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Speaker 1: you guys are having an incredible week so for so far,
Speaker 1: Day four of the NBA Playoffs is officially in the books.
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep it real simple tonight. You're gonna break
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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball. So starting with MAVs Clippers,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of talk about the end
Speaker 1: of that game and the surgical job that Luka Doncic
Speaker 1: and Kyrie Irving did, not just navigating the slow down
Speaker 1: half court environment, but coming back from down six. I
Speaker 1: think it was the biggest lead with six. I think
Speaker 1: with seventy nine to seventy three is really where the
Speaker 1: run started, and just methodically walking the Clippers down and
Speaker 1: getting buckets. Now, obviously Luca and Kyrie were amazing offensively
Speaker 1: down the stretch. The shot making was ridiculous, Like Luca
Speaker 1: hit that ridiculous step back three over James Hard and
Speaker 1: we all saw that one coming too, Right, Like the
Speaker 1: dagger shot where Luca has his moment with the crowd,
Speaker 1: that's kind of like a staple of the Luka Doncic experience,
Speaker 1: right that. I don't know about you, guys, but did
Speaker 1: that not just remind you of playoff Luca that we
Speaker 1: didn't get to see last year? Obviously, and some of
Speaker 1: the stuff we saw in the shot that he hit
Speaker 1: against the Jazz and what was a game three or
Speaker 1: game four in the twenty twenty two run, or some
Speaker 1: of the shots that he hit against the Clippers. That's
Speaker 1: just a big part of the Luca experience is hit
Speaker 1: the dagger, having a moment at the expense of the
Speaker 1: fans and the guy that was guarding him. It's almost
Speaker 1: like on the road exclusively that he likes to do
Speaker 1: that too. Kyrie Irving had this kind of ridiculous like
Speaker 1: fake half spin back over his left shoulder, hook shot
Speaker 1: slash floater thing that he hit along the baseline that
Speaker 1: was nasty. They were targeting Harden a lot in switches,
Speaker 1: giving the Clippers a little bit of a taste of
Speaker 1: their own medicine. I thought like one of the key
Speaker 1: kind of elements at the end of the game was
Speaker 1: beating the Clippers aggression. And I'm not even just talking
Speaker 1: about double teams, because like they were doubling Luca posting
Speaker 1: up Russell Westbrook on the right block, you know, double
Speaker 1: from one pass away easy kick out past to Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving knocks down at three right or a lot of
Speaker 1: like coming up high to the level of the screen
Speaker 1: and pick and roll to get Luca to get rid
Speaker 1: of the ball, and just playing on the short role
Speaker 1: in the four and three situations. But I thought it
Speaker 1: was also just aggression on the ball. There was a
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook post up at Luka Doncic where he tried
Speaker 1: to come up over in a three quarter front to
Speaker 1: knock the ball away, and by the time Luca actually
Speaker 1: maintained got control of the basketball, he had inside position
Speaker 1: on Russ which forced the defense to collapse. Who's kick out?
Speaker 1: I think that one ended up in a PJ. Washington
Speaker 1: three in the left corner if I remember correctly. Then
Speaker 1: there's one where he's going to work against Paul George
Speaker 1: and Paul George is reaching in and trying to swipe
Speaker 1: away the basketball, and he kind of sort of knocks
Speaker 1: the ball loose for a second, but Luca is able
Speaker 1: to regain control and he works into the lane because
Speaker 1: now PG is on outside position and Luca's on inside position,
Speaker 1: goes inside, draws an extra defender kick out pass to
Speaker 1: Maxi Kleiba on the right wing. He knocks down to three.
Speaker 1: It was just beating the aggression that the Clippers were bringing.
Speaker 1: We know that that's going to be the Clippers game
Speaker 1: plan in this series. They're going to try to force
Speaker 1: the non Luca Kyrie guys to make shots, and they
Speaker 1: desperately needed somebody to hit a couple shots. They're down
Speaker 1: the stretch of that game, and ended up being PJ
Speaker 1: Washington for the most part. He had a bunch of
Speaker 1: buckets down the stretch. Maxi, like we talked about, hit
Speaker 1: that huge three on the right wing. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, Maxi, Cleba and PJ. Washington were five for
Speaker 1: seven from three in this game. So one of our
Speaker 1: major adjustments we talked about after game one is really
Speaker 1: it's this simple. You gotta beat the game plan with
Speaker 1: shot making on the weak side. They needed guys to
Speaker 1: hit shots. Maxi and PJ Washington stepped up and hit them.
Speaker 1: One of the things I talked about in our series preview,
Speaker 1: you Mavericks fans that watched that video will remember this.
Speaker 1: I saw this series tilting heavily towards a Maxi frontcourt,
Speaker 1: and we saw over the course of the series started
Speaker 1: with Gafford. Obviously, we saw Jason Kidd go to Derek
Speaker 1: Lively to start the second half tonight, but the reality
Speaker 1: is they're not getting good enough defense or rim finishing
Speaker 1: from either of those guys to really justify playing them
Speaker 1: when Maxie and PJ are just better basketball players on
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor right now. And uniquely, Like
Speaker 1: one of the things that's nice about PJ and Maxie
Speaker 1: is they're not just forwards. They're big forwards. You know.
Speaker 1: I talk about the different archetypes of players, and like,
Speaker 1: you're you've got your kind of thin, perimeter oriented forward,
Speaker 1: think like a Jaden McDaniels type of guy, right, but
Speaker 1: then you have your and Derek Jones Junior kind of
Speaker 1: fits that mold a little bit too, although I kind
Speaker 1: of look at him as more of like a hybrid
Speaker 1: guard wing. And by the way, he's the fifth guy
Speaker 1: in that lineup, right, and he's the guy that they're
Speaker 1: using to guard Paul George for the most part. But
Speaker 1: like there's also that big forward position. This is like
Speaker 1: the Aaron Gordon, Ruychimura rue HACHMURPG at Washington Mexic Ciliba
Speaker 1: kind of thing, right, And when I look at guys
Speaker 1: like that, it's like they have some mobility, they can
Speaker 1: move around on the perimeter, but they also have the
Speaker 1: physical size to really, you know, deal with some of
Speaker 1: the physical stuff that you need to do inside, right,
Speaker 1: And if you're gonna play small ball, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: give yourself the flexibility to do the things that a
Speaker 1: small ball lineup can do, preferably, you want two big
Speaker 1: forwards out there, right Like, even if we go back
Speaker 1: and look at some of the great uh uh small
Speaker 1: ball teams of all time, like the let's just say
Speaker 1: the the the Hampton's five with the Golden State Warriors,
Speaker 1: right Like, it's like it's kind of like three big
Speaker 1: forwards out there with Draymond Green, who's kind of more
Speaker 1: or less a big forward, and Kevin Durant and Andrea Gudala,
Speaker 1: right Like. You need to be able to be small
Speaker 1: and quick and have offensive skill on the floor, but
Speaker 1: you also need to have like real size and athleticism
Speaker 1: on the front line. And I thought it was really
Speaker 1: interesting that the Clippers first big win of this series,
Speaker 1: excuse me, the Mavericks part of my missing there, The
Speaker 1: Mavericks first big win of this series comes with them
Speaker 1: going down the stretch to the lineup that I called
Speaker 1: for in the series preview, which is PJ and MAXI
Speaker 1: with Derek Jones, Dante Exum could theoretically be in that
Speaker 1: spot as well, and then Kyrie and Luca. And remember,
Speaker 1: in the regular season, albeit in a somewhat small sample
Speaker 1: size because it was a post a trade deadline kind
Speaker 1: of thing, that lineup was outscoring teams by like nineteen
Speaker 1: points for one hundred possessions. Any two forward combination with PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington and mexically but on the floor were doing work.
Speaker 1: And so again, you know, it's kind of it's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting because you remember when they made the Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving trade, those of you guys who've been around this
Speaker 1: show for a while. I was on a ski trip
Speaker 1: with my friends in Breckenridge when that trade went down,
Speaker 1: and I remember talking about how because there was so
Speaker 1: much negative energy surrounding that trade when it happened, right,
Speaker 1: it was like they gave up you know, like meaningful
Speaker 1: players draft compensation. Dorian Finney's like, there was like a
Speaker 1: lot of negative energy surrounding that. And one of the
Speaker 1: things I said on the day of the trade, if
Speaker 1: you guys remember, I said, this is just step one.
Speaker 1: You get Kyrie first. You're obviously not gonna have enough
Speaker 1: right away, right, And we saw that they ended up
Speaker 1: missing the playoffs last year. There were some also some
Speaker 1: bad basketball character stuff. Didn't love the way that Luca
Speaker 1: played down the stretch of the season, especially on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. There's some stuff there, but
Speaker 1: I don't think he really believed in that team for
Speaker 1: obvious reasons. They didn't have enough talent. But like, it's
Speaker 1: not about that. It was get your number two. Then
Speaker 1: you have a full off season and a trade deadline
Speaker 1: to fill out the pieces on the margins. Right, And
Speaker 1: we've seen Derek Jones Junior be like a super useful
Speaker 1: piece for them in this rotation. Right, we seen PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington come back in the trade and be a super
Speaker 1: useful piece for them. You know, I talk about team
Speaker 1: building in three phases. Right, You got to get your
Speaker 1: number one, a guy who's good enough to be the
Speaker 1: best player on a championship team. From there, step two
Speaker 1: is get a legitimate number two, preferably a guy who
Speaker 1: compliments his skill set, preferably a guy who can play
Speaker 1: both ends of the floor. Right, those are your first
Speaker 1: two priorities. From there, find role players that can accentuate
Speaker 1: the skills and address the weaknesses of your stars and
Speaker 1: They've just done a really nice job every step along
Speaker 1: the way, making the trade for Kyrie, getting a piece
Speaker 1: like Derek Jones Junior, and some other guys that they
Speaker 1: got over the course of the offseason, even just the
Speaker 1: sign and trade for Grant Williams, which ended up being
Speaker 1: the vehicle with which they got PJ. Washington, get PJ
Speaker 1: Washington at the deadline. They followed that process to a
Speaker 1: t and now they got themselves a damn good basketball team.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, the Indiana Pacers are more
Speaker 1: or less doing the same thing right now. Right, they
Speaker 1: go and they get Pascal Siakam. They identified, Hey, Tyre's
Speaker 1: Halliburton is clearly a guy that we think can be
Speaker 1: the best player on a championship team. Now, Tyree's hasn't
Speaker 1: really looked. It's like what we expect from Tyrese since
Speaker 1: he heard his hamstring and I have not loved his
Speaker 1: lack of offensive aggression over the course the last portion
Speaker 1: of the season. But part of that is Siakam being
Speaker 1: in the equation. But like it was very clear, like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, goodness, this is one of the best
Speaker 1: shot creators in the NBA. We can build a champion
Speaker 1: team championship team around this guy. We need to find
Speaker 1: a complimentary star. So they found a guy who can
Speaker 1: defend and a guy that can get a bucket on
Speaker 1: an island and plays a position of need, that power
Speaker 1: forward position that they just didn't have on the roster.
Speaker 1: They were playing Obi Topen to start the year. They
Speaker 1: figured that out, probably not good enough to make a
Speaker 1: real championship run this year, but a couple of smart
Speaker 1: moves this offseason and they could be right there in
Speaker 1: the mix. That's why I like this kind of pathway
Speaker 1: of team building, and we're seeing a good example of
Speaker 1: that with the Mavericks this year. Went on a random
Speaker 1: tangent there about team building, But we're gonna get back
Speaker 1: to the game now, Okay, So I want to shift
Speaker 1: the focus to Luca's defense because again, most of the
Speaker 1: focus down the stretch of that game is, like I
Speaker 1: mentioned the shot making, the over aggression from the Clippers,
Speaker 1: PJ and Maxi hitting shots, all that stuff, But there
Speaker 1: was a huge portion of this game that doesn't get
Speaker 1: talked about enough, and that's that, Like, they just basically
Speaker 1: strangled the Clippers offense. And if you remember in Game one,
Speaker 1: the primary focus of the clippers was to try to
Speaker 1: get Luka Dancic on switches right, And you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't like Luca was giving up buckets on the switches
Speaker 1: that much. He was just getting burned off the dribble.
Speaker 1: And then, as we talk about the worst form of
Speaker 1: compromising that you should, let's try to rephrase this. The
Speaker 1: worst situation you can be in as a defense is
Speaker 1: to give up a straight line drive. Right. Drible penetration
Speaker 1: is kind of part of the game if you're set
Speaker 1: up for it right. Drible penetration and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: When you're in a drop coverage, certain amount of that
Speaker 1: is expected. Drible penetration. When you're doing a week side
Speaker 1: close out and you close out on the high side
Speaker 1: and funnel someone towards the baseline, that's drible penetration that
Speaker 1: you expect. But when you get beat off the dribble
Speaker 1: from the top of the key in a straight line driving,
Speaker 1: the guy's just flying downhill. It's just really, really difficult
Speaker 1: to handle. And that was a big part of al
Speaker 1: Zubas was getting going, just getting offensive rebound putbacks after
Speaker 1: guys were beating Luca off the dribble. Right. So again,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Ironically, I talked about after that game that
Speaker 1: I wanted to see them go to a hedge and
Speaker 1: recover system. And again with the hedge and recover, there
Speaker 1: are some other openings that exist there, but it's openings
Speaker 1: that you can plan for in your defensive rotations. But
Speaker 1: they didn't go that route. Luca just did a better
Speaker 1: job literally that simple and again he was given some space.
Speaker 1: Some guys got some decent pull up jump shot looks
Speaker 1: over the top of him, but he contained dribble penetration,
Speaker 1: which is what you can live with. Right, Like the
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting, even the best guys in the
Speaker 1: world aren't going to be that efficient with it, right.
Speaker 1: It's when you get in rotation and guys are getting
Speaker 1: wide open catch and shoot threes and wide open layups
Speaker 1: and dunks under the rim. That's when the efficiency equation
Speaker 1: tilts way out of favor for your defense. So just
Speaker 1: by sliding his feet and containing the ball, he was
Speaker 1: able to kind of slow down that specific element of
Speaker 1: the Clippers attack. And you know, one of the things
Speaker 1: that Tylu does a lot is he'll lean into matchup
Speaker 1: attacking instead of you know, more ball and player movement,
Speaker 1: and it kind of played directly into Dallas's strengths at
Speaker 1: that point. And again, it's not just Luca on the ball.
Speaker 1: There's just a lot of athleticism on the back line
Speaker 1: as well. And you know, Luca just had the best
Speaker 1: season of his career defensively, and it wasn't really that
Speaker 1: much on the ball stuff. It was mostly help in
Speaker 1: recover type of stuff on the weak side. But I
Speaker 1: thought it was really interesting tonight that you saw that
Speaker 1: Luca's basketball IQ and his size and his length, he
Speaker 1: has the ability as long as he squares up an
Speaker 1: offensive player, sits down in a defensive stance, anticipates directional changes,
Speaker 1: and beats guys to spots and absorbs contact in the chest,
Speaker 1: he can be a solid on ball defender. And he
Speaker 1: showed you that tonight. I actually wanted to come back
Speaker 1: around to conditioning for a second, because you know, I've
Speaker 1: been really fascinated by this first four days of the
Speaker 1: NBA playoffs for a bunch of reasons. One of the
Speaker 1: main reasons why is home teams have been kicking ass.
Speaker 1: Like first two days of last year's postseason, the road
Speaker 1: team won four of the eight games. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: because the physicality we saw it pick up at the
Speaker 1: tail end of the regular season. I don't know about you, guys,
Speaker 1: and if you disagree, I want to hear it in
Speaker 1: the comments. But like, I kind of feel like this
Speaker 1: year in the postseason even it's been significantly more physical
Speaker 1: and intense and a tighter whistle even than what we
Speaker 1: saw last year in the postseason. It's like almost everything,
Speaker 1: including the regular season and the postseason, had been raised
Speaker 1: up a level in physicality and intensity. And I thought
Speaker 1: it was really interesting that through the first thirteen postseason
Speaker 1: games up until the MAVs got to win tonight, home
Speaker 1: teams went twelve to one and the only team to
Speaker 1: get a win on the road was the Indianacers, who
Speaker 1: are playing against a team that doesn't have their best
Speaker 1: player right now, and they were up twenty something in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, right And I think it's just an
Speaker 1: example of like, when these games get super physical, the
Speaker 1: home team, which can drive energy from the crowd, is
Speaker 1: able to kind of persist in that environment and make
Speaker 1: those extra efforts to higher rate. But one of the
Speaker 1: big things that stood out to me is like everyone
Speaker 1: looks super tired. Everyone does the stars, role players, everyone's
Speaker 1: got their hands on their knees, guys are missing shots.
Speaker 1: So many stars have been inefficient. I mean, hell, even
Speaker 1: Luca and Kyrie by their standards, have been inefficient. And
Speaker 1: it's just super interesting to me. But I'm gonna circle
Speaker 1: back around here because I thought it was super fascinating
Speaker 1: that down the stretch of this game, in game two,
Speaker 1: just two days removed from a really tough game where
Speaker 1: you kind of got your ass handed to you, Luca
Speaker 1: was playing both ends of the floor. Well. He had
Speaker 1: the lift to knock down that pull up three y
Speaker 1: over Harden, he had the lift to battle with Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook in the post and to make reads as the
Speaker 1: Clippers were being aggressive, and he had the leg strength
Speaker 1: to slide his damn feet and contain the basketball on
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor. And it's just I
Speaker 1: don't think we talk enough about conditioning as a part
Speaker 1: of greatness, in what separates the best from the others.
Speaker 1: Like I've said a couple times over the course of
Speaker 1: the last few weeks, I think the three best players
Speaker 1: in the world right now are Jokic number one, Luca
Speaker 1: number two, and I think Lebron James is the third
Speaker 1: best basketball player right now that we're seeing playing. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a coincidence that Luca is hitting big
Speaker 1: shots and making big offensive plays down the stretch of physical,
Speaker 1: intense playoff games when a lot of his peers are
Speaker 1: getting too tired and struggling. I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: coincidence that Lebron James last night is getting steals and
Speaker 1: run out dunks and hitting threes and hitting tough turnaround
Speaker 1: fadeaways and like somehow still having the energy when so
Speaker 1: many other guys are not. Or Yokich's just literally getting
Speaker 1: beat up on every possession and is required to do
Speaker 1: so much for Denver's offense, and he's walking down the
Speaker 1: best defensive player in the world and giving him easy
Speaker 1: buckets in crunch time of a very close game. Like
Speaker 1: it's just super fascinating to me. I don't think we
Speaker 1: discuss it nearly enough in terms of like basketball player
Speaker 1: traits as one of the biggest things that set Steph
Speaker 1: Curry apart from his peers when he was in his prime, Like,
Speaker 1: conditioning is just a very very important part of your
Speaker 1: ability to thrive in these particular environments, and I think
Speaker 1: the super physical game has shined a light on that specifically,
Speaker 1: so salute to those three guys and several other players
Speaker 1: as well around the league that have been playing at
Speaker 1: a super high level. As far as the Clipper's not
Speaker 1: gonna spend too much time on the tonight, I want
Speaker 1: to do a We're gonna do some film tomorrow. I
Speaker 1: actually already put together a film session for Suns Wolves
Speaker 1: that hit tomorrow, but I'm gonna hit a couple of
Speaker 1: other games tomorrow as well. But just really quickly on
Speaker 1: the Clippers, I got Kawi just looked obviously out of
Speaker 1: shape and out of rhythm. He made a bunch of
Speaker 1: defensive plays, but you could just tell he didn't have
Speaker 1: his lift on his jump shot. And then Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: Obviously the field goal percentage isn't gonna show it, but
Speaker 1: I thought just his overall athletic energy was a huge
Speaker 1: impact on this game. Rim pressure, creating easy looks around
Speaker 1: the rim and easy kickout three point shot looks, and
Speaker 1: then just kind of being a wrecking ball like he
Speaker 1: can be defensively from time to time. Also hit a
Speaker 1: huge three down the stretch in the fourth quarter. So
Speaker 1: shout out to Russell Westbrook again. We're gonna dig into
Speaker 1: the film and take a look at what specifically went
Speaker 1: wrong for the Clippers offense tomorrow. All right, moving out
Speaker 1: of Suns Wolves. So this game, to me came down
Speaker 1: to two big second half runs because it was mostly
Speaker 1: close game. It was sixty four to sixty three about
Speaker 1: five and a half minutes left in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: But we got two big runs, one in the late
Speaker 1: third quarter, led primarily by Anthony Edwards, and one in
Speaker 1: the early fourth quarter led by Mike Conley. So I
Speaker 1: want to dig into each of those runs because I
Speaker 1: thought they were really interesting tactically, especially based on some
Speaker 1: of the stuff we talked about in the series preview.
Speaker 1: So if sixty four to sixty three with five and
Speaker 1: a half minutes left in the third, they get up
Speaker 1: to seventy sixty three with some free throws, and then
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards hits that like super nasty sidestep pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot over Kevin Durant the long to they're on
Speaker 1: the left wing right, so it's seventy to sixty three.
Speaker 1: Then Drew u Banks checks into the gate, and what
Speaker 1: do we talk about is the coverage that the Suns
Speaker 1: are using in this series. When u Banks is on
Speaker 1: the floor right, everything with Ant is more aggressive. It's
Speaker 1: Nurkic at the level of the screen, and with U
Speaker 1: Banks in particular, they're doing an even more aggressive version
Speaker 1: of that, which is a hedge. They're actually having him
Speaker 1: literally lunge out and cut off the driving lane before
Speaker 1: he recovers into the lane. So, in a weird way,
Speaker 1: the high drop is a little bit more of a
Speaker 1: like what Nurkic is doing. The high drop is a
Speaker 1: little bit more of like a windshield wiper type of
Speaker 1: rotation where the low man is making a read based
Speaker 1: on how high Nurkic needs to go out, and it's
Speaker 1: not quite as aggressive of a coverage. With the hedge,
Speaker 1: it's so aggressive aggressive that the pocket pass can get
Speaker 1: open and it could be a big problem pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: So they're tagging the roller aggressively to start the possession.
Speaker 1: And so especially in those specific coverages, ants passing is
Speaker 1: a vital importance for them to be able to beat
Speaker 1: that coverage. And as I talked about, the offensive pendulum
Speaker 1: for the Suns or excuse me, for the Wolves in
Speaker 1: the series is going to center on ants playmaking and
Speaker 1: his pull up shooting. Right, can he make tough pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots over the top of multiple defenders like
Speaker 1: he did at the in game one, or can he
Speaker 1: beat the coverage with the pass? And I thought he
Speaker 1: just did just an amazing job beating the Sun's hedge
Speaker 1: and recover with U Banks in that third quarter stretch,
Speaker 1: do you remember that Jaden McDaniels ripped through on the
Speaker 1: baseline where he drifted underneath the back getting hit the
Speaker 1: like fade away like like on the opposite side of
Speaker 1: the rim. That literally started with a hedge and recover
Speaker 1: that Ant beat with the skip pass. That's it was
Speaker 1: his read. He generated a three on two defensively or
Speaker 1: two on three I should say, And he created a
Speaker 1: three on two on the weak side, and Jaden beat
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant on a close out that was created by
Speaker 1: Ant's pass nas Reed. Do you remember when Nasri caught
Speaker 1: at the top of the key and drove by Devin
Speaker 1: Booker and Drew drew free throws right after that? That
Speaker 1: was literally a hedge and a tag with a kick
Speaker 1: back to naz Reid wide open at the top of
Speaker 1: the key. Devin Booker had to close out on him,
Speaker 1: and when he closed out on him, he was able
Speaker 1: to beat him off the dribble and draw foul shots,
Speaker 1: once again generated by Ant's playmaking the kil Alexander Walker's
Speaker 1: corner three in the left corner. Devin Booker, if I remember,
Speaker 1: I think Devin was the guy guarding Nikil on that play.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker was way up digging down into a driving lane.
Speaker 1: In addition to the hedge and recover. It was like
Speaker 1: a they were defending it like four on two and
Speaker 1: Ant just instead of trying to force the action, just
Speaker 1: made the swing pass into keele Alexander Walker in the
Speaker 1: left corner and he knocked down the three. They were
Speaker 1: all reads by Anthony Edwards, and again like it's just
Speaker 1: we talked about the game plan coming into this series.
Speaker 1: If Ant can make the reads, if Mike Conley can
Speaker 1: score and pick and roll, and if the Wolves on
Speaker 1: defense can stay home off the ball and force them
Speaker 1: to the Suns to take and make really difficult contested twos,
Speaker 1: the Wolves are gonna win. And that is exactly what
Speaker 1: they've done. But if Mike Conley can't score and pick
Speaker 1: and roll, if an it can't make the reads and
Speaker 1: makes a bunch of bad decisions on the ball and
Speaker 1: defensively they end up in rotation, the Suns are gonna win,
Speaker 1: and we'll see if that pendulum swings back towards Phoenix
Speaker 1: when we get to Phoenix in game three. And honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm genuinely curious to see how this all goes with
Speaker 1: how bad the home teams have dominated so far through
Speaker 1: the first four days of the playoffs, really curious to
Speaker 1: see if that shifts when we get into these game threes.
Speaker 1: But so far Minnes has won that battle. So ants
Speaker 1: playmaking in the third Let's move on to the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: So in the fourth quarter, it was Mike Conley that
Speaker 1: went to work as a playmaker. But before we get
Speaker 1: into this, I want to go back in time for
Speaker 1: a minute to the second quarter, because remember the base
Speaker 1: coverage for Phoenix when it comes to Conley was very
Speaker 1: different than their coverage for Anthony Edwards. Anthony Edwards is
Speaker 1: high drop with Nurkic with a tag and it's a
Speaker 1: hedge with U Banks with a tag. Right with Conley,
Speaker 1: they're trying to bait him into being a score and
Speaker 1: try to stay home off the ball. So they were
Speaker 1: having Nurkic sit way back in a deep drop and
Speaker 1: they're just chasing him over the top of the screen.
Speaker 1: Well in that second quarter. Mike Conley went on a
Speaker 1: hell of a scoring run in that against that coverage.
Speaker 1: In his two man game with Rudy Gobert, who, by
Speaker 1: the way, is a bunch of credit a chemistry with
Speaker 1: from their time together in Utah and obviously a year
Speaker 1: and a half if they spent playing together. Now started
Speaker 1: off with a couple of floaters and a really difficult
Speaker 1: left handed floater getting downhill to start that run in
Speaker 1: the second quarter. Then he hit another float that one
Speaker 1: was a little bit easier. There was an off ball
Speaker 1: flare screen from Gobert on the right corner where Conley
Speaker 1: got a wide open corner three. Remember off ball coverages
Speaker 1: actually have very similar principles to on ball coverages. So
Speaker 1: in an on ball drop coverage, right, Conley is has
Speaker 1: the ball guy's chasing him over the top, Nurkic is
Speaker 1: sitting way back and basically waiting for him and containing
Speaker 1: both the role maan and the ball handler. Right, That's
Speaker 1: exactly what happens in an off ball screen. The difference
Speaker 1: is the ball is just in a passer at the
Speaker 1: top of the key. So passer at the top of
Speaker 1: the key, let's say Conley is on the right wing,
Speaker 1: and Gobert sets a flare screen to him in the corner.
Speaker 1: Nurkic is in the exact same coverage. He's dropping to
Speaker 1: the short corner and he's waiting for Conley to try
Speaker 1: to score between him, and if the screener slips, go
Speaker 1: Bear slips, Nurkic is there to handle both of them.
Speaker 1: So even though it was an off ball play, it's
Speaker 1: more or less the same coverage. It's just set up
Speaker 1: in an off ball configuration. Finally sinks that three in
Speaker 1: the corner. Then he hits a pull up three on
Speaker 1: the right wing go Bear screen. Grayson Allen dies on
Speaker 1: the screen, Condy comes off of it. Bam, hits that
Speaker 1: pull up. Patent did pull up three that he's been
Speaker 1: hitting his entire career right on the on the right wing.
Speaker 1: Then he hits this like ridiculous up and under left
Speaker 1: handed scoop shot. So he literally had twelve points as
Speaker 1: a score in that second quarter run and all of
Speaker 1: them were against the deep drop coverage. Now here's where
Speaker 1: it gets interesting. He did not make a field goal
Speaker 1: in the third quarter. Most of those shots were tough.
Speaker 1: The first floater was tough, the corner three was tough.
Speaker 1: He was like flying into the corner. The layup, the
Speaker 1: up and under layup was super tough. Only the second
Speaker 1: floater and the pull up three were what I would
Speaker 1: qualify as easy shots. And honestly, it was on the
Speaker 1: on ball guy for giving too much separation chasing over
Speaker 1: the top of the screens, so as we So when
Speaker 1: you factor in that they were tough shots and that
Speaker 1: he didn't make a field goal in the third quarter,
Speaker 1: that kind of sets the stage for this fourth quarter situation.
Speaker 1: So Vogel has a decision to make there. You either
Speaker 1: stick with the game plan and say, we just got
Speaker 1: to do a better job on ball. He hit some
Speaker 1: tough shots. He might be out of rhythm because he
Speaker 1: didn't score in the third quarter. Why don't we just
Speaker 1: stick with our deep drop coverage and see what happens
Speaker 1: or make an adjustment. And Frank Vogel decided to make
Speaker 1: an adjustment, and it burned him. He ended up putting
Speaker 1: Nurkic in an aggressive high drop coverage and then Conley
Speaker 1: immediately started picking them apart with the pocket pass to
Speaker 1: go Bear. First possession comes off the ball screen, high
Speaker 1: drop from Nurkic, easy pocket pass to go Bear Hadi
Speaker 1: is way too slow tagging on the back line. Gobert
Speaker 1: goes down the lane and dunks it. They're the very
Speaker 1: next next time they run it high drop pocket pass
Speaker 1: to go Bear. Carl Towns huts along the baseline. There's
Speaker 1: a tag of the roller. Carl Towns gets a layup.
Speaker 1: Jaden McDaniels got a wide open three on the left wing,
Speaker 1: same sort of thing up. Pocket pass to go Bear,
Speaker 1: tag the roller, kick out to Jade McDaniels on the
Speaker 1: left wing. He happened to miss that one, but as
Speaker 1: everyone was closing out at him, there was a long
Speaker 1: rebound to the right side of the floor and Conley
Speaker 1: was standing there by himself caught it in the right
Speaker 1: corner and made the three. That really was the dagger
Speaker 1: of this game and put the Wolves up thirteen and
Speaker 1: they never looked back. So like super super interesting a
Speaker 1: work from Conley and Ant in this game. To beat
Speaker 1: the coverages that Phoenix was using, they baited Ant into
Speaker 1: his worst tendencies. He confronted them, and he beat them
Speaker 1: with the pass. They baited Conley into his worst tendencies passivity.
Speaker 1: He beat it with scoring forced them to make an
Speaker 1: adjustment which then unlocked his best trait, which is him
Speaker 1: as a playmaker, and he picked them apart. So shout
Speaker 1: out to Anthony Edwards ants to Mike Conley. I thought
Speaker 1: they were the story of this game. They're the two
Speaker 1: primary initiative initiators from Minnesota. The biggest rub on Minnesota
Speaker 1: this season has been their inability to score in the
Speaker 1: half court against elite defenses that load up on them.
Speaker 1: And they just got over that today and over the
Speaker 1: course of this series so far, and again specifically in
Speaker 1: late game situations, Minnesota. Gosh, like, Minnesota has been awful
Speaker 1: in slow down half court environments at the end of
Speaker 1: these games, and it's it's been such a weak point
Speaker 1: and they're just confronting it in this series and they're
Speaker 1: beating it. I also want to shout out Jaden McDaniels
Speaker 1: another example of like how in this super physical and
Speaker 1: intense environment, it's been the athletes that have been thriving
Speaker 1: driving closeouts, like he was just torching the sun, specifically KD,
Speaker 1: and now Kd's getting into help position and he's closing
Speaker 1: out and like we talked about, you kind of have
Speaker 1: to with Jayden. And here's the thing, Jade McDaniels was
Speaker 1: not a good closeout player this year. He was below
Speaker 1: one point per possession in spot up situations. He was
Speaker 1: like a low fortieth percentile guy compared to his peers.
Speaker 1: He shot just forty two percent this year in spot
Speaker 1: up situations. He had zero points in spot up situations.
Speaker 1: In Game one, he torched the Suns tonight, had fourteen
Speaker 1: points just in spot up situations, shot six for eight
Speaker 1: from the field. He's been an absolute athletic wrecking ball
Speaker 1: in this series. It's been one of the most interesting
Speaker 1: things that stood out to me through the first four
Speaker 1: days of the postseason. The real athletes have thrived in
Speaker 1: the thin finesse players have really struggled, and I find
Speaker 1: that super interesting as the league kind of shifts towards
Speaker 1: a more physical environment. On the Suns front, they just
Speaker 1: really struggled to handle the physicality. They had twenty more
Speaker 1: turnovers tonight. They just start to get tired and then
Speaker 1: they get sloppy. They're up to thirty five turnovers for
Speaker 1: the series. Their stars can't score efficiently in this environment,
Speaker 1: and they're still really struggling to get the defense in rotation.
Speaker 1: They have sixty eight made field goals so far in
Speaker 1: this series, they've only gotten assists thirty five of them.
Speaker 1: That's a fifty one percent assist percentage. And remember this
Speaker 1: team was sixty six percent in assist percentage post All
Speaker 1: Star Break. It was one of the defining characteristics of them,
Speaker 1: kind of achieving some of the high highs that they
Speaker 1: achieved down the stretch of the season. They're also just
Speaker 1: not generating any catch and shoot looks. Post All Star Break,
Speaker 1: they were generating twenty seven catch and shoot jump shots
Speaker 1: per game. That was the twelfth most in the league,
Speaker 1: very unlike the Phoenix team that we saw last year.
Speaker 1: So far in this series total, they've generated nineteen catch
Speaker 1: and shoot jump shots, just nine point five per game,
Speaker 1: or another way of looking at it, one third as
Speaker 1: many catch and shoot jump shot attempts as they were
Speaker 1: getting per game over the last chunk of the season
Speaker 1: post All Star Break. It is a major problem for
Speaker 1: them in this series, and it goes beyond the assist percentage.
Speaker 1: They're just not scoring. They're at a ninety eight point
Speaker 1: nine offensive ratings so far through two games. They were
Speaker 1: a top ten offense in the regular season. Now there's
Speaker 1: three things that I want to call attention to that
Speaker 1: are causing those problems. They're struggling to handle the physicality
Speaker 1: on drives. When they start to get downhill in the
Speaker 1: hands and everyone starts grabbing, They're falling over, they're losing
Speaker 1: their balance, they're not getting lyft, they're losing control of basketball. Two,
Speaker 1: they're turning the basketball over fatigue leading to sloppiness. And
Speaker 1: you'll see this in the film session. I have twenty
Speaker 1: clips that I'm gonna show you guys in a film
Speaker 1: session tomorrow that kind of goes over some of these concepts.
Speaker 1: But they're just they get tired and they make some
Speaker 1: really sloppy turnovers. Devin Booker had two really bad ones
Speaker 1: in the second half. Just threw the ball out of
Speaker 1: bounds on a swing pass to Bradley Beal, tried to
Speaker 1: make a high post entry and just threw the ball
Speaker 1: right into the Keile Alexander Walker's hands. That's not Devin
Speaker 1: Booker not being able to handle ball pressure. He's tired,
Speaker 1: and when he's tired, he's getting sloppy. And like, here's
Speaker 1: the thing. In physical games, the stronger team is usually
Speaker 1: the team that holds up better in terms of fatigu
Speaker 1: and the Sons are just not the stronger team in
Speaker 1: this matchup. So but by far the biggest problem they're
Speaker 1: having is they're just missing too many reads. And there's
Speaker 1: literally so many examples. And I'm gonna, like I said
Speaker 1: in the film session tomorrow, I'm gonna give you guys
Speaker 1: a bunch of those examples. But I'm gonna give you
Speaker 1: guys three examples tonight to just explain what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: And these are all just in the first half. So,
Speaker 1: there was a Katie Grayson Allen goes screen at the
Speaker 1: top of the key. Katie has the ball. He's kind
Speaker 1: of like top of the key area. Grayson Allen's standing
Speaker 1: on the right wing. Grayson Allen is being guarded by
Speaker 1: Mike Conley. Kevin Durant's being guarded by Carl Towns. Grayson
Speaker 1: Allen runs over to the right side of Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: to set a ball screen. When he does, we know
Speaker 1: what happens next. Right, Donley hedges because he doesn't want
Speaker 1: to give up the drive to Kevin Durant. Right because
Speaker 1: if if he stays glued up to Grayson and he
Speaker 1: and he screens Cat, Katie's just gonna drive right around
Speaker 1: into the right hand side to get to the rims.
Speaker 1: So the hedge, Mike Conley lunges out to cut off
Speaker 1: the drive right Grayson Allen slips it, goes to the
Speaker 1: left wing on the three point line. He's wide open.
Speaker 1: Katie throws him the pass. Mike Conley is closing out
Speaker 1: to his right hand side, there is a baked in
Speaker 1: driving lane if he if he just catches and rips
Speaker 1: to the left, he has a baked in driving lane
Speaker 1: that is almost certainly gonna draw in another defender and
Speaker 1: is going to generate a closeout opportunity for Devin Booker
Speaker 1: or Bradley Beal And those guys operating with a close
Speaker 1: out are gonna be typer efficient, not the inefficient scores
Speaker 1: that they've been in this game. So what happens? Do
Speaker 1: you guys remember in game one where Devin Booker or
Speaker 1: excuse me, where Grayson Allen pump faked and got Jane
Speaker 1: McDaniels off the floor and instead of driving it, he
Speaker 1: just threw it back to KD. Did the exact same
Speaker 1: thing tonight has the catch, could rack left and draw
Speaker 1: the next defender. Instead, he just throws it right back
Speaker 1: to KD and Carl Towns is right there, and now
Speaker 1: it's a straight static ISO against Carl Towns, and k
Speaker 1: drives on him and has to settle for a really difficult,
Speaker 1: tough contested two that he misses. Why'd you even run
Speaker 1: the ghost screen? The whole purpose of the ghost screen
Speaker 1: is to generate the close out opportunity for Grayson so
Speaker 1: that he can further the advantage for the next guy.
Speaker 1: That's why you run the action, and you bailed on
Speaker 1: it and gave up the advantage. It makes literally no sense.
Speaker 1: You turned an action for a close out into a
Speaker 1: tough contested two. In ISO. The next one, Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: runs a double stagger use. If Nurkic sets the first screen,
Speaker 1: Royce O'Neil sets the second screen. On the first screen,
Speaker 1: Nurkic rolls, Bradley Beal, turns the corner and goes downhill.
Speaker 1: On the second screen, Royce O'Neil pops to the top
Speaker 1: of the key. All three wolves go with Nurkic and
Speaker 1: Bradley Beal Royce O'Neil standing wide open at the top
Speaker 1: of the key. Bradley Beal's not even getting ball pressured
Speaker 1: at this point. All he has to do is whip
Speaker 1: it back over his shoulder to Royce O'Neil. He's either
Speaker 1: shooting a catch and shoot three or someone's closing out
Speaker 1: at him and he can either make an extra pass
Speaker 1: or drive the clothes out to break in an advantage
Speaker 1: situation where you can generate another close out opportunity for
Speaker 1: Devin Booker or Bradley Beal. Instead, Bradley Beal looks off
Speaker 1: Royce O'Neil, drags the pick and roll way down to
Speaker 1: the baseline. Heels go bear off in a switch and
Speaker 1: then a tax go bear in a switch and settles
Speaker 1: for an impossible step through like floater shot that has
Speaker 1: like almost no chance of going in and he misses it.
Speaker 1: That's just bad process. And then lastly, later on in
Speaker 1: the first half, they run a guard guard screen with
Speaker 1: Royce O'Neil that gets Monti Morris switched onto Devin Booker.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker's thinking, Okay, I have a size advantage. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna post him up like that, backs him down, gets
Speaker 1: into the lane. We start to set up a situation
Speaker 1: where the Wolves zone up on the backside, so Bradley
Speaker 1: Beal clears out and goes to the right corner. His
Speaker 1: man is Anthony Edwards. Anthony Edwards completely ignores Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: and literally goes and stands right underneath the basket. Okay,
Speaker 1: so now, Drew you Banks sets what's called a pin
Speaker 1: in flair on I believe Gobert on the baseline. It
Speaker 1: was either it was Gobert or one of the I
Speaker 1: think it was Carl Town's. Actually at this point the
Speaker 1: pin and flair again is all he's doing is making
Speaker 1: it so that if Bradley Devin Booker decides to throw
Speaker 1: that skip pass to Bradley Beal, who's wide open in
Speaker 1: the corner, if Kat tries to close out, U Banks
Speaker 1: is there to screen him. U Banks is literally set up.
Speaker 1: He's positioned himself right between Kat and Bradley Beal in
Speaker 1: the corner. It's cleanly set up to generate a wide
Speaker 1: open catch and shoot three for Bradley Beal, who's been
Speaker 1: deadly in catch and shoot three points situations all season long.
Speaker 1: And instead of making the pass, and you can literally
Speaker 1: see on the video a clear window for the pass,
Speaker 1: instead of making the pass, Devin Booker settled for an
Speaker 1: impossible well not an impossible quality shot for Booker, I guess,
Speaker 1: but in a super physical game like this, where they
Speaker 1: can't make shots. It's a much lower percentage, much lower
Speaker 1: value shot. Takes a left shoulder fade over Moni Morris
Speaker 1: and misses it. And again I'm not saying you don't
Speaker 1: take those shots. Work on those shots for a reason.
Speaker 1: They serve a very important purpose in basketball games, for
Speaker 1: rescue possessions, coverage beaters in late game situations. There's a
Speaker 1: reason why you work on those shots. But what made
Speaker 1: the Suns a great team down the stretch of the
Speaker 1: season was advantage basketball, getting guys into advantage situations because
Speaker 1: they're way more efficient attacking a closeout versus attacking a
Speaker 1: set defender. And they've played directly into Minnesota's hands in
Speaker 1: this series. And again, you guys are gonna see the
Speaker 1: examples when we get into the film tomorrow. But like,
Speaker 1: I was watching that today and I'm like, what are
Speaker 1: you guys doing? Like you're losing sight of exactly what
Speaker 1: made you great, and you're playing into the lesser version
Speaker 1: of yourself, and you're allowing a team in Minnesota that
Speaker 1: has some weaknesses that you can attack to play to
Speaker 1: their strengths. And now you're down two to oh and
Speaker 1: you haven't had a decent chance to win either of
Speaker 1: these games. Sons are in some real trouble and they're
Speaker 1: going to have to flip that dynamic when they get home,
Speaker 1: and it all starts with decision making from their starf
Speaker 1: all right, Moving on to Pacers Bucks. Jump shooting was
Speaker 1: a major story of this game. You guys, remember in
Speaker 1: Game one I talked about how the Bucks are a
Speaker 1: top five team in the NBA in allowing jump shots,
Speaker 1: and the Pacers are a top five team in the
Speaker 1: NBA in converting jump shots into points, and they just
Speaker 1: could not make them in Game one. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, they got zero points seven to seven points
Speaker 1: per jump shot in Game one. Well, they shot like
Speaker 1: the Pacers today and then some they had one point
Speaker 1: two to two points per jump shot. So basically like
Speaker 1: the Damnure doubled up their jump shot efficiency from the
Speaker 1: last game, and it just completely changed the dynamic. A
Speaker 1: bunch of key guys got going. Miles Turner was hitting
Speaker 1: his threes in picking pop and in spot up situations,
Speaker 1: very key for the game plan because remember the Bucks
Speaker 1: are basically going to concede those to protect the rim, right,
Speaker 1: and so Miles Turner hitting those shots is important to
Speaker 1: burn the coverage. Siakam hit three threes, Aeronne hit three threes,
Speaker 1: Tyrese Halliburton hit three threes. So like just getting that
Speaker 1: jump shot result back into the to the ballpark of
Speaker 1: what you expect from the Pacers. It got them engaged defensively.
Speaker 1: They started to play like the Pacers in general. They
Speaker 1: were pushing off of makes and misses. How many times
Speaker 1: did you see, Like you know, there was a play
Speaker 1: where in the first half of I remember correctly, where
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez like makes a layup but kind of like
Speaker 1: trips and falls over, and you just see the Pacers
Speaker 1: go like he's down, let's go and on a made basket,
Speaker 1: they push up the floor and Brooke gets up and
Speaker 1: he's sprinting back, but Siakam just kind of like navigates
Speaker 1: and finds a little opening and Tyrese hits him and
Speaker 1: he makes the layup. On the other end, it might
Speaker 1: have been ob top and I can't remember exactly, but
Speaker 1: they were just running on makes and misses and getting out.
Speaker 1: They got out in transition on twenty percent of their
Speaker 1: possessions in this game, and then they finally got control
Speaker 1: of Damian Lillard. Remember I talked a lot in Game
Speaker 1: one about how some of the jump shot results you
Speaker 1: kind of have to with. Dame is a superstar and
Speaker 1: he's he's capable of making tough, contested pull up threes,
Speaker 1: and to Dame's credit, tip the cap to him. He's
Speaker 1: been hitting those shots through two games, and like I'm
Speaker 1: sure Pacers fans have felt a certain amount of like
Speaker 1: fear and hopelessness surrounding Dame and just his his supreme talent,
Speaker 1: and that has been on full display through two games.
Speaker 1: But the bigger problem they were having in the first
Speaker 1: game was not the pull up threes, but rather the
Speaker 1: dribble penetration. His Dame was coming off these ball screens,
Speaker 1: the big guy in the high drop, whether it was
Speaker 1: Siakam or Miles Turner, whoever it was, or Jalen Smith,
Speaker 1: he was just beating that guy off the dribble and
Speaker 1: the Pacers had no backside help at that point. He
Speaker 1: was getting lay up after layup after foul. He got
Speaker 1: four layups in the restricted area, drew a foul, and
Speaker 1: got to the foul line there Like he just was
Speaker 1: killing them in that specific situation while they cut his
Speaker 1: restricted area, finishing in half in this game, and they
Speaker 1: finally slowed him down in the second half, he was
Speaker 1: just three for nine from the field. So shout out
Speaker 1: to the Pacers for finally getting control of the situation defensively,
Speaker 1: and then Pascalsiyakam, he just gave them that patented mid
Speaker 1: range shot making that is so desperately needed when you
Speaker 1: get into the postseason. He's been getting close to the
Speaker 1: rim and taking short range jump shots. And again I
Speaker 1: talk about this a lot, but like mid range jump
Speaker 1: shooting a lot of times, it's when you get out
Speaker 1: past fifteen feet that the actual efficiency metrics tank. When
Speaker 1: you're inside of fifteen feet, they actually turn into shots
Speaker 1: that you can hit sixty sixty five percent of the
Speaker 1: time if you're a really really good pull up shooter, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's kind of the story with Jokic. The reason why
Speaker 1: he's so damn efficient is the majority of the shots
Speaker 1: that he takes is over the top shot making shots
Speaker 1: are inside of fifteen feet and so they're floaters and
Speaker 1: push shots and short turnarounds, and they're just shots that
Speaker 1: he can hit an extremely high rate. And like you're
Speaker 1: seeing that value from Pascal Siaka. In fact, he's eight
Speaker 1: for thirteen from the mid range in this series so far,
Speaker 1: he hits so much any big shots tonight, including some
Speaker 1: huge ones in the fourth quarter when they blew the game.
Speaker 1: Open talked about this in the Maverick segment. But for
Speaker 1: the people who the Pacers fans who check this out
Speaker 1: as a breakout clip, I'm gonna just kind of go
Speaker 1: over it again, like I really like this approach to
Speaker 1: team building. Talked about it with Dallas, But they went
Speaker 1: and got Kyrie Irving, and in the process they kind
Speaker 1: of gutted their roster, right, and it caused a problem.
Speaker 1: They missed the playoffs last year, right, But then in
Speaker 1: the offseason or in the in the off season, they
Speaker 1: got Derek Jones Junior, and they got Grant Williams, and
Speaker 1: they used Grant Williams at the deadline to flip to
Speaker 1: get PJ. Washington. All of a sudden, they put together
Speaker 1: some quality role players around their number one Luca and
Speaker 1: their number two Kyrie Irving. And now you're seeing a
Speaker 1: team that is the first team, not counting the Pacers
Speaker 1: who are going against a team without their best player
Speaker 1: and Giannis, but the first team to win against a
Speaker 1: full strength team on the road in the playoffs so
Speaker 1: far this year, so like you're seeing the reward of
Speaker 1: that kind of team building approach. And it was clear
Speaker 1: what happened this year with the Pacers the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: Tyrese Haliburton went on that crazy run to start the
Speaker 1: year where he was like twenty four points and I
Speaker 1: think like twelve thirteen assists and shooting fifty forty ninety,
Speaker 1: and it became clear, like, oh, Tyres is one of
Speaker 1: the top five offensive engines in the NBA, like already,
Speaker 1: like this is insane. This guy is clearly capable of
Speaker 1: being a guy we build around to win a championship.
Speaker 1: And so what did they do at the deadline exactly
Speaker 1: what the MAVs did last year. They gave up a
Speaker 1: couple of really good players, right giving up Buddy Healed,
Speaker 1: but Hel was such an important part of this team
Speaker 1: with his ghost screen game with Tyres Halliburton. Obviously Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown was their best like kind of like athlete wrecking
Speaker 1: ball in the backing court. They gave those guys up
Speaker 1: and they got in Pascal Siakam, a complimentary star that
Speaker 1: is good at the things that that Halliburton's not as
Speaker 1: good at, like being that defensive forward being that on
Speaker 1: an island score, although Tyree's before his hamstring injury was
Speaker 1: an awesome, awesome on an island scorer too, But like,
Speaker 1: I love it because now it's like, not only do
Speaker 1: you have this good team this year that's fun and
Speaker 1: has a decent chance to make it out of the
Speaker 1: first round, and we'll have a fighting chance in that
Speaker 1: second round series against whether depending on whether or not
Speaker 1: it's the Knicks or the Sixers, right, but like they
Speaker 1: have this chance and then going into the offseason they
Speaker 1: can look at it and be like, all right, we
Speaker 1: got our one Tyres, we got our two Pascal Siakam,
Speaker 1: Let's find some complimentary role players that kind of tie
Speaker 1: this whole thing together and make a run from there.
Speaker 1: And just Siakam, I don't think you could have. I mean,
Speaker 1: Pacers fans, are you not just completely thrilled with the
Speaker 1: production you've got out of Siakam through two games? But
Speaker 1: the Pacers did what they need to do tonight. They
Speaker 1: played to their advantages. They use their speed to spread
Speaker 1: Milwaukee out, keep them on their heels. They defended better,
Speaker 1: they made their jump shots, and they got out of
Speaker 1: there with a win. If they can go get Game
Speaker 1: three at home, and they go up to one before
Speaker 1: Giannis gets back. I think they'll win the series, but
Speaker 1: if they drop Game three, they could be in some trouble.
Speaker 1: But I do believe they'll win Game three. That's gonna
Speaker 1: be the big one. And again, I'm gonna be really
Speaker 1: curious to see just in general, some of the trends
Speaker 1: surrounding the home teams when we shift to the lower
Speaker 1: seeds being at home. All right, guys, that is all
Speaker 1: I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys for rocking with me and supporting the show. We'll
Speaker 1: be back tomorrow with some film breakdowns, and then obviously
Speaker 1: we're actually taking tomorrow night off because we have a
Speaker 1: relatively late light slate. If I remember correctly, it's Celtics heat,
Speaker 1: which is the biggest favorite in the first round, and
Speaker 1: then it's I think it's Thunder Pelicans is the second game.
Speaker 1: We will cover those games on Thursday Mornings show, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna take that as an opportunity to take a night.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna actually hang out with my wife. Been putting
Speaker 1: her through hell for the last four nights as she
Speaker 1: comes home every night from work and I'm just working,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna spend some time with her and then
Speaker 1: we'll get back to it on Thursday morning, and then
Speaker 1: again on Thursday night for the for the night Slate
Speaker 1: that night. So again, I appreciate you guys for rocking
Speaker 1: with me. I will see you tomorrow morning. The volume