse the load a little bit.
Speaker 1: Like I think Jalen Brunson looked obviously a little bit
Speaker 1: fatigued over the tail end of that series, right, Like
Speaker 1: Brunston just wasn't the same guy game three through seven
Speaker 1: of that series, right he was. Obviously there's the foot injury.
Speaker 1: He's worn down. You got to find a way to
Speaker 1: shrink everyone's roles, and the easiest way to do that
Speaker 1: is to bring another star in, because, as I always
Speaker 1: say on the show, when you have legitimate stars that
Speaker 1: play both ends of the floor, they create small, achievable
Speaker 1: roles for role players. Right now, you kind of need
Speaker 1: everybody to bring a ton the table, But like you
Speaker 1: can minimize that and make easy roles for everyone. Like
Speaker 1: Dante DiVincenzo was basically your secondary shot creator. He had
Speaker 1: some hot shooting nights, he had some poor shooting nights.
Speaker 1: But like, if you put Dante de Vincenzo in a
Speaker 1: situation where he has to do less offensively, you get
Speaker 1: a little bit more out of him defensively, a little
Speaker 1: bit more consistency from him offensively.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So, Like, I think the one guy that I would
Speaker 1: not move if I could avoid it is Og, because
Speaker 1: I think if you give up Og and you bring
Speaker 1: in some scoring minded forward, you could run into some
Speaker 1: issues that you saw after Og went down, which is
Speaker 1: the physical profile of the team gets changed and you
Speaker 1: no longer bring that imposition to the table. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like i'd be looking to package salaries. You've got some
Speaker 1: surplus at some specific positions. I think you can afford
Speaker 1: to give up a guard. I think you can afford
Speaker 1: to give up one of your centers, right. But like that,
Speaker 1: I would be looking to package those guys in draft
Speaker 1: compensation to look for some sort of scoring forward to
Speaker 1: alleviate some of the workload on Jalen Brunson. Like I said,
Speaker 1: we'll have a series preview on Celtics Pacers tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Tonight.
Speaker 1: I'm going with Colin right after the final buzzer of
Speaker 1: Denver Minnesota Game seven. I believe after that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: stay on and record something for the Hoops Tonight channel.
Speaker 1: So I'll probably have something later tonight on that series,
Speaker 1: and then tomorrow I'm also gonna be working on the
Speaker 1: series preview for the winner of that game versus Dallas.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that's all I have for this first
Speaker 1: show today is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 2: I'll see you in a few hours.
Speaker 1: The volume