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Speaker 2: All right, alter to tonight. You're at the volume heavy Sunday.
Speaker 2: Everybody help.
Speaker 1: All of you guys are having a great weekend. We're
Speaker 1: just gonna be breaking down for about ten to fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes that Game seven between the Calves and the Magic.
Speaker 1: Got a lot of content coming out today. Earlier this morning,
Speaker 1: we released our series preview on Knicks Pacers.
Speaker 2: You can find that on the feed.
Speaker 1: I recorded like a forty five minute film session on
Speaker 1: Game one of Timberwolves Nuggets. That's also gonna be up
Speaker 1: on the feeds here shortly. And I'm also going with
Speaker 1: Colin Cowhard later tonight to bounce around all the NBA
Speaker 1: storylines after the first round and heading into the second round.
Speaker 1: So lots and lots of content coming out today, and
Speaker 1: then tomorrow morning we're gonna have another three. We got
Speaker 1: our series previews for the Thunder and the MAVs as
Speaker 1: well as the Celtics and the Calves. And then we're
Speaker 1: also going to have Game two Nuggets Timberwolves, and I
Speaker 1: think we have h there's a Game one tomorrow night
Speaker 1: as well of Nicks Pacer. So just a ton of
Speaker 1: content coming out over the next couple of days. You
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Speaker 1: the postseason.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So you know, this series got a little bit hairrier
Speaker 1: than it needed to be. I think if Jared Allen
Speaker 1: was healthy, this series would have ended in six. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Orlando's like a buzzsaw at home, and it would have
Speaker 1: been tough, but Allan, it just makes Orlando's physical advantages
Speaker 1: that much more imposing. They're already bigger than Cleveland, but
Speaker 1: when you play Evan Mobley was undersized at the center
Speaker 1: position but plenty of size at the power forward position.
Speaker 1: When you play him at the center, you just put
Speaker 1: yourself into a bunch of physical predicaments, right, And like
Speaker 1: that kind of allowed Orlando to do more damage to
Speaker 1: Cleveland over the trail end of the tail end of
Speaker 1: the series, like making Game five such a tough game, right,
Speaker 1: winning Game six, having a substantial lead in Game seven.
Speaker 1: Those were the physical advantages. And honestly, when Jared Allen
Speaker 1: is out of the picture, it just puts a ton
Speaker 1: of pressure on the Cavs guards to be like, not
Speaker 1: just good offensively, but great offensively.
Speaker 2: When Jared Allen was in.
Speaker 1: The picture, they were better shot creators obviously than Orlando.
Speaker 1: We talked about that before the series, but they could
Speaker 1: have more margin for air or when they're healthy. With
Speaker 1: Jared Allen out, they had to be awesome, and they
Speaker 1: were awesome. When once again, it cannot say enough about
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell in this series, eighty nine points in the
Speaker 1: last two games. Damn near ended this thing in six anyway,
Speaker 1: and did end it tonight. But early in this game
Speaker 1: it got a little tricky because the Cavs guards were struggling.
Speaker 1: I think Mitchell's was like two first first eight or
Speaker 1: something like that. Mitchell got off to a rough start
Speaker 1: and Orlando was like red hot from three. They made
Speaker 1: seven of their first fourteen threes, and Orlando went up
Speaker 1: by eighteen, and it looked bad because in a series
Speaker 1: like this where the defenses are so good and the
Speaker 1: offenses on either side are less than great, it was
Speaker 1: one of those things where eighteen points might as well
Speaker 1: be thirty five, you know, in a different series. Right,
Speaker 1: But three things turned the game around. One an amazing
Speaker 1: defensive effort from the whole team. But I also thought
Speaker 1: Isaacacorro really led the charge just with his energy and
Speaker 1: effort and really good individual defense on Paolo. And then
Speaker 1: Orlando cooled off from three. They were seven for their
Speaker 1: first fourteen, but they were three for their last seventeen,
Speaker 1: and one was in garbage time. And Orlando is a
Speaker 1: very bad jump shooting team. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: that in a big picture sense here in a few minutes,
Speaker 1: But that seven to fourteen was the outlier, so just
Speaker 1: staying engaged in the game, not letting go of the rope,
Speaker 1: hanging around long enough for the shots to start missing
Speaker 1: for you to flip the script. And then lastly, Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell got going again once again by beating people off
Speaker 1: the dribble. Caroselvert two did a really nice job generating
Speaker 1: rim pressure over the course of the whole series, but
Speaker 1: in that third quarter run Donovan Mitchell has thirty nine today,
Speaker 1: just an unbelievable carry job carrying the offense for Cleveland
Speaker 1: in this series.
Speaker 2: And then huge.
Speaker 1: Plays late Evan Mobley Obviously we don't think of him
Speaker 1: as much of his score, but like he had not
Speaker 1: even counting the dunks, and in garbage time hit a
Speaker 1: couple of big buckets, once on a pocket pass, which
Speaker 1: again gris Burke was like, this is worth. Evan is
Speaker 1: most comfortable in the pocket and pick and roll, not
Speaker 1: really like that's usually a weakness of his. But he
Speaker 1: confronted that weakness, made a big floater in the role.
Speaker 1: And then he also had a little like kind of
Speaker 1: post move in the middle of the floor to rescue
Speaker 1: a possession for his fifth and sixth points. Earlier in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter with big buckets from Mobiley. Then they
Speaker 1: were out hustling Orlando. This is a big thing I
Speaker 1: talked about the idea of like scar tissue in the
Speaker 1: NBA playoffs. The thing that kind of taught me this
Speaker 1: lesson was the twenty twelve Miami Heat. I remember towards
Speaker 1: the tail end of that series with Oklahoma City in
Speaker 1: the finals. The Thunder were the younger, more athletic team,
Speaker 1: but the Heat, especially the veteran Heat players, were like
Speaker 1: making more hustle plays to beat the Thunder to basketball.
Speaker 1: I remember there was a big offensive rebound off of
Speaker 1: a missed free throw from Shane Battier at the end
Speaker 1: of a big game late in that series, and like
Speaker 1: I remember sitting there thinking, like the Heat just got
Speaker 1: embarrassed in the finals by the MAVs.
Speaker 2: They're playing with this like fear of loss.
Speaker 1: In that Oklahoma City team that they were kind of
Speaker 1: like new kids on the block, you know, not as
Speaker 1: they haven't dealt with as much of that scar tissue
Speaker 1: and loss over the years, right, and so they just
Speaker 1: didn't It sounds reductive to just say like they didn't
Speaker 1: want it as much, but like there was clearly a
Speaker 1: level of like desperation that that Miami Heat team had
Speaker 1: because they did not want to lose two years in
Speaker 1: a row in the finals. That kind of pushed them
Speaker 1: over the top against Oklahoma City. And that's the thing,
Speaker 1: Like Cleveland got embarrassed by the Knicks last year.
Speaker 2: They got killed on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley got exposed as a as a limited offensive
Speaker 1: player rolling to the basket and pick and roll. Mitchell
Speaker 1: Robinson did an absolute number to their entire front line.
Speaker 1: It was just bad. It was really really bad. Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson outplayed Donovan Mitchell. It was just bad. Right, So
Speaker 1: they come into this series not wanting to lose in
Speaker 1: the first round again. There is a and a desperation
Speaker 1: with Cleveland in Orlando's the newer guys on the block,
Speaker 1: they haven't felt with a dealt with as much of
Speaker 1: that pain and loss. They don't have as much of
Speaker 1: that desperation. And there were some big hustle plays late
Speaker 1: that went Cleveland's direction, That play where Karris Lavert beat
Speaker 1: everyone down the floor in the late fourth quarter for
Speaker 1: that reverse layup in transition, horrible transition defense from Orlando.
Speaker 1: They just didn't get back. Then the Darius Garland missed
Speaker 1: three in the corner. Isaacacorro just beats Pallo to the
Speaker 1: loose ball and then that gets worked back around.
Speaker 2: Also shout out to Donovan Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Just trusted Garland again to take the exact same shot
Speaker 1: and he made it the second time around. They were
Speaker 1: making the hustle plays late in Orlando kind of let
Speaker 1: go of the rope, and so again that's if you're Orlando,
Speaker 1: those are the lessons you have to learn. Looking forward,
Speaker 1: big win for Cleveland, though they were up against it.
Speaker 1: They're down eighteen against an elite and elite defense with
Speaker 1: massive size advantages, and they somehow managed to flip the
Speaker 1: script once again. Put a lot of pressure on their
Speaker 1: guards to be great, and and Donovan Mitchell just was great.
Speaker 1: He just was great down the stretch of the series.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable work from especially if you factor and he's on
Speaker 1: a bulky knee. Looking forward for both teams, starting with
Speaker 1: the Caps, We're gonna do a full series preview later.
Speaker 1: But they were one and two in the season series
Speaker 1: with Boston. If you remember, their one win was the
Speaker 1: game that they were up excuse me, they were trailing
Speaker 1: by twenty two to nine minutes left, and that was
Speaker 1: the game that Dean Wade got going. Remember the Celtics
Speaker 1: kept leaving him open, and then then he got in rhythm,
Speaker 1: and then then he started hitting a little bit more
Speaker 1: contested shots. And then I can't I think it was
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday and missed a box out on him at
Speaker 1: the end of the game, and Dean Wade got an
Speaker 1: offensive rebound put back dunk that ended up winning the game.
Speaker 1: And that was the one where Jason Tatum got the
Speaker 1: really bad foul call shooting the fade away over Darius Garland,
Speaker 1: and then they overturned it on review. So like, you
Speaker 1: lost two games and then the one game you won,
Speaker 1: you trailed by twenty two to nine minutes left. So like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do a series preview on it later, but
Speaker 1: I don't it's really hard for me to see a
Speaker 1: pathway to victory for Cleveland. To put it simply, Boston
Speaker 1: might not be as physically imposing as Orlando, but you're
Speaker 1: go going from playing the least offensively skilled playoff team
Speaker 1: in Orlando to probably the most offensively skilled playoff team
Speaker 1: in Boston in terms of total skilled down the roster, right,
Speaker 1: And like like Miami put bam at Abayo on Tatum
Speaker 1: and kind of removed him from the series in terms
Speaker 1: of like devoting most of their defensive attention to him.
Speaker 1: And it was just like Jalen Brown gets going and
Speaker 1: Derek White gets going, and it's just that they just
Speaker 1: have too many weapons and it's going to put Cleveland
Speaker 1: in a lot of minds on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: So again, we'll do a full series preview later, but
Speaker 1: don't see much of a pathway there for Cleveland. On
Speaker 1: the magic side of things, a very successful season, you
Speaker 1: made the playoffs. Pallo is clearly a star. Twenty seven
Speaker 1: points per game in your first playoff series against that
Speaker 1: type of defense when no one else on your team
Speaker 1: can really get anything else going.
Speaker 2: That's super impressive.
Speaker 1: And what's crazy is like, like most young players, he
Speaker 1: still has a ton of fat in his game, Like
Speaker 1: he has so many bad possessions and bad like decisions
Speaker 1: and like really difficult shots that he doesn't really need
Speaker 1: to take. Just wait until he trims the fat and identifies.
Speaker 1: Like I talk about with young basketball players, there's a
Speaker 1: simple dynamic that takes place over the years. You get
Speaker 1: better at identifying what works and how to replicate it,
Speaker 1: and you get better at identifying what doesn't works and
Speaker 1: how it doesn't work and how to trim it out
Speaker 1: of your game. And Palo will do that over the years.
Speaker 1: And like he has such physical advantages, he just strikes
Speaker 1: me as the kind of guy that can be like
Speaker 1: a consistent twenty seven plus point a game, playoff guy
Speaker 1: well over sixty percent true shooting lots of easy shots
Speaker 1: close to the basket with bullyball that he's going to
Speaker 1: be able to lean on in big situations. I think
Speaker 1: Palo is going to be amazing, but they need to
Speaker 1: come up with a plan to get a legitimate skill
Speaker 1: guard to pair next to Palo right. Obviously, I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in like skill guard athlete guard right. And
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of different directions they can go there.
Speaker 1: They can try to target that kind of skill guard
Speaker 1: through the draft, or they can do it on the
Speaker 1: trade market. I'd be making calls on guys like Devin Book,
Speaker 1: de jhon Te Murray if the heater looking to pivot
Speaker 1: this summer. I'd be calling on Tyler Harrow, even DeAngelo
Speaker 1: Russell from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaker 2: Again, he is not a guy that you want to
Speaker 2: lean on.
Speaker 1: In the playoffs, but he is a real asset in
Speaker 1: the regular season, and as long as you can cover
Speaker 1: for him athletically elsewhere on the floor, he can help
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. He's a good playmaker and
Speaker 1: a really good spot up player. Right, So there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of guys that they can be making calls on.
Speaker 1: But no matter what, regardless of what they do, whether
Speaker 1: they address that through the draft or through the trade market,
Speaker 1: every single player on that roster needs to be in
Speaker 1: the gym all damn summer working on their jump shots.
Speaker 1: The playoffs reveal your weaknesses. In Cleveland exposed Orlando as
Speaker 1: a team that can't shoot, and then we knew that
Speaker 1: throughout the regular season. But like hacking the paint, every
Speaker 1: single defensive scheme geared towards just baiting them into taking
Speaker 1: jumpers that they're not gonna make. It just needs to
Speaker 1: be something they address. Franz Wagner in particular, he's a
Speaker 1: guy that had a lot of hype over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, is like this big playmaking forward and
Speaker 1: really make the reads. But you cannot make reads if
Speaker 1: you don't generate openings in the defense. By dragging multiple defenders.
Speaker 1: You're not going to do that unless you prove that
Speaker 1: you can be a threat to score. And if you're
Speaker 1: only a threat to score going downhill to eurostep floaters
Speaker 1: and stuff along those lines, and you're not a threat
Speaker 1: to knock down a jump shot, you just make yourself
Speaker 1: that much easier to guard.
Speaker 2: And like, he just had a really bad.
Speaker 1: Jump shooting season all year, but especially against Cleveland.
Speaker 2: It's just something he's got to address. Franz is kind
Speaker 2: of hitting a little bit.
Speaker 1: Of a wall in his development because of his lack
Speaker 1: of development of a jump shot. That's something that he's
Speaker 1: going to have to work on. But bottom line, you
Speaker 1: can't be leaning on these big forwards that can't really
Speaker 1: consistently shoot to generate all your offense. So again, that
Speaker 1: skill guard piece is what I'd be looking at.
Speaker 2: And they just have a lot of really good players.
Speaker 1: You have a lot of guys like Jalen Suggs and
Speaker 1: Wendell Carter Junior and Jonathan Isaac that other teams want.
Speaker 1: And if you can put the piece those guys together
Speaker 1: to get a star, Like if you can go get
Speaker 1: a Devin Booker, I would literally be Colin Phoenix, and
Speaker 1: I'd be like, here's Jalen Suggs, Here's Jonathan Isaac, Here's
Speaker 1: Wendell Carter Junior. Give me Devin Booker with Pala Buancaro
Speaker 1: and Franz Wagner, and I'll find guys that can do
Speaker 1: the other jobs, and we're gonna win a lot of
Speaker 1: basketball a lot of basketball games. I think that that's
Speaker 1: something that they can look into. But again, gotta find
Speaker 1: some sort of legitimate skill guard to pair with your
Speaker 1: dominant forwards. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for this particular show. Again, I'm gonna be back later
Speaker 1: this afternoon with something I've already recorded, a film breakdown
Speaker 1: of Timberwolves Nuggets, and then also later this evening with
Speaker 1: Colin Cowhard that's gonna be on the Colin Cowherd podcast
Speaker 1: YouTube feed. We're recording here in about four hours, so
Speaker 1: it should be up maybe in about six hours later
Speaker 1: this evening. All right, guys, I appreciate you, guys. I'll
Speaker 1: see you later today.
Speaker 2: The volume