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Speaker 1: gambler dot net in West Virginia. Let's get started with
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks. Now. I bet on FanDuel before the
Speaker 1: game on Phoenix to win this particular game. Even though
Speaker 1: I picked Dallas two I picked before the series. I
Speaker 1: expected Dallas to drag this series out to six games,
Speaker 1: five or six games, because I trust Luca and his
Speaker 1: greatness to be able to figure stuff out over the
Speaker 1: course of the series. He's just too good of a
Speaker 1: player not to figure something out and figure out a
Speaker 1: way to win a game against this team. At least,
Speaker 1: I think we will see you over the long run.
Speaker 1: If Phoenix's talent turns out to be too much because
Speaker 1: you're watching that game tonight and it's like just so
Speaker 1: many incredibly good basketball players wearing Phoenix Suns jerseys all
Speaker 1: season long. I said they were the deepest team in
Speaker 1: terms of overall talent down the roster that's in the
Speaker 1: league right now, and that kind of thing is just
Speaker 1: really really killing basketball teams in the modern n b
Speaker 1: A with how important it is to have talent off
Speaker 1: of your stars. But I thought the story of this
Speaker 1: game up was the Mavericks and the way that they
Speaker 1: struggled with Phoenix's defense, specifically at the start of the
Speaker 1: game and then really badly at the end of the
Speaker 1: third quarter when things really got out of hand. And
Speaker 1: this is the reason why I made the bet specifically
Speaker 1: tonight on Phoenix, because you know, I have a long
Speaker 1: standing basketball philosophy that you grow your habits accustomed to
Speaker 1: the competition that you're playing. Some one of the hardest
Speaker 1: things that I've had to deal with having I used
Speaker 1: to playing college right and now I play pick up
Speaker 1: basketball in Tucson, Arizona, a town that has run around
Speaker 1: a million people in the metro area, but it's not
Speaker 1: a ton of basketball players in a city like this,
Speaker 1: So I'm playing against lesser competition a lot of the time,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm just I'm I'm just going up
Speaker 1: there to get a workout in in my habits and
Speaker 1: my the what I'm used to in terms of defensive
Speaker 1: attention and athleticism that I face goes way down. And
Speaker 1: so when I do go play against real basketball players,
Speaker 1: which only happens a handful of times per year, there's
Speaker 1: usedly an adjustment for me because in the first you know,
Speaker 1: a few games that I spent playing, the length and
Speaker 1: athleticism is so much better that I have to make
Speaker 1: adjustments with my own game. I have to be more careful,
Speaker 1: more tight with my handle, less risky. Like certain things
Speaker 1: that I do against lesser competition works well, but then
Speaker 1: things that I do against the better competition, maybe I
Speaker 1: need to get more separation. I can't do this specific move,
Speaker 1: I have to do a more difficult move, and so
Speaker 1: on and so forth. Like those are the the the
Speaker 1: details that come become a factor as you adjust two
Speaker 1: longer athletes on the defensive end of the floor. We've
Speaker 1: talked at length on this show about how bad the
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz defense was, uh specifically on the perimeter Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: I think is a top three or four defensive player
Speaker 1: in the world. A lot of this slander that's thrown
Speaker 1: his way as inaccurate. It's just as as a result
Speaker 1: of his specific situation with the Utah Jazz, with guys
Speaker 1: like Jordan Clarkson and Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell and
Speaker 1: who just they just cannot guard on the perimeter or
Speaker 1: they're unwilling to for whatever the reason is. It's just
Speaker 1: a really bad defensive team that got absolutely and utterly
Speaker 1: annihilated by a injured l A Clippers team last year,
Speaker 1: and then they got manhandled by the Jazz or by
Speaker 1: the Mavericks without Luca for the first three games, and
Speaker 1: then Luca came back and continued to annihilate them. So
Speaker 1: their defense was fraudulent. And Phoenix, I think is pretty
Speaker 1: safely the second best defense in this playoff run, behind Boston,
Speaker 1: and so they're going to be a significant leap in
Speaker 1: defensive capability compared to what the Jazz were doing specifically
Speaker 1: on ball because Luca in that series against the Jazz,
Speaker 1: you know, he's kind of taken his pick of pretty
Speaker 1: weak defenders just about every trip down the floor. And
Speaker 1: then yes, some clutch time situations, Rudy was able to
Speaker 1: give him some issues, but he wasn't really having any
Speaker 1: trouble getting wherever he wanted to on the floor tonight.
Speaker 1: It's like, here's Michael Bridges. You know, we're gonna guard
Speaker 1: you with a bunch of different bodies. We're gonna throw
Speaker 1: Chris Paul at you, We're gonna throw Jay Crowd at you,
Speaker 1: We're gonna throw Cam Johnson on you. But the the
Speaker 1: initial assignment was Michail Bridges and Michael Bridges he is
Speaker 1: probably the best defensive wing that we have in the league.
Speaker 1: He's like Anthony Davis at the wing position, just an
Speaker 1: unbelievable combination of length, athleticism, finesse, and instincts. That's why
Speaker 1: he was in the running for Defensive Player of the
Speaker 1: Year this year, and that's what makes him so devastating.
Speaker 1: There's a play in this game, a freak athletic play
Speaker 1: where he was on the right wing and he blocked
Speaker 1: the dude in the left corner off of a single
Speaker 1: swing pass and he just covered an insane amount of
Speaker 1: ground and jumped out of his shoes and blocked the shot.
Speaker 1: Is one of the most amazing defensive players I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: That's the type of raised athleticism and defensive talent that
Speaker 1: Luca was dealing with tonight, and you could tell it
Speaker 1: caused a lot of trouble for them right away. The
Speaker 1: Sons got off to a nine zero start, which just
Speaker 1: sets a tone for the game. That's the type of
Speaker 1: game it's going to be a couple of specific things
Speaker 1: in the way that they were guarding Luca that were
Speaker 1: very interesting. So one of the things that uh, Luca
Speaker 1: does extremely well is positioned himself when he's using ball screens.
Speaker 1: He almost always gets downhill on a ball screen. That's
Speaker 1: just something he's very good at because he's so big
Speaker 1: and wrong right. But against the Utah Jazz, because they're
Speaker 1: a bad perimeter defense team, those guards were dying on
Speaker 1: the screen almost every single time. Whether it's Mitchell or
Speaker 1: whether it was like Royce O'Neil or whether it's Mike Conley,
Speaker 1: they would hit the screen and just die. And so
Speaker 1: Luca would just start working his way downhill against against
Speaker 1: like Rudy waiting for him or whoever whoever it was
Speaker 1: that was in help, and he didn't have any back pressure.
Speaker 1: Back pressure is what the guard is supposed to do
Speaker 1: in a traditional drop card. So teams like the Suns
Speaker 1: and the and the Jazz with DeAndre Ayton and Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert run what's called a drop coverage. We've talked about
Speaker 1: it on the show before. All it is is the
Speaker 1: big positions themselves between the ball handler and the rim
Speaker 1: and they never let the roller get behind them, and
Speaker 1: so the guards job is to chase over the top
Speaker 1: of the screen and apply back pressure. So theoretically, if
Speaker 1: the guard does his job right, he will funnel your
Speaker 1: guard the ball handler into the defender waiting under the ring.
Speaker 1: And when it's done right, it's a very effective way
Speaker 1: to guard pick and roll in two on two. It's
Speaker 1: just extremely difficult to do and it's extremely difficult to
Speaker 1: find guys that can do it right because it's so
Speaker 1: easy in the flow of an NBA game to die
Speaker 1: on screens. And from the start, Michael Bridges was getting
Speaker 1: over every single screen and just staying glued to Luca's back.
Speaker 1: And Luca has all these little mid range shots, right,
Speaker 1: these little push shots and fade aways and floaters and
Speaker 1: hooks and things like that that he gets to and
Speaker 1: right around the ten footmark. And what makes those shots
Speaker 1: a lot tougher is when you've got a guy who's
Speaker 1: one of the best perimeter defenders in all of basketball
Speaker 1: glued to your backside, and you've got DeAndre at and
Speaker 1: waiting for you underneath the basket. And so what was
Speaker 1: really hurting the Mavericks, especially early on, was Dwight Powell
Speaker 1: was the guy who was setting those screens and rolling
Speaker 1: to the wrint. And the issue is Dwight Powe's not
Speaker 1: a shooting threat. He's a rolling threat. And when you
Speaker 1: have Michael Bridges applying back pressure and you have DeAndre
Speaker 1: at and he's a great back line defender underneath rim
Speaker 1: just nothing was open. And so you saw the quick
Speaker 1: adjustment from Dallas to start was they quickly sub Dwight
Speaker 1: powal out Rocks, brought in Maxi Cleber. Maxine Cleber was
Speaker 1: then popping instead of rolling on those on those pick
Speaker 1: and rolls. And a pick and pop is the perfect
Speaker 1: counter to a drop coverage because if the guard is
Speaker 1: chasing over the top of the screen and the big
Speaker 1: man is waiting under the basket, who's guarding the guy
Speaker 1: who pops the three point line? Nobody? And so Maxine
Speaker 1: Cleber got going in that first quarter, they started to
Speaker 1: figure some stuff out and they started to uh hit
Speaker 1: some threes and get the game back to the point
Speaker 1: where it was competitive. But then the Sun's really turned
Speaker 1: the screws again in that late third quarter, and as
Speaker 1: a result of that, they just couldn't score. Next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, they're down twenty. Game is over. They're gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot of adjustments that they can make over
Speaker 1: the course of over the course of the next couple
Speaker 1: of days to prep for the next round. I think
Speaker 1: they have a lot of things that they'll be able
Speaker 1: to figure out. This was a textbook game one. You're
Speaker 1: taking a massive a jump in level of competition. There's
Speaker 1: going to be a ton of sloppiness. It is what
Speaker 1: it is. The last, uh, the last note that I
Speaker 1: had about Phoenix defense, and I thought was really interesting.
Speaker 1: One of the most common plays that NBA teams run
Speaker 1: to try to make their pick and roll more complicated
Speaker 1: is what's called a Spain pick and roll. Basically, all
Speaker 1: that you do is you run a normal pick and roll,
Speaker 1: but you put a shooter underneath the basket and then
Speaker 1: as the big man sets the screen and rolls to
Speaker 1: the rim, your shooter comes up and sets a backscreen
Speaker 1: on the role. The guy who's guarding the rollman theoretically
Speaker 1: will either let the rollman get open or the guard
Speaker 1: will have to help on the rollman, and now the
Speaker 1: shooter that's popping to the top of the key is
Speaker 1: going to be wide open. It's a play that a
Speaker 1: ton of NBA teams run. They're run at a ton
Speaker 1: of times. It's very very difficult to guard, and Phoenix
Speaker 1: was doing this incredibly nifty way to cover it. They
Speaker 1: would just have the guy who was guarding the screener
Speaker 1: just stay glued to the screener they have eight and
Speaker 1: just grab Dwight Powells he's going and then literally the
Speaker 1: guards would just switch, so whoever was guarding Luca would
Speaker 1: just switch to the shooter who's popping out, and then
Speaker 1: the guy who was guarding the shooter would just run
Speaker 1: out and guard Luca. And again when it's Cam Johnson
Speaker 1: and Michael Bridge is making that type of switch or
Speaker 1: not giving any ground, and it's like, here's another six
Speaker 1: eight guy for you to deal with Luca. But again,
Speaker 1: Phoenix is just incredibly sophisticated. They know exactly who they
Speaker 1: are they know exactly what they want to do, and
Speaker 1: they have the defensive talent to do it. And most importantly,
Speaker 1: they have players and Chris Paul and Devin Booker who
Speaker 1: in theory should not be great defensive players, you know,
Speaker 1: very small Chris Paul, Devin Booker offensive oriented. Look around
Speaker 1: to the other guys in the league to see Jim
Speaker 1: mccollins and the Bradley Beals, the guys that are kind
Speaker 1: of considered the same archetype of Devin Bookers, that super
Speaker 1: versatile three level score at the two guard position. None
Speaker 1: of those guys give a shit about playing any defense.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker in the last couple of years has taken
Speaker 1: leaps and bounds as a defensive player in addition to
Speaker 1: becoming a better offensive player. It's actually genuinely impressive the
Speaker 1: way that Devin Booker went from kind of being on
Speaker 1: the same level as those guys to making a massive
Speaker 1: leap and now he's definitively on a tier way ahead
Speaker 1: of those guys. And you know, I know that Phoenix
Speaker 1: is really good, and I know that they have a
Speaker 1: ton of talent, and I know that bolsters a lot
Speaker 1: of what Devin Booker does. But if you watch the games.
Speaker 1: Even if you factor in the talent advantage, even if
Speaker 1: you factor in the fact that Devon's playing on arguably
Speaker 1: the most talented team in the league, he's also just
Speaker 1: better at basketball now than he used to be. And
Speaker 1: it's a big part of the reason why Phoenix has
Speaker 1: been so dominant. That he also has this like this
Speaker 1: edge to him. He's talking a ton more ship than
Speaker 1: he used to. He seems like dead set on destroying
Speaker 1: everybody on the court. He looks like a man on
Speaker 1: a mission right now. Very very impressed by Devin Booker
Speaker 1: and Jarring to watch the difference between Devin Booker sitting
Speaker 1: down in a stance and locking up Jalen Brunson. When
Speaker 1: I watched Jalen Brunson take Donovan Mitchell and literally barbecue
Speaker 1: that dude for six games, Like that, just just the
Speaker 1: massive chasm and all it is. Donovan Mitchell has more
Speaker 1: athletic talent then Devin Booker. He's quicker. Laterally, he's stronger,
Speaker 1: he's quicker for he's more athletic. Vertically, it's just about care.
Speaker 1: You just have to care enough to want to do it.
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, there are a lot of guys
Speaker 1: in the league who don't. And it seems to me
Speaker 1: that the guys that are consistently vying for the Damn
Speaker 1: Trophy are the guys who want to do it. And
Speaker 1: Devin Booker wants the Damn Trophy and he's doing it,
Speaker 1: and that's a big part of what's caused him to
Speaker 1: take this leap. Last note on this specific game, UH,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson and Spenter Dinwoodie, we've talked a lot about.
Speaker 1: You know, there's two main reasons why, uh, we've there's
Speaker 1: two main reasons why uh, Dallas has been so much
Speaker 1: better this year than they haven't years past. Part of
Speaker 1: it is they've been better defensively, although Phoenix exposed them
Speaker 1: in a bunch of different ways. I want to get
Speaker 1: into the film on this tomorrow. So if you want
Speaker 1: to hear more about Phoenix on offense against Dallas's defense again,
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter tomorrow morning. I'll dive into this
Speaker 1: because I want to. This is one of those things
Speaker 1: that's tough to really go over immediately after the game.
Speaker 1: I need to see more film. But I was worried
Speaker 1: about because Dallas makes up for a lot of their
Speaker 1: defensive shortcomings in terms of personnel with scheming and effort,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately, when you run into another team that has
Speaker 1: superior talent and they're also incredibly smart, they can find
Speaker 1: ways to expose you. And in Dallas's defense was horrific tonight.
Speaker 1: They can never get a stop when they needed it.
Speaker 1: I thought Luca was a problem there as well. Um,
Speaker 1: they got to find better ways to hide Luca. He's
Speaker 1: just he looks like a sore thrum thumb in Dallas's
Speaker 1: defense in terms of foot speed, those are little details
Speaker 1: that they'll have to work out. But back to uh
Speaker 1: Dinwoodie and Brunson. You know, the other reason why I
Speaker 1: thought Dallas was better this year, in addition to their defense,
Speaker 1: was the fact that Luca had a better secondary ball
Speaker 1: handler in Jalen Brunson getting better. Jalen Brunson has been
Speaker 1: much better this year than he was last year. Really
Speaker 1: really struggled against the Clippers in the playoffs and struggled
Speaker 1: frequently during the regular season compared to this season. He's
Speaker 1: made a lot of money for himself this season. Go
Speaker 1: look at his contract right now. He very much deserves
Speaker 1: the money, but he has to be better than he
Speaker 1: was tonight. He carried them he was the hero in
Speaker 1: the first three games of that Utah Jazz series, so
Speaker 1: you have to expect that he's got a better punch
Speaker 1: than he throw through tonight. Again, a lot of that
Speaker 1: has to do with the job that Devin Booker did
Speaker 1: on him, So credit to Devin, but you've got to
Speaker 1: get more at a Jalen Brunson and Spencer Din what
Speaker 1: he you know, Spencer did, he did what he was
Speaker 1: okay against the Jazz. Specifically, he made a lot of
Speaker 1: big shots, momentum shots, momentum isolation plays towards the end
Speaker 1: of games. But when you look at the counting stats
Speaker 1: and the points per possession, stuff like didn't what he
Speaker 1: just has not done well enough and he's really struggling
Speaker 1: to finish around the rim, which is bizarre because he's
Speaker 1: like the best combination of size and athleticism of those
Speaker 1: three guys that are initiators for UH for Dallas, so
Speaker 1: you would expect him to be a better rim finisher
Speaker 1: the finisher than he is, but he's really struggling there.
Speaker 1: Spencer Dinwoodie and Jalen Brunson are going to have to
Speaker 1: be better in order for Dallas to win enough games
Speaker 1: to have a chance to win this series, and they
Speaker 1: just did. They just didn't bring enough tonight. So that's
Speaker 1: gonna be the big thing that they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: look at over the course of the next couple of days.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, Luca in particular is so gifted
Speaker 1: at just figuring things out and getting his rhythm naturally,
Speaker 1: Like him walking into game four of a playoff series
Speaker 1: after not playing basketball for you know, three weeks and
Speaker 1: just immediately being the best player on the floor. Luca
Speaker 1: is gonna be hind So set up some stuff early
Speaker 1: in the game and game too to get Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: going find out a way to get his rhythm going
Speaker 1: first and have Luca feed off of that, because you know,
Speaker 1: Lucas going to figure out he's not gonna have any
Speaker 1: problems there at all. All Right, We're gonna move on
Speaker 1: to Philly in Miami. So, um, we knew coming into
Speaker 1: tow these first two games that Embid was not gonna
Speaker 1: be available, and we knew that that a couple of
Speaker 1: things that we figured out, like uh, over the course
Speaker 1: of of this last couple of months with the Sixers,
Speaker 1: we knew definitively on tons of evidence that James Harden
Speaker 1: just is not quite the guy, not not even quite,
Speaker 1: not close to the guy that he was when he
Speaker 1: was in Houston, and so it was gonna have to
Speaker 1: be a team effort with the Sixers team. I talked
Speaker 1: to you guys a lot about how their best chance
Speaker 1: to steal a game here in Miami and games won
Speaker 1: Game two was Tyrese Maxie and Tobias Harris getting going,
Speaker 1: and they did to a certain extent. Tobias Harris had
Speaker 1: a monster night, but Tyrs Maxie was rough. He had
Speaker 1: nineteen points on six and fifteen, shooting only one of
Speaker 1: six from three. They're definitely gonna have to find a
Speaker 1: way to get him going to have any chance. James
Speaker 1: Harden struggled, but that was what we expected. Like James
Speaker 1: Harden given you as many assists his turnovers. James Harden
Speaker 1: given you I think he had four made field goals
Speaker 1: in the game. Like that's just that's not gonna be
Speaker 1: enough if he's gonna be your central focal points. So
Speaker 1: he almost needs to become more of like a supporting
Speaker 1: character at this point. Tobias and Tyrese just have a
Speaker 1: better chance to create advantages. I thought the story of
Speaker 1: this game, and it's you guys are gonna have to
Speaker 1: bear with me here for a minute, because this has
Speaker 1: been one of my personal soap boxes for the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. As I've told you guys, you cannot
Speaker 1: play traditional centers in the modern NBA in the playoffs
Speaker 1: at all. I don't even like using them in the
Speaker 1: regular season. Now. There are a lot of teams out
Speaker 1: there that like to use them to eat innings in
Speaker 1: the regular season. Why because when you can have a
Speaker 1: rim protector linger around the basket, even if it gets
Speaker 1: you beat on the odd night in the regular season,
Speaker 1: on a night and night out basis, it's an excellent
Speaker 1: way to eat innings. It makes things easier for your
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders when they know they have a big guy
Speaker 1: waiting for them under the basket. I get why teams
Speaker 1: like doing that. There they can vacuum up defensive rebounds
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. But every other part of
Speaker 1: the game they struggle. They struggle as roll men because
Speaker 1: NBA coverages are too sophisticated now to to to consistently
Speaker 1: let you know, an average traditional center have success as
Speaker 1: a rollman. They struggle in transition running up and down
Speaker 1: the floor and then any team that figures out how
Speaker 1: to get you into five out setting is gonna barbecue
Speaker 1: with you. Your barbecue you with your lack of foot speed. Well,
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's happens to be not only a traditional center,
Speaker 1: but in my opinion, far and away the worst traditional
Speaker 1: center in the NBA right now. Probably shouldn't be in
Speaker 1: the lead. Fantastic human being, Probably should be an assistant
Speaker 1: coach on the staff somewhere, friends with all the top
Speaker 1: players in the league from all of his time with
Speaker 1: Team USA. Great guy, too old now, not quick enough
Speaker 1: to do any of the jobs that you need from
Speaker 1: the center position. Does not belong on an NBA roster anymore,
Speaker 1: doesn't belong playing minutes anywhere in the league. That's just
Speaker 1: the reality, you know how I know? I covered the
Speaker 1: Lakers for the last two years. Okay literally, when DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's was on the floor, with Lebron, A d and Russ,
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis together, they could only score ninety
Speaker 1: seven point six points per one possessions. Without Jordans on
Speaker 1: the floor, there were twelve points better. Even with Russ
Speaker 1: and all the trouble that he brought to the table.
Speaker 1: He just he ate up a ton of space, was
Speaker 1: a complete non thread around the basket and got destroyed
Speaker 1: on the defensive end because he can't move his feet.
Speaker 1: I saw tons and tons of minutes of it because
Speaker 1: Frank Vogel was insistent on starting him every single game
Speaker 1: to start the season. So I have a very intimate
Speaker 1: relationship with watching Andre Jordan play basketball. And I tweeted
Speaker 1: out before the game, I was like, we all know
Speaker 1: because we got the report. Uh, someone reported that the
Speaker 1: Sixers were gonna start DeAndre Jordan. I immediately tweeted out
Speaker 1: that we all knew that the only chance that Philly
Speaker 1: had to try to go steal a game in Miami
Speaker 1: was to ditch DeAndre Jordan altogether and to play there.
Speaker 1: Just go five out and give up a ton of
Speaker 1: about defensive rebounds, or give up a ton of offensive rebounds,
Speaker 1: give up a you know, some physical mismatches, give up
Speaker 1: some hook shots, the bamant a bio in the lane,
Speaker 1: but thrive in the five out stuff, and maybe you
Speaker 1: can squeeze out a win and then bring Joel and
Speaker 1: be back and go to your traditional rotation. Well, it
Speaker 1: went exactly as you could have expected. Seventeen minutes of
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan, he was minus twenty two, minus twenty two.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait until all the advanced metrics get updated
Speaker 1: so I can show you guys on a per possession
Speaker 1: basis just how bad it was. But that is going
Speaker 1: to be utterly disastrous. Rivers after the game said, quote,
Speaker 1: we like DJ. We're not gonna We're gonna keep starting him,
Speaker 1: whether you like it or not. End quote, just stubborn
Speaker 1: into the It sounds sounds exactly like the type of
Speaker 1: stuff that you would hear from Frank Vogel. People be like, hey, Frank,
Speaker 1: all of this data, this overwhelming evidence just shows us
Speaker 1: that DeAndre Jordan should not be in the rotation. You know,
Speaker 1: why is he still playing? And Frank would be like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've seen the numbers. But you know, we like the
Speaker 1: things that DJ does out there, so we're gonna keep
Speaker 1: going with him. Okay, well, then you're gonna keep losing because,
Speaker 1: like you know, and I get it, there's there's an
Speaker 1: ego that comes with coaches. That's to be expected. There's
Speaker 1: an ego that comes with every single profession. You know,
Speaker 1: it is what it is like if but but for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, specifically with NBA players and NBA coaches. There's
Speaker 1: this ever growing schism that's happening that splits them from
Speaker 1: the general public and their idea that like, we have
Speaker 1: no idea what the hell we're looking at, and they
Speaker 1: know exactly what they're looking at. And you know what's funny,
Speaker 1: I played in college. That has no thing to do
Speaker 1: with the fact that I know the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: There are many of you listening who probably don't play,
Speaker 1: never played, but you have a great understanding in the
Speaker 1: game of basketball because you have spent a great deal
Speaker 1: of time studying the game of basketball. I have met
Speaker 1: basketball players, like good basketball players who don't know the game.
Speaker 1: There are NBA players in the game right now, like
Speaker 1: good NBA players that don't understand the game of basketball
Speaker 1: really well. And then there are average to blow average
Speaker 1: NBA players that are geniuses of the game. Your understanding
Speaker 1: in the game of basketball has very little to do
Speaker 1: with whether or not you can put basketball shoes on
Speaker 1: and go out and actionally, actionably do it. It has
Speaker 1: to do with study, and obviously some people are just
Speaker 1: have a propensity to understand it more than others. Okay,
Speaker 1: you there is overwhelming evidence from everybody who's paying attention
Speaker 1: in presenting this evidence that when you play this guy,
Speaker 1: bad things happened. Take it a step further, when you
Speaker 1: play his archetype of player, bad things happened. We said
Speaker 1: the same thing about Steven Adams in the Sas round.
Speaker 1: We said the same thing about Jonas Valanciunas in the
Speaker 1: last round. Playing these big plotting centers bogs down the
Speaker 1: game for your team. Very rarely can they do enough
Speaker 1: good to make up for it, and it ends up
Speaker 1: hurting you. And this prideful stuff from these guys in
Speaker 1: the league, lying in the face of evidence is killing them.
Speaker 1: You know what was bizarre right or at the end
Speaker 1: of the first half, they ditched DeAndre Jordan and went
Speaker 1: with five wings, played like it was like Georgian Neing.
Speaker 1: It was like Maxi Harris Harden kneeang, and then I
Speaker 1: think they went with theble, so it was like five
Speaker 1: wins basically, you know, three wings and two guards, right,
Speaker 1: and they were dominant. That lineup was dominant. They got
Speaker 1: them back into the game and they had a lead
Speaker 1: at halftime. So we had overwhelming evidence in the first
Speaker 1: half bad with DeAndre Jordan's okay with Paul Reid and
Speaker 1: great with neither, and they did not play that line
Speaker 1: up in the second half. By the end of the
Speaker 1: third quarter, the game was over. The entire third quarter
Speaker 1: was Paul Reid and DeAndre of Jordan's. So he had
Speaker 1: evidence within this game, just within this game. Forget about
Speaker 1: all the numbers that I just showed you. They had
Speaker 1: evidence within this game that they were way better without
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan's. They were okay with Paul Read, but even
Speaker 1: better when they went away from Paul Reid and just
Speaker 1: played five out basketball. When they played that five outstretch,
Speaker 1: James Harden was getting to the rim, Tobias Harris was
Speaker 1: getting to the rim, Tyrus Max he was getting to
Speaker 1: the rim, getting out in transition. Guys were hitting shots,
Speaker 1: They had flow. Did they give up offensive rebounds, Yes,
Speaker 1: they give up seven offensive rebounds in the first half.
Speaker 1: That's gonna happen. They had areas of the game where
Speaker 1: they paid for their lack of size, but the aggregate
Speaker 1: of that group was damned effective because they spaced everybody
Speaker 1: out and all of your stars feel feel comfortable. This
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest issues with like assigning a
Speaker 1: number to any specific basketball play. How do you factor
Speaker 1: in comfort? How do you factor in the fact that
Speaker 1: James Harden is more comfortable in a five out role
Speaker 1: than he is with DeAndre Jordan on the role? How
Speaker 1: do how do you how do you factor that in
Speaker 1: when you're trying to to to study the game like that.
Speaker 1: That's an important part of this, you know, and most importantly,
Speaker 1: and this is the part that pissed me off about
Speaker 1: it in terms of like Philly kind of shaving points.
Speaker 1: Essentially Bam had twenty four and twelve anyway, Like Bam
Speaker 1: at a Bio torched you anyway, even though you stayed
Speaker 1: big the vast majority of the night. So, like, I
Speaker 1: get it. If it was like, hey, when we have
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan out there, we're having success in these areas.
Speaker 1: No no, no, you bought you put him out there
Speaker 1: to do big guy stuff, and he's terrible at the
Speaker 1: big guy stuff. So you might as well have a
Speaker 1: small guy out there who's good at the small guy
Speaker 1: stuff and struggles with the big guy stuff. Then the
Speaker 1: guy who's bad at the big guy stuff anyways and
Speaker 1: can't do the little guy stuff. It's just simple logic here,
Speaker 1: And you know, and again, like I'd like to come
Speaker 1: up here and tell you, like, hey, Philly has some
Speaker 1: stuff in the film that they can look at that
Speaker 1: end of the second quarter, they looked really good with
Speaker 1: no centers. Maybe that's their way to try to steal
Speaker 1: game too. Sorry, guys, quote from Doc Rivers quote we
Speaker 1: like DJ We're gonna keep starting in whether you like
Speaker 1: it or not. End quote. Sorry, Sixers fans, It's gonna
Speaker 1: be more of the same in game two. And I
Speaker 1: will be stunned if DeAndre Jordan goes out there and
Speaker 1: is a positive in game two. And if he is,
Speaker 1: it'll be because the other four guys around him were
Speaker 1: running around like Madnan. It just was genuinely confounding that
Speaker 1: they decided to go that way. A couple of things
Speaker 1: that I liked from Philly that I think will give
Speaker 1: them a chance to try to stay competitive. They did
Speaker 1: a ton of switching, which disrupted a lot of Miami's actions.
Speaker 1: They're interchanges that they do all the gribble handoffs and
Speaker 1: screens and stuff to try to get their movement shooters going.
Speaker 1: But they did a really nice job of mixing in
Speaker 1: zone defense. Zone defense is tricky because you can't really
Speaker 1: do zone defense in the sense that you can't. UH,
Speaker 1: you can't really do zone defense in the sense that
Speaker 1: UH teams will eventually solve it. But I like doing
Speaker 1: it in little short bursts because it's a great way
Speaker 1: to disrupt rhythm. The most important thing is rhythm and basketball.
Speaker 1: Guys are feeling good or they're feeling not good, right,
Speaker 1: they get to a couple of possessions in a row
Speaker 1: where they're feeling good, you throw a couple of possessions
Speaker 1: of zone. Adam throws them off before they have a
Speaker 1: chance to solve that. You switch back. It's a great
Speaker 1: way to keep teams off balance. There's there was a
Speaker 1: lot of good in there to where maybe, just maybe,
Speaker 1: if if they would get ditch these DeAndre Jordan minutes,
Speaker 1: they'd have a chance. But it just makes me feel
Speaker 1: really pessimistic about Philly in this series because now I
Speaker 1: just have a feeling they're gonna lose game too anyway,
Speaker 1: And what's the real point? Last note on this series Miami,
Speaker 1: and I apologize sincerely to Miami fans upfront. I would
Speaker 1: love to talk more about Miami and get into the
Speaker 1: weeds with them, but they played the by far the
Speaker 1: worst team in the first round. Atlanta was the worst
Speaker 1: of the sixteen teams, and now they're playing this like
Speaker 1: shell of a Philly team without Joel embiide Like, it's
Speaker 1: just hard for me to accurately judge them. Obviously, Philly
Speaker 1: packed the paint and tried to make them shooters. Tyler
Speaker 1: Harrow was four for six from three. Everyone else on
Speaker 1: the heat was five for thirty from three. They're bad
Speaker 1: three point shooting team. In some of their specific players
Speaker 1: that they have to play in NBA Playoffs scenarios, Guys
Speaker 1: like p J. Tucker, guys like Uh, Jimmy Butler, guys
Speaker 1: like Damn at a Bio, it puts them in spacing
Speaker 1: conundrums that can cause some problems. The other thing, I
Speaker 1: don't really understand the Victor Oladipo minutes. I know that
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry is out and he's kind of filling that role,
Speaker 1: but Victor Oladipo is just a shell of what what
Speaker 1: his former self was. And hopefully before too long they'll
Speaker 1: be able to get Uh, They'll be able to get
Speaker 1: Kyle Louvery back. It's just hard for me to really
Speaker 1: take a judgment call about Miami until I see them
Speaker 1: play with em Bead and we hopefully we'll get to
Speaker 1: see that in game three. Al Right, before we bring
Speaker 1: on Carson, I just want to hit the housekeeping notes
Speaker 1: really quick. Make sure you liked this video and subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Volumes YouTube channel. Check out our newsletter. There's
Speaker 1: a link in the description to this video. It's a
Speaker 1: great way to keep up with all our content, and
Speaker 1: this is the place to get all your dream on
Speaker 1: green content. He had reacted to his technical foul call earlier.
Speaker 1: Incredible stuff. He just broke down game to a preview
Speaker 1: game two fi series and gave some predictions for the
Speaker 1: other series. And last but not least, don't forget to
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt to see
Speaker 1: my film breakdowns on the mornings after the game. Alright,
Speaker 1: we're gonna him. I got Carson on and we're gonna
Speaker 1: dive deeper into the series. Is from yesterday. Hey buddy,
Speaker 1: Hey Jason, how are you doing? I can't complain, man. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: let me just say I love the Volume newsletter as well,
Speaker 1: big fan. I happened to put it together myself, so
Speaker 1: I would highly recommend I do. Yeah. I've got many
Speaker 1: many hats that I wear here, Jason, many hats, all right,
Speaker 1: We're gonna play a game called what We Learned, So
Speaker 1: we're gonna look back at yesterday's games and talk about
Speaker 1: some of the biggest takeaways from each of the teams
Speaker 1: who we saw in action. We're gonna start with a
Speaker 1: team that you have been very high on. They dropped
Speaker 1: Game one. But Jason, what did we learn from the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics in that game yesterday? This game was even
Speaker 1: more interesting after I dug into the film. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I I could see there was some bad body language
Speaker 1: stuff with Boston after the game, and I get that
Speaker 1: because you kind of got punked a little bit, and
Speaker 1: we're talking a little bit about it in a minute.
Speaker 1: But I thought Janice played a little bit of a
Speaker 1: role in that. You know, one of the things I
Speaker 1: said in the show last night was it looked to
Speaker 1: me on the surface, before I could get a look
Speaker 1: at the advanced stats, that Boston defended extraordinarily well in
Speaker 1: the half court and their offense put them at a
Speaker 1: massive disadvantage in a bunch of transition scenarios and they struggled. Well,
Speaker 1: we got to look at the data and it's exactly
Speaker 1: what you would expect it. So, according to Cleaning the
Speaker 1: glass that these are absolutely bonkers numbers if you're a
Speaker 1: Celtics fan and you've just got to be kicking yourself
Speaker 1: at the level of self sabotage. So the Bucks only
Speaker 1: managed zero points seven six points per half court play
Speaker 1: zero point four three points per transition play off of
Speaker 1: a live rebound. So when they played normal offense and
Speaker 1: got a shot attempt up and either made it or
Speaker 1: missed it, they defended astoundingly well. But on there on
Speaker 1: the plays where they turned the ball over, So when
Speaker 1: Milwaukee gotta steal, they averaged a whopping two point three
Speaker 1: three points per transition play. So literally, as I said
Speaker 1: in the show last night, Boston gave this game away
Speaker 1: in transition, and that's exactly what happened, And it came
Speaker 1: down to what they did on offense. They just just
Speaker 1: we're incredibly flum mixed from the start with the different
Speaker 1: look that Milwaukee was going with. You know, Brooklyn was
Speaker 1: doing some similar things in terms of aggression on the
Speaker 1: perimeter and having help underneath the basket. But there's just
Speaker 1: another level to rim protection when you're dealing with Janice
Speaker 1: and brook Lopez versus dealing with Nick Klaxton, Andre Drummond
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant. They're just not on the same stratosphere
Speaker 1: as rim protectors. You know, Brook Lopez was a defensive
Speaker 1: Player of the Year candidate a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: so he's every bit as capable as Joannice at protecting
Speaker 1: the rim. And when you put the two of those together,
Speaker 1: puts you in this weird predicament where when you run
Speaker 1: ball screens, it's like, cool, you got Yannice up at
Speaker 1: the ball screen, so you get him away from the paint,
Speaker 1: but Brooks down there, or you get Brooke out there
Speaker 1: and you beat Brooke to the basket, but Janice is
Speaker 1: down there. And it really really flu mixed Boston when
Speaker 1: I looked into it. It had a lot to do
Speaker 1: with shot selection. So only they took fifty threes, only
Speaker 1: twenty two of them were wide open, so many of
Speaker 1: them were like quick fires, like coming down the floor
Speaker 1: off the dribble. Somebody says the ball screen, you know,
Speaker 1: Brook or j Honese is a touch too low, and
Speaker 1: they just decide to fire even though there's like seventeen
Speaker 1: seconds on the shot clock, and they they literally everybody
Speaker 1: not named Jayson Tatum was zero four eleven on pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots, so that one about exactly as you
Speaker 1: could have expected. A lot of plays too, were like
Speaker 1: guys would dribble the ball off the floor and you know,
Speaker 1: there'd be a guy kind of playing the passing lane
Speaker 1: one passed away, and so the shooter would be kind
Speaker 1: of open but not really and instead of like driving
Speaker 1: to the basket and really collapsing the defense, they'd like
Speaker 1: swing it and then the guy would just catching fire
Speaker 1: with like seventeen seconds on the shot clock. And I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's not a heavily contested shot, but it's
Speaker 1: not wide open, and it's rushed. It's early in the clock,
Speaker 1: and you didn't really make Milwaukee's defense work, and you
Speaker 1: certainly could have gotten something better. When when Boston generated
Speaker 1: catch and shoot opportunities, they actually did pretty well. They
Speaker 1: were one point to two points per catch and shoot opportunity.
Speaker 1: That's a really good number. But it primarily came down
Speaker 1: to just rushing shots, doing a lot of things that
Speaker 1: were uncharacteristic to the way Boston typically has run really
Speaker 1: mature offense. Over the course of the last half of
Speaker 1: the season, so stuff that they got to figure out.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown in particular, I love Jalen Brown. He was
Speaker 1: a monster in the first round, absolutely dominated Brooklyn in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarters of those games by putting his head
Speaker 1: down and going to the rim, taking advantage of his
Speaker 1: physical size in the in those matchups against all those
Speaker 1: tiny players. For Brooklyn, well, Milwaukee just has bigger, stronger athletes.
Speaker 1: Some of those opportunities aren't as good. They're cutting him
Speaker 1: off from the rim, and he's been throwing the ball
Speaker 1: all over the court. I think he had eight turnovers
Speaker 1: in the game, but some of some of the like
Speaker 1: he really really struggles with making basic reads and the
Speaker 1: amount of times that he would have like Grant Williams
Speaker 1: wide open on the wing and force a shot, or
Speaker 1: like pick up his dribble and look around and and
Speaker 1: not know where to go even though there was a
Speaker 1: wide open shooter there, like Jalen Brown in particular, and
Speaker 1: he probably knows this. He doesn't need to hear this
Speaker 1: from me. Jyleen Brown knows it. But he's got to
Speaker 1: be way, way, way better. In Game two, I thought
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum was actually pretty good. You know, he struggled
Speaker 1: in some specific areas with the defense, but you're seeing
Speaker 1: a consistent theme in this playoff. Run that the best
Speaker 1: player on your team is struggling statistically and just about
Speaker 1: every game. Johanna struggled in game one. Tatum struggled a
Speaker 1: lot in the last round in terms of his counting
Speaker 1: stats and his efficiency because of the fact that defenses
Speaker 1: are throwing the kitchen sink at your first start and
Speaker 1: it's just making things really, really hard. So what's the
Speaker 1: pathway for Boston. Run smarter offense. You have a clear
Speaker 1: cut weapon to win this series. That clear cut weapon
Speaker 1: is your half court defense. When you got Milwaukee in
Speaker 1: the half court, they only scored zero point seven six
Speaker 1: points per possession. That's an incredible number. That's something you
Speaker 1: can take to the damn bank. So run smarter offense,
Speaker 1: don't turn the ball over, take higher quality shots. Just
Speaker 1: by doing those three things, you avoid all these chaotic
Speaker 1: transition possessions where you got killed in the last but
Speaker 1: not least giving up two point three three points a
Speaker 1: transition play is terrible. So when you do turn it over,
Speaker 1: spread back, spread back, there are way too many plays
Speaker 1: where like Marcus Smarter, Jalen Brown or Jayson Tatum would
Speaker 1: like turn and complain to the refs while everyone's running
Speaker 1: down the other way. That's how you give up awful
Speaker 1: transition possessions that end up killing you on the other end.
Speaker 1: So little stuff like that they just have to get
Speaker 1: way better at. So before we move on to Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: because I wanted to talk a lot about how good
Speaker 1: they've been, I want to show you guys some shot
Speaker 1: charts just to demonstrate just how crazy the dispersion is
Speaker 1: between these two teams. So I'm gonna show you Milwaukee's
Speaker 1: shot chart first. Take a look at this. So look
Speaker 1: at the variety. Look at those dark circles and all
Speaker 1: the different spots they are on the floor. You've got
Speaker 1: turnaround jump shots from Bobby Portis in there. You have
Speaker 1: longer hook shots from Bobby Portis in there, you have
Speaker 1: mid range jump shots from Janice, one leg fade aways,
Speaker 1: you have uh, you know, Drew Holiday making floaters and
Speaker 1: things in the lane. There's variety in there. And when
Speaker 1: you're playing against an elite defense, you have to come
Speaker 1: with variety. If you simplify your deep, your offense down
Speaker 1: to one or two things, then the defense can really
Speaker 1: key in on those one or two things and it
Speaker 1: can cause problems. I'm gonna show you, guys, Boston shot
Speaker 1: chart here in just a second. But I wanted to
Speaker 1: bring Carson back on so he can respond. Yeah, Jason, Well,
Speaker 1: just when you address some of the issues that stood
Speaker 1: out for Boston in Game one, who is the guy
Speaker 1: who you think is most important to them ultimately coming
Speaker 1: out on top in this series? Is there a single
Speaker 1: swing player who stands out to you on their roster?
Speaker 1: That's Jalen Brown. It has to be like, if you
Speaker 1: were ranking players in the game yesterday, you're probably doing
Speaker 1: Janice first. You're probably doing Drew Holiday second, Tatum third.
Speaker 1: So Tatum's gotta be a little bit better, but you
Speaker 1: expect Tatum to be better, Like that's just gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Tatum's Tatum's that level of player now. But then you're
Speaker 1: like getting to like Bobby Portis and brook Lopez and
Speaker 1: Grayson Allen and then maybe Al Horford, and then we're
Speaker 1: going further down. I'm probably going to Pat Connaughton. Like
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown was like the tenth or eleventh best player
Speaker 1: in the game yesterday, That's just not gonna cut it.
Speaker 1: He was the swing factor against Brooklyn. All those games
Speaker 1: were close in the fourth quarter, and Jalen Brown's want
Speaker 1: to pulled away and got the job done. Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: has to be better a couple of different ways. He
Speaker 1: has to give you some of that midrange scoring. We're
Speaker 1: gonna show you guys the Celtic shot chart here in
Speaker 1: just a second. But like he's got to be able
Speaker 1: to get two spots on the floor to generate offense
Speaker 1: when things break down. He gave you absolutely nothing in
Speaker 1: that area of the game. And then most importantly, just
Speaker 1: smarter decision making. Like again when the when they got
Speaker 1: paint touches by driving the ball to the basket and
Speaker 1: then kicked two shooters, everything went really well. When they
Speaker 1: started to freelance and do stupid stuff, things went poorly.
Speaker 1: So like just playing smart basketball, being that legit number
Speaker 1: two option that just plays smart basketball, makes smart decisions
Speaker 1: and gives you some of that scoring pop is really
Speaker 1: all they need from Jalen and that's what they that
Speaker 1: that's the swing factor in my opinion. All right, well,
Speaker 1: I'll let you do your Celtics shots chart spiel. I'm
Speaker 1: in tregue. Okay, guys, let take a look at this
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics shot chart. This is the Milwaukee one, So
Speaker 1: this is Boston. So look, do you see any variety.
Speaker 1: Do you see any dispersion. I don't even see a
Speaker 1: longer too. I don't even see like a hook shot
Speaker 1: in the lane. It's layups at the basket and three
Speaker 1: point shots. Now, analytically, that's fantastic. If you're uh, like
Speaker 1: one of those you know dudes who's all about shot value,
Speaker 1: You're gonna look at this and think that's the ideal outcome.
Speaker 1: But I actually look at it the other way. That
Speaker 1: makes you easy to guard because I now know that
Speaker 1: if I chase you off the three point line, you're
Speaker 1: not willing to try to score from the midrange. You're
Speaker 1: going to drive into the teeth of the defense. There
Speaker 1: were a lot of plays, you know, we were talking
Speaker 1: last night about, like, Okay, you beat somebody in the basket,
Speaker 1: like Tatum splits the Lopez pick and roll. Janice is
Speaker 1: coming over to help. What do you do? Do you
Speaker 1: kick to Grant Williams in the corner. Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: I think you should do. But if you are trying
Speaker 1: to build your rhythm as a score and look for
Speaker 1: shots for yourself over the course of the game, so
Speaker 1: that you're not only kicking out to shooters all night long.
Speaker 1: That's where it's like stop short and take a floater
Speaker 1: over Janice and like or stop take a do the
Speaker 1: thing that Devin Booker does when you feel the defender
Speaker 1: coming behind you from back pressure. Just take like a
Speaker 1: hard dribble to the right and like take a pull
Speaker 1: up fifteen foot or something like that. Do something because
Speaker 1: that's a wide open shot in that role when you've
Speaker 1: got separation working towards the basket. Just anything other than
Speaker 1: going right at the guy who won Defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year last year or two years ago, whatever it was. Like,
Speaker 1: you can't just walk into that trap consistently and expect
Speaker 1: good results. Like you've got to do something to mix
Speaker 1: things up. It can't just be we're gonna take the
Speaker 1: threes that are there and we're gonna drive into your
Speaker 1: shot blockers and get blocked all night Look ten for
Speaker 1: ten for thirty four on twos, Carson ten for thirty
Speaker 1: four on twos in that name. Yeah, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it was the second fewest made two's in any playoff
Speaker 1: game ever. Like really just a crazy dynamic, and I
Speaker 1: mean they do have the personnel right when you talk
Speaker 1: about the pull up mid range shot making Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: for basically his career until this year. One of the
Speaker 1: gripes I would say was he was overly reliant on
Speaker 1: the mid range and whatnot, and Jalen has that in
Speaker 1: his game, So it'll be interesting to see if they
Speaker 1: can figure that out and adjust. But totally with you
Speaker 1: on the predictability element. And I mean it's really interesting,
Speaker 1: like that is kind of Milwaukee's desired shot chart, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's exactly what they want. They're giving you
Speaker 1: fifty threes on purpose kinda. And like you said, I mean,
Speaker 1: the pain is packed and it's tough to score in there,
Speaker 1: all right, So let's flip him a wat. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna do, Like what if if you
Speaker 1: look at their shot chart, it's not like they took
Speaker 1: thirty seven mid range jump shots. It's just enough to
Speaker 1: keep the defense, honest, it's just enough today, man straight,
Speaker 1: that you are willing to shoot there. Which and again,
Speaker 1: if you're willing to shoot there, maybe instead of Janice
Speaker 1: waiting directly under the basket, maybe he has to come
Speaker 1: out a little bit and help. And now you've opened
Speaker 1: up a cut on the back door. Now, great Williams
Speaker 1: doesn't have to take a three if you're willing to
Speaker 1: shoot the float or willing to shoot the pull up two.
Speaker 1: Now the defender has to come just to step up
Speaker 1: from the rim and it opens up the back door
Speaker 1: cut from the week side corner. Just you have to
Speaker 1: have variety in your offense. It can't it can't be
Speaker 1: that basic. But going on to the rest of the stuff.
Speaker 1: With Milwaukee like there, first of all, their transition defense
Speaker 1: was incredible. We just talked about Boston and then getting
Speaker 1: just barbecued in transition defense. And again, transition defense is
Speaker 1: really simple. Sprint back. Everybody sprints back to the paint.
Speaker 1: Then when you get to the paint, you turn around
Speaker 1: and you look at who's coming wherever, whoever's there. Somebody
Speaker 1: stays under the rim. Everyone else sprays out to shooters
Speaker 1: from there. So rule number one is give up at
Speaker 1: least a jump shot. If you're gonna give up a shot,
Speaker 1: make sure it's not at the rim. And then rule
Speaker 1: number two is, once you get to the paint, spray out.
Speaker 1: Like transition defense is thousand percent about effort and focus.
Speaker 1: Giving up two point three three points per transition opportunity
Speaker 1: office steals for Boston, that's inexcusable. That's just laziness. That's sloppiness,
Speaker 1: that's barking at the refs. That's not playing real basketball.
Speaker 1: Check this out. Boston had eight live ball steals against Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: so the same types of opportunities that Boston was giving
Speaker 1: up two point three three points per possession on. Boston
Speaker 1: had eight of those opportunities going the other way. They
Speaker 1: scored on zero of them, zero of them. Milwaukee sprint
Speaker 1: back on every single one of them and shut the
Speaker 1: rim off. There was a play that I I showed
Speaker 1: on my Twitter feed that you guys can find, be honest,
Speaker 1: like completely out of the play, turns the ball over
Speaker 1: to Tatum on a pass. Tatum is twenty ft past him,
Speaker 1: just turns and sprints and tries to block him off
Speaker 1: the glass. As a result, Tatum rushes the lay up
Speaker 1: a little bit and misses it and they get a stop.
Speaker 1: Little details like that those are If you can get
Speaker 1: those numbers down from you know, two point three three
Speaker 1: points per transition opportunity down to that, then you're giving
Speaker 1: yourself a fighting chance in a game like this because
Speaker 1: of how well you defended in the half court. A
Speaker 1: couple other notes drew Drew Holiday's shot making. He had
Speaker 1: I think six made field goals that were unassisted that
Speaker 1: were difficult, like create your own shot types of moments.
Speaker 1: Everything that I was just talking about with Jaylen Brown,
Speaker 1: that they needed, just those little punches of offense that
Speaker 1: are so so so important against defense of this caliber,
Speaker 1: like Drew Holiday was giving you that he was just
Speaker 1: early in the game. I thought there was a huge
Speaker 1: a sequence where Boston was scoring and I think they
Speaker 1: had eight points quick early and Drew Holliday came down
Speaker 1: and hit two threes. He had a transition pull up
Speaker 1: three off of a steel and then he had another
Speaker 1: three where he came off of a ball screen on
Speaker 1: the right side of the floor and Al Horford was
Speaker 1: way too low as the as the guy guarding the screen,
Speaker 1: and he made two threes, just monstrous threes that just
Speaker 1: settle you down, you know, like if you if Boston
Speaker 1: gets stops on those two possessions, now it's like maybe
Speaker 1: Milwaukee's calling a time out and they're down twelve to two,
Speaker 1: and the entire dynamic of the game is different. The
Speaker 1: crowds into it. It turns into this like crazy helter
Speaker 1: skelter environment where Boston's like frantically feeding off of the crowd. No,
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday made monster play after monster play that just
Speaker 1: stiff armed Boston and kept them away from having any
Speaker 1: real control over the basketball game. Just I thought he
Speaker 1: was definitively the second best player on the floor last night.
Speaker 1: A very first possession of the game, Marcus Smart is
Speaker 1: just trying to bring the ball up the floor, and
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday just like slides right in front of him
Speaker 1: like a stone wall, stops Marcus Smart and hits the
Speaker 1: ball out of bounds. And you're just like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be that type of night. Like Drew Holidays like
Speaker 1: I'm going to make your life a living hell tonight.
Speaker 1: And he did that to Marcus Smart all night long.
Speaker 1: Just incredibly impressive performance from Drew. You know, I said
Speaker 1: towards the end of our buck segment yesterday, and I
Speaker 1: thought you honest for some things. I went back and
Speaker 1: watch the tape and I actually have to go back
Speaker 1: on that. I actually disagree, Like I think that Janice
Speaker 1: is relentless rim pressure even he went nine him consistently
Speaker 1: driving into all that traffic, even though he was smoking
Speaker 1: layups right and left, and again I had people in
Speaker 1: in my mentions being like Joannice won't shoot that Portland. No. No,
Speaker 1: he was taking incredibly difficult shots over like triple teams
Speaker 1: around the basket. They were low quality shots. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying that what I noticed over the course of the
Speaker 1: game is that war Boston down. The intensity that it
Speaker 1: takes physically to build the wall on Janice and try
Speaker 1: to deter those room attempts is exhausting, and Janice perpetually
Speaker 1: doing that had a wearing effect. And I actually think
Speaker 1: over the course of the series, if he keeps doing that,
Speaker 1: he'll have monster statistical games later in this series. So
Speaker 1: credit to you, Honest. I take back what I said
Speaker 1: it was important for him to keep doing that. And
Speaker 1: then last note with you, honest, and this is something
Speaker 1: I've I have not seen this since Lebron. You know,
Speaker 1: like in the like around five six years ago, there
Speaker 1: was this thing that would happen with Lebron where he
Speaker 1: had this aura when he would step into the arena
Speaker 1: for a play off game. Even great players on the
Speaker 1: other team would get flustered. You'd have guys that would
Speaker 1: have fantastic seasons, like in the m v P conversation
Speaker 1: type of seasons and they would fall apart, like at
Speaker 1: the seams against Lebron. You even saw it from like
Speaker 1: all time greats like Steph Curry two thousand fifteen and
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen played well below in the finals, played
Speaker 1: well below his regular season averages. In a big part
Speaker 1: of that. Clay Thompson struggled in both of those series,
Speaker 1: you know, like literally, like Draymond Gray was a monster
Speaker 1: in two thousand and sixteen. That was when he was
Speaker 1: hitting every single three that he took out the game,
Speaker 1: had like thirty five, twelve and seven in Game seven
Speaker 1: or whatever it was. But like Stephan Clay in particular
Speaker 1: really struggled. Demarta Rosen and Kyle Lowry used to like
Speaker 1: consistently like just fold under the pressure of Lebron. You
Speaker 1: saw that in the two thousand eighteen playoff run, where
Speaker 1: like guys like Victor Oladipo just suddenly fell to pieces.
Speaker 1: You know, Demarta rozen again in that playoff run, fell
Speaker 1: to pieces fourth quarter of Game seven in Boston, Tatum
Speaker 1: and Brown like falling apart. Lebron just has this aura
Speaker 1: on on his peers when he was at his peak.
Speaker 1: I got that feeling from Janice last night. Man, it
Speaker 1: just felt like it felt like he was so clearly
Speaker 1: the best player on the floor that it's psyched everybody
Speaker 1: out for Boston, and it had this like effect on
Speaker 1: them where guys like Jalen Brown in particular and Marcus
Speaker 1: smartin particular just played garbage basketball games compared to their
Speaker 1: usual capabilities, and it just seemed like they were psyched
Speaker 1: out by Honest, and it was just it was a
Speaker 1: unique thing that I haven't seen in a really long time.
Speaker 1: And it's a credit to the Honest. Yeah, that is
Speaker 1: a really interesting point, and there's some interesting dynamics with
Speaker 1: the Honest because it's like from some there seems to
Speaker 1: still be like a hesitancy to crown him as the
Speaker 1: best guy alive or firmly in that conversation. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's like a skill biased thing or whatever,
Speaker 1: but I mean, right now, he's very clearly I think,
Speaker 1: playing at that level. All right, let's move out west,
Speaker 1: Jason to the other series we saw yesterday, Grizzlies Warriors.
Speaker 1: It was a pretty thrilling game. Memphis ended up falling
Speaker 1: by one. They had a look from to maybe win it,
Speaker 1: but it did not fall. What did we learn from
Speaker 1: the Grizzlies in that game. So a couple of things.
Speaker 1: Memphis actually was better than Golden State in the half
Speaker 1: court They average zero point nine three points per half
Speaker 1: court play compared to zero point eight five for Golden State.
Speaker 1: That's a good sign for Memphis, especially with how well
Speaker 1: they generate extra possessions by crashing the offensive glass. A
Speaker 1: couple of things they got to clean up. They allowed
Speaker 1: too many offensive rebounds. For as dominants, they were offensive rebounding,
Speaker 1: they had sixteen. They also gave up sixteen. So those
Speaker 1: are things that they're going to have to specifically clean up.
Speaker 1: Golden State. A couple of quick notes. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of talk including you know, I talked about I know
Speaker 1: that the Warriors are better with Draymond, but I talked
Speaker 1: about how I liked some of the lineups that they
Speaker 1: used without Draymond and some of the dynamics there. Well,
Speaker 1: just so you guys know, with Draymond on the floor yesterday,
Speaker 1: they had a hundred nineteen offensive rating, hundred and eight
Speaker 1: defensive rating, and they were plus eleven net. With Draymond
Speaker 1: off the floor, they had a hundred and twelve offensive rating,
Speaker 1: hundred and fourteen defensive rating and they were minus two nets,
Speaker 1: so they were definitively better with Draymond off the floor
Speaker 1: on the floor, so we can go ahead and ditch that. However,
Speaker 1: there was one specific lineup that they used. I think
Speaker 1: it was in the in the third quarter where they
Speaker 1: went with Clay Thompson, Jordan Pool, Auto Porter, Jonathan Comedica,
Speaker 1: and Gary Payton Jr. Yesterday's show, we broke down specifically
Speaker 1: what they were doing, but that group was plus five
Speaker 1: and six minutes, and I thought it was a huge
Speaker 1: part of why they were able to win in the
Speaker 1: second half without Draymond. What do you do with that? Well,
Speaker 1: the way I look at it is, I think you
Speaker 1: gotta keep playing Draymond his normal allotment and use that
Speaker 1: lineup when he's off the floor. There's gonna be a
Speaker 1: tendency to want to go to Luney there that I
Speaker 1: would actually play Luney alongside Draymond as much as you can,
Speaker 1: because Draymond actually likes that dynamic and it will help
Speaker 1: you against Memphis attacking the offensive glass. And then when
Speaker 1: you have Draymond off the floor, that's when I'd go small.
Speaker 1: That's when i'd go with Clay and Pool Auto cominga
Speaker 1: and and Gary Payton Jr. Because that lineup was just super,
Speaker 1: super versatile offensively. It had so much space for Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool and Clay Thompson to operate that they were dominant
Speaker 1: in there. And the last specific note on this series
Speaker 1: before we move on, Golden State was plus ten in
Speaker 1: eleven minutes without Steph Curry. That's a great sign because
Speaker 1: obviously that's been something just Steph Curry teams and lebron
Speaker 1: teams consistently over the last couple of years have always
Speaker 1: struggled when that guy's off the floor, and a big
Speaker 1: part of that is there literally, Carson, you and I
Speaker 1: got into this argument a while back, but like, they
Speaker 1: are the two guys that I thought were the premier
Speaker 1: offensive engines in the league. So obviously when you take
Speaker 1: them off the floor has a damaging effect on your offense.
Speaker 1: But for you to go plus ten and eleven minutes
Speaker 1: without Curry, a big credit to that is that specific
Speaker 1: lineup I was just talking about. But that's a great
Speaker 1: sign looking forward. If your Memphis, it's trust your half
Speaker 1: court offense. You know you've been a little bit better
Speaker 1: than Golden State. You just got to clean up some
Speaker 1: of the details and you'll be in good shape. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that half court comparative success from Memphis isn't
Speaker 1: interesting because I would not expect them to be the
Speaker 1: better half court offense overall. Obviously, Jaw is the one
Speaker 1: driving that, and he's had a trusting post season so far.
Speaker 1: He had a monster to statistical Game one, but overall
Speaker 1: hasn't had like the most efficient scoring post season. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, you know, can collapse the defense
Speaker 1: at will get downhill. So given how Game one went,
Speaker 1: what kind of series are you expecting from Jaw overall?
Speaker 1: That's a good question, you know. I thought Job was
Speaker 1: actually pretty damn good, especially down the stretch. Um Golden
Speaker 1: State did a good job on some specific possessions, the
Speaker 1: game winning possession, and then they got two additional stops
Speaker 1: on in late fourth quarter where it seemed like when
Speaker 1: they when they left him on an island, Jaw got
Speaker 1: whatever he want wanted when they crowded him more, that's
Speaker 1: when they were able to get some stops. You know,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing with Jaw is gonna be, you know,
Speaker 1: continuing to be relentless with that rim pressure. It does
Speaker 1: so much good for them on a bunch of different levels.
Speaker 1: Not only does it open up things for the shooters.
Speaker 1: Desmond Baying had a rough game in Game one. You've
Speaker 1: got to find a way to get more looks for
Speaker 1: Desmond Bay. But most importantly, like we've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about Memphis, his offensive rebounding. Memphis would get an offensive
Speaker 1: rebound on thirty three of their offensive possessions this year,
Speaker 1: which was number one in the league. That was their
Speaker 1: bread and butter was crashing the offensive glass with guys
Speaker 1: like Steven Adams and Brandon Clark and just relentless, you know,
Speaker 1: athleticism around the rim. Well, huge part of that is jaw.
Speaker 1: You know, when John gets into the lane and goes
Speaker 1: flying in there and throwing up layups. It occupies shot blockers.
Speaker 1: And so when you're when you're Draymond Green and you're
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you know kevn. Looney has to come
Speaker 1: over to try to block the shot. It basically takes
Speaker 1: a body off of Brandon Clark. It takes a body
Speaker 1: off of Jaren Jackson Jr. Now they get free rim
Speaker 1: runs and that's when they can really have that uh
Speaker 1: that effect. If I'm John Moran, just aspire to have
Speaker 1: the cumulative wear and tear effect like putting your head
Speaker 1: down and getting to the basket is I've we talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot with Russell Westbrook this year. If
Speaker 1: there was one good thing that Russell Westbrook did as
Speaker 1: he was missing everything just about every layup, it seemed
Speaker 1: he was getting to the rim. And there is unquestionable
Speaker 1: positive offensive impact by getting to the rim. It just collapses,
Speaker 1: the defense occupies shot blockers, opens up things for offensive
Speaker 1: rebounders and for shooters. It is like one of the
Speaker 1: most basic basketball concepts. So that's John Rand's biggest impact.
Speaker 1: Shot really well made four I think it's four for
Speaker 1: ten from three or four for nine from three or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. You know, Jaren Jackson made six threes eleven. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jaren Jackson made six threes. My thing is like that's
Speaker 1: fool's gold. You can't depend on job making four threes
Speaker 1: every game. You can't com depend on what you can
Speaker 1: depend on his rim pressure and Jaren Jackson Jr. For
Speaker 1: the record, we talked a lot about his shooting. He
Speaker 1: was a monster attacking mismatches in that game, getting to
Speaker 1: the rim. So like those are the things that are
Speaker 1: like translatable, like the things that are going to continue
Speaker 1: to win over the course of the series. And again,
Speaker 1: like we talked about it, the skill teams always dominate
Speaker 1: the beginning of a series, and the physical teams always
Speaker 1: dominate the end of the series. It is if you're
Speaker 1: a Golden State fan, it's not a must win, but
Speaker 1: it's pretty important for you to to try to steal
Speaker 1: Game two as well, because the longer this series goes,
Speaker 1: the more wear and tear on Draymond, the more wear
Speaker 1: and tear on Kevan Looney. There's matchups elsewhere on the
Speaker 1: floor where they're small. There's a lot of Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: on Brandon Clark at the end of the game, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of Andrew Wiggins on Jaren Jackson Jr. Those
Speaker 1: are significant size mismatches that they have to figure out,
Speaker 1: and they are the easiest way to figure it out
Speaker 1: is get him out of here quickly, like like if
Speaker 1: you lose game to make sure you win Game three
Speaker 1: and four, take a three one lead, like you've got
Speaker 1: to end this series as fast as possible to avoid
Speaker 1: the inevitable physical onslot that comes from Memphis. Alright, Well, Jason,
Speaker 1: now that we've touched on every series at least a bit.
Speaker 1: We're gonna play a game. It's called Fast break Fast Take.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have one minute to make the case for
Speaker 1: each team that lost Game one as to how they
Speaker 1: could actually end up winning this series. We're gonna start
Speaker 1: with the Dallas Mavericks. You're on the clock. Oh man,
Speaker 1: let's ho this isn't a disaster, all right, So if
Speaker 1: you're Dallas, got to figure out a way to get
Speaker 1: stops again. Your whole scheme this entire season has been
Speaker 1: taking limited personnel and figuring it out with like scheming,
Speaker 1: double teaming, and specific spots, really smart and savvy rotations,
Speaker 1: a lot of effort to make up for a lack
Speaker 1: of personnel. You can do that against Phoenix. You've just
Speaker 1: got to take a look at the film tonight and
Speaker 1: see specifically what it did. Specifically, find ways to hide Luca.
Speaker 1: Luca I thought started to fatigue over the course of
Speaker 1: the game. Gotta find ways to make things easier for him. Also,
Speaker 1: different looks. Do what Philly was doing. Mix in some zone,
Speaker 1: mix in, you know, do random doubles and traps, and
Speaker 1: then go away from that, leave him in single coverage,
Speaker 1: because then they'll be out of rhythm, do things to
Speaker 1: mix things up. Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwood. He have
Speaker 1: to be better. They have to be able to create shots.
Speaker 1: If Luca is leaned on as the sole offensive initiator
Speaker 1: in this series, he's not gonna have the juice to
Speaker 1: get it done. But if Jalen and Spencer can carry
Speaker 1: you for extensive stretches along the way, it gives Luca
Speaker 1: the legs to get done At the end, Who do
Speaker 1: you think is the most important player outside of Luca
Speaker 1: for the MAVs in this series. I'm gonna go with
Speaker 1: Spencer din what he because I Jalen's going to figure
Speaker 1: it out. Jalen had a rough night, but Jalen is
Speaker 1: going to figure it out. He's too good of a player.
Speaker 1: I thought he I thought he was a little bit
Speaker 1: wigged out by the length and size. We talked about
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the show, about that adjustment period.
Speaker 1: I think that Dallas is going to perform significantly better
Speaker 1: offensively in Game two now that they know what they're
Speaker 1: up against in terms of the defensive length. Spencer has
Speaker 1: been bad offensively for pretty much this whole playoff front.
Speaker 1: They need more out of him. We've talked about Dallas
Speaker 1: being a dark horse title contender. The only way that's
Speaker 1: materializing is that Spencer didn't what he gets back to
Speaker 1: the point where he can be a relatively efficient, like
Speaker 1: seventeen point a game guy, and he just hasn't been
Speaker 1: that guy. Yeah, I agree, Brunson is so steady din
Speaker 1: what he is volatile man. Just the inconsistency of the
Speaker 1: jump shooting is it's very dangerous. All Let's talk about
Speaker 1: the Sixers now, Jason, make the case for them. You
Speaker 1: have a minute. Somehow I gotta get rid of DeAndre
Speaker 1: Jordan's from the lineup. I don't know if that means
Speaker 1: you've got to kidnap doc Rivers, you know, find a
Speaker 1: way to like fake a positive COVID test or something.
Speaker 1: You've got to find some way to get Doc Rivers
Speaker 1: out of the room so that DeAndre Jordan is out
Speaker 1: of the lineup. Then from there a lot more switching,
Speaker 1: a lot more like kind of alternating between that and
Speaker 1: zone to try to just jank things up in Miami
Speaker 1: and then lean heavily into your five out attack. Lean
Speaker 1: heavily on going with five guys that can all shoot
Speaker 1: and dribble. From there, it just makes you infinitely harder
Speaker 1: to guard. That gives you your best chance to try
Speaker 1: to have a James Harden renaissance. That gives you your
Speaker 1: best chance to try to get Tyrese Maxie going. Most importantly,
Speaker 1: you weren't even getting stops with DeAndre Jordan's. So if
Speaker 1: you get more stops with your smaller lineups, that gives
Speaker 1: you more transition opportunities. That's where Tyrese Maxie gets going.
Speaker 1: That's their best bet. And then, last and not least,
Speaker 1: you gotta get Joel and be back on the court. Man.
Speaker 1: Joel embiat Is, you know, top four or five player
Speaker 1: in the world, and you're just not winning the series
Speaker 1: without him, So do whatever it takes to get him
Speaker 1: back out on the court as soon as possible. What
Speaker 1: would be your favorite possible way that the Sixers could
Speaker 1: just get rid of DeAndre Jordan's Because I feel like
Speaker 1: there's a lot of good options. I don't know that
Speaker 1: he wants to be there that badly. Okay, hack into
Speaker 1: one of his social media profiles and start d m
Speaker 1: ng other players girlfriends on the team. That's that's gonna
Speaker 1: be my go to call. Russell. Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: you can maybe just offer the guy like an all
Speaker 1: expenses paid cruise and he'd be like, yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: I've had enough of this. I don't know. The DJ
Speaker 1: Dynamics are hilarious. Okay, let's move on to the Celtics. Jason,
Speaker 1: make the case for them. You have a minute. Everything
Speaker 1: comes down to decision making. Every we talk a lot
Speaker 1: about on this show, the cascading effect of the way
Speaker 1: that every play kind of is leans on the play
Speaker 1: before it and after. You have to get your defense set,
Speaker 1: because we know that when your defense is set, you
Speaker 1: get stops. You're giving up less than point eight points
Speaker 1: per possessions in the half courts. You've gotta find a
Speaker 1: way to keep Milwaukee in half court as much as possible.
Speaker 1: The best way to do that is to limit bad
Speaker 1: offensive possessions, early shot clock threes that are contested, or
Speaker 1: that aren't as good as what you can get when
Speaker 1: you drive and kick turnovers, things along those lines. Trust
Speaker 1: your half defense, half court defense to carry you through
Speaker 1: your cold spells. Trust your shot quality. Last, but not least,
Speaker 1: don't be scared of Janice. Don't get wrapped up in
Speaker 1: the the the the aura that surrounds him. Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: is also a top tier superstar. We've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about that on this show. You've got an alpha dog too.
Speaker 1: If all of you don't play scared, you've demonstrated you've
Speaker 1: been the better team for the last six months. If
Speaker 1: you lean into that, that will be what carries you
Speaker 1: to the title. So you already touched on Jalen's issue
Speaker 1: a bit earlier, and I think that's totally interrelated with
Speaker 1: the decision making. I don't know if there's a more
Speaker 1: underdeveloped playmaking wing of his caliber and you touched on that.
Speaker 1: But like, as good as the Celtics have been when
Speaker 1: he is their number two guy, could that be like
Speaker 1: the thing that limits them and holds them back is
Speaker 1: just if he isn't where he needs to be as
Speaker 1: a playmaker and decision maker. Again, it's hard to say, Carson,
Speaker 1: because like I said, like there's there's just that is
Speaker 1: that is one of the few skills that has so
Speaker 1: much to do with just the type of guy you are,
Speaker 1: and not like skill development. Like again, Jayson Tatum, Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum is clearly on that trajectory that Janie and Katie
Speaker 1: and Paul George and all those guys have been on,
Speaker 1: which is the trajectory that's like I will get to
Speaker 1: the point where I consistently make good reads. But the
Speaker 1: next level of that above that, that elite playmaking is
Speaker 1: just rarefied air. And for a guy like Jalon Brown,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of guys like this around the league,
Speaker 1: it's no different than like a Jordan Clarkson type. There
Speaker 1: are guys that just are tunnel vision scores, and there
Speaker 1: are ways to weaponize those types of guys. But you've
Speaker 1: got to find a way too. You've got to find
Speaker 1: a way to make things easy on them. At least.
Speaker 1: It's the turnovers a kill you. So like if he's
Speaker 1: gonna get into the lane and he gets stopped for
Speaker 1: some reason, just tell him, like, hey, we're better off
Speaker 1: with you shooting here, Like if you get stopped like
Speaker 1: trying to get a shot up, or like here's your
Speaker 1: release valve, get out and then reset. But it's where
Speaker 1: when he gets into the lane and he just kind
Speaker 1: of just looks lost, and he looks he's so indecisive
Speaker 1: as well, and again he's always struggled with that. He's
Speaker 1: not going to get better. But you've got to find
Speaker 1: a way to coach him into situations where he doesn't
Speaker 1: have to make decisions. Clear the side, Clear the side,
Speaker 1: get him the ball in the post, like, get him sits,
Speaker 1: get him in situations where you're like, hey, you have
Speaker 1: tunnel vision. That's great. Go be tunnel vision, Jalen. This
Speaker 1: is where you're your opportunity for successes. All right, last,
Speaker 1: but not least here, Jason, the Memphis Grizzlies, please make
Speaker 1: the case. You have sixty seconds. Beat them up, Beat
Speaker 1: the crap out of him. That's your best chance. It's
Speaker 1: just like Cleveland in two thousands sixteen, Oklahoma City in
Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen. The Warriors are more skilled than you.
Speaker 1: If you play skill basketball with them, you're gonna lose.
Speaker 1: Your best opportunity is to wear on them physically, relentlessly
Speaker 1: over the course of the series. Run on them in
Speaker 1: transition as much as possible, crash the offensive glass as
Speaker 1: much as possible, Do everything you can to attack their
Speaker 1: smaller guards with mismatches. Just and understand that even if
Speaker 1: you lose battles earlier in the series, it will win
Speaker 1: you battles later in the series. Also, fox out. They
Speaker 1: got killed on the offensive glass by Golden State that
Speaker 1: has to be an advantage for them, not a weakness.
Speaker 1: Another area that I thought that guy killed was a
Speaker 1: shot fakes. Clay Thompson and Jordan Pull in particular day
Speaker 1: would just pump fake and get a wide open shot
Speaker 1: every time because the guy would go flying by. Pump
Speaker 1: fakes will disrupt rhythm if you don't jump, but if
Speaker 1: you do jump, it gives them a chance to gain
Speaker 1: the rhythm. And then, last but not least, get Desmond
Speaker 1: band going way less, Dylan Brooks way too much, Dylan
Speaker 1: Brooks io in that game, get stuff for Desmond Bine.
Speaker 1: How possible do you think it is? The Memphis rallies
Speaker 1: and you know a lot of those keys and actually
Speaker 1: does come back and win the series after dropping Game
Speaker 1: one at home, It's very likely. I'm I'm picking Golden
Speaker 1: State to be clear. I think I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: win probably in six is my guests or seven, But
Speaker 1: like Memphis has a real chance. It's just the biggest
Speaker 1: thing that makes me worry about them is they have
Speaker 1: on paper all of the advantages necessary to win this series.
Speaker 1: But there's a reason why Minnesota was literally in commanding
Speaker 1: leads of second half, massive commanding leads in five of
Speaker 1: the six games in the first round and lost. It's
Speaker 1: because Memphis was the better team, but they were very
Speaker 1: unfocused and on significant stretches of important games would just
Speaker 1: kind of float and behave like a regular season team.
Speaker 1: And so my thing is like, if you're gonna beat
Speaker 1: Golden State, you have to be perfect, you can't make mistakes,
Speaker 1: you have to be the smart basketball team. And they've
Speaker 1: just demonstrated that they're the young basketball team. And that's
Speaker 1: not that's not an insult to them, it's just it's
Speaker 1: the same thing that every young, great team that has
Speaker 1: has gone through in their rise through the league, just
Speaker 1: like Golden State dealt with in two thousand thirteen and
Speaker 1: two thousand fourteen, just like the Thunder dealt with in
Speaker 1: two thousand ten and two thousand eleven. It's part of
Speaker 1: the journey. But that's where Memphis is at right now.
Speaker 1: So like expecting them to behave like veterans is unlikely.
Speaker 1: So they have a chance, it's just unlikely because who
Speaker 1: who do you expect to act more like a responsible
Speaker 1: adult over the rest of the series, Golden State or Memphis?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Right, our guys, that is
Speaker 1: all we have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: your support. Game two of the two series from yesterday,
Speaker 1: coming back tomorrow, very very excited for that. Obviously a
Speaker 1: lot on the line for my Boston is the best
Speaker 1: defense of this era take I could be going down
Speaker 1: in flames around this time tomorrow, if, if, if, Boston
Speaker 1: doesn't get the job done. So we will be back
Speaker 1: after the final buzzer of the final game tomorrow. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your support. Don't to get to follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter for film breakdowns. We will see you
Speaker 1: guys tomorrow. The volume