Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. Here at
Speaker 1: the Volume, Happy Wednesday, everybody cover to the Eastern Conference Finals. Here.
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited.
Speaker 1: How do you cash back? All right? Well, Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: did it again, dominating performance on the road in Boston
Speaker 1: in Game one to steal and take home court advantage.
Speaker 1: As we head into Game two with the Heat up
Speaker 1: one game to nothing. I have picked every single playoff
Speaker 1: series correctly in this postseason run, except for Miami in
Speaker 1: the first round, except for Miami in the second round,
Speaker 1: and I picked against them again in Round three. So
Speaker 1: if you're a Heat fan, you should just be happy
Speaker 1: that I keep picking against them, because I could not
Speaker 1: be more wrong about this team as they continue to
Speaker 1: impress night in and night out. You guys know the
Speaker 1: joke before we get started. Subscribe to The Volume's YouTube channels.
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Speaker 1: can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight,
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So, as we've said
Speaker 1: so many times over the course of this postseason, the
Speaker 1: reason why Jimmy Butler succeeds in the playoffs is this
Speaker 1: combination of side strength and athleticism right, which helps him
Speaker 1: get to his spots on offense, gets him physical mismatches
Speaker 1: on offense, and helps him be an impact player on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. When you combine that
Speaker 1: with his skill set in Basketball IQ, it turns him
Speaker 1: into my personal favorite archetype of basketball player, which is
Speaker 1: that big, rim pressuring and playmaking forward. That's why Lebron
Speaker 1: James has been my favorite player of all time and
Speaker 1: the guy that got me to fall in love with
Speaker 1: the game of basketball. It's why I think guys like
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic are so successful in I would actually argue
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler kind of is a lesser version of Lebron
Speaker 1: James at his prime, and that's a big part of
Speaker 1: why he's been such a dependently great playoff player. He
Speaker 1: has the size, speed and skill to consistently attack lesser
Speaker 1: defenders on the floor I've talked about this for years now,
Speaker 1: but in the NBA playoffs, schematically, coaches just find a
Speaker 1: way to slow down your pet actions in the plays
Speaker 1: that you run routinely throughout the season, right, So more
Speaker 1: often than not, it kind of breaks down into matchups.
Speaker 1: Like Golden State ran the most magnificent motion offense in
Speaker 1: the NBA all season long, like they always do. They
Speaker 1: run about twice as many actions per game as any
Speaker 1: other team in the NBA. They're always running sets, right,
Speaker 1: But all of a sudden, the teams can get in
Speaker 1: front of them and it just turns into, hey, we
Speaker 1: got to give the ball to Steph Curry at the
Speaker 1: top of the key and let him try to pick
Speaker 1: specific matchups. Apart that no team is immune to that.
Speaker 1: By the end of the day, when you're allowed as
Speaker 1: much time to scout, when you see the same team
Speaker 1: seven times in two weeks, it just breaks down into
Speaker 1: matchup hunting more often than not. And what happened down
Speaker 1: the stretch of this game, Jimmy Butler just relentlessly calling
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brognan's man up in ball screens, getting him on
Speaker 1: a switch, working him down to somewhere in that eight
Speaker 1: to fifteen foot area where he can get an easy
Speaker 1: short jump shot that he knows he can make consistently
Speaker 1: at a high percentage without getting bothered by the smaller
Speaker 1: defender that's guarding him. And here's the thing, Malcolm Brogen's
Speaker 1: a good defensive player, It's not about that. It's about
Speaker 1: the size mismatch, which is a natural thing that occurs
Speaker 1: in basketball games. Right. We literally just watched this in
Speaker 1: last night's game as Lebron James did the exact same
Speaker 1: thing to Jamal Murray, just pulling him up into ball
Speaker 1: screens every single possession, getting him on switches or catching
Speaker 1: him in hedges to find the open shooter. And that's
Speaker 1: what Jimmy's doing. Jimmy's doing the exact same thing. There's
Speaker 1: play where he gets Malcolm Brogden buried under the rim
Speaker 1: kind of right by the right block, and Malcolm Brogden
Speaker 1: comes in and helps out of the corner and leaves
Speaker 1: Caleb Martin wide open, and Jimmy Butler hits him. Because
Speaker 1: that's the other side of it. You start to attack
Speaker 1: those mismatches. You dictate an adjustment from the defense in
Speaker 1: the coverage. For Jimmy Butler tonight, it was double teams
Speaker 1: for Lebron James last night it was hedges. But you're
Speaker 1: finding that opening that comes when the defense tries to
Speaker 1: keep you away from attacking those matchups and you end
Speaker 1: up just getting better shots than everybody. That, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, is the best way to score
Speaker 1: in the NBA playoffs. Have an offensive player that can
Speaker 1: routinely attack one of your defensive players, regardless of lineup
Speaker 1: that you have out there, and you're gonna get higher
Speaker 1: quality shots. Here's the funny thing. Boston has similar matchup
Speaker 1: advantages on the other end of the court. They can
Speaker 1: pick on Gabe Vincent, who was a strong guard, but
Speaker 1: he's a little bit undersize, or excuse me, Max Struz
Speaker 1: is a strong guard who's a little bit undersized. Gabe
Speaker 1: Vincent's like legitimately a small fin guard. They can attack him.
Speaker 1: But here's the problem. Jason Tatum has gone from being
Speaker 1: a versatile three level score to an analytically driven top
Speaker 1: of the key above the break three point shooter who
Speaker 1: attacks the rim and looks to draw fouls. He's turned
Speaker 1: himself into a two dimensional score. And Jaylen Brown has
Speaker 1: a lot of that creative shot make making and the
Speaker 1: ability to attack matchups in the mid range, but he
Speaker 1: doesn't see the floor well enough to avoid some of
Speaker 1: the problems that come when the defense starts to send
Speaker 1: multiple defenders towards him. That's the difference when we talk
Speaker 1: about this series, and I talked about this in the
Speaker 1: series preview, and we're gonna look at two specific things here.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the overall team shot chart
Speaker 1: in Eric Spolstra. But what was the first thing I
Speaker 1: said as Miami's path to the series. Jimmy Butler has
Speaker 1: to play like he did in the first round and
Speaker 1: he did. His pull up jump shooting really cooled off
Speaker 1: in that second round series against the Knicks. He hit
Speaker 1: all the same shots that he hit against Milwaukee in
Speaker 1: tonight's game. That is a absolute must for Miami to
Speaker 1: win this series. Jimmy Butler has to be making those
Speaker 1: turnaround jump shots over both shoulders, the occasional pull up three.
Speaker 1: He's got to have the same command of the game
Speaker 1: that he did against Milwaukee, and he absolutely did. He
Speaker 1: was by far the best player in the Florid tonight.
Speaker 1: He looked like the one savvy veteran in a game
Speaker 1: full of young stars. Right and as long As that
Speaker 1: dynamic continues, Miami has an excellent chance to win this series.
Speaker 1: What was the second thing that I said that Miami
Speaker 1: had to do to win this series? I said, Eric
Speaker 1: Spolstra had to scheme the Celtics into their worst tendencies,
Speaker 1: leading them to long, extended stretches of bad basketball, which
Speaker 1: has been one of their weaknesses for a couple of years. Now. Well,
Speaker 1: they had sixty six points in the first half. Everything
Speaker 1: was working, but then they only had fifty points in
Speaker 1: the second half. What did I What did I talk
Speaker 1: about a lot in the the sixer series as pertained
Speaker 1: to the Philly stealing games from them. Boston only wants
Speaker 1: to take threes in shots at the rim. Right, If
Speaker 1: you pull up my Twitter feed, I tweeted out the
Speaker 1: shot chart from tonight's game, and I put him next
Speaker 1: to each other juxtaposed, and you'll see the shot disparity
Speaker 1: that Miami has their shot variety, I should say, in
Speaker 1: the shot variety that Boston has. And Boston only attempted
Speaker 1: a small handful of shots outside of the restricted area
Speaker 1: and inside the three point line. Miami attempted dozens of
Speaker 1: shots outside the restricted area and inside the three point line.
Speaker 1: As a result, like, for instance, like Jimmy Butler can
Speaker 1: drive past Malcolm Brogden, but if he does, he's gonna
Speaker 1: run into rim protection, right, So what he's taking are
Speaker 1: the shots before the rim protection. Miami has a really
Speaker 1: easy defensive responsibility against Boston relative to some of the
Speaker 1: other teams. Like if they face let's say they face
Speaker 1: the Lakers or Nuggets in the second round, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be an entirely different journey dealing with Jokich and Murray,
Speaker 1: or dealing with Lebron James and Anthony Davis or Austin
Speaker 1: Reeves is a great mid range player against Boston. Chase
Speaker 1: them off the three point line, funnel them to the basket.
Speaker 1: If you have room protection there, You'll have to bait.
Speaker 1: You'll bait them into making consistently great rim decisions, which
Speaker 1: is something they struggle with. I'm gonna use two plays
Speaker 1: from this game to kind of demonstrate what I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: and they were both with Jason Tatum. So it's late
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, Boston's offense is struggling. The announcers
Speaker 1: on TNT are begging for Jason Tatum to get involved,
Speaker 1: so they run a five out spacing situation where Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum gets Max s Truce on a switch. Okay, so
Speaker 1: mistake number one. They stay in their traditional five out spacing.
Speaker 1: So Tatum's right squarely at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: There's two players immediately on the wing and two players
Speaker 1: in the corners. So what does that mean? The two
Speaker 1: players on the wing, their defenders are digging down into
Speaker 1: the driving lanes right, So Jimmy Butler, I believe was
Speaker 1: on Jaylen Brown on the right wing, he's slid over
Speaker 1: out of standing there, so that if Jason Tatum drives
Speaker 1: to the right pass Max Strew's Jimmy Butler is just
Speaker 1: waiting for right. Max Drews also knows that Jayson Tatum's
Speaker 1: not going to back him down because that's just not
Speaker 1: in his game anymore. So all he has to do
Speaker 1: is press up on the three. So Jason Tatum tries
Speaker 1: to mix into his little pull up three point shot
Speaker 1: that he takes all the time, but Max Drewce is
Speaker 1: stunting up into his shooting pocket to dissuade that specific shot.
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum ends up picking up his dribble and no
Speaker 1: one's open right because he hasn't compromised the defense in
Speaker 1: any single way. So he tries to throw a swing
Speaker 1: pass over to the side to Jaylen Brown and guess
Speaker 1: who's waiting right there in the passing lane, Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 1: What would Jimmy Butler have done in that exact same situation.
Speaker 1: He gets a switch on Max Drews, Right, He's going
Speaker 1: to be like, all of you go over to that
Speaker 1: side of the floor. I want the entire right side
Speaker 1: of the floor to myself that way, even if they
Speaker 1: do want to shade over, I've got the entire baseline
Speaker 1: side to work. And if they zone up over on
Speaker 1: the baseline, you're leaving one of my shooters open. Okay,
Speaker 1: now I've got the space. I'm turning up back, I'm
Speaker 1: backing him down. I'm getting into that ten foot area
Speaker 1: where I can get a short jump shot that I
Speaker 1: know I can make every single time. That's the difference.
Speaker 1: That's quality matchup hunting versus whatever the hell Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: was trying to do to Max Trust on that possession.
Speaker 1: There's another possession later in the fourth quarter, Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: catches on the right wing or left wing, and I
Speaker 1: believe Caleb Martin is the defender closing out. Caleb Martin knows,
Speaker 1: I just have to chase him off the three point line.
Speaker 1: That is my schematic responsibility, per the orders from Eric's Poulstra.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum wants that three point shot so badly he
Speaker 1: rises up even though the defender's closing out, changes his
Speaker 1: mind at the last second, picks up his pivot foot
Speaker 1: off the ground and gets called for a travel. Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum committed three consecutive turnovers in that fourth quarter. That's
Speaker 1: the difference. When things bogged down, when the coaching removes
Speaker 1: your base scheme offensively, you need a guy that can
Speaker 1: consistently attack matchups. And here's the thing against Philly. It
Speaker 1: worked why because Joel Embiid can't guard on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: and when you attack Joel Embiid, there's no rim protection.
Speaker 1: So Jason Tatum was able to pull Joel Embiid out
Speaker 1: to the perimeter, and Joel Embiid either had to concede
Speaker 1: a three point shot to him because he's not quick enough,
Speaker 1: or press up on Jason Tatum, at which point he's
Speaker 1: gonna dust him to the basket and there's nobody waiting
Speaker 1: at the rim. That's the difference. You're not attacking bam Adebio.
Speaker 1: That's a terrible idea. So you've got to attack one
Speaker 1: of their smaller guards, and you can't beat them off
Speaker 1: the dribble because if you do, you're gonna run into
Speaker 1: all this help. So you need to have a reliable
Speaker 1: back to the basket game, which Jason Tatum was building
Speaker 1: out in the early phase of his career, and he's
Speaker 1: completely abandoned it. And Jaylen Brown is capable of that,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't see the floor well enough to make
Speaker 1: the right reads when the defense sends multiple defenders to him.
Speaker 1: As a result, Boston, who's a team that wants to
Speaker 1: attempt a million threes, only got twenty nine three points
Speaker 1: shots up. So everything that Miami needs to win this
Speaker 1: series kind of manifested in this game. They got a
Speaker 1: dominant defensive performance at a bam at a Bio. That
Speaker 1: band was great in general. I thought he scored extremely
Speaker 1: well in the short role. He helped them manage ball
Speaker 1: pressure in the beginning of the game just by bringing
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor. He had timely isolations and
Speaker 1: post ups when he had the right matchup and the
Speaker 1: right amount of space. Eric Spolstra genius game plan to
Speaker 1: make Boston feel uncomfortable, vintage Jimmy Butler playoff Gem. All
Speaker 1: the things broke right. The other thing that stood out
Speaker 1: to me is just the difference in the rhythm of
Speaker 1: both teams. So I talked about this a lot after
Speaker 1: Game five against Philly for Boston, But in that game,
Speaker 1: it was really simple. Down the stretch, Jim James Harden
Speaker 1: had the ball every single time, and he would run
Speaker 1: a pick and roll Joel Embiid and he dropped that
Speaker 1: little pocket pass into Beat at the foul line and
Speaker 1: he'd go to work. And because of that, they were
Speaker 1: in a great rhythm because both of those guys are
Speaker 1: just doing the same thing every single time. Meanwhile, on
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, it's like this time
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brogden co ops the possession. This time, Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: co ops the possession. This time, Jason Tatum co ops
Speaker 1: the possession. Oh, Like, here's this random Derek White possession
Speaker 1: in there. Oh, Marcus Smart just decided it's his turn.
Speaker 1: There's so many hands in the pot in Boston, and
Speaker 1: that's a big part of what went wrong for them offensively.
Speaker 1: Down the stretch of this game. You go five possessions
Speaker 1: at a time where your best player doesn't touch the ball,
Speaker 1: whereas on the other end of the floor, it's Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler top of the key every single time, finding the
Speaker 1: matchup he wants and getting to a spot and going
Speaker 1: to work. I do think, regardless of what happens to
Speaker 1: Boston in this playoff runt, they need to consider targeting
Speaker 1: players that are actually willing to just disappear into the
Speaker 1: team concept and be a guy that's like, hey, my
Speaker 1: touches are gonna come in spot up situations only you
Speaker 1: know that, like or like think of the way that
Speaker 1: Ruey Hatcha Mura is involved with the Lakers. Oh, I
Speaker 1: have a great matchup here in the second quarter, throw
Speaker 1: me the ball. But if it's the fourth quarter, like
Speaker 1: I'm spotting up and Lebron You've got it every single
Speaker 1: possession right like that, They need to simplify their order
Speaker 1: of operations offensively when they get through this season. I
Speaker 1: understand going after a guy like Malcolm Brogden because of
Speaker 1: the ball handling limitations of Tatum and Brown, And maybe
Speaker 1: that's the fundamental issue there is your two stars you
Speaker 1: have neither neither of those guys are super comfortable having
Speaker 1: the ball in their hands all game. But as a result,
Speaker 1: you've just got a bunch of guys that can take
Speaker 1: over the offense, and so as a result, they can
Speaker 1: go through these extendeds. When it's when it's rumming, it
Speaker 1: looks amazing. Their offense looks ridiculous when they have it
Speaker 1: all going because there's so much skill on the floor,
Speaker 1: there's so much ball handling, there's so much shooting, but
Speaker 1: there's not a good hierarchy there, and so I think
Speaker 1: that's something that they might have to take a look
Speaker 1: at in the future, regardless of what happens in this postseason.
Speaker 1: All right, I want to do a couple of shoutouts
Speaker 1: to some Miami players and then we're gonna go over
Speaker 1: some adjustments for Boston. So Kyle Lowry had an amazing
Speaker 1: heater in the second quarter as a pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooter that I thought helped keep them in the game.
Speaker 1: There was a stretch there in the early third quarter
Speaker 1: where the Heat were down nine and Max Strus hit
Speaker 1: like a crazy late clock pound dribble between his legs.
Speaker 1: There was like a four dribble combination into a pull
Speaker 1: up three on the right wing that he hit then
Speaker 1: they forced a turnover and Kevin Love in transition on
Speaker 1: the left wing like just pulls up and hits a
Speaker 1: transition three. All of a sudden, it goes from nine
Speaker 1: to three Like that feels like a brand new ballgame.
Speaker 1: Those are some big plays gave. Vincent obviously has been
Speaker 1: fantastic in this entire playoff on it, I thought he
Speaker 1: hit a massive relocation three to the top of the key.
Speaker 1: I think it was in his Spain pick and roll
Speaker 1: possession if I remember correctly, because he relocated to the top.
Speaker 1: But a lot of a lot of timely contributions from
Speaker 1: these guys and uh man, I, like I've said all
Speaker 1: postseason long, I cannot believe how wrong I've been about
Speaker 1: this team. All Right, adjustments for Boston, Like I said,
Speaker 1: proper matchup hunting. So if you're going to target Miami's
Speaker 1: weaker defenders, clear the side of the floor so that
Speaker 1: they can't help unless they zone up on the baseline side,
Speaker 1: in which case you're gonna have kickout passes, but most
Speaker 1: likely you're gonna have the entire baseline side to work.
Speaker 1: Stop trying to hunt pull up threes or driving to
Speaker 1: the basket. Stop trying to hunt fouls. Actually just turn
Speaker 1: your dam back back, your defender down. Get to a
Speaker 1: spot where you, as Jason Tatum at six nine or
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown at six y seven, who's bigger, stronger, more athletic,
Speaker 1: and has the skill set to knock down these short
Speaker 1: kind of in between shots. Go take those shots. That's
Speaker 1: that is the stuff that Eric Spolstra is allowing in
Speaker 1: his defensive scheme, and you are currently unwilling to take it.
Speaker 1: That is that is a key offensive adjustment for them.
Speaker 1: Here's the second one, and I think this is their
Speaker 1: only hope to stop Jimmy Butler. They have to play
Speaker 1: just one guard in crunch time. So I don't understand
Speaker 1: the point of having Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogden out
Speaker 1: there if on offense the goal is to eventually run
Speaker 1: everything through Tatum, right, or just forget about that. Tatum,
Speaker 1: Brown and Smart is plenty of ball handling for the
Speaker 1: closing lineup. So by putting Brogden out there, if he's
Speaker 1: not going to be running the offense, all you're doing
Speaker 1: is giving Jimmy Butler a defender to attack while on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor, he's an off ball
Speaker 1: player who was just spotting up. So if that's the case,
Speaker 1: have Marcus Smart be your one guard on the floor
Speaker 1: so that at least if Jimmy Butler wants to attack
Speaker 1: a smaller guard, he's attacking the defensive player of the
Speaker 1: year from last year and a player that's much better
Speaker 1: at defending up position wise than Malcolm brogden Is. And again,
Speaker 1: you have two options there that I think makes sense.
Speaker 1: You can either go big with Robert Williams, but then again,
Speaker 1: that's rim protection. You're giving Miami rim protection by allowing
Speaker 1: bam Adebayo to stay by the rim, So that means
Speaker 1: Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum have to be comfortable taking
Speaker 1: those turnaround jump shots or easy little kind of like
Speaker 1: short to mid range shots. Well go with Grant Williams.
Speaker 1: Like Grant Williams was a staple in the rotation last year,
Speaker 1: why because he defends, and he's big, and he's the
Speaker 1: kind of guy that Jimmy Butler's not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to just relentlessly attack matchup wise, and he can knock
Speaker 1: down the occasional three when you kick out to him.
Speaker 1: So yes, Malcolm Brock didn't get a knockdown that pull up,
Speaker 1: that kickout three at a higher rate. Yeah. Is he
Speaker 1: gonna be able to attack a close out a little better? Yeah,
Speaker 1: But at the very least you're limiting the matchup options
Speaker 1: that Jimmy Butler can attack. I know he's in the
Speaker 1: doghouse with Missoula, but like that would be that would
Speaker 1: be what I would do is at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, if I was coaching the Celtics, I'd go
Speaker 1: with Marcus Smart, Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Grant Williams, and
Speaker 1: Al Horford And that gives me decent five out spacing
Speaker 1: and it gives me better defensive matchups to contain the
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler problem. Man, all right, big Game one, I
Speaker 1: like to think Boston is gonna come back and get
Speaker 1: Game two. Actually, for Heat fans, I'll just say it.
Speaker 1: I think Boston's gonna come back and win Game two.
Speaker 1: So maybe I'll just continue to be wrong for you guys.
Speaker 1: But man, highly entertaining series. I'm having a lot of
Speaker 1: fun watching this Miami Heat team. I'm so impressed by
Speaker 1: them because they do so many things that you know,
Speaker 1: the diehard basketball fans love, right, all the little things
Speaker 1: that win basketball games. And Jimmy Butler just man an
Speaker 1: all time great playoff run from Jimmy Butler. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. I will see
Speaker 1: you guys tomorrow. After the final buzzer of Lakers Nuggets
Speaker 1: Game two, the volume