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Speaker 2: All right, welcome to hoops tonight.
Speaker 1: You're at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody.
Speaker 2: If all of you guys are having an incredible week,
Speaker 2: we have a jam pack show for you guys tonight.
Speaker 2: We're gonna hit both of tonight's games, the MAVs going
Speaker 2: up three two on the Clippers and hit that from
Speaker 2: the respective of both teams. Talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: stars that can kind of withstand the EBB and flow
Speaker 2: of intensity of the NBA Playoffs. After that, we're gonna
Speaker 2: dig into heat Celtics. The Celtics move on to the
Speaker 2: second round with another dominant win, three really dominant wins.
Speaker 2: After dropping that game too, we're going to talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about what we learned about Boston in the
Speaker 2: first round, a little bit about where the Miami Heat
Speaker 2: go from here, and then we have three mail bag questions,
Speaker 2: some stuff on Pala Bancaro and the Orlando Magic, some
Speaker 2: stuff on Team USA, and then some thoughts about load
Speaker 2: management in the sixty five minimum game requirement from earlier
Speaker 2: this year that got implemented, So lots of stuff to
Speaker 2: get into. You guys, have the Joe before we get started.
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Speaker 2: under Hoops tonight and the last minut least, keep dropping
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Speaker 1: We can keep hitting.
Speaker 2: Them throughout the rest of the playoffs. So I picked
Speaker 2: the Maps to win this game coming into Los Angeles
Speaker 2: Dants Clippers based on a couple of different things. First
Speaker 2: of all, the maps have had two disastrous stretches in
Speaker 2: this series, in the beginning of Game one in the
Speaker 2: beginning of Game four. Outside of those two stretches, the
Speaker 2: maps have pretty much controlled the series, so that I
Speaker 2: thought was a pretty strong indicator of the way these
Speaker 2: teams have stacked up to this point. And then secondly,
Speaker 2: Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic or James Harden and Paul
Speaker 2: George in a must win gigantic playoff game series tied
Speaker 2: to to who are you taking? You're taking? You're taking
Speaker 2: Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, And I want to kind
Speaker 2: of dig into that concept a little bit, because, like,
Speaker 2: there are ebbs and flows in a playoff series, right.
Speaker 2: I experienced this firsthand as a Lakers fan last year, Like,
Speaker 2: they won the first two series the exact same way,
Speaker 2: stole Game one on the road, kind of punted, Game two,
Speaker 2: dominated Game three, one, Game four in a super competitive way,
Speaker 2: kind of punted Game five dominated Game six. That's how
Speaker 2: they did the Grizzlies, That's how they did the Warriors.
Speaker 2: It was the same kind of flow throughout those series, right,
Speaker 2: And Like, it's fascinating to me because we think of
Speaker 2: the regular season as being the oscillations and effort and
Speaker 2: the playoffs as being kind of super intense. But the
Speaker 2: reality is is, even though everyone's intensity picks up, there
Speaker 2: is no way to fake or replicate urgency. There's nothing
Speaker 2: that changes your mental approach the way actual fear can. Right, Like,
Speaker 2: for instance, Dallas, in Game four, you're up to one,
Speaker 2: you kind of punk them a little bit on their
Speaker 2: home floor. In Game two, you win convincingly in game three.
Speaker 2: Game four was always gonna be a game where Dallas
Speaker 2: didn't have a certain level of urgency, but that the
Speaker 2: Clippers probably would, right. But then there are these really
Speaker 2: big games typically five, six, and seven, towards the tail
Speaker 2: end of the series, especially when it's competitive, where the
Speaker 2: intensity is kind of consistent throughout and everything is urgent
Speaker 2: for everybody. And in those types of situations, like when
Speaker 2: I talked about the Lakers kind of punting game five
Speaker 2: in each of those two first round series last year,
Speaker 2: they were a three to one in both of those series,
Speaker 2: so didn't have that urgency in those big games. But
Speaker 2: in a two to two series, or really any game
Speaker 2: six or Game seven, that intensity is going to be there,
Speaker 2: that urgency is going to be there. And the MAVs
Speaker 2: were just obviously going to bring a hallacious defensive effort tonight,
Speaker 2: especially after they didn't to start Game four, and they
Speaker 2: have good defensive personnel. I was thinking about this earlier Tonight.
Speaker 2: Derek Jones Junior.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: He's been my favorite role player MAV this entire season.
Speaker 2: Those of you guys have been following the show have
Speaker 2: known that I've been kind of pitching like this idea
Speaker 2: of you know, Luka and Kyrie, PJ and Kleiba, and
Speaker 2: then it's like who you gonna play at the three?
Speaker 2: And I'm a big believer in Derek Jones Junior. I
Speaker 2: just think he's an awesome slasher that has made him
Speaker 2: an effective spot up player. He's a better three point
Speaker 2: shooter than you'd think, especially from the corners, and then
Speaker 2: like just has that kind of transition athleticism pop that
Speaker 2: he can.
Speaker 1: Get to right.
Speaker 2: He did an amazing job on Paul George in this game, pressuring,
Speaker 2: containing and just kind of keeping him from getting comfortable.
Speaker 2: Kyrie Irving and PJ. Washington in their time on James
Speaker 2: Harden just did a really, really good job. And so
Speaker 2: like that's where I want to kind of zoom in
Speaker 2: on the dynamic of the stars, because Kyrie Irving and
Speaker 2: Luka Doncics were a safe bet to provide a certain
Speaker 2: level of production tonight in a way that Paul George
Speaker 2: and James Harden. You're like, maybe you might get it
Speaker 2: from him, right, and the numbers were jarring to give
Speaker 2: you an idea. The final tally Kyrie Irving and Luka
Speaker 2: Doncics forty nine points on forty shots, sixteen assists in
Speaker 2: two turnovers, Paul George and James Harden twenty two points
Speaker 2: on twenty five shots, eleven assists and seven turnovers. A
Speaker 2: gigantic chasm in production between your two primary shot creators.
Speaker 2: So the question is why why is that the case?
Speaker 2: And I want to kind of dive into each individual
Speaker 2: player because I do think it's fascinating for Luca. To me,
Speaker 2: it's mostly about size and strength. He's so big and
Speaker 2: so strong he can handle ball pressure and intensity that
Speaker 2: allows him to get to his spots. Right throughout the series,
Speaker 2: He's been getting to his pull up jump shot whenever
Speaker 2: he wants. He's just been struggling to hit it, but
Speaker 2: he can actually work from other spots on the floor.
Speaker 2: In that third quarter run, how many times in a
Speaker 2: row did we see Luca get downhill on that right
Speaker 2: side of the floor body Terrence Man had finished some
Speaker 2: sort of like push shot slash short bank shot that
Speaker 2: was within seven eight feet from the rim. Paul George
Speaker 2: and James Harden are literally incapable physically of consistently working
Speaker 2: to a spot that close to the basket.
Speaker 1: They can't do it. That's the difference.
Speaker 2: Like they need a defensive breakdown or a really favorable
Speaker 2: matchup to just toast somebody off the dribble and get
Speaker 2: that close to the rim consistently. Right, Luca, it's like
Speaker 2: pound dribble pound pound dribble defender in jail. I'm just
Speaker 2: gonna bump him and bump him, get to my spot,
Speaker 2: make that little shot over the top. His size and strength,
Speaker 2: in combination with his versatility, gives him a resilient ability
Speaker 2: to kind of play well regardless of circumstances in the postseason. Right,
Speaker 2: he also has the playmaking piece, right, So even though
Speaker 2: his pull up jump shooting just hasn't been there this series,
Speaker 2: and he did get far more comfortable as a pull
Speaker 2: up shooter in that second half, and that's obviously encouraging,
Speaker 2: and we talked about it throughout the series, like that's
Speaker 2: kind of been a risk that's been sitting on the
Speaker 2: table here this whole series, Like what if Luca just
Speaker 2: gets hot and I do think he broke out in
Speaker 2: a big way in that second half, So I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be surprised if he has a good pull up shooting
Speaker 2: here a game in Game six. But either way, we
Speaker 2: weren't worried about his impact because he's gonna be able
Speaker 2: to make plays as a playmaker. That was how he
Speaker 2: did it early. Kyrie and Luca started this game off.
Speaker 2: They started this game not being able to make shots,
Speaker 2: but they were getting to spots on the floor, collapsing
Speaker 2: the defense, making reads, picking them apart. Right, So, like,
Speaker 2: there's a really high floor with Luca in a big game.
Speaker 2: We know Luca has had bad regular season games where
Speaker 2: he just is floating all over the places on both
Speaker 2: ends of the floor and not engaged defensivelier on the glass,
Speaker 2: and blah blahlah blah. We know that can happen. I mean, helly,
Speaker 2: he kind of was a little bit like that in
Speaker 2: Game four. But for the most part, in a big game,
Speaker 2: when the chips are down, you can just kind of
Speaker 2: trust Luca to reach a certain level because of his
Speaker 2: physical tools and because of his basketball queue Kyrie irving
Speaker 2: in that secondary role, he just has a history of
Speaker 2: being a reliable scoring threat. And also I think he's
Speaker 2: underrated as an athlete, specifically with his speed. We're gonna
Speaker 2: talk about this in a minute, but in the first
Speaker 2: four games of the series, not counting tonight, Kyrie Irving
Speaker 2: attempted more shots in the restricted area than James Harden
Speaker 2: and Paul George combined by himself. Because Kyrie can beat
Speaker 2: people off the dribble. He has the best combination of footwork, handle, quickness,
Speaker 2: and improvisational audacious shot making in the entire NBA. Let
Speaker 2: me just break it down to a simpler level. If
Speaker 2: you needed a single bucket on a single possession, who
Speaker 2: are you taking Paul George, James Harden or Kyrie Irving?
Speaker 2: Just take Luca out of the equation. Take I'm taking Kyrie.
Speaker 2: He's quicker, better footwork, better handle, better shot maker than
Speaker 2: both of those guys. And again, and when you put
Speaker 2: him in a secondary role like this where he doesn't
Speaker 2: have to carry the offensive load possession by possession, but
Speaker 2: just give you these short bursts of activity and be
Speaker 2: effective in those short bursts, he's deeply, deeply valuable. Moving
Speaker 2: over to the other side with James Harden, he is
Speaker 2: a finesse guard that is an excellent playmaker and a
Speaker 2: good pull up shooter. And if he's allowed to get comfortable,
Speaker 2: especially in ball screens, he can pick you apart. And
Speaker 2: if he's got the step back three going and he
Speaker 2: can find favorable matchups, he can get hot. But when
Speaker 2: the intensity picks up and when the physicality picks up
Speaker 2: to the highest level in the NBA playoffs, like many
Speaker 2: finesse players, he can struggle to get separation from his defender.
Speaker 2: He could barely get the pull up three off tonight
Speaker 2: and one like he was missing good looks. He was
Speaker 2: barely getting separate, and then it kind of take that
Speaker 2: into the pick and roll element of it. If he's
Speaker 2: not cleanly shedding his defender and getting downhill with pace
Speaker 2: off of the ball screen, he's not going to collapse
Speaker 2: the defense. And if he doesn't colapse the defense, he's
Speaker 2: not going to be able to unlock his playmaking. I
Speaker 2: think it's really fascinating when you look at the top
Speaker 2: of the league, how frequently like the finesse oriented player
Speaker 2: instead of the physically dominant player, the physically dominant guys
Speaker 2: run the top of the league. Who's the best player
Speaker 2: in the league. Nikole Jokic physically dominant player. Who's the
Speaker 2: second best player in the league My opinion, Luka Doncic.
Speaker 2: He is a physically dominant forward, bigger and stronger than
Speaker 2: most of the players that are going to guard him
Speaker 2: on any given night. Who's the third best player in
Speaker 2: the league. You're probably going with Jannison tenne Kumpo, Right.
Speaker 2: You're going with a big, physically imposing forward.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Who are some of the guys around the league that
Speaker 2: have been thriving in the first round of the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Pascal Siakam bigger and faster than most of the players
Speaker 2: he's going against. Lebron James and Anthony Davis were unbelievable
Speaker 2: in that first round series because they're bigger and longer
Speaker 2: than the vast majority of the players they're going against.
Speaker 2: When the physicality in the intensity increases, Finesse loses value.
Speaker 1: It just does.
Speaker 2: Same thing goes for Paul George, by the way, he's
Speaker 2: just the wing player version of that.
Speaker 1: Right. He's got an excellent handle, good.
Speaker 2: Pull up jumper. He's a terrific tough shot maker, but
Speaker 2: he's not super quick off the dribble, and he can
Speaker 2: struggle to get separation when the intensity and physicality pick up,
Speaker 2: and he's not particularly big or strong to be able
Speaker 2: to handle physical ball pressure effectively and to shed those defenders. Again,
Speaker 2: I pointed this out earlier. Paul George and Harden in
Speaker 2: the first four games of this series combined for sixteen
Speaker 2: shot attempts within five feet of the rim. Hyry Irving
Speaker 2: had eighteen by himself. So yeah, I said restricted airy early.
Speaker 2: It wasn't restricted area. It was five feet from the rim.
Speaker 2: But Paul George and James Harden combined for sixteen in
Speaker 2: four games. That means they're averaging between the two of
Speaker 2: them four attempts in the restricted area per game. That's
Speaker 2: not gonna cut it, right, Hyriet a team by himself,
Speaker 2: by himself. Luca's on a bad need. He had ten,
Speaker 2: which is more than both Paul George and James Harden. So, like,
Speaker 2: the reality is is we kind of like try to
Speaker 2: pull a lesson from this. If your stars don't bring
Speaker 2: real athletic tools to the table, they won't be able
Speaker 2: to get separation against elite defensive players that are super
Speaker 2: locked in. I think it's really fascinating. I always talk
Speaker 2: about it with Steph Curry. Steph is the exception that
Speaker 2: proves the rule. He's the one guy that's not a
Speaker 2: supreme athlete that is going to crack the top ten
Speaker 2: players of all time that doesn't have a significant physical
Speaker 2: advantage over his peers. That that's the separator. And again
Speaker 2: that's what makes Steph you know, such a unique player
Speaker 2: in NBA history. He is the one guy who was
Speaker 2: actually skilled enough for that stuff to matter. And even
Speaker 2: then it requiresired him embracing working off the ball as
Speaker 2: much as he could, having the best stamina as any
Speaker 2: of any player in the league, like he had to
Speaker 2: work extremely hard to get to that point. It's why
Speaker 2: the Clippers need Kauai so badly. He didn't really pressure
Speaker 2: the rim very much, but nobody can stop a healthy
Speaker 2: Kawhi from getting to his spots, regardless of whether or
Speaker 2: not it's the playoffs, regardless of whether or not he's
Speaker 2: going up against an elite defensive player. As a matter
Speaker 2: of fact, Kawai seems to go up a level in
Speaker 2: those situations when he's healthy. It's a big part of
Speaker 2: why they probably should have played through Zubach more in
Speaker 2: this game. He's a guy that had a significant physical advantage,
Speaker 2: probably had a better opportunity of consistently getting the defense
Speaker 2: into rotation. And so I think, I think it's just
Speaker 2: super super interesting because did any like I'm sure Clippers
Speaker 2: fans felt a certain amount of optimism, but outside of
Speaker 2: the Clipper fan base, did anybody think that Paul George
Speaker 2: and James Harden We're gonna outplay Kyrie in Luca do Today?
Speaker 2: I sent it out to the group, chatted of the
Speaker 2: guys that helped make this show possible. We were talking
Speaker 2: about it, like it just was. It just felt like
Speaker 2: a safe bet to me. Two guys that kind of
Speaker 2: have a certain amount of resilience in these environments. Two
Speaker 2: guys where it's like, that's kind of the Paul George
Speaker 2: and James Harden experience. Catch him on the right night,
Speaker 2: They're unbelievable. Didn't James Harden have two forty point games
Speaker 2: last year in the postseason and two game winners, But
Speaker 2: that wasn't the consistent result. That was like the occasional result,
Speaker 2: and that just I think is fascinating. Now, for the record,
Speaker 2: we know this Clippers roster was designed to have Kawhi
Speaker 2: Leonard as the hub, but he has now failed to
Speaker 2: hold up physically in three of the last four postseason
Speaker 2: runs and the other one he was completely unavailable because
Speaker 2: he was out for the entire season. We said before
Speaker 2: the year, man, this Clippers team really fascinating. But is
Speaker 2: Kawhi going to be healthy? We said, James Harden trade Man,
Speaker 2: this is super interesting, But is Kawhi going to be healthy? Well,
Speaker 2: here we are a game and he's not. Again, even
Speaker 2: when he gets to this point and he's healthy to
Speaker 2: start the playoff run.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: Dominant Duncan on the Utah Jazz knee falls apart last
Speaker 2: year kicking everybody's ass on the Phoenix Suns in game one,
Speaker 2: nee falls apart in Game two. Like it just it's unfortunate.
Speaker 2: I feel bad. Kawi is like literally one of the
Speaker 2: biggest what ifs in NBA history. When he's healthy, he's
Speaker 2: so damn good. But for whatever reason, he just can't
Speaker 2: get through that sixteen game grind. And I mean that
Speaker 2: may be something like WWI just got extended. So like,
Speaker 2: I don't know how the Clippers kind of address that.
Speaker 2: But the reality is is like they without Kawhi, they
Speaker 2: don't have that supreme athlete that can generate offense consistently.
Speaker 2: And then you know, whether or not Kawhi is going
Speaker 2: to be available is worked out outside of their favor
Speaker 2: every single year for the better part of the last
Speaker 2: half decade. So I just think it's fascinating, and I
Speaker 2: do I do think that there's a rhyme in or
Speaker 2: reason to this sort of thing. Like too often we
Speaker 2: talked about like choking, Like I don't think James Harden
Speaker 2: and Paul George chokes tonight. They're just physically incapable of
Speaker 2: thriving consistently in this type of environment. That's just the reality.
Speaker 2: It's a thin finesse wing that's not particularly big or strong,
Speaker 2: and a finesse guard who's on the tail end of
Speaker 2: his prime and doesn't move as well as.
Speaker 1: He used to.
Speaker 2: And so it would be it would be unusual in
Speaker 2: a signifier of just like transcendent skill if they were
Speaker 2: consistently great in these environments.
Speaker 1: But they're not.
Speaker 2: And again I don't think it's a mental shortcoming. It
Speaker 2: is simply the reality of their physical tools.
Speaker 1: Other maps.
Speaker 2: I wanted to shout out Derk Jones Junior just an
Speaker 2: unbelievable job in. Paul George also hit five shots for
Speaker 2: twelve points. A couple of big early threes when the
Speaker 2: game was still competitive. Also had three blocks in this game.
Speaker 2: Maxi Kleeba we talked for the series, Clebu and PJ
Speaker 2: Washington were gonna have to hit shots. PJ had a
Speaker 2: top night to night. I think it was zero for
Speaker 2: four from three. Kleiba hits five of them. That consistently
Speaker 2: in the big game of the series, Cleveland and PJ
Speaker 2: have been able to knock down enough shots. Derek Glively
Speaker 2: tons of energy and activity in his shift. His shifts,
Speaker 2: he was plus twenty four and twenty five minutes. A
Speaker 2: bunch of angry dunks. Just looks comfortable and confident in
Speaker 2: that playoff environment. Again, like the MAVs had two really
Speaker 2: ugly stretches of basketball to start Game one and Game
Speaker 2: four of this series.
Speaker 1: But they've been pretty much.
Speaker 2: Awesome outside of those stretches, and I thought tonight was
Speaker 2: a big time indicator of their upside moving forward in
Speaker 2: the playoffs. All right, moving on to heat Celtics. Really
Speaker 2: nice response from the Celtics after their ugly loss in
Speaker 2: Game two, especially on the defensive end. Like Game two,
Speaker 2: I did a whole film.
Speaker 1: Session on it.
Speaker 2: Those are you guys who followed the show that was
Speaker 2: one of the worst defensive performances from a serious championship
Speaker 2: contender I've seen in a long time. But in the
Speaker 2: last three games, big response defensively in ninety three point
Speaker 2: four defensive rating in the last three games, outscored the
Speaker 2: Heat by twenty one points per one hundred possessions in
Speaker 2: the last three games. Just complete dominance tonight. Heavy dose
Speaker 2: of Jalen Brown to start the game, attacking in the
Speaker 2: post started the game. That little patented lefty hook in
Speaker 2: the lane that he's been killing people with, has drawn
Speaker 2: double teams, making good reads out of it. Really was
Speaker 2: the focal point of the offense early on. He had
Speaker 2: eight points in assist and an assist in.
Speaker 1: His first shift.
Speaker 2: Derek White was hot again to start the game, just
Speaker 2: like he was last game, hit three threes in the
Speaker 2: first quarter. Then after Brown left the floor, they started
Speaker 2: to running through Tatum, and Tatum has had a little
Speaker 2: bit of a funky series as usage was way down.
Speaker 2: He had a twenty five point three percent usage percentage
Speaker 2: in this series.
Speaker 1: Big part of that was him just getting the BAM
Speaker 1: at a.
Speaker 2: Bio matchup, and I kind of wanted to see them
Speaker 2: attack BAM more simply because I think Tatum could use
Speaker 2: the reps. It's kind of a similar type of physical
Speaker 2: profile to what he might see in the NBA Finals
Speaker 2: if he sees a good dose of Aaron Gordon on
Speaker 2: the ball. And we'll see how the Nuggets match up
Speaker 2: if those two teams do end up meeting each other.
Speaker 2: But one of the things that was interesting is in
Speaker 2: that tail first quarter stretch and going into the second quarter,
Speaker 2: he started going to work on and they started running
Speaker 2: through Tatum and he actually got free for a pull
Speaker 2: up three at the top of the key because he
Speaker 2: ran bam through a screen. Again, bigger players can struggle
Speaker 2: to navigate screens. We saw that with Aaron Gordon, by
Speaker 2: the way, on Lebron. It's a big part of what
Speaker 2: made that Lebron ad pick and roll so deadly in
Speaker 2: the Denver series is Aaron just kept getting caught on
Speaker 2: the screen, so Lebron was able to get downhill. And
Speaker 2: bigger players they tend to be easier to screen and
Speaker 2: higher centers of gravity, and they're a little bit challenged
Speaker 2: when it comes to the screen navigation, right, And a
Speaker 2: lot of Miami heat possessions there ended in switches, and
Speaker 2: like Tatum, attacking out of the triple threat like against
Speaker 2: Haywood high Smith and just him being aggressive driving to
Speaker 2: the basket. Really liked to shift there in that late
Speaker 2: first early second, and Boston was up thirty after sixteen
Speaker 2: minutes of basketball in this game, this thing was over.
Speaker 2: So I mean, I mean, it's hard to learn too
Speaker 2: much about Boston in a series like this. It's one
Speaker 2: of the largest talent differentials I've seen in a series
Speaker 2: in a long time. But there have been a lot
Speaker 2: of encouraging signs like the defensive response after game too.
Speaker 2: I thought that was big time again, like too to
Speaker 2: sit in the room and be like, hey man, this
Speaker 2: isn't going to be good enough. We have to sharpen up,
Speaker 2: regardless of who you're playing. To hold a team under
Speaker 2: one hundred points per one hundred possessions for three three
Speaker 2: games in a row like that, super impressive. They absolutely
Speaker 2: barbecued zone. I talked before the series about how I
Speaker 2: wanted to see Boston kind of like handle some of
Speaker 2: Spolstra's gimmicks well. Last year in the postseason, Eric Spolster
Speaker 2: ran the zone one hundred and fifteen times against Boston
Speaker 2: and helped them below a point per possession. This year,
Speaker 2: he only ran it twenty eight times because the Celtics
Speaker 2: shot seventy nine percent in effective field goal percentage against
Speaker 2: it and scored one point five to four points per possession.
Speaker 2: So they took what was a weakness last year, their
Speaker 2: inability to solve that spolster zone, and turned it into
Speaker 2: a legitimate strength and played them out of it.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Obviously different personnel than the Gabe Vincent, Max Strus Jimmy
Speaker 2: Butler type of groups you were seeing last year, but
Speaker 2: still zone defense in particular, especially with how well run
Speaker 2: it is in Miami. I still find that to be impressive,
Speaker 2: even if the defensive personnel isn't as good. They also
Speaker 2: rebounded extremely well. They had a fifty six percent rebound
Speaker 2: percentage in the series, which is awesome. We talked about Tatum.
Speaker 2: He led the regular season in usage for Boston at
Speaker 2: twenty nine point six. He was at twenty five point
Speaker 2: three in the series. The reality is Jaylen Brown and
Speaker 2: Derek White just had better matchups. So I totally get it,
Speaker 2: and he devoted his energy towards rebounding. Jason Tatum had
Speaker 2: fifty one defensive rebounds in the first round. Only Anthony
Speaker 2: Davis and Nikola Jokic had more defensive rebounds in that
Speaker 2: first round. And then Sam Howser really impressed me in
Speaker 2: this series. Shot forty eight percent from three on five
Speaker 2: attempts per game was a huge part of them busting
Speaker 2: Miami Zone. Really starting to show more confidence too in
Speaker 2: terms of like slightly contested shots and like movement based
Speaker 2: jump shots two, which I think is going to be
Speaker 2: an upside for him in the long run as well.
Speaker 2: And then he competes and does his job on defense,
Speaker 2: just a really useful role player. Now, obviously Boston's looking
Speaker 2: at a much bigger challenge in the next round. I
Speaker 2: actually think Orlando is more capable of giving them issues.
Speaker 2: I still lean slightly towards Cleveland winning the series, just
Speaker 2: because they're a little bit more experien and they'll have
Speaker 2: Game seven at home, so Orlando has to I think
Speaker 2: Orlando will beat them in Game six, but Game seven
Speaker 2: is just it's a veteran team at home. It's gonna
Speaker 2: be a tough one for Orlando. Went like Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 2: has way more playoff experience than Palo and Franz. Right,
Speaker 2: They've got Marcus Morris, They've got Tristan Thompson, like, when
Speaker 2: you go to Orlando, it's basically, you know, Joe Ingles
Speaker 2: and then a bunch of young, young, really young players,
Speaker 2: and so it's just it's hard for me to bet
Speaker 2: on Orlando. But should Orlando get out of that series,
Speaker 2: they're the team that I actually think has some potential
Speaker 2: to give Boston some issues. To be clear, I think
Speaker 2: Boston would kill both of these teams. I think they
Speaker 2: destroy Cleveland. I think I think they would just do
Speaker 2: I think they would embarrass Cleveland. But Orlando is huge
Speaker 2: and athletic, and they play super hard, and they're really
Speaker 2: really good at home. So I think that could kind
Speaker 2: of That's what I'm gonna be rooting for, just for
Speaker 2: a more interesting series. And honestly, I think it benefit
Speaker 2: Boston to play some more intense basketball games, like all
Speaker 2: of their peers right now are playing like intense, must
Speaker 2: win competitive basketball games like every single night, and Boston's
Speaker 2: been chilling, for lack of a better term, right, And
Speaker 2: so I think facing Orlando would actually be beneficial for
Speaker 2: them to kind of face a legitimate physical challenge to
Speaker 2: kind of get them ready for the conference finals so
Speaker 2: that they're a little more primed up when they get
Speaker 2: there on the Heat front, I don't have much to
Speaker 2: say other than this, enough of this, make some sort
Speaker 2: of aggressive move to bring in more firepower. I'm sick
Speaker 2: of talking about how good of a coach Eric Spolshra
Speaker 2: is while he's out there trying to make things work
Speaker 2: with a bunch of undrafted guys and a bunch of
Speaker 2: cast offs from other franchises. I'm a big believer in
Speaker 2: Heat culture. I believe in Eric Spolstra's abilities. I believe
Speaker 2: in their standards and expectations as a franchise. But at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, like it only works against
Speaker 2: teams that are fraudulent every time they run into a
Speaker 2: legitimate championship contender. Even with Jimmy and Bam, they just
Speaker 2: don't have enough. And it'll be a damn shame if
Speaker 2: they finally do bring in some sort of real firepower
Speaker 2: and it's too late because Jimmy's too old. The window
Speaker 2: is now. It has to happen this summer. Someone will
Speaker 2: be available and they cannot get cheap. And no, I
Speaker 2: don't think Tyler Harrow is good enough, even with some
Speaker 2: of the flashes that he showed in this series. I
Speaker 2: don't think he's good enough to be untouchable in these discussions.
Speaker 2: You have to have a bona fide star level shot
Speaker 2: creator in the backcourt so that you can go into
Speaker 2: a series and say, I've got three players that are
Speaker 2: top twenty five in the NBA that I'm giving Eric
Speaker 2: Spolstra so that he has a legitimate set of tools
Speaker 2: to use in this type of environment. They need to
Speaker 2: get aggressive. They need to make something happen this offseason.
Speaker 1: No more of this.
Speaker 2: Let's see if our culture and coaching and moxie and
Speaker 2: confidence in Jimmy Butler's alpha dog mentality can pull us
Speaker 2: through a playoff run. That can't be the case anymore.
Speaker 1: Before we get out of here.
Speaker 2: At three mail back questions for you guys, Hi, Jason,
Speaker 2: what do you think the reason is that Palla Bancaro
Speaker 2: is getting so little national attention? The man dropped thirty
Speaker 2: nine to eight in a big road playoff game and
Speaker 2: the national media is quiet. Just wanted to know your thoughts.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you covering the smaller market teams as well.
Speaker 2: Great show. So here's the thing. As much as Powell
Speaker 2: has been super impressive and I was digging into him
Speaker 2: his numbers, this morning, and he shot forty six percent
Speaker 2: on pull up jumpers through the first five games of
Speaker 2: the series. He's shown some higher level playmaking than I
Speaker 2: was expecting to see from him this in this particular
Speaker 2: type of physical playoff environment. He's fighting for good matchups
Speaker 2: and good position and just bullying his way to close
Speaker 2: jump shots close to the basket that he's hitting it
Speaker 2: a high percentage. I've been super impressed with Palo, But
Speaker 2: the reality is is the by far among all the
Speaker 2: eight playoff series except for Boston Miami, so I shouldn't
Speaker 2: say by far.
Speaker 1: So there's a drop off after the top.
Speaker 2: Six series though, like Cleveland Orlando, I have not seen
Speaker 2: anybody at a national level that I talk to regularly
Speaker 2: that respects either of them as a legitimate championship contender,
Speaker 2: even in that Boston Miami series. Like we're watching to
Speaker 2: like Boston's the best team in the East. We're kind
Speaker 2: of evaluating them in that lens. So there's a reason
Speaker 2: why Orlando Cleveland's been on NBA TV every night. They're
Speaker 2: just the subsidiary series in this situation. And here's the reality.
Speaker 2: Orlando's not going anywhere. Plow is ascending. The dude's a star.
Speaker 2: He's gonna keep getting.
Speaker 1: Better and better and better.
Speaker 2: Like he was a pick and pop three at the
Speaker 2: top of the key from winning that game five the
Speaker 2: other night, and it looked at the was good release,
Speaker 2: and he had made a three earlier in the fourth quarter. Like,
Speaker 2: Pallo's awesome. He's gonna have his chance. Orlando as a
Speaker 2: team is going to continue to move up the ranks,
Speaker 2: and as they do, they'll be in higher profile series.
Speaker 2: He'll get more attention and he'll have more opportunities. But
Speaker 2: it's just the league is stacked. The league is super
Speaker 2: super stacked with talent, and we've got other guys like
Speaker 2: Tyrese Maxi and Anthony Edwards that are thriving in the
Speaker 2: playoff setting for like real teams in real competitive series,
Speaker 2: so they're naturally going to get more of that spotlight.
Speaker 2: But everything will come in time. With Pallo, I'm a
Speaker 2: big fan of his. Kind of goes back to what
Speaker 2: we were talking about earlier in the show too, like
Speaker 2: he's got that overwhelming physical imposition, which is just a
Speaker 2: huge asset for a playoff player moving forward, Hey, Jason,
Speaker 2: other than Joel Embiid and John Moran, no other major
Speaker 2: stars this season seemed to have found the sixty five
Speaker 2: game a sixty five minimum game requirement to be an issue.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at predictions for all the awards and all
Speaker 2: NBA teams, and they're all pretty much what i'd expect. However,
Speaker 2: in previous seasons, a lot of stars like Steph lebron
Speaker 2: kd only played around fifty games. Do you think do
Speaker 2: you think then that this was just a result of
Speaker 2: load management and teams being overcautious, and that injuries didn't
Speaker 2: actually increase since the two thousands. So I look at
Speaker 2: everything that happened this year almost purely circumstantial. Like Heavin Durant,
Speaker 2: someone fell into his knee last year and he sprained
Speaker 2: his knee.
Speaker 1: Lebron last year, it was.
Speaker 2: The foot that caused him to miss a bunch of time, right,
Speaker 2: Like these guys were getting hurt last year, even when
Speaker 2: within this postseason, Like there's obviously the physicality has been
Speaker 2: at a higher level in this postseason, and I think
Speaker 2: that's given it some legs. But I've seen a lot
Speaker 2: of people talking about, like, oh, too many people are
Speaker 2: getting injured in this playoff run, And like in my
Speaker 2: experience falling the NBA, it's like some years that happens,
Speaker 2: and some years it doesn't. If I remember correctly, it
Speaker 2: was it twenty twenty one, Yeah, it was like three
Speaker 2: years ago we had a playoff run where like a
Speaker 2: bunch of people got hurt. I want to say it
Speaker 2: was two years. I think it was twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: and twenty twenty two, Like it's super common for a
Speaker 2: bunch of people, Like occasionally, I shouldn't say it's super common.
Speaker 2: To me, it's a total crap shoot. Like sometimes there's
Speaker 2: gonna be a year where five or six stars get hurt,
Speaker 2: and then sometimes there's gonna be year where everyone appears
Speaker 2: to be healthy. Right, Like last year was a relatively
Speaker 2: healthy playoff run. This year it's been more of a disaster.
Speaker 2: I don't really think there's much of a rhyme or
Speaker 2: reason to it. I think it's just I think when
Speaker 2: you're zooming in on a small sample of a handful
Speaker 2: of like fifteen players that you consider to be like
Speaker 2: the the faces of the league, the superstar class, like
Speaker 2: that's enough of a small sample size that, like, you know,
Speaker 2: if one year five guys get hurt and the next
Speaker 2: year two guys get hurt, it can seem like some
Speaker 2: sort of gigantic difference when when in reality it's not right.
Speaker 2: So I don't, I don't. I don't think the league
Speaker 2: has any issue with injuries. I think the sixty five
Speaker 2: game minimum requirement does help to a certain extent. But
Speaker 2: I think guys were just healthier this year, especially among
Speaker 2: some of the bigger names and during the regular season, right,
Speaker 2: and I think in this postseason run the injuries are
Speaker 2: purely circumstantial. I don't really read too much into it,
Speaker 2: to be honest with you. All right, last question, who
Speaker 2: are you taking at Team USA as replacement players? Seems
Speaker 2: clear that embiiding KOI are not going to be able
Speaker 2: to I take Jalen Brown and j Dubb. So I
Speaker 2: think that Embiid is probably out, But I wouldn't be
Speaker 2: surprised if Kawi played. I mean, we're talking two months
Speaker 2: from now, and from what I understand, he doesn't have
Speaker 2: any sort of structural issue in his knee. It's just inflammation.
Speaker 2: So if he were to take like a month off
Speaker 2: and then ramp up for a month for training camp,
Speaker 2: I think he'd be fine. And so I think Kawhi
Speaker 2: could still play. Jaylen Brown's an interesting option.
Speaker 1: Jay Dubb.
Speaker 2: I also really really like j Dubb is an excellent
Speaker 2: perimeter defender, good year, good playmaker too. I think he'd
Speaker 2: be an interesting example of a young player. Another guy
Speaker 2: I keep an eye on is Austin Reeves too. Like
Speaker 2: they've got tons of star talent, but Austin demonstrated last
Speaker 2: year a Team USA that he kind of has a
Speaker 2: natural feel for the international game. And I think Austin's
Speaker 2: one of the best connective players that's in the league.
Speaker 2: He's one of those guys that's not gonna blow you
Speaker 2: away on the box score, but the dude, when you
Speaker 2: just put him alongside four other really good players, he
Speaker 2: just he's just a really good connective piece on both
Speaker 2: ends of the floor. But again, I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 2: if Kawai still played even on the embid front, like
Speaker 2: Joel Embiid like basically stiffed to the country of France
Speaker 2: to play to play in for Team USA. So like,
Speaker 2: something tells me he's probably gonna want to hold up
Speaker 2: his end of the bargain there, but we'll.
Speaker 1: See how his knee holds up. But again, you can't
Speaker 1: go wrong.
Speaker 2: I think I tend to think when you get to
Speaker 2: this far down in the roster, you want to look
Speaker 2: for role players, guys that are really good at playing
Speaker 2: a role along side other shot creators.
Speaker 1: That's what we'll call.
Speaker 2: It. Probably cause me to lean more towards a guy
Speaker 2: like Ja Dubb or a guy like Austin Reevees. All right, guys,
Speaker 2: that has all have for today is always I sincerely
Speaker 2: appreciate you for supporting the show. Tomorrow we are recording
Speaker 2: with Adamanas from d NVR. We're gonna do a preview
Speaker 2: on Nuggets Timberwolves that's gonna air on Friday morning. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna start kind of like doing some film stuff on
Speaker 2: that series as well. We'll have a separate video that's
Speaker 2: just film from that series. And then I believe tomorrow
Speaker 2: night is we have another jam packed playoffs Slate. I
Speaker 2: think tomorrow night is Nick Sixers and Pacers Bucks if
Speaker 2: I remember correctly, So we're gonna be live on YouTube.
Speaker 2: I think it's a little bit of an earlier start
Speaker 2: with the way things shook out, so I think we're
Speaker 2: going I think the last game starts at nine pm Eastern,
Speaker 2: so we'll be going around eleven thirty pm Eastern Tomorrow
Speaker 2: night live on YouTube I will see you guys. Then
Speaker 2: the volume