Speaker 1: The volume Lakers Tonight is presented by FanDuel Sports Book.
Speaker 1: There's no better place to make every moment more than
Speaker 1: with FanDuel. You get great odds in markets for the
Speaker 1: NBA and HL college and so much more. It's America's
Speaker 1: number one sports book. It's super easy to use. Plus
Speaker 1: you can combine multiple bets from the same game into
Speaker 1: a same game parlay. If you are new, just download
Speaker 1: the FanDuel Sports Book app to get started. Now sign
Speaker 1: up with promo cod json T so they know I
Speaker 1: sent you. Twenty one plus in president Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana,
Speaker 1: Permitted parishes only, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Virginia
Speaker 1: or West Virginia. First online real money wager only. Refund
Speaker 1: issued as non withdrawalable site credit that expires in fourteen days.
Speaker 1: Restrictions apply see terms at sports book dot FanDuel dot com.
Speaker 1: Gambling problem called one eight hundred, next step or text
Speaker 1: next step to five three three four two in Arizona
Speaker 1: one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven
Speaker 1: seven or visit CCPG dot org slash chat in Connecticut
Speaker 1: one eight hundred gambler or visit FanDuel dot com slash
Speaker 1: RG in Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, in Virginia one eight
Speaker 1: seven seven seven seven zero stop in Louisiana one eight
Speaker 1: hundred to seven zero seven one one seven for confidential
Speaker 1: help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and
Speaker 1: Why or text hope and Why to four six seven
Speaker 1: three six nine in New York. In Tennessee redline dial
Speaker 1: one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine
Speaker 1: in Tennessee visit www one eight dot one eight hundred
Speaker 1: gambler dot net in West Virginia. We're gonna get into
Speaker 1: absolutely everything about this game tonight. Then we're gonna bring
Speaker 1: Carson on and we're gonna do three questions from this series,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna do a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: more of talk about tomorrow night's game between the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors in the Dallas Mavericks. Before we get started,
Speaker 1: a couple of quick housekeeping notes. Make sure you like
Speaker 1: this video and subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so
Speaker 1: you don't miss any more of our shows. We're basically
Speaker 1: gonna be going live for every single NBA game the
Speaker 1: rest of the season. If not live, then at least
Speaker 1: some sort of YouTube content, So definitely after every game,
Speaker 1: come to the YouTube channel after the game. Don't forget
Speaker 1: to follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt for
Speaker 1: any video content. I did a bunch of uh. I
Speaker 1: recorded a bunch of video on my TV during the
Speaker 1: game to try to demonstrate some concepts that I'd like
Speaker 1: to get into tonight. So if you hear me talking
Speaker 1: about something and you want to see a video example
Speaker 1: of it, go to my Twitter feed. So I want
Speaker 1: to start with Boston. And I know it sounds crazy
Speaker 1: because obviously Miami put forth a great performance tonight, and
Speaker 1: we are going to talk about Miami and what they
Speaker 1: do really well, what they did really well tonight, and
Speaker 1: some signs of optimism looking forward in the series. But
Speaker 1: Boston is the better team. They've clearly demonstrated that basically
Speaker 1: since January, and I think they've clearly demonstrated that in
Speaker 1: this playoff run. However, they just got out of a
Speaker 1: seven game war with Milwaukee, and there's not just physical
Speaker 1: wear and tear, there's emotional wear and tear and literal
Speaker 1: injuries that manifested in the form of Marcus Smart having
Speaker 1: this I think I believe it was the hip contusion
Speaker 1: that left him out again. I'm not sure exactly what
Speaker 1: it was, but I would imagine that the people in
Speaker 1: Boston just simply thought, hey, I'd rather give Marcus Smart
Speaker 1: three days, three full days off before we get into
Speaker 1: game too, rather than have him turned right around after
Speaker 1: Game seven, especially if you're confident in what you can
Speaker 1: do in the series, which I believe Boston is. The
Speaker 1: Al Horford thing is super weird health and safety protocols.
Speaker 1: I suppose that means COVID, although we're not certain. I
Speaker 1: think the fact that I believe Shams Serenia reported that
Speaker 1: he's probably out for Game two as well, and that
Speaker 1: obviously kind of strongly hints at it being COVID. When
Speaker 1: I saw those two specific injuries, you know, or two
Speaker 1: specific uh guys being out of the lineup for Marcus Smart,
Speaker 1: less concerned. Obviously, Marcus Smart is very important to the
Speaker 1: best Boston lineups, which we will get to here in
Speaker 1: a few minutes, but without Horford in particular, it takes
Speaker 1: away Boston's ability to run five out basketball, which is
Speaker 1: when they're at their best. We did a whole thing
Speaker 1: about this towards the end of the Milwaukee series when
Speaker 1: they said Rob Williams was available for Game seven, and
Speaker 1: I said I wouldn't play him because they're four out
Speaker 1: one in offense is not as good as their five
Speaker 1: out offense, and when they have Al Horford and he
Speaker 1: can pop and or just spot up off the ball,
Speaker 1: it just gives a lot more room for driving lanes,
Speaker 1: which become obviously way more important as the game progresses,
Speaker 1: especially when Miami gets more aggressive. But that fatigue was
Speaker 1: inevitably gonna play a role, and I thought Boston came
Speaker 1: out and played a really good basketball game to start.
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot about how Boston's offense and their
Speaker 1: decision making is the driving force behind everything that they do.
Speaker 1: Tonight email Udoka in his first quarter interview on the
Speaker 1: live broadcast said that it's the first leg of their
Speaker 1: transition defense, which is something that we've talked about at
Speaker 1: length on the show. It's something that you made Udoka
Speaker 1: specifically talked about in them in the second round series
Speaker 1: with Milwaukee. Their offense is so important to just the
Speaker 1: transition into their defense so they can get set rather
Speaker 1: than giving up transition opportunities. Well, to start this game,
Speaker 1: they had excellent offensive execution but Miami switches everything, right,
Speaker 1: and as we've talked about on the show, you have
Speaker 1: to attack switching defenses rather than settling. If you turn
Speaker 1: a switching defense into an isolation contest, you stagnate yourself,
Speaker 1: you stagnate your teammates, and you put the outcome of
Speaker 1: the game on the strength of whether or not you
Speaker 1: can make pull up jump shots, because you're not just
Speaker 1: gonna beat people straight to the rim. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: help side, right, and so a lot of times in
Speaker 1: those isolation situations, you're getting to the rim and turning
Speaker 1: and taking fade away jump shots, or you're not even
Speaker 1: attempting to drive to the rim and you're taking step
Speaker 1: back jump shots around the perimeter. Right. Well, Boston on
Speaker 1: their first five offensive possessions got the basketball into the paint,
Speaker 1: which is a huge part of how they got off
Speaker 1: to such a good start, and Jayson Tatum in particular
Speaker 1: was the driving force behind that. But over the course
Speaker 1: of the game, I don't know if it was fatigue
Speaker 1: a little bit I thought was defense of pressure from Miami,
Speaker 1: which will get a little bit further into but they're like,
Speaker 1: go with the rope. They gave up two thirty point quarters,
Speaker 1: which is extremely uncommon for this Boston defense. And you
Speaker 1: know what, that's how it goes. Sometimes when you're in
Speaker 1: a Game one of a playoff series, right after a
Speaker 1: Game seven, you're run out of gas. Miami second half run,
Speaker 1: I thought, was completely fueled by ball pressure in aggressive
Speaker 1: defense in the passing lanes. Now, to be clear, ball
Speaker 1: pressure is actually something that should help your offense if
Speaker 1: you're disciplined, because pressuring the ball puts you out of position.
Speaker 1: When you're reaching, when you're lunging, you put yourself out
Speaker 1: of position as the defensive player. So if you were
Speaker 1: the offensive player and you're disciplined, and you take care
Speaker 1: of the basketball and you weaponize their pressure against them,
Speaker 1: you can get a lot of straight line drives in
Speaker 1: passing lanes. If a guy is overplaying a passing lane,
Speaker 1: then the back door is wide open for everybody. Right, So,
Speaker 1: aggressive defenses are basically purposefully compromising their own defense for
Speaker 1: the sake of trying to get you to get sloppy
Speaker 1: with the basketball. And that's what was so smart about
Speaker 1: what Miami did because Boston's biggest weakness, as I've talked
Speaker 1: about through this entire playoff run, is game management having
Speaker 1: a player who truly understands the flow of the basketball
Speaker 1: game and can get them into their stuff and understand
Speaker 1: exactly what's happening. Jayson Tatum played a magnificent first half
Speaker 1: of basketball. You know, our guy calling Cowherd opened up
Speaker 1: his show today on FS one with the rant about
Speaker 1: how he said Jayson Tatum was a top three franchise
Speaker 1: corner stone in the NBA. Now I disagree with him
Speaker 1: because I wouldn't take him third, but he's certainly in
Speaker 1: that conversation, which is absolutely wild, the ascent that Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum is on. But then we're gonna get a little
Speaker 1: bit further into what Jason did well. But in that
Speaker 1: second half Miami, when they brought the ball pressure, it
Speaker 1: was Jason Tatum who got sloppy with the basketball. It
Speaker 1: was Jason Tatum who wasn't handling the ball pressure. It
Speaker 1: was Jason Tatum that wasn't reading the defenders that were
Speaker 1: gambling in the passing lines. That's a hole in his
Speaker 1: game right now. It was a hole that manifested in
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee series. And it's exactly why I picked Miami
Speaker 1: to take this to six games. Even though I believe
Speaker 1: Boston is the better team and they will win. I
Speaker 1: said frequently that Boston would have extended stretches in this
Speaker 1: series where they would not be able to score, and
Speaker 1: that happened in that third quarter. I believe they had
Speaker 1: two points the the first like seven or eight minutes.
Speaker 1: I think Miami started on a twenty two to two
Speaker 1: run when things were going south. When Miami came with
Speaker 1: all that pressure and aggressiveness on defense, there was no
Speaker 1: savvy floor general to weaponize that aggression against Boston. And again,
Speaker 1: there's not that many guys like this in the lead,
Speaker 1: So it's it's a it's a difficult problem to confront.
Speaker 1: You basically are limited to the top guys like Lebron
Speaker 1: and Luca, you know, a Yoki or or a Chris
Speaker 1: Paul right, Like, they're only a handful of really high
Speaker 1: level initiators. Then you've got guys that are pretty good
Speaker 1: at it, Guys like Steph Curry, Kevin Durray, Janice, guys
Speaker 1: that do feel the flow of the game, even though
Speaker 1: they're not fantastic playmakers. Right. But it's just once you
Speaker 1: get off of that, it's like you're looking at role players,
Speaker 1: you're asking that's where you're looking at like a Ricky
Speaker 1: Rubio to come in and do that for you, which
Speaker 1: then that presents a whole bunch of other issues. But
Speaker 1: this is gonna be a person sent problem for Boston
Speaker 1: throughout this entire last two rounds. I said on Twitter
Speaker 1: earlier today that Boston's best punch is better than anybody's
Speaker 1: best punching basketball. The question is going to be how
Speaker 1: frequently can they get to that best punch, because right
Speaker 1: after an incredible first half, they utterly and completely fell
Speaker 1: apart to start the second half in their basic offensive,
Speaker 1: fundamental decision making. And so it will be on Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum to make that adjustment to understand that Miami's aggression
Speaker 1: can actually be used to his advantage as long as
Speaker 1: he understands that that's what's happening. Miami is gambling, Miami
Speaker 1: is putting themselves out of position. But to Miami's credit,
Speaker 1: this is what they do. You know, as much as
Speaker 1: we criticize Joel Embiid and James Harden for crumbling in
Speaker 1: that second round series, so much of what they did
Speaker 1: is Miami making them crumble. Miami is the definition of
Speaker 1: a team. We we've called them on the show a
Speaker 1: sponge in the desert that you squeeze until every last
Speaker 1: drop is out. They maximize their talent and ability. They
Speaker 1: are so incredibly tough that they will expose teams that
Speaker 1: aren't tough. I believe this Boston team is tough, and
Speaker 1: I believe they will respond. But that's what happened to Philly.
Speaker 1: They got met by a tough team that challenged them
Speaker 1: and all of the toughness areas of the game of basketball,
Speaker 1: and the seventy sixers wilted. And in that second half tonight,
Speaker 1: when Miami punched Boston in the mouth, Boston took a
Speaker 1: little while to respond. Wasn't until the early fourth quarter
Speaker 1: when they went on that ten o run to cut
Speaker 1: it from twenty to ten that they actually kind of
Speaker 1: started to respond and make something happen. But I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, this is this is what Miami does so
Speaker 1: incredibly well. They're in better shape than you. They're more
Speaker 1: disciplined than you when they amble, even they're gambling, even
Speaker 1: they're aggressive front facing defense. That's that's always looking to
Speaker 1: attack you on the ball and always looking to attack
Speaker 1: you on the past. All of that stuff is extremely polished,
Speaker 1: and everybody's in the right place. I wanted to look
Speaker 1: at the other side of the ball for a minute,
Speaker 1: so when Miami's on offense, because Boston did not have
Speaker 1: a good defensive night. If you guys remember in the
Speaker 1: preview that I did, I talked about how I expected
Speaker 1: Boston early in this early in the series to not switch,
Speaker 1: because every team tries to start the series by not
Speaker 1: switching as much as possible, except for Miami. Miami does
Speaker 1: it the the They're relentless with it. But the reason
Speaker 1: why they try not to switch is you don't want
Speaker 1: to give up size mismatches as like in large sample size.
Speaker 1: Coaches don't want to because they don't want their smaller
Speaker 1: players to be banging with Bam at a bio in
Speaker 1: offensive rebound situations all night long. They don't want to.
Speaker 1: It's it's a physical wear and tear play. The more
Speaker 1: you can keep Tyson on BAM, the more you can
Speaker 1: keep keep you know, I think they started Grant Williams
Speaker 1: on BAM. The more you can keep those guys there,
Speaker 1: the easier it is for all your other perimeter players
Speaker 1: to not have to bang bodies as much. That's what
Speaker 1: they think. I thoroughly disagree with that. I've always said
Speaker 1: that the advantages of switching cancel that out because you're
Speaker 1: asking these Boston guards and Wings to blow up screens NonStop,
Speaker 1: to fly through screens, and early in the game they did.
Speaker 1: Derek White single handedly blew up to dribble handoffs for
Speaker 1: for runout dunks. Jayson Tatum blew up two additional dribble handoffs.
Speaker 1: They literally were blowing up every Miami action. Just just
Speaker 1: get like, when a dribble handoff is happening, the way
Speaker 1: coaches teach is you want to literally be in between
Speaker 1: the offensive player and the guy who has the ball.
Speaker 1: You want to you wanna sandwich yourself in between that
Speaker 1: dribble handoff and disrupt that change. And they were doing
Speaker 1: an amazing job of that in the first quarter. Here's
Speaker 1: the problem. That's exhausting, and they just got out of
Speaker 1: a war with Milwaukee, and so over the course of
Speaker 1: the game, suddenly they started dying on those screens. Now,
Speaker 1: Boston switches perimeter actions, So if Jayson Tatum and Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown there two guys are involved in action, they'll switch.
Speaker 1: But anything that involved Daniel Tys, anything that involved Rob Williams,
Speaker 1: or anything that involved whoever was guarding BAM, so at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the game, it was Grant Williams on BAM.
Speaker 1: Those three guys, so those three situations, they were in
Speaker 1: a drop coverage, dropping off of BAM or dropping off
Speaker 1: of whoever Tyson Rob Williams were guarding. And so what
Speaker 1: got Miami back into this game, and what I thought
Speaker 1: was really smart was they persistently attacked whoever Thys was guarding.
Speaker 1: They not as not as the the the offensive player
Speaker 1: looking to score, but just as the screener. Because if
Speaker 1: you set a pin down with tyss Man, Tys is
Speaker 1: sitting down in the lane, and so you've got guys
Speaker 1: like Gabe Vincent Max True's coming off of these screens
Speaker 1: and Whoever's guarding them is getting hit by Tyson's man
Speaker 1: in their wide open. That's how Tyler Harrow came in
Speaker 1: and instantly had an impact on this game. They were
Speaker 1: just he was just coming off of bhy ball screens
Speaker 1: and Daniel Tys or or whoever it was that was
Speaker 1: guarding the screen or was just sitting down in the lane,
Speaker 1: and he would come off and score. So at some
Speaker 1: point in this series, Boston's gonna have to try to
Speaker 1: take that away. At some point they're going to have
Speaker 1: to look to make them an isolation team. And my
Speaker 1: thing is with Marcus Smart back in the lineup, coming
Speaker 1: back probably in Game two, and without Horford, whether that's
Speaker 1: Game two or game through, we'll see they'll have a
Speaker 1: better opportunity to do that. Those are their best switchable groups.
Speaker 1: A huge part of this was a personnel issue. Now,
Speaker 1: what was encouraging for Miami fans. Jimmy Butler did in
Speaker 1: a easing job attacking mismatches in the second half. Jerry
Speaker 1: Butler is is interesting player for basketball fans. We had
Speaker 1: a little conversation my producers and I earlier today about
Speaker 1: whether or not Jimmy Butler is an interesting basketball player,
Speaker 1: and for casual fans not so much, because he doesn't
Speaker 1: bring above the rim flash and he doesn't bring perimeter flash.
Speaker 1: And if you don't bring one of those two, then
Speaker 1: you're not a very highlight oriented player, and a lot
Speaker 1: of fans aren't going to be interested in what you do.
Speaker 1: But for hoop Heeds, for real people that are in
Speaker 1: love with the game of basketball, there's something so impressive
Speaker 1: about what he does. He's an inch taller than me.
Speaker 1: He's about six ft seven, but he's really short arms.
Speaker 1: He's got a six eight wingspan shorter than mine even,
Speaker 1: and you not nothing's really impressive going on there as
Speaker 1: a physical wing player on either end of the floor.
Speaker 1: But what he does have is he's incredibly strong and
Speaker 1: he's an incredibly good shape, which is a huge part
Speaker 1: of why he thrives so much in these environments. He's
Speaker 1: got the toughness up here and the physical tools to
Speaker 1: actually inflict that toughness on people. And most importantly, Jimmy
Speaker 1: supplements everything he does with easy offense. I had a
Speaker 1: coach at Arizona Christian University my last year playing in college,
Speaker 1: and he used to tell me there's an easy way
Speaker 1: to get twelve points every game by running in transition
Speaker 1: for a layup once a half, by crashing the offensive
Speaker 1: glass and getting a put back once a half, and
Speaker 1: by getting to the foul line once a half. If
Speaker 1: you do that, you'll score six points in each half,
Speaker 1: and you'll get you'll be a person who averages double figures.
Speaker 1: And I always thought that was super interesting, and it's
Speaker 1: something that I tell all of my high school kids
Speaker 1: because it's such a it's a it's an easy way
Speaker 1: to get them to understand that effort and focus on
Speaker 1: details actually gives you offensive production, the things that help
Speaker 1: get the girls and get the love and get all
Speaker 1: the attention, right. And Jimmy Butler is an absolute monster
Speaker 1: at those specific things. He's gonna get a steel in
Speaker 1: a passing lane and a runout dunk every single game.
Speaker 1: He's gonna get an offensive rebound put back every single game.
Speaker 1: He is going to run the floor and transition on
Speaker 1: the wing after somebody else makes a play in every
Speaker 1: single game he gets to the foul line. He manufactures
Speaker 1: points with the officiating every single game. And that is
Speaker 1: how a guy that doesn't have the physical tools of Janice,
Speaker 1: doesn't have the perimeter school a skill of a k D,
Speaker 1: doesn't have the vision as a playmaker of a Lebron,
Speaker 1: doesn't have any of that. But he's a hell of
Speaker 1: a lot closer to them than he is to a
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, Right, And that's just a testament to everything
Speaker 1: that he does. It's it's another smaller example of squeezing
Speaker 1: the sponge, of getting every last drop out of what
Speaker 1: you have in your ability. If you're a Miami fan,
Speaker 1: the encouraging thing is in that second half, he was
Speaker 1: able to attack mismatches frequently when Boston did final start switching,
Speaker 1: particularly Derek White and Peyton Pritchard. Now, if you're a
Speaker 1: Boston fan, the counter to that is if you have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to have Marcus Smart and Al Horford out there,
Speaker 1: suddenly those mismatches don't exist anymore. Boston's best lineup with
Speaker 1: Tatum and Brown and with Grant Williams and Horford and
Speaker 1: with Marcus Smart, there is nobody for Jimmy Butler to
Speaker 1: attack except for maybe Marcus Smart, who's the defensive player
Speaker 1: of the year. And so especially in those groups, if
Speaker 1: they go to their switching and they take away all
Speaker 1: those dribble handoffs and easy shots that Miami gets, that's
Speaker 1: their best chance to win. Boston eventually is going to
Speaker 1: have to start switching everything and they need to get
Speaker 1: all their guys back. You know, with Jayson Tatum, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about him for just a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1: This is this is exactly the difference between being a
Speaker 1: guy who's ascending into superstardom and being in that group
Speaker 1: and being a staple in that group, being in that
Speaker 1: group to five to ten years, being the guy that's
Speaker 1: consistently at this level, night in and night out, for
Speaker 1: the for for your entire prime. You have to be
Speaker 1: able to adjust. You have to be able to thrive
Speaker 1: in different environments. Jayson Tatum did an amazing job attacking
Speaker 1: the paint early in the game against their switching defense,
Speaker 1: but he was facing single coverage. He was getting middle penetration,
Speaker 1: which is so important to compromising the defense because it's
Speaker 1: so much harder to help in the middle of the
Speaker 1: floor than it is to help on the baseline. That's
Speaker 1: why every coach when they're telling you to guard perimeter players,
Speaker 1: you want to funnel to the baseline. Funnel to the baseline,
Speaker 1: never funnel to the middle, because if you funnel to
Speaker 1: the middle, it's a lot harder to help and recover.
Speaker 1: Tatum was getting middle penetration, but then in the second half,
Speaker 1: they started picking him up full court, a ton more
Speaker 1: ball pressure, playing passing lanes, trapping him on some of
Speaker 1: these ball screens, and sending double teams when he tried
Speaker 1: to put the ball on the floor. And Tatum adjusted
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, but it's too late. The game
Speaker 1: is over. He has to be quick. You have to
Speaker 1: be quick with that adjustment on your feet. You have
Speaker 1: to be you turn the ball over once you understand
Speaker 1: exactly what happened. Okay, it's ball pressure and they're playing
Speaker 1: the passing lanes. This is what I have to do
Speaker 1: to counter. When Jimmy reaches, I need to beat him
Speaker 1: to the basket and then make a quick read to
Speaker 1: a shooter. Then work the ball around and I'll get
Speaker 1: it back in a position where I have a chance
Speaker 1: to attack. I expect Tatum to make that adjustment, but
Speaker 1: these are part of those growing pains. He has to
Speaker 1: find a way to get that disastrous third quarter out
Speaker 1: of here, because they had a good stretch in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, got it two single digits. This was a
Speaker 1: game they almost stole in spite of all of that,
Speaker 1: but they did too much damage to themselves in that
Speaker 1: in that third quarter that it became too big for
Speaker 1: them to overcome. Last note on Miami. One of the
Speaker 1: things that makes that I find so important about what
Speaker 1: Miami does on offense is they are constantly trying to
Speaker 1: give their guys advantages. I was so annoyed with the
Speaker 1: Lakers all year because they never did any of this stuff.
Speaker 1: They never did they never had their guys coming off
Speaker 1: of pin downs consistently. They never had their guys coming
Speaker 1: off of dribble handoffs consistently. That those are little details
Speaker 1: that give advantages to players. We talked about this a
Speaker 1: lot like it's call we call close that attacking or
Speaker 1: you know, essentially, any time the defense is already compromised
Speaker 1: when you have the ball, you have a better chance.
Speaker 1: If you are facing a set defense and the defenders
Speaker 1: right in front of you and you have to break
Speaker 1: him down to get by him, that it's a lot harder.
Speaker 1: And so what I've always found so impressive about Miami
Speaker 1: is even though Jimmy Butler is capable of walking down
Speaker 1: some of your defenders on the floor and getting isolation baskets,
Speaker 1: they want Jimmy coming off of pin downs all day
Speaker 1: long because he's gonna get Jimmy Butler on his or
Speaker 1: he's gonna get Jason or Jalen Brown on his hip
Speaker 1: and work him into the lane. Right. They know Max
Speaker 1: Strus can knock down spot up threes, They know Gay
Speaker 1: Vincent can knock down spot up threes. They know Tyler
Speaker 1: Harroll can knock get down spot up threes. But you
Speaker 1: know what they all be come a lot better, will
Speaker 1: you give them an advantage every time, and so they
Speaker 1: have Tyson's man go down instead his screen. So that's
Speaker 1: how gay Vincent got going in that second half, and
Speaker 1: then he started making tough shots over the top of
Speaker 1: the defense. But Miami understands that you don't always have
Speaker 1: to make it hard. Boston made it hard on them
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter by doing more switching. They're going
Speaker 1: to be extended stretch of this series where they do
Speaker 1: that in Miami is gonna struggle. So during the opportunities
Speaker 1: that you have to give your guys advantages. When Boston
Speaker 1: is going to drop and not switch those screens, you
Speaker 1: have to keep doing that because that those are your
Speaker 1: chances to float your offense for extended stretches. So that
Speaker 1: with things that so that when things get stagnant late,
Speaker 1: you have a twenty point lead and it's too hard
Speaker 1: to overcome. Looking forward in this series, I expect Smart
Speaker 1: back next game. I expect Corford back in Game three.
Speaker 1: I expect a lot more five out which is gonna
Speaker 1: make it a lot harder for Miami to play their
Speaker 1: physically aggressive passing lane and ball pressure defense. They'll have
Speaker 1: a lot more space us to work with and I
Speaker 1: think Boston will get it to get it together. Also,
Speaker 1: just buying Marcus Smart that time off, buying Al Horford
Speaker 1: that time off, that's important, you know. Obviously, Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: and Jason Tatum are younger, so they can recover quicker.
Speaker 1: They have a really good chance to bounce back here
Speaker 1: in Game two. I expect Boston to win Game two.
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna bring my guy Carson on and
Speaker 1: we're gonna get a little bit further into the weeds here. Yeah, Jason, Well,
Speaker 1: I am here as I often am, to ask you
Speaker 1: some of the biggest questions on our minds tonight. We're
Speaker 1: gonna touch a little bit on the Western Conference Finals
Speaker 1: in a second, but we'll stick with this game first.
Speaker 1: And obviously you have been a huge Celtics advocate. You've
Speaker 1: talked about them as a title favorite since the late
Speaker 1: stretch of the regular season, and as you said earlier,
Speaker 1: you picked them to win this series in six. Obviously
Speaker 1: they come out, they lose game one. So on a
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten, how concerned are you about
Speaker 1: your Celtics pick in this series? So in terms of
Speaker 1: the basketball, I'm not concerned at all. I didn't see
Speaker 1: anything today that would sway me on that pick. The
Speaker 1: one thing that has me a little bit concerned about
Speaker 1: my pick is this Horford thing. And if you would
Speaker 1: have missed one game, I wouldn't have thought twice about
Speaker 1: it because I expected Miami to win tonight. But if
Speaker 1: he misses game two and they have to play this
Speaker 1: much tice again in game two, and they have to
Speaker 1: play Rob Williams this much again in game two, and
Speaker 1: they play four out one in instead of five out,
Speaker 1: and Rob Williams and again Rob Williams had some log
Speaker 1: lob dunks tonight. Vertical spacing is a real thing, But
Speaker 1: what do I say? Vertical spacing is not the same
Speaker 1: as perimeter spacing. It makes it significantly harder. And really,
Speaker 1: when Miami shrunk the floor on Boston there in that
Speaker 1: second half, you could see that. So Horford being out
Speaker 1: will make them stealing game to a lot more difficult.
Speaker 1: But I still expect Boston to steal game two. That said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say that on a scale of one to ten,
Speaker 1: I'm probably at like a four just because of the
Speaker 1: Horford thing, Like because falling down to oh just makes
Speaker 1: it super applicated because of the home court advantage situation.
Speaker 1: So losing Game one against Milwaukee, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: coming back, like you still had three additional home games left, right,
Speaker 1: and in this case, like if you drop both of
Speaker 1: these games at home in Miami, then suddenly you now
Speaker 1: have Game seven facing you in Miami. So now you
Speaker 1: basically have to win the next four games to steal
Speaker 1: the series in six, or you have to go on
Speaker 1: the road to Miami to play game seven, which is
Speaker 1: extremely difficult to do as we know. So from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: the Horford thing is definitely concerning. But I still think
Speaker 1: Boston gets game too. Do you think at all that
Speaker 1: Miami has been underrated just in broad conversations or that
Speaker 1: you've underrated anything about them individually? I Boston, to me,
Speaker 1: excuse me, Miami to me has the highest floor out
Speaker 1: of any team in this field. That's coaching, that's every
Speaker 1: player on the roster having a chip on their shoulder.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things like that. But I I
Speaker 1: very closely watched this game, charted a bunch of things,
Speaker 1: tried to go play by play. I was actually watching
Speaker 1: the feed behind because I kept having to fast forward
Speaker 1: on commercial breaks as I was going back to watch
Speaker 1: film and rewatch possessions, and when Boston switched, Miami did
Speaker 1: not get great stuff. When Boston, especially with Tyson on
Speaker 1: the floor, would ran drop for the handoffs and the
Speaker 1: high screens, they got a lot of really good shots,
Speaker 1: not just threes, but specifically Jimmy Butler is really good
Speaker 1: at weaponizing those pin downs to get downhill. Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: we talked about him earlier. One of the things that's
Speaker 1: so underrated about Jimmy Butler is his short range game.
Speaker 1: You know, everyone talks about the mid range these days, right,
Speaker 1: because the analytics movement drove everybody towards attack the basket
Speaker 1: and take threes, right, And so there became this inefficiency,
Speaker 1: this market inefficiency, and all this space that you could
Speaker 1: operate the mid range, especially his lineups got smaller and
Speaker 1: you had all these guys that had opportunities to attack
Speaker 1: mismatches for pull up jump shots in the mid range. Well,
Speaker 1: Jimmy is great at the short range, which I think
Speaker 1: is frequently glossed over as an offensive skill set. These
Speaker 1: are the little push shots and floaters and hooks and
Speaker 1: short spinning jump shots and things that are like five
Speaker 1: ft away from the rim, like five to seven ft
Speaker 1: away and Jimmy's really good at that. And what they
Speaker 1: would do is, you know, they Jimmy would work Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown down to the short corner and they'd have Taisko
Speaker 1: set the Tysons man go set a screen and he
Speaker 1: curl around it, and Jimmy get Jalen get on his
Speaker 1: backside and you just kind of work his way into
Speaker 1: the lane and make short shots in the lane. And
Speaker 1: so from what I could tell, the shots that Miami
Speaker 1: was getting that were quality shots were pretty We were
Speaker 1: fixable by a pretty simple adjustment from Boston, which is
Speaker 1: do what you did when you were at your best,
Speaker 1: when you were healthy towards the end of the regular season,
Speaker 1: which is just switch. You know, bam At a Bio
Speaker 1: guards some dribble handoffs for bo Austin. You know what
Speaker 1: Bama a Bio does. He jumps out and guards the
Speaker 1: guy who's coming off the handoff. It's hard, you have
Speaker 1: to communicate. It presents its own set of issues, but
Speaker 1: it's proven to work, especially in this setting, and so
Speaker 1: I think I think in general, as good as Miami is,
Speaker 1: what this was tonight was Boston through a really good
Speaker 1: first half punch and then hit their absolute floor in
Speaker 1: the second half, which, as we've said, Boston has one
Speaker 1: of the lowest floors in this field. In Miami hit
Speaker 1: their little ceiling in terms of transition runouts and things
Speaker 1: like that. But to me, Miami didn't show me anything
Speaker 1: that I didn't already know about them tonight. Let's go
Speaker 1: a little bit deeper into that second half change in
Speaker 1: dynamic because sus came out first half, they had sixty
Speaker 1: two points as a team, Tatum was pretty much sparkling,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden second half forty five
Speaker 1: points overall, but just fourteen in that third quarter in
Speaker 1: absolute dude, So, Jason, do you think that that second
Speaker 1: half of Austin was more about bad offense on their
Speaker 1: part or was it good defense from Miami? To be clear,
Speaker 1: it was good defense from Miami, but Boston played into
Speaker 1: it with their I mean, Jayson Tatum went through like
Speaker 1: a five or six possession stretch where he just walked
Speaker 1: across half court and turned it over like four times
Speaker 1: before they even got into their sets. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: even like it wasn't even like he was losing control
Speaker 1: of the basketball. It was like he was bringing the
Speaker 1: ball off the floor, they would be fronting the high
Speaker 1: post when he would try to make a high post
Speaker 1: entry so that the gate could get into their offense,
Speaker 1: and so like they would fight for position and he
Speaker 1: got to throw up, but he wouldn't even see Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler just completely cheating off of the week side to
Speaker 1: come in and get that steel off the entry to
Speaker 1: the high post. Like just basic fundamental. Like Miami's doing
Speaker 1: a great job. They're playing textbook aggressive defense, but the
Speaker 1: counter to aggressive defense is fundamental, disciplined offense. And Boston
Speaker 1: didn't run any of that in that third quarter. So again,
Speaker 1: when you got two run it's disingenuous for me to
Speaker 1: say one thing happened. It was obviously great Miami and
Speaker 1: terrible Boston. But to me, the adjustment moving forward, Miami
Speaker 1: is going to have extended, extended stretches in the series
Speaker 1: where they play aggressive like that, where they pick up
Speaker 1: full court, where they deny passing lanes, where they jump
Speaker 1: off of off ball players to try to gamble for steals,
Speaker 1: and Boston has an easy counter to that, which is
Speaker 1: just calm down and take care of the basketball. Alright,
Speaker 1: let's slip to the offensive side for Miami and You
Speaker 1: touched on this a bit earlier, but it was really
Speaker 1: a Jimmy masterpiece overall. He now has had his last
Speaker 1: five forty pieces all come in the playoffs. No regular
Speaker 1: season forty point games in the last three years, Jason,
Speaker 1: but five in those same post seasons. He's just that
Speaker 1: kind of guy. And he's putting up overall these playoffs
Speaker 1: thirty eight five and a half on better than sixty
Speaker 1: true shooting. So is he a guy who doesn't get
Speaker 1: enough respect? Do you think Jimmy gets enough respect around
Speaker 1: the league? He doesn't, but it's because of the regular
Speaker 1: season stuff. Like I would argue Lebron hasn't gotten nearly
Speaker 1: enough respect over the last half year a half dozen
Speaker 1: years because he mails in a lot of nights in
Speaker 1: the regular season and there are guys at the top
Speaker 1: of the league who don't you know, Jimmy Butler is
Speaker 1: a man who understands the long term vision. He understands
Speaker 1: that there are sixteen games to be played in the
Speaker 1: late spring early summer that are a hell of a
Speaker 1: lot more difficult than what they're doing in the regular season,
Speaker 1: so they'll take a lot of nights off when he
Speaker 1: does play. Sometimes he will float through games. But you know, Carson,
Speaker 1: you asked me after our last show, you said, is
Speaker 1: Luca don Chich the best offensive player in basketball? And
Speaker 1: if you remember, I said yes. But one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why is I said, the guy that I'm always
Speaker 1: going to be drawn to is the big power wing
Speaker 1: that can punish mismatches, score and pass. That's always going
Speaker 1: to be the guy that I'm drawn to. And that's
Speaker 1: what Jimmy Butler is. It's not it's not a coincidence
Speaker 1: that he raises his game in this environment. He brings
Speaker 1: all of those things to the table. He can defend
Speaker 1: like crazy, he can guard the other team's best player.
Speaker 1: He's a defensive playmaker, meaning he understands like momentum plays
Speaker 1: on defense, gambling for steals. That's there's no two baskets.
Speaker 1: Are like what Luca did to Phoenix in this in
Speaker 1: that first half. Yes, he only scored eight points in
Speaker 1: the first four possessions or whatever, but it's not just
Speaker 1: eight points. It's making you feel helpless. It's it's sucking
Speaker 1: the life out of the other team. It's not just
Speaker 1: two points for Jimmy Butler to gamble a passing lane
Speaker 1: and get a run out dunk. It also sucks the
Speaker 1: life out of the other team. It's a psychological blow there,
Speaker 1: like like a pick six in football has a similar
Speaker 1: type of vibe. It is such a disastrous outcome for
Speaker 1: the other team even though it's just two points, that
Speaker 1: it has a psychological impact. Jimmy Butler understands all of that,
Speaker 1: and then on the offensive end of the floor, he
Speaker 1: brings all of that to the table. He can score
Speaker 1: at all three levels. He can playmake the hell out
Speaker 1: of the basketball. He can any your small, skinny, whatever,
Speaker 1: slow footed defender on the floor. He can attack them
Speaker 1: in any way if you send the extra defensive attention
Speaker 1: his way. He's not going to force the action. He's
Speaker 1: going to kick the ball out. He's got isolation moves
Speaker 1: that it can go to and crunch time. The dude
Speaker 1: is is just He's the definition of a guy who
Speaker 1: is built for this environment. And then he has the
Speaker 1: physical strength and endurance to thrive as well. He's built
Speaker 1: to survive in this environment. And I think, I think,
Speaker 1: I think, even though the public may not get it,
Speaker 1: I bet you all the guys around in the league
Speaker 1: have the appropriate fear of Jimmy as a superstar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it feels like in this game it's kind of
Speaker 1: his signature tenacity and relentlessness that really shines through. He
Speaker 1: gets to the line eighteen times. He's so aggressive attacking
Speaker 1: those mismatches as this game went on, and there's just
Speaker 1: something about him where he elevates his game. I mean,
Speaker 1: he had a brutal midrange shooting season this year. He
Speaker 1: was thirty eight percent overall, But in a game like this,
Speaker 1: it's like all of a sudden, he has some dazzling
Speaker 1: moments there. And you mentioned the defensive playmaking like his
Speaker 1: two fourth quarter blocks. He going for show stopping momentum plays.
Speaker 1: That block on Jayson Tatum, that's not a discipline traditional
Speaker 1: close out, that's what I'm trying to block this shot.
Speaker 1: And then he had the other block from behind. Hyper
Speaker 1: aggressive play, and that's just kind of what he does, right.
Speaker 1: He brings that fearlessness and we saw it in the
Speaker 1: finals where he again overperformed expectations. If he leads this
Speaker 1: team two another NBA Finals, and even if they don't win,
Speaker 1: he's the clear best guy on two finals teams. That's
Speaker 1: something that not a lot of players throughout NBA history
Speaker 1: have on their resumes. So what do you think the
Speaker 1: legacy of Jimmy Butler looks like if he does that,
Speaker 1: and maybe even if he doesn't, but he just has
Speaker 1: another phenomenal series here and continues to have that playoff
Speaker 1: over performance. That's a really interesting question. You know, there
Speaker 1: are there are a handful of guys like this in
Speaker 1: NBA history that have had extensive winning impact that hasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily manifested into anything. You know, um and like when
Speaker 1: the way I defined it is like a guy that
Speaker 1: isn't on the same level as the top players in
Speaker 1: the league, but on any given night, he damn sure
Speaker 1: can be. And I like another a great example of
Speaker 1: this of this, I think is like Paul Pierce in
Speaker 1: the late two thousand in the late two thousand's, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think there's ever a moment in time where
Speaker 1: Paul Pierce anybody thought he was like a real m
Speaker 1: VP candidate, right, a real full crumb centerpiece of a team.
Speaker 1: But like that, that dude would go toe to toe
Speaker 1: with Kobe, that dude would go toe to toe with Lebron,
Speaker 1: he would be in that in that setting, and up
Speaker 1: here he thinks he's at that level. Up here, he
Speaker 1: has that same audacity as those guys. He has that fearlessness,
Speaker 1: like you said that, that understanding of what it takes
Speaker 1: to win in that environment. Now inevitably what's happened to
Speaker 1: Jimmy is he keeps just running into the better player, right,
Speaker 1: And I believe that's gonna be what happens in this
Speaker 1: series with Jayson Tatum over the course of the series,
Speaker 1: Jayson Tate, m will make that clear. In the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals in Jimmy played about as well as you possibly can,
Speaker 1: but he ran into Lebron freaking James and and that's
Speaker 1: just how that goes. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: like like Jimmy Butler's legacy to me is the definition
Speaker 1: of a player who absolutely maximized his individual potential, which
Speaker 1: is all you can ask, how many how many six
Speaker 1: seven wings with short arms do you know that could
Speaker 1: be theoretically be a finals MVP if a couple of
Speaker 1: things break their way that also aren't really great shooters,
Speaker 1: and like like it's it's it's an incredible it's an
Speaker 1: incredible testament to just just you know, Eric Spoilster talked
Speaker 1: about this. I've talked about this on the show before.
Speaker 1: Eric Spolster talks about the type of player that Miami
Speaker 1: is drawn to, and he talks about how they win
Speaker 1: games with extra efforts, and there's a lot of truth
Speaker 1: to that. Any coach will tell you that. And when
Speaker 1: you've got a team full of guys that are like that,
Speaker 1: and your superstar is like that and sets that example,
Speaker 1: you're gonna win a lot of basketball games that you
Speaker 1: might otherwise lose. And I thought, you know, again, Boston
Speaker 1: is the better team with more talent, and Miami handled
Speaker 1: him tonight. And that's a big part of That's a
Speaker 1: big part of why I picked this series to go
Speaker 1: to six. It's a big part of what Miami's upside is.
Speaker 1: It's they they grind out basketball games on the margins. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Jimmy is the ultimate grinder. It feels like of
Speaker 1: any star basketball player of this era, that is his
Speaker 1: brand and he has certainly found a fitting home in
Speaker 1: Miami for that. All right, let's flip to the Western
Speaker 1: Conference Finals. Warriors MAVs obviously tips off tomorrow. We talked
Speaker 1: a few days ago, and you refer to this earlier
Speaker 1: about whether or not Luca is the best offensive player
Speaker 1: on the planet, and he's firmly in that conversation, and
Speaker 1: you said that you were even leaning yes in that
Speaker 1: conversation at this moment. So is there any answer for
Speaker 1: him in this matchup with the Warriors? Jason, Yeah, It's
Speaker 1: so funny because, yeah, I I've been in the various
Speaker 1: versions of this conversation, either on Twitter or on other
Speaker 1: podcasts for the last couple of days, and you know,
Speaker 1: the Warriors fan base rightfully is very confident, and they've
Speaker 1: been given a reason to be very confident. But to me, like,
Speaker 1: it's it's okay to be confident in your team and
Speaker 1: to be a fan of your team and acknowledge certain realities,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like, even even with the
Speaker 1: Laker team in which I covered, and obviously as a
Speaker 1: Lebron fan, I was rooting for that team, like I
Speaker 1: knew that they were always do you remember the exhibition
Speaker 1: games before the Bubble playoffs, like the whatever they called them,
Speaker 1: the seeding games or whatever, and the Lakers were so
Speaker 1: horrific offensively that there was a ton of pessimism surrounding
Speaker 1: that team. That team was always at risk of going
Speaker 1: ice cold from three. It was It's just a reality
Speaker 1: that you have to be aware of and you'll be
Speaker 1: better as a fan when you're to acknowledge certain realities.
Speaker 1: I think this series, I'm very confident in Boston to
Speaker 1: to beat Miami. I'm picking Dallas, but I'm not super
Speaker 1: confident in that. I think this series is close to
Speaker 1: a coin flip. I just him giving a slight edge
Speaker 1: to Luca, and as the team that doesn't have home court,
Speaker 1: I believe they would win in six on their home floor.
Speaker 1: That's why I made that pick. The reality of the
Speaker 1: situation is something that Golden State Warriors fans have to acknowledge.
Speaker 1: Even if you win this series, Luca is gonna light
Speaker 1: your ass on fire every night. There's not a soul
Speaker 1: on that team that can guard him. The only game
Speaker 1: that I could see him potentially struggling is Game one
Speaker 1: because Luca, similar to Lebron, is very much a feel
Speaker 1: things out type of player. He's going to be going
Speaker 1: into that game testing what works and what doesn't. Hey.
Speaker 1: I like, for instance, I expect Andrew Wiggins to guard
Speaker 1: him from the opening tip. It'll be like, Hey, let
Speaker 1: me see what we're on. Andrew, Like, if it's a
Speaker 1: late clock situation and I have to score on and
Speaker 1: let me see if this move works. Let me see
Speaker 1: if that move works. Can am I capable of backing
Speaker 1: him down in the post? Or am I gonna have
Speaker 1: to work for him from the perimeter? Does he have
Speaker 1: the length to bother these shots or those shots or
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. He might do the same thing
Speaker 1: to Draymond. He might call for a bunch of switch
Speaker 1: screens from Stepsman and Jordan's pools Man just to see
Speaker 1: what Golden State does to try to prevent those switches,
Speaker 1: just so that he can document all that information. Lebron
Speaker 1: used to do that all the time, and Cavs fans
Speaker 1: would complain like, why isn't Lebron being more aggressive? Why
Speaker 1: isn't Lebron being more aggressive? And sometimes he would just
Speaker 1: screw with you to prove a point and come out
Speaker 1: in the next game and shoot every time just to
Speaker 1: show like, hey, I can do this, but I'm not
Speaker 1: worried about a scoring spurt. I want to win the series,
Speaker 1: and the best way for me to win the series
Speaker 1: is to understand what works and what doesn't. And so
Speaker 1: I expect Luca to kind of feel things out in
Speaker 1: game one, but outside of that, like, Luca is going
Speaker 1: to be amazing in this series. It's it's one of
Speaker 1: it's a very safe bet because he just is going
Speaker 1: to have a physical mismatch against everybody on your roster,
Speaker 1: and even if you're a Golden State fan, and even
Speaker 1: if you're rooting for them to win, and even if
Speaker 1: you expect them to win, which again, I will not
Speaker 1: be the least bit surprised. I will be shocked if
Speaker 1: Miami wins this series. I will not be the least
Speaker 1: bit surprised if Golden State wins. But you, as a
Speaker 1: Warrior's fan, have to acknowledge that, even if you win,
Speaker 1: Luca is a mismatch problem. Just acknowledge it. It's the reality. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I don't know if there's many situations in which
Speaker 1: he is not just a brutal mismatch. Right now, and
Speaker 1: as we said, he's in the conversation for best offensive
Speaker 1: player on the planet. So let's look at the superstar
Speaker 1: opposite him, because it does feel like right now, Luca
Speaker 1: is the premier guy in this series. He has had
Speaker 1: the advantage over Steph as of late in terms of
Speaker 1: physical imposition, which he always will, scoring and playmaking volume
Speaker 1: really even just pure shot making, like he has been
Speaker 1: the better guy consistently throughout these playoffs, throughout the latter
Speaker 1: stretch of the regular season. But Jason can steps still
Speaker 1: be the best player in this series, and if so,
Speaker 1: how does he go about doing that? Yes, he can,
Speaker 1: and he has to be. He literally has to be
Speaker 1: for Golden State to win this series. Steph has to
Speaker 1: be the best player. And if they do, I don't
Speaker 1: I believe it will be because of him. Now, the
Speaker 1: thing is is that Dallas isn't Dallas is two things
Speaker 1: really well. On defense, they do. They're very good dribble
Speaker 1: contained team basically everywhere outside of Luca and maybe like
Speaker 1: Kleiba right, but like like Reggie, Bullock is great at
Speaker 1: sliding his feet and keeping keeping people in front. So
Speaker 1: is Dori and Phinney Smith. Even Jalen Brunson and Spencer
Speaker 1: didn't what he do a pretty nice job at sliding
Speaker 1: their feet and keeping people in front. There. Dallas is
Speaker 1: also extremely well coached. We talked about how they basically
Speaker 1: shut down every single Phoenix pick and roll action that
Speaker 1: they run towards the end of that series. I expect
Speaker 1: Dallas over the course of the series to solve that solved,
Speaker 1: but become become capable of adequately guarding a lot of
Speaker 1: Golden State's actions, their off ball actions, they're split cuts there,
Speaker 1: everything that they do to try to generate shots off
Speaker 1: ball right, and so's at a certain point there will
Speaker 1: be a time in this series where Steph and Jordan's
Speaker 1: Pool in particular, are going to have to create shots
Speaker 1: for themselves and beat people to the rim and engage
Speaker 1: help defenders so that they can get open shots for
Speaker 1: their other shooters. Jordan Pool is a wild card. I
Speaker 1: don't know what to expect from him in this series.
Speaker 1: But Steph is the guy. Steph is your two time
Speaker 1: m v P. Step is your most reliable player two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen, Steph, you know, the the at the very
Speaker 1: peak of his career. I won't even say, I'll say
Speaker 1: last year, when I thought he was at his very best, Steph,
Speaker 1: I would I would be picking Golden State to win
Speaker 1: this series because he would just have his way with
Speaker 1: Dallas over the course of the series as a score.
Speaker 1: And you know, as I said, like there was there
Speaker 1: was a shot profile with Steph last year that existed
Speaker 1: basically from two thousand fifteen two last year where he
Speaker 1: had that audacity to relentlessly attack people off the dribble
Speaker 1: and take incredibly you know, step shots, right, and the
Speaker 1: step shots are almost not entirely out of his repertoire,
Speaker 1: but they're kind of out of his repertoire. And a
Speaker 1: lot of that has to do with they have a
Speaker 1: lot more offensive talent now because of Jordan Pool's elevation
Speaker 1: and Klay Thompson being back, and you know, Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: wasn't even in the picture, and Jordan Pool was le
Speaker 1: a lot less consistent, especially early in the year, right,
Speaker 1: So he doesn't need to. But my point is Dallas
Speaker 1: is gonna make him have to. Dallas is going to
Speaker 1: make step have to create shots in those types of situations.
Speaker 1: And so again, like I think Luca is the best
Speaker 1: player in the series for the record, I I have
Speaker 1: to think about this, but I probably think Luca is
Speaker 1: better than Lebron now too. So to me, this is
Speaker 1: just as much about Luca's rise in Lebron and steps
Speaker 1: age into Klins. So this is not an anti Steph thing.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that in order for Golden State to
Speaker 1: win this series, Steph is going to have to tap
Speaker 1: into his prime. He's going to have to tap into
Speaker 1: the best version of himself in order to beat this
Speaker 1: Dallas defense. How big of a legacy moment is this
Speaker 1: series for staff? Not at all? I mean I know that,
Speaker 1: I know that's not first takey. I know that's not
Speaker 1: some something super entertaining. But for me, like when guys
Speaker 1: start undergoing their physical decline, Like, the only way that
Speaker 1: I get critical of guys at this phase in their
Speaker 1: career is not related to their ability to reach their
Speaker 1: basketball ceiling. It's related to controllables. Like got all of
Speaker 1: you who listened to me all year. I was super
Speaker 1: critical of Lebron this year as a leader. I thought
Speaker 1: he came out with a way lower intensity from the
Speaker 1: start of training camp. He waited half the season to
Speaker 1: even attempt to try on defense, and then he tried
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks and then stopped again. He
Speaker 1: did passive aggressive stuff. Lebron was a bad leader, and like,
Speaker 1: I'm never gonna criticize him for his physical a clin
Speaker 1: He's in his He's about to go into his twentieth
Speaker 1: season this fall, but there are controllables there. Steph in
Speaker 1: the controllables has been magnificent this year. I think he's
Speaker 1: the best leader in the NBA. I've compared him to
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan. Everything that he has, the that that is
Speaker 1: not you know, that is not a wild card. He's
Speaker 1: done what he's had to do. He just has lost
Speaker 1: a quarter of a step. It's made it difficult for
Speaker 1: him to create his own shot and as a result,
Speaker 1: his percentages have plummeted once again. He's shooting just barely
Speaker 1: over thirty from three in this postseason after he had
Speaker 1: a down year shooting in the regular season. That stuff that,
Speaker 1: to me is just physical decline. And if Steph loses
Speaker 1: this series as a small guard towards the tail end
Speaker 1: of his career coming off of a sprained foot, like
Speaker 1: I think if you're ripping down step at that point,
Speaker 1: you're being You're being a nefarious, disingenuous, you know, online
Speaker 1: Twitter troll. That's fair. I think Steph has certainly done
Speaker 1: what's necessary to prove that he's a top fifteen guy
Speaker 1: all time, and this isn't, like obviously a top tier
Speaker 1: legacy moment for him. I do feel like it's kind
Speaker 1: of big in some ways though, just in that his
Speaker 1: career has been so unique because obviously he was late
Speaker 1: rising to his absolute prime and then he had two
Speaker 1: years like that pre Katie, and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: everything he does is intertwined with Katie, and then he
Speaker 1: misses the season with injury. Last year's his peak self,
Speaker 1: but the team just isn't obviously, you know, capable of
Speaker 1: really contending. And now he finally has this contender caliber
Speaker 1: team around him again. Even though you're right, it does
Speaker 1: seem like he's regressed. He's so close to his prime
Speaker 1: that you sort of still have those superstar expectations for him. Actually,
Speaker 1: I would say most people just will. And it feels
Speaker 1: like most people would probably view the Warriors is the
Speaker 1: better team overall. So I agree with you this is
Speaker 1: not going to define Steph's legacy in any way, but
Speaker 1: I do feel like it's kind of a big moment
Speaker 1: just because there are so few years we have of
Speaker 1: quasi peak Steph with a contending caliber team around him
Speaker 1: matching up against like another superstar kind of guy, and
Speaker 1: this is one of those moments. So it's interesting, you know,
Speaker 1: that's the key there is, Like it's not a legacy
Speaker 1: defining thing. What it would be is a signal of
Speaker 1: a change in the times, Like if the Warriors lost
Speaker 1: this series and looka outplayed Steph. I wouldn't start relitigating
Speaker 1: Steph's career. What I would say is, hey, the changing
Speaker 1: of the guard, like here comes Luca and Janice, and
Speaker 1: the days of Lebron and Steph are probably over, not over,
Speaker 1: but they're on the tail end. And now now you know,
Speaker 1: when Lebron and Steph were at their peaks, when things
Speaker 1: went their way, they won every single time, right, and
Speaker 1: then when things didn't go their way, sometimes they still won.
Speaker 1: And then there were other guys that sometimes one because
Speaker 1: things broke their way, right, Well, Lebron and Steph will
Speaker 1: enter into a phase of their careers where they need
Speaker 1: things to break their way, now you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: which is how it goes. And it's just one of
Speaker 1: those deals where like as you age, your margin for
Speaker 1: error shrinks and and you you have to play at
Speaker 1: your absolute ceiling to reach where you need to reach,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's one it's one of those it's
Speaker 1: it's one of those deals where if as a as
Speaker 1: a player, you have to understand your opportunities and how
Speaker 1: few they are. That's why I was so critical of Lebron.
Speaker 1: You're an eight year in year nineteen and you literally
Speaker 1: came into training camp and didn't try like or mailed
Speaker 1: it in. Expected expected Russell Westbrook to come in and
Speaker 1: carry the load for you so that you can ease
Speaker 1: your way into the season. Anthony Davis did the same thing. Now,
Speaker 1: guess what, the season's gone and next year you're older
Speaker 1: and and that's the gamble that you play with this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, Like the opportunities are few and far between.
Speaker 1: And I think for the record, you know, because Steph
Speaker 1: has rescued Gold State on a handful of games in
Speaker 1: this playoff run that could have swung series. And for
Speaker 1: I think Steph senses that urgency and he like, you
Speaker 1: just don't know. You you don't know if you're gonna
Speaker 1: go into next year and then suddenly become Chris Paul
Speaker 1: and you're hurt all the time. There's not there's never
Speaker 1: a guarantee of next year. And so from that standpoint, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not a it's not a career defining moment for staff,
Speaker 1: but what it is is it's potentially one of his
Speaker 1: last opportunities. Alright, guys, that is all we have for tonight. Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all we have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: your support. A couple of quick housekeeping notes um this episode.
Speaker 1: If you missed any portion of it you don't have
Speaker 1: time to look on YouTube, you can always find it
Speaker 1: on our podcast feed. You can find that link on
Speaker 1: my Twitter feed. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason
Speaker 1: lt to see video content. I'll probably do a deep
Speaker 1: dive into this game tomorrow morning. Uh don't forget that
Speaker 1: we're gonna be going live after every game this week,
Speaker 1: so come hang out on YouTube after the final buzzer.
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys then, very excited for Warriors and
Speaker 1: Mavericks tomorrow night, game one. I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume