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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to hoop tonight here at the volume
Speaker 1: heavy Tuesday. Everybody off, All of you guys are having
Speaker 1: a great week. Well, we got what I think has
Speaker 1: been the biggest regular season game to this point in
Speaker 1: the NBA season. The only other game that I felt
Speaker 1: was this important, other than the opening night ones just
Speaker 1: because it's all exciting because NBA basketball is back, was
Speaker 1: that the uh the Warriors Celtics game a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1: But this one, this one felt like an important test
Speaker 1: for the Cleveland Cavaliers got off to a fifteen and
Speaker 1: oh start. Obviously not the perfect rendition of what this
Speaker 1: matchup would look like. Christops Porzingis is a very important
Speaker 1: part of the Boston Celtics and their ability to attack
Speaker 1: specific matchups. And obviously we had a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: out for Cleveland, specifically in their wing corps with Dean
Speaker 1: Wade out, Isaacacorro out, Max Strus out, and Carris la vertout,
Speaker 1: and those are guys that you need for this.
Speaker 2: Type of matchup.
Speaker 1: But still we got at least a vague look at
Speaker 1: what these two teams look like matching up against each other,
Speaker 1: and the Celtics kind of controlled it for the most part.
Speaker 1: Cavs got it close a few times, but the Celtics
Speaker 1: got out of there with a win. We're going to
Speaker 1: break the game down from the perspective of both teams,
Speaker 1: and then at the tail end of the show, we
Speaker 1: are doing a mail bag, So drop mail bag questions
Speaker 1: in the chat and Paul's gonna send him over to
Speaker 1: me and we'll hit a bunch of mail bag questions
Speaker 1: at the tail end.
Speaker 2: Of the show. You guys did the joke before we
Speaker 2: get started.
Speaker 1: Subscribed to Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss
Speaker 1: any more of our videos follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore jsonlt so you guysn't miss announcements. Don't forget about
Speaker 1: a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast hoops tonight,
Speaker 1: don't forget to tell ful v leve a rating and
Speaker 1: a review on that front. We also have new social
Speaker 1: media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook when we're releasing
Speaker 1: a lotch of like reels and other contents. To make
Speaker 1: sure you follow there. In the last not out least,
Speaker 1: keepdropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. We are
Speaker 1: doing a mail bag on Friday that I am recording
Speaker 1: on Thursday, and I'm gonna be grabbing the comments from
Speaker 1: yesterday's video, today's videos, and from tomorrow's for that specific mailbag,
Speaker 1: so make sure you drop. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: we don't have a new video coming out tomorrow, so
Speaker 1: tomorrow will be your last chance or excuse me, this
Speaker 1: video will be the last one this week where you
Speaker 1: can drop mailbag questions for Friday's mailbags to make sure
Speaker 1: you get that in there, but also drop mailbags in
Speaker 1: the chat so that we can hit some at the
Speaker 1: tail end of this show tonight, all right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So one of the most important functions that
Speaker 1: I was looking for in this particular matchup was Boston's
Speaker 1: ability to attack Cleveland's entry points. This is something I've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about with the decision for the Cavs
Speaker 1: to kind of go well in on the Garland Mitchell backcourt.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So, like an entry point is a method with which
Speaker 1: you get a defense into rotation. When you get a
Speaker 1: defense into rotation, then even the good defenders are sprinting
Speaker 1: at guys, and that's just easier to handle. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: if I put you on an island against lou Dort,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a real hard time scoring. But if
Speaker 1: I put him twenty feet away from you or fifteen
Speaker 1: feet away from you, and I make him sprint at you,
Speaker 1: You're probably going to be able to either get a
Speaker 1: three point shot off, or if he sells out at
Speaker 1: the three point shot, you might be able to drive
Speaker 1: past him and make something happen. Right, Like, even the
Speaker 1: best defenders in the world, and when they're put into
Speaker 1: disadvantageous situations, can struggle to contain the basketball, right, And
Speaker 1: that's where you can expand your advantage and end up
Speaker 1: getting a wide open three or a layup or something
Speaker 1: along those lines, right, But against most of the teams
Speaker 1: in the NBA, you can hide your entry points. So
Speaker 1: if you've got a really good on ball defender, multiple
Speaker 1: really good on ball defenders, and you've got big guys
Speaker 1: that can defend in ball screens and switch and do
Speaker 1: all that different stuff, then you can hopefully take your
Speaker 1: weakest defender and you can hide them on the most
Speaker 1: limited offensive player on the other team, and you can
Speaker 1: do a bunch of different things to cover for them.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So, like, if he's a guy that can't be a
Speaker 1: movement shooter, meaning like he can't set a screen and
Speaker 1: then slip out of it and quickly get his feet
Speaker 1: set and knock down a three, then you can ask
Speaker 1: your offense or defensive player to hedge and recover because
Speaker 1: he can throw a hedge to stop the ball handler
Speaker 1: from driving, but he can still recover to that limited
Speaker 1: offensive player that's going to struggle to shoot on the move, right,
Speaker 1: Or you can pre switch where it's like, oh, they're
Speaker 1: going to try to attack this guy, why don't we
Speaker 1: just send a better defender up and just switch as
Speaker 1: the guy's running up to set the screen. Right, there's
Speaker 1: a bunch of different things you can do to hide
Speaker 1: a limited defensive player. But eventually you run into a
Speaker 1: team like the Boston Celtics, and they're not the only
Speaker 1: team like this. There are several teams like this around
Speaker 1: the league. I think Oklahoma City fits this mold as well,
Speaker 1: but there are teams that have lots of really high
Speaker 1: level offensive players on the floor. You run out of
Speaker 1: places to hide guys, right, And in that sort of situation,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you find out really quickly just
Speaker 1: how easy it is to break down a defense by
Speaker 1: attacking a specific weak point. And in this particular game,
Speaker 1: by virtue of the injuries, there were two entry points
Speaker 1: for the Cavs at the start of the game, with
Speaker 1: Darius Garland and Sam Merrill, and Boston was just relentlessly
Speaker 1: attacking those two.
Speaker 2: That was a big part of.
Speaker 1: Why we ended up getting to see a lot of
Speaker 1: Craig Porter Junior in this game, because they were trying
Speaker 1: to make sure that there were fewer weak points on
Speaker 1: the court that they could look to attack. Right when
Speaker 1: you have those weak points and you get the defense
Speaker 1: into rotation, it just doesn't matter anymore, and that's how
Speaker 1: you end up with a barrage from the three point
Speaker 1: line like what you saw from Boston tonight. I thought
Speaker 1: it was really interesting. I asked Paul, our producer, to
Speaker 1: keep an eye out on the twitter feed if any
Speaker 1: news comes out. But like Jared Allen didn't play down
Speaker 1: the stretch, and so then it ended up being a
Speaker 1: lot of Georgei's kneeing and that's another entry point. And
Speaker 1: you guys saw how it was, Like Jalen Brown and
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum just felt like we can get whatever we
Speaker 1: want against George's kneeing. I thought Jason Tatum did a
Speaker 1: really nice job attacking him. One of the things that
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum has been doing lately that he's always done this,
Speaker 1: but I feel like he's doing it a little bit
Speaker 1: more this year. Is one of his biggest athletic strengths
Speaker 1: is that he's big and strong, and so he's been
Speaker 1: doing this move where like he's getting dribble penetration without
Speaker 1: having to like make some sort of super aggressive, launching
Speaker 1: athletic move.
Speaker 2: And what he'll do.
Speaker 1: Is like he'll face up on the guy and he'll throw,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe throw a little jab step, but then
Speaker 1: he'll open up that right shoulder and he'll jab with
Speaker 1: that right foot out almost to the left where he's
Speaker 1: almost got his shoulder turned, and when he's there, he
Speaker 1: can get into a step back. But what he can
Speaker 1: also do is he can use that right leg to
Speaker 1: almost like slow motion start his drive, and then when
Speaker 1: he's ready to drive, he can put the ball on
Speaker 1: the floor with his left hand and clear out with
Speaker 1: his right arm. That just creating space with his strength,
Speaker 1: which I think is really smart, and that's how he
Speaker 1: got his last couple drives to the rim. God, Tatum
Speaker 1: was so good in this game. But like, it just
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if george' niang wants to slide his feet,
Speaker 1: like Tatum just needs this tiny little bit of an
Speaker 1: angle so that he can use his upper body strength
Speaker 1: to get the leverage to get all the way to
Speaker 1: the rim, and then just playing off of two to
Speaker 1: draw fouls and to get quality looks around the rim.
Speaker 1: He was torching them. That Tatum White two man game
Speaker 1: has been something that's been a staple for the Boston
Speaker 1: offense forever. But they were going to it a lot
Speaker 1: to attack guys like Sam Merrill and Darius Garland. And
Speaker 1: one of the things you saw is like that's the
Speaker 1: difference between attacking a team like Boston attacking a team
Speaker 1: like Cleveland. Right, there were stretches in this game where
Speaker 1: you could see Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland and Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley be like, oh, like Peyton Pritchard's on the floor,
Speaker 1: let's run this screening action to get him switched on
Speaker 1: to Evan Mobley, and then let's just go to Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley on the block and he can score over Peyton Pritchard.
Speaker 1: Or like Nimi Quita's on the floor, we can attack
Speaker 1: him in his drop coverage, or like they're different that
Speaker 1: they did a lot of attacking Sam Houser in this
Speaker 1: particular game, right, So, like there are guys that are
Speaker 1: on the bench that you can look to attack with Boston,
Speaker 1: but like with their starting lineup, there's just not a
Speaker 1: good entry point. Your best entry point was there was
Speaker 1: a stretch of this game where and Boston will do
Speaker 1: switching with Wharford two, and Horford's just really good at switching.
Speaker 1: But like one of the things that that Boston was
Speaker 1: doing in this game is they were they were running
Speaker 1: a good amount of deep drop coverage with Horford. So
Speaker 1: like Donovan Mitchell was able to get into some of
Speaker 1: his pull up jump shot game against that deep drop coverage.
Speaker 1: But like when Boston wants to and they put that
Speaker 1: five out there and they start switching everything, it's like
Speaker 1: take your pick, like where do you want to attack?
Speaker 1: There's not really a great option for you there for
Speaker 1: you to go at. And then in again, it's one
Speaker 1: of those things when there's when there's one entry point
Speaker 1: on the floor, it's a little easier to cover for
Speaker 1: than when there's two. And I thought that was the
Speaker 1: big thing that really stood out in this game. And
Speaker 1: it's kind of the reality of Cleveland's roster, which is
Speaker 1: like it won't always be Sam Merrill, right, Like that's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be Max Truce. Max Struce is a very
Speaker 1: good switching defender. He could switch onto different types of forwards.
Speaker 1: He can do a lot of really impactful defending in
Speaker 1: a switching scheme. But Darius Garland always is going to
Speaker 1: be out there, and he's always going to be a
Speaker 1: guy that they can look to attack in space. And
Speaker 1: it's just it's just something to keep in mind in
Speaker 1: terms of that matchup in the big picture, right, because
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of different like variables in this game,
Speaker 1: Like Boston shot twenty two for forty one from three.
Speaker 1: When Boston shoots that, well, you just get to lose.
Speaker 1: And like, Boston did a lot of like really tough
Speaker 1: shot making in this game, and in addition to their
Speaker 1: high level offense where they generated great catch and shoot
Speaker 1: looks right. So like there's a sequence in the end
Speaker 1: of the first half where it's like Jalen Brown comes
Speaker 1: buying off of like a off ball cut from the
Speaker 1: right wing to the top of the key and Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley there's like two screeners around the elbows and Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley decides to go underneath the picks as he should.
Speaker 1: It's like you gotta meet Jalen Brown on the other side,
Speaker 1: and the screens we're being set damn near at the
Speaker 1: three point line. So Jalenn Brown capped the ball like
Speaker 1: twenty six feet from the rim, and if Jaylen Brown's
Speaker 1: gonna catch the ball twenty six feet from the rim
Speaker 1: on the move and shoot it, kind of would rather
Speaker 1: like concede that than give up a drive by chasing
Speaker 1: him over the top of that right. Well, Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: made it, because Jalen Brown can make it. There are
Speaker 1: plays where it's like we're offering a little bit of
Speaker 1: nail help and Peyton Pritchard is spotting up on the wing,
Speaker 1: but he's like twenty seven feet away and it's like
Speaker 1: that's a long above the break three, but like he
Speaker 1: can make that, right. The big one in this game
Speaker 1: is the Derek White has been so good at this.
Speaker 1: There's an interchange in the switch, right, So like if
Speaker 1: Derek White's dribbling off the floor, is an on ball
Speaker 1: defender on him that's guarding him, and he gets a
Speaker 1: screening action, and there's a switch the two on ball defender,
Speaker 1: the two defenders in the action, the one will step
Speaker 1: off and the other one will step in right, and
Speaker 1: the one that's stepping off is trying to get inside
Speaker 1: the guy who's screening for him, because you don't want
Speaker 1: to give up that inside seal slip that Boston torches
Speaker 1: people with, right, which is like, oh you're switching. Cool, Well,
Speaker 1: Tatum's just going to screen you from behind instead of
Speaker 1: on the side, and then he's just gonna slip and
Speaker 1: he's got inside position. Now he's wide open on a roll.
Speaker 1: Now it's four on three and you're defensive screwed, right,
Speaker 1: Like so like you're trying to back off on the
Speaker 1: ball to get inside position on the switch and then
Speaker 1: that second guy who's guarding the screener has to get
Speaker 1: out there. But in that interchange there's a gap, and
Speaker 1: Derek White is like a master at like waiting for
Speaker 1: that gap and just rising and fire right and firing
Speaker 1: right over the top. And there were a lot of
Speaker 1: those where Cleveland was pretty quick on their switch and
Speaker 1: they're there on the catch or on that switch ready
Speaker 1: to contest, and Derek White just can make it because
Speaker 1: Derek White's an elite shooter. And there there are stretches
Speaker 1: in fights against Boston where like you just kind of
Speaker 1: hang on for dear life because they're making tough shots
Speaker 1: and hope to God that you're still in the game
Speaker 1: by the time they cool off and start having to
Speaker 1: execute on offense again. And like there's a certain amount
Speaker 1: of like Boston had a great shooting night tonight, you know, right,
Speaker 1: but like the flip and if you're a Cavs fan too,
Speaker 1: you're thinking, like, Okay, well, we're gonna have better perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders on the floor, We're gonna have better opportunity to
Speaker 1: contain in.
Speaker 2: Our switch it.
Speaker 1: But like as you watch that game, there was some
Speaker 1: difficulty that Darius Garland had creating shots at the rim.
Speaker 1: I thought he was challenging athletes at the rim and
Speaker 1: was struggling to make shots. And it's like at a
Speaker 1: certain point, Boston's players are just a little bit better,
Speaker 1: and that's something that I think is going to be difficult.
Speaker 1: And I don't think you come out of that game
Speaker 1: discouraged if you're a Calves fan, because I think you
Speaker 1: hung tight, right, like Boston had a great shooting night,
Speaker 1: get a bunch of guys out, and you were in it.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, like every time Cleveland got close,
Speaker 1: Boston pulled away again, and then Cleveland would get close,
Speaker 1: and then Boston would pull away again because Boston had
Speaker 1: the ability to leverage their advantages when.
Speaker 2: Things got tight.
Speaker 1: And I it was weird because I thought it was
Speaker 1: like a sign of just how serious the Calves are.
Speaker 1: And I think at this point, if you're if you're
Speaker 1: not looking at the Calves as the obvious two seed
Speaker 1: at worst in the Eastern Conference, then I think you're
Speaker 1: underestimating them. I think they're obviously better than teams like
Speaker 1: Milwaukee and Philly and New York at this point, Like
Speaker 1: the Calves are damn good, but like the Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: are the class of the NBA for good reason, and
Speaker 1: I thought they demonstrated it tonight just with the way
Speaker 1: they've maintained control of the game. I cannot say enough
Speaker 1: about how impressed I was with Jason Tatum, just in
Speaker 1: his overall like calm demeanor throughout the game. Every time
Speaker 1: it felt like things got out of control, he was
Speaker 1: able to settle them down and generate great shots. The
Speaker 1: game is really slowing down for him this year in
Speaker 1: a big ways. His playmaking has been threw the roof
Speaker 1: over the course the last two or three weeks. I
Speaker 1: thought it was a really really impressive performance from Boston,
Speaker 1: even against a feisty Calves Calves performance as well. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm really curious to see why Jared Allen didn't play
Speaker 1: because Ivy was hurt. Then, you know, maybe that was
Speaker 1: just a simple decision to take care of his body.
Speaker 1: I get it from the standpoint of spacing, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well we want to have five shooters on the floor,
Speaker 1: so why don't we do it this way? And George's
Speaker 1: nang obviously gives you that extra bit of shooting in
Speaker 1: that situation. But like with Boston, they're just too good
Speaker 1: at picking apart your weak links on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the four, and you gift wrapped a mismatch there,
Speaker 1: like Tatum was going right at him. There's play late
Speaker 1: in the game where Jayalen Brown's like, I don't want
Speaker 1: a screen, stay away. I got him, Like I can
Speaker 1: score on this, dude, Like give me my space. I'm
Speaker 1: going to go to work here right. One other note
Speaker 1: that I thought was fascinating from this game, there were
Speaker 1: some stretches for the Calves where they got a little
Speaker 1: bit out of control with overhelping and ended up giving
Speaker 1: up some really the good threes. The stretch right at
Speaker 1: the end of the first half, it was like a
Speaker 1: five point game with like four minutes left, and there
Speaker 1: were multiple overhelps for no damn reason. Craig Porter Junr
Speaker 1: had a big one off of off the left wing,
Speaker 1: and then they had a a on the right wing
Speaker 1: overhelp at the nail where they gave up Peyton Pritchard
Speaker 1: to wide open three. But like they gave up a
Speaker 1: couple of wide open threes. And then do you guys
Speaker 1: remember those two wide open Jason Tatum threes at the
Speaker 1: end of the half. The two wide open Jason Tatum threes.
Speaker 1: He was imbounding on the sideline and nobody was guarding him,
Speaker 1: literally nobody, So he just threw the ball into the corner,
Speaker 1: took a step in, got the ball back, and knocked
Speaker 1: down the three. It's like, if you're trying to beat Boston,
Speaker 1: you can't have mistakes where you forget to guard their
Speaker 1: best player on the possession.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: There was another one where Tatum had the ball, Mitchell
Speaker 1: was on him. They brought Garland's man up into a screen.
Speaker 1: This was like right after that shot and there was
Speaker 1: a screen and Darius Garland should have switched Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: certainly thought he was going to switch. Nobody guarded Tatum.
Speaker 1: Tatum just took two dribbles to his left and got
Speaker 1: into a wide open off the dribble three off the
Speaker 1: left wing, and it's like, you know, you're let's zoom
Speaker 1: in on this right. So, like we all agree, Boston's
Speaker 1: best team in the league. That I think is pretty
Speaker 1: much consensus around the league at this point. Do I
Speaker 1: think Boston is unbeatable the way like the twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: Warriors are, No like that team at Kevin Durant, Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, all in their athletic primes with
Speaker 1: Andrea Guadala. That team was just completely stacked with like
Speaker 1: apex talent that that team is. That team I legitimately
Speaker 1: believed it was unbeatable. This Boston team, I think is
Speaker 1: far and away the best team in the league. But
Speaker 1: I think that you can beat them in the series.
Speaker 1: I think it's possible, but they're going to go in
Speaker 1: every series as a heavy favorite. I will pick them
Speaker 1: in every series. We all should because they're the best team.
Speaker 1: But if you're going to beat them, there are several
Speaker 1: things that you have to do. And the first line
Speaker 1: item is you can't make a bunch of mistakes because
Speaker 1: if you make a bunch of mistake, now you're trying
Speaker 1: to overcome a talent advantage and you're spotting them points.
Speaker 1: That's where you could end up in a lot of trouble. Two,
Speaker 1: you've got to play defensive lineups with switchability and with
Speaker 1: fewer options to attack off the dribble.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: That means that guy at the three has to be
Speaker 1: a player that you trust to be able to guard
Speaker 1: multiple Boston shot creators. Having that extrus back will help.
Speaker 1: Having Dean Wade back will help. I having Isaacacora back
Speaker 1: will help. Having Karris Lavert will help, no doubt. But
Speaker 1: within that scheme, you have to switch and you cannot
Speaker 1: make mistakes on overhelp situations that put Boston in rotation
Speaker 1: or your defense in rotation against Boston. If you're in
Speaker 1: rotation against Boston, you're dead on arrival. That's when they
Speaker 1: get their wide open catch and shoot threes. You have
Speaker 1: to try to force them into tough shot making, and
Speaker 1: the only way you can do that is switch contains,
Speaker 1: stay home off the ball. It's a very difficult job,
Speaker 1: but that is what you have to do now. Like Cleveland,
Speaker 1: it's just it's gotta be tricky with that dairy Garland
Speaker 1: piece because they are going to continue to look to
Speaker 1: attack him every single time they get a chance if
Speaker 1: they meet each other in a series. But there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of different things you have to do. The third
Speaker 1: piece is you gotta make shots. There were a lot
Speaker 1: of good looks that Cleveland got tonight that they did
Speaker 1: not hit. That's one of those things where like you
Speaker 1: can't be in a situation where you're just getting flat
Speaker 1: out out gunned either and so again, execution, avoiding errors,
Speaker 1: putting together switchable lineups, and not making mistakes where you
Speaker 1: put your defense in rotation and you gotta make shots,
Speaker 1: and like that's the pathway, right and you got to
Speaker 1: do that four times in two weeks. That's just what
Speaker 1: makes this team so difficult to imagine getting beat at
Speaker 1: this point in the season. Very very interesting early regular
Speaker 1: season game. I thought it was a very impressive performance
Speaker 1: from the Boston Celtics. I thought they were a lot
Speaker 1: more in control than what the scoreboard would lead you
Speaker 1: to believe it. Every time I see a game like
Speaker 1: that where like a team gets close but can ever
Speaker 1: get over the hump, that's always an indicator to me
Speaker 1: that like, oh, well, that team, the team that was
Speaker 1: in control, just felt like anytime they needed to get
Speaker 1: a couple of buckets and a couple of stops, they
Speaker 1: were able to.
Speaker 2: That's kind of what it felt like.
Speaker 1: Oh they got it to two, well it's back to
Speaker 1: seven because Darius Garland got his shit blocked off the
Speaker 1: glass and now Derek White's hitting at three and transition
Speaker 1: on the other end.
Speaker 2: You know, like that that is the.
Speaker 1: Kind of sequence that just kind of seemed to happen
Speaker 1: every single time Cleveland got back into that game.
Speaker 2: But there's a pathway.
Speaker 1: They just need to be sharper than they showed tonight.
Speaker 1: All right, if you guys have questions, make sure you
Speaker 1: drop him to Paul in the chat. Let's get started here.
Speaker 1: This is from Stevie Hey Jason, big fan of the show.
Speaker 1: At what point do you think the Celtics need porzingis
Speaker 1: playing and healthy to be able to advance? I believe
Speaker 1: they need him against Cleveland as well as the finals.
Speaker 1: Boston is good enough that if porzingis now suited up
Speaker 1: again this year, I'd still consider them to be the favorite.
Speaker 1: That said, it's just so much more in the way
Speaker 1: of it's so much more in the way of margin
Speaker 1: for error. When you have him out there. It gives
Speaker 1: you margin too for Like what ab Al Horford goes
Speaker 1: down with an injury for a certain amount of time, right,
Speaker 1: Or like what if one of your primary shot creators
Speaker 1: goes down, like someone like it Derek White or Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown goes down for a certain amount of time, Like
Speaker 1: having porzingis there helps. The difference is is like the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference is so so, so so so weak that
Speaker 1: like Boston could literally like take the ultimate cautious approach
Speaker 1: this year and still get no worse than the two seeds.
Speaker 1: So the Western Conference is different. Right in the Western Conference,
Speaker 1: it's like such a blood bath where it's like you
Speaker 1: have a bad couple of weeks, you're in the plane,
Speaker 1: so like there's a there's a level of urgency that
Speaker 1: there's a lack of urgency I should say with Boston
Speaker 1: within the regular season. That makes me feel like I
Speaker 1: want Porzingis to take as long as needed, and I
Speaker 1: don't want him to set foot on an NBA court
Speaker 1: until he is literally one hundred percent ready, not ninety
Speaker 1: nine percent ready, one hundred percent ready. It's very different
Speaker 1: if you're running into a postseason series that starts in
Speaker 1: two weeks, you might be like, hey, if you're ninety
Speaker 1: five percent, we want you ready to go in two weeks, right,
Speaker 1: But I would I would take your sweet time with
Speaker 1: Porzingis as far as like the specific matchup stuff again,
Speaker 1: like we saw that in the playoff in the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: in particular in Game one with Porzingis, where it's like
Speaker 1: his ability to punish mismatches at the elbows with quick
Speaker 1: like face up post up stuff is just so valuable
Speaker 1: to beating switching schemes, which, as we talked about, like
Speaker 1: you need to switch against Boston. It's the only way
Speaker 1: to keep them out of rotation. So if you have
Speaker 1: to switch against Boston to keep them out of rotation,
Speaker 1: then you can't. You have to hold up on the
Speaker 1: other side of it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So, like mistake making is botching switches, giving up slips,
Speaker 1: that's when you're gonna get in rotation.
Speaker 2: Now you're just dead on arrival, right.
Speaker 1: But if you do the right thing and you switch appropriately,
Speaker 1: you switch aggressively to take away the pull up shots
Speaker 1: from guys like Derek White in the switch interchange, and
Speaker 1: you get take away those inside seals, now it turns
Speaker 1: into a post up game or an ISO game, right,
Speaker 1: And like porzingis is just another way to attack in
Speaker 1: those one on one situations when they need to. This
Speaker 1: is from Lonzetta. Hey, Jason, what are your early thoughts
Speaker 1: on the Rockets young core? They seem to be putting
Speaker 1: it together, especially Tari Easton and men Thompson defensively.
Speaker 2: I did a little bit of.
Speaker 1: A dive into the Rockets yesterday, and then I also
Speaker 1: broke down the Rockets Bucks game in a good amount
Speaker 1: of detail with some film in today's show. So if
Speaker 1: you haven't had a chance to check that out, I
Speaker 1: recommend that you do. I'm a huge fan of it,
Speaker 1: mainly from the standpoint of, like where I see the
Speaker 1: game going. The Rockets are building around athletes, and I
Speaker 1: think that's really smart. Jalen Green freaky athletic, Jabari Smith
Speaker 1: great athlete, Tarry Easton great athlete, and Men Thompson freaky athletic.
Speaker 1: They have layers of athleticism. It's like Cam Witmore super athletic.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, here's Aaron Holliday, He's like a really
Speaker 1: quick guard. Right Reed Shepherd even brings a great amount
Speaker 1: of athleticism to the guard spot. They a They went
Speaker 1: into last night's game with the Bucks with the fifth
Speaker 1: best record in the league, And what I thought was
Speaker 1: fascinating about that is like if you look at the
Speaker 1: top of the league and it's like, Okay, we have
Speaker 1: Cleveland as a best record, Golden State's right there, There's Boston.
Speaker 1: There's okay, see there's Houston. There was our top five
Speaker 1: records heading into last night's games, all five of them
Speaker 1: freaky athletic teams that thrive in transition, and so I've
Speaker 1: really really liked that build, and there have been extensive
Speaker 1: stretches of this season, and it goes beyond when I
Speaker 1: talk about speed, it goes beyond just transition too. It's
Speaker 1: like it's the transition game on both ends. It's the
Speaker 1: pay and space game on both ends, meaning like your
Speaker 1: ability to drive and kick teams or to handle driving
Speaker 1: kick teams by containing the ball and rotating.
Speaker 2: But a big part of it is ball pressure.
Speaker 1: The ability to get up into ball handlers, be physical
Speaker 1: at the point of attack, make teams uncomfortable early in
Speaker 1: possession so that they're playing late in the clock and
Speaker 1: having to rush bad shots right or fighting guys off
Speaker 1: a spot so that they're out of rhythm. That's a
Speaker 1: huge part of success on the defensive end. In the
Speaker 1: modern NBA. There have been games at Houston's won with
Speaker 1: ball pressure. Do you remember the game where I don't
Speaker 1: even remember who they were playing, well, when Tari Easton
Speaker 1: got the back to back steals and took it the
Speaker 1: other way for transition layups and then like literally laid
Speaker 1: on his back on the floor, like huffing and puffing
Speaker 1: because he was so exhausted. Like they bring layers of
Speaker 1: guys that can get into the ball and make you uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: and it's a big part of what it's a big
Speaker 1: part of what makes them so successful defensively. I just
Speaker 1: think again there, they came into tonight with the twenty
Speaker 1: third ranked half court offense. It's a lot of like
Speaker 1: depending on Fred van Vliet to create shots and Jalen
Speaker 1: Green's decision making is still super sketchy, but so like,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're going to do much this year
Speaker 1: just because how limited they are offensively in the half court.
Speaker 2: But the direction they're going.
Speaker 1: Is one that I really like, which is like Jalen
Speaker 1: Green's starting to increase his three point volume. Tons of
Speaker 1: athletes were ball pressuring, We're defending on the perimeter, running
Speaker 1: in transition on both ends. I even like the Shannghu
Speaker 1: stuff where he's acting as a fulcrum at the top
Speaker 1: of the key. There was a Fred van layup against
Speaker 1: the Bucks last night where Shangun had the ball at
Speaker 1: the top of the key and they ran one of
Speaker 1: those classic like kind of screen and slip situations and
Speaker 1: Fred van Vliet ended up getting an easy layup in
Speaker 1: the lane. They got a lot of good stuff that
Speaker 1: they're getting out of that. I'm a fan of Houston.
Speaker 1: I just think they're probably a year or two away
Speaker 1: from some of their ultimate goals. From Billstone. When evaluating players,
Speaker 1: how much do you take turnovers or assist to turnover
Speaker 1: ratio into account, I think it's undervalued. It's actually what ironically,
Speaker 1: it's one of the first things I look at when
Speaker 1: I'm looking at role players because they tend to have
Speaker 1: super low assist totals and super low turnover totals. But
Speaker 1: like when I see a role player that gets like
Speaker 1: two assists per game but like less than one turnover
Speaker 1: per game, that's a big part of the drive and
Speaker 1: kick system, right. So, like, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: situations where role players have to make reads right, and
Speaker 1: that's like the decision zone, right, So like you catch
Speaker 1: the ball in the perimeter, you pump fake, or you
Speaker 1: have a guy running at you, you beat him off
Speaker 1: the dribble. Now you're standing at the elbow with a
Speaker 1: live dribble in basically what's a five on four situation.
Speaker 1: That's a difficult bit of processing. You only have a
Speaker 1: you know, twenty five percent advantage there. You have five
Speaker 1: players to four, right, So like you have your advantage
Speaker 1: and you have to quickly process where the next read is.
Speaker 1: And so with role players in particular, assist the turnover
Speaker 1: ratio is one that I track a lot now. With
Speaker 1: primary ball handlers, I care more about overall assist volume
Speaker 1: early in their careers because young players are going to
Speaker 1: make mistakes when you ask them to create shots off
Speaker 1: the dribble. And so with that, like a young player,
Speaker 1: young guard, it's at you know, three and a half
Speaker 1: four turnovers a game. Some of that is just like
Speaker 1: the reality of him learning how to play at the
Speaker 1: NBA level. But like if I see a guy who's
Speaker 1: routinely putting up six and a half seven assists to night,
Speaker 1: that's a strong indicator for me. Like there's all this
Speaker 1: concern about Anthony Edwards and his playmaking, and I'm less
Speaker 1: concerned about it because I'm like, I want Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: to score the basketball.
Speaker 2: That's what he is.
Speaker 1: Anthony Verwards is a score right, But like when it
Speaker 1: comes to when it comes to like last year in
Speaker 1: the playoff run where he has an entire playoff run
Speaker 1: where he I can't remember exactly how many assists he averaged,
Speaker 1: but it was like seven or eight assists for the
Speaker 1: entire playoff run. When I see that, I go like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, like this, this is a guy that can
Speaker 1: draw multiple defenders and make simple kickout rads, and like
Speaker 1: that assist volume is super valuable to me in terms
Speaker 1: of like his shot creation. So in short, primary ball
Speaker 1: handlers early in their career are more concerned about overall
Speaker 1: assist volume role players I really like to look at
Speaker 1: assist a turnover ratio as a indicator of of their
Speaker 1: ability to make reads off the path off of closeouts.
Speaker 1: Or let's see from Eric, what are things you look
Speaker 1: for during the season that change your opinions on teams? Man,
Speaker 1: this is a very loaded question. A couple things like
Speaker 1: I do they have an elite unit? Like if I
Speaker 1: have a team that, in a large sample size is
Speaker 1: a top five offense or a top five defense, that's
Speaker 1: always something I take seriously. If a team has no
Speaker 1: elite unit, that's always something that I view as an issue.
Speaker 1: Like if you're a middle of the pack on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor, that's something I'm going to look at.
Speaker 1: Body language, the bad parts are part of the season.
Speaker 1: The Boston Celtics lost at home to the Atlanta hawk
Speaker 1: Sea other night. There's a certain amount of that that
Speaker 1: is just kind of like part of the eighty two
Speaker 1: game regular season. It's a very long season, right, but
Speaker 1: I want to see those be few and far between,
Speaker 1: and so I always look at like how team how
Speaker 1: quickly teams get out of the dregs of the season
Speaker 1: when they don't have their motivation. That that, to me
Speaker 1: is why it matters so much to be higher in
Speaker 1: the standings. It's an indicator of just how seriously you're
Speaker 1: taking the night to night stuff over the course of
Speaker 1: the regular season. All right, let's see here from King
Speaker 1: T do you think in an OKC versus Boston matchup,
Speaker 1: okc's lack of physicality with most of their guards could
Speaker 1: be an issue. Actually, go the other way on that.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of strong guards, like Lou Doord
Speaker 1: is a strong guard, Jalen Williams is a strong guard,
Speaker 1: Alex Crusoe is a strong guard. Cason Wallace is a
Speaker 1: strong guard. My main issue with OKC in a Boston
Speaker 1: match his experience. Okay, so he's got a lot of firepower.
Speaker 1: But their number two is some combination of Jalen Williams
Speaker 1: and Chet Holmgren and those guys just don't have a
Speaker 1: lot of playoff experience Boston. When Jayson Tatum is getting spelled,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be Jalen Brown and Derek White, and those
Speaker 1: are just guys that have a ton ton more experience.
Speaker 1: And so for me, like I like Okac's talent matchup
Speaker 1: with Boston, I don't like their experience matchup with Boston.
Speaker 1: But I don't view last year. I thought, okay, see,
Speaker 1: he was too young to have any shot. I view
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City as a legitimate threat this year. Alright, let's
Speaker 1: see last question, then we're done for the night. How
Speaker 1: much does Queta being the backup the backup big hurt
Speaker 1: the Celtics. Do they have any flexibility to acquire an upgrade?
Speaker 1: This is something I've talked a lot about this year,
Speaker 1: like when it comes to Boston and some of the
Speaker 1: obsession about their defense, and like I think they were
Speaker 1: still top ten if I remember correctly coming into the night.
Speaker 1: I don't really care all that much about about Boston's
Speaker 1: like some of their metrics at this point in the season,
Speaker 1: because like they're when they're whole, they have Christops Porzingis
Speaker 1: and now Horford playing all their center minutes and like
Speaker 1: they're keeping Al Horford's minutes down. They're playing a lot
Speaker 1: of Equeta and Cornett, and like those two guys are
Speaker 1: like they're perfectly fine rotation backup bigs, but at the
Speaker 1: championship level, they're guys that can be attacked, right, and
Speaker 1: so like there's a certain amount of like it's fun.
Speaker 1: They've turned a couple of guys into successful backup centers
Speaker 1: that I'm sure a couple teams around the league might
Speaker 1: have more use for than even Boston does. But at
Speaker 1: this point in the season, I'm not as worried about
Speaker 1: it because, like, again, even if I had to, even
Speaker 1: if I was the Boston Celtics, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: Porzingis isn't ready to go for the playoffs, We're gonna
Speaker 1: bring Horford up to thirty five minutes and we're gonna
Speaker 1: play Cornett for thirteen minutes a night. I still don't
Speaker 1: think that's enough of an issue to make Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: fans concerned about where they can.
Speaker 2: Get from there.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for today
Speaker 1: is always sincerely appreciate you for supporting the show. We
Speaker 1: have a couple of breakout clips coming out tomorrow. By
Speaker 1: the way, I had a couple of people ask and
Speaker 1: I'll mention this again off the top of one of
Speaker 1: our other shows, but like people asking about like the
Speaker 1: difference between the different types of clips we release.
Speaker 2: If you look at the.
Speaker 1: Thumbnails, the full episodes always have the same thumbnail type
Speaker 1: like layout. The breakout clips all have a different thumbnail,
Speaker 1: and then the TIMPs tape ones, I'll have a different thumbnail,
Speaker 1: so you can tell just by looking at the thumbnail
Speaker 1: whether or not it's actually a full episode. Also within
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel, there's a thread that's called full episodes,
Speaker 1: So anytime I actually am releasing something actually new, you
Speaker 1: can see that just by looking for the right thumbnail
Speaker 1: or looking under that full episode's a piece. But we
Speaker 1: do have a couple of breakout clips coming out tomorrow,
Speaker 1: the film session from yesterday or from today's show, which
Speaker 1: was a breakdown of Rockets Bucks and the way I
Speaker 1: did a breakdown on like Norman Powell getting all those
Speaker 1: open shots at the tail end against Golden State and
Speaker 1: how that all worked. We also have this mail bag
Speaker 1: coming out tomorrow, but we'll be back on Thursday with
Speaker 1: the breakdown of all the games from Wednesday night, and
Speaker 1: then I'm recording that mail bag on Thursday that's gonna
Speaker 1: air on Friday. So that's the content schedule for the
Speaker 1: rest of this week, and then next week for Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: we're going Monday Tuesday, and then I'm going again Tuesday
Speaker 1: night for the n season tournament slate that one might
Speaker 1: run the following morning, but then we're taking the entire
Speaker 1: team for Hoops Tonight. Is taking Thanksgiving off from Wednesday
Speaker 1: through Sunday, so that kind of gives you guys the schedule.
Speaker 1: But I'm always active, like watching film on Twitter, like
Speaker 1: posting clips. Like tomorrow morning, I'm probably gonna wake up
Speaker 1: and watch some Cave Celtics and just kind of thread
Speaker 1: some clips on Twitter, So make sure you follow me
Speaker 1: at Underscore JCNLT to see that there. Again, As always,
Speaker 1: a sincerely appreciate you guys for rocking with me and
Speaker 1: rocking with the show. Fun game, gonna be a fun season.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to seeing you guys.
Speaker 2: Next time the volume.
Speaker 1: What's up guys, As always, I appreciate you for listening
Speaker 1: to and supporting Hoops Tonight. It would actually be really
Speaker 1: helpful for us if you guys would take a second
Speaker 1: and leave a rating and a review. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take
Speaker 1: a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.