Speaker 1: This crowd rises to speak.
Speaker 2: What Carlos slammed it out? Left wing free ball perfect?
Speaker 2: Then he left block the shot at the rim?
Speaker 3: How with the left hand and of fowl. Welcome to
Speaker 3: the Chase Doown Podcast, part of the Caves Media family.
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Justin Browan. The Chase Doown is presented
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Speaker 3: The Cleveland Cavaliers take a commanding three to zero win
Speaker 3: over the Miami Heat, handing Miami their largest playoff loss
Speaker 3: in franchise history. A lot of fun to see the
Speaker 3: Calves step up and get that win on the road.
Speaker 3: And joining me today is my co host Carter Rodriguez. Carter,
Speaker 3: how you doing, buddy brother?
Speaker 1: Uh? That was fun.
Speaker 2: It was a game that I felt really good about
Speaker 2: going into. Then you find out Darius is out. See
Speaker 2: you have kind of a layer of angst. Maybe not
Speaker 2: about the series, certainly not. I didn't have angst about
Speaker 2: the series, but you know, angst about oh Man good
Speaker 2: buying me steel one and then prolong things and things
Speaker 2: get harder and you know, you open up your risk
Speaker 2: and like they just killed them, dude, Like they absolutely
Speaker 2: just destroyed their will h to play basketball over the
Speaker 2: course of the game.
Speaker 1: It was just phenomenal.
Speaker 2: They It feels like to me that instead of sitting
Speaker 2: and resting on their laurels knowing that we're up to
Speaker 2: oh and just having the game plan of well, let's
Speaker 2: just keep doing what we're doing, it felt like they
Speaker 2: did exactly what you asked them to do in the
Speaker 2: last podcast, which is anything they weren't doing, start doing it,
Speaker 2: start fixing everything. You know, do you not get enough
Speaker 2: rim pressure. How's how's six Jared Allen like first half dunks?
Speaker 1: Basically you know, you're maybe not letting the you're letting.
Speaker 2: The the shaky ball handlers on Miami, you know, off
Speaker 2: the hook. How's like eight first quarter turnovers? Just felt
Speaker 2: like they kind of had everything solved. Yeah, it's you know,
Speaker 2: getting Jared Allen involved. Obviously part of that is going
Speaker 2: to be Darius Garland was in the lineup. I think
Speaker 2: Darius is averaging like twenty four points per game. You're
Speaker 2: going to need to generate those points somewhere else, right,
Speaker 2: And I had wanted to see that more. I thought that,
Speaker 2: you know, Miami didn't have the personnel to really take
Speaker 2: away both Evan Mobley and Jared.
Speaker 3: Allen attack in the basket. Carter, how many how many
Speaker 3: attempts do you think the Cavs averaged at home versus
Speaker 3: Miami in the restricted area per game?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, let's see here. They took eighty six attempts tonight.
Speaker 2: I want to say twenty.
Speaker 3: Okay, So at home, the Calves averaged ten attempts per game.
Speaker 3: In the restricted area tonight against Miami they took thirty seven.
Speaker 3: They shot seventy eight percent on those looks, and obviously
Speaker 3: Jared Allen was a big part of that. But the
Speaker 3: Calves were getting to the rim and not kicking it
Speaker 3: out to open shooters. They got plenty of threes, don't
Speaker 3: get me wrong, but they were very focused in their
Speaker 3: attack of getting to the basket. Obviously, you know Tyer Rome,
Speaker 3: Don Mitchell got to the basket. A whole bunch of
Speaker 3: guys were doing a great job attacking, and I thought
Speaker 3: the aggressiveness of the Bigs was a major story here.
Speaker 3: How the Cavs attacked was a little different than in
Speaker 3: games one and two. In games one and two you
Speaker 3: saw a lot of kind of those double drag actions,
Speaker 3: and there were still some of that in game three,
Speaker 3: but I actually thought there was less of that. There's
Speaker 3: a little more two man game, a little more all right.
Speaker 3: We already have an advantage in terms of who Tyler
Speaker 3: heroes guarding. We can score on him in isolation. He's
Speaker 3: on DeAndre Hunter. We're gonna let Dre go to you know,
Speaker 3: go to work on him.
Speaker 2: A lot of good post ups for Dray good good,
Speaker 2: good Amo for the post up agenda for DeAndre Hunter.
Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt, No, no, it's okay.
Speaker 3: You know, Miami is so focused on the Cavs stars,
Speaker 3: they forgot about Dre and he had a terrific game here.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 3: It was really really fun. And I think, you know,
Speaker 3: anytime throughout this season where the Calves get a signature
Speaker 3: win or they have one of these moments where you
Speaker 3: know they've struggled in the past playing in Miami, they
Speaker 3: struggled on the road. We saw them after two dominant
Speaker 3: performances against Orlando in Games one and two, really fall
Speaker 3: apart and open that series right back up in Game three.
Speaker 3: Anytime the Calves do something that deviates from expectations or
Speaker 3: their history, I just reflect back on would we have
Speaker 3: expected this last year? Could we have won in this way?
Speaker 3: And to have a game where Donovan Mitchell scores thirteen
Speaker 3: points on four to fourteen shooting, only has one assists,
Speaker 3: and the Calves blow out Miami in the way that
Speaker 3: they did without Darius Garland even in the lineup. That
Speaker 3: is one of the most encouraging things I've seen from
Speaker 3: this offense all season. Because this Miami team, they're flawed,
Speaker 3: but that is a very good defensive roster.
Speaker 1: Bro.
Speaker 2: There's no disrespect here. But I was sitting there. I
Speaker 2: had to watch a lot of this game in the
Speaker 2: car we had. We had a little road trip to
Speaker 2: a kid's birthday party we had to take, So I
Speaker 2: just had the air pods in phone this far from
Speaker 2: my face, you know, just mainlining Calves basketball, and I
Speaker 2: was sitting there with them up, you know, thirty points,
Speaker 2: just thinking, Really, wasn't that long ago where I was like,
Speaker 2: can Colin Darius get us to forty plus wins? It's
Speaker 2: not that long ago where you're really wondering whether they
Speaker 2: can even be a decent team.
Speaker 1: And this this your.
Speaker 2: You know, your your third best player on the season
Speaker 2: is unavailable and not you know, it's not like a
Speaker 2: you know, two uber stars and then the third is
Speaker 2: just a guy like Darius has been instrumental, especially offensively
Speaker 2: for what this team has done all year. Yeah, he
Speaker 2: goes out and everyone is just there to step up.
Speaker 2: The roster depth is unbelievable. They didn't even have that
Speaker 2: bananas of a shooting game. You know, they made fifteen
Speaker 2: threes and forty attempts, like that's about an average shooting
Speaker 2: night for them, and yet they continue to just put
Speaker 2: up these mondo offensive performances. And it's just it's so
Speaker 2: rewarding to see it come to fruition like this.
Speaker 1: I know it's only the first round, but it does
Speaker 1: feel great.
Speaker 3: It does feel good, right because you're just gives you
Speaker 3: another level of confidence. Right, we said, coming in, can
Speaker 3: the Cavs have a dominant series? Can you know they
Speaker 3: prove some of the doubters wrong?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: We assume that Miami was going to go out and
Speaker 3: they were going to get a game in this series,
Speaker 3: or felt that they had a good chance to and
Speaker 3: the Cavs would actually have to go out and earn it.
Speaker 3: You know, you look at a lot of the serious predictions.
Speaker 3: Usually everyone had the Cavs, but it was five six
Speaker 3: games for them to be as dominant as they've been
Speaker 3: offensively throughout this series. I think is incredibly encouraging because
Speaker 3: they've done it in a variety of ways. And I
Speaker 3: think that this game in particular was a true kind
Speaker 3: of litmus test for is this offense different than it's
Speaker 3: been in the past, Because you know, I think you
Speaker 3: saw from Donovan Mitchell his shots didn't fall. I don't
Speaker 3: feel like he ever got overly passive as a result
Speaker 3: of it, but he was making the right play out there.
Speaker 3: Like I thought, he kept the ball moving. I thought,
Speaker 3: you know, he was contributing on defense. He hit some
Speaker 3: big shots and wasn't afraid to take the shots. But
Speaker 3: he trusted everybody around him to do their part, even
Speaker 3: without Darius.
Speaker 1: Being in the lineup.
Speaker 3: You know, the the secondary playmaking that we've talked about
Speaker 3: all year and in the past when when the cast
Speaker 3: would have playoff failings, we'd say, man, there really isn't
Speaker 3: There's not that secondary playmaking here, like Darius and Donovan
Speaker 3: are facing a ton of pressure up front, and Mobile
Speaker 3: doesn't seem ready to break it. Well, now you got
Speaker 3: Max Strus who's able to run, you know, beautiful pick
Speaker 3: and roll games. That two man game with Jared Allen
Speaker 3: felt almost disrespectful where they were passing cl tropics type
Speaker 3: of stuff that was truly something and and Max had
Speaker 3: some disrespectful moments in that game. But Ty Jerome is
Speaker 3: able to run that stuff. I think, you know, Merrill
Speaker 3: keeps the ball moving. Everybody from up and down the
Speaker 3: roster knows what they are supposed to be doing offensively,
Speaker 3: and they really do have four or five guys that
Speaker 3: can initiate at any time. And I just think it
Speaker 3: is such a healthy offense that really, you know, as
Speaker 3: good as Miami is defensively, and not only were they
Speaker 3: a top ten defense in the regular season, they were
Speaker 3: very good defense in the half court. That hasn't bothered
Speaker 3: the Calves. The game has slown down in the playoffs.
Speaker 3: We're not getting those easy transition buckets, but we are
Speaker 3: able to generate quality looks throughout it.
Speaker 1: And even when the.
Speaker 3: Calves have gone down early in these last two games,
Speaker 3: I feel like the shot quality has been very good,
Speaker 3: and that's probably why those games have normalized very quickly
Speaker 3: within the first quarter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they're better and they're showing it, and
Speaker 2: like Miami can put up the facade of competition in
Speaker 2: these games, but they have not been able to make
Speaker 2: any sustained efforts towards being in the Calves Ballpark. In
Speaker 2: our discord, someone did like an analysis of like the
Speaker 2: the biggest sweeps of all time, like in terms of
Speaker 2: point differential, and if the Calves held this pace, they'd
Speaker 2: have the fifth most dominant sweep by point differential in
Speaker 2: the history of the sport.
Speaker 1: And it just does feel that way.
Speaker 2: You know, they have a plus twenty more than a
Speaker 2: plus twenty net rating through these three games, and you know,
Speaker 2: the offense is really I think the story here, and
Speaker 2: like I understand why the national media isn't paying a
Speaker 2: lot of attention to the series. Frankly, it's almost a
Speaker 2: compliment to the Calves that everyone is just like, yeah,
Speaker 2: they're killing them. It's fine, you know, and moving on
Speaker 2: to other series that have more like wider implications than this.
Speaker 2: But like, I do think it's important to note the
Speaker 2: Calves had the best offense in the NBA with a
Speaker 2: one and twenty one offensive rating in the regular season.
Speaker 2: Game one, they put up a one thirty seven point five.
Speaker 2: Game two they put up a one to twenty eight
Speaker 2: point seven. Game three a one thirty six point three.
Speaker 2: And to your point, what's so cool about that is
Speaker 2: they did it three different ways. You know, this wasn't
Speaker 2: they have a thing that they just spam that Miami
Speaker 2: is uniquely unsuited to deal with. You know, It's not
Speaker 2: like a yokicch against the Lakers thing where it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: they're gonna run two man with Murray and get a
Speaker 2: good look. Every time the Cavs won Game one, they
Speaker 2: mustered that offensive rating. Game one through elite guard play,
Speaker 2: pull up shooting and finishing, Game two the barrage of
Speaker 2: three point shot making, you know again eleven and a
Speaker 2: quarter a playoff record. And then Game three it was
Speaker 2: through uh, through pick and roll play, through through really
Speaker 2: really smart semi transition attacks, it was through post ups.
Speaker 2: It was through you know, and super democratized. I mean,
Speaker 2: they put up one hundred and twenty four points. Jared
Speaker 2: Allen led them in scoring with twenty two. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: I just think not only has the offense held up.
Speaker 2: All I really wanted was to see a good offensive
Speaker 2: rating at the end of the series, and I feel
Speaker 2: like they've exceeded even what I asked for here, which
Speaker 2: is I was hoping that it would drop a couple
Speaker 2: points but still be really, really good while everyone else
Speaker 2: has dropped a commensurate amount of points. I was expecting
Speaker 2: a lot better in five different ways over the course
Speaker 2: of three games. I mean, how could you not feel encouraged,
Speaker 2: right and you know they're shooting forty three percent from
Speaker 2: three so far in the playoffs. That's going to come down. Like,
Speaker 2: I still think that there's some room for regression here,
Speaker 2: but when you have an offensive rating of over one thirty,
Speaker 2: a lot of room for regression while still being elite,
Speaker 2: right like that, that's not something I'm too concerned about
Speaker 2: and talked about on the last podcast how I felt
Speaker 2: our offense was due for regression and their offense was
Speaker 2: due for regression. I felt like the defense has been terrific.
Speaker 2: Honestly through three games. The only time that there was
Speaker 2: really that lapse was the Game two fourth quarter where
Speaker 2: the Cavs kind of felt like they had put the
Speaker 2: game away. But if you look through the first two games,
Speaker 2: Mimy was actually shooting sixty percent on tightly contested two
Speaker 2: point field goals, like that was a number that was
Speaker 2: going to come down. And you look at this game overall,
Speaker 2: they shot thirty eight percent on twos period. Forget just
Speaker 2: the tightly contested ones, like there was that regression that
Speaker 2: was due to happen at some point to them. Offensively,
Speaker 2: I felt like Tyler Herro was hitting a lot of
Speaker 2: tough shots. They were circulating, you know, the matchup data
Speaker 2: in terms of who's kind of had their way with
Speaker 2: who throughout the series, and Max Struce defending Tyler Hero
Speaker 2: was one of those kind of aberrations that was out
Speaker 2: there that I think he was shooting about sixty percent
Speaker 2: on strus. Strews did a terrific job on him defensively.
Speaker 2: I thought, you know, every time Tyler was coming off
Speaker 2: the pick and roll, Struce was either fighting through it
Speaker 2: and showing body. I thought that the help was there
Speaker 2: in a timely manner really disrupted his rhythm and if
Speaker 2: those first couple contested shots don't go down, the confidence
Speaker 2: is going to start to shift a little bit.
Speaker 3: And I thought Max did a really really good job
Speaker 3: on him defensively. It really held his own and then
Speaker 3: obviously had you know, a pretty dominant game by role
Speaker 3: player standards.
Speaker 2: The other way, Yeah, Max has been phenomenal in this series.
Speaker 2: He played thirty one minutes tonight, by far the most
Speaker 2: he's played, and he's kind of ramped up. Game one,
Speaker 2: I think Tye stole a bunch of his minutes and
Speaker 2: he lands at twenty one. Game two he gets up
Speaker 2: to twenty six, and the game three, obvious gets up
Speaker 2: to thirty one. And man, I mean the shooting has
Speaker 2: just been phenomenal. He's eleven of twenty two from three
Speaker 2: so far. Like that's exactly the kind of volume you
Speaker 2: want to see in his minutes. And obviously the accuracy
Speaker 2: doesn't hurt either. The defense has been great. He's averaging
Speaker 2: four assists and four rebounds, so he's giving a lot
Speaker 2: of toughness, a lot of smarts, a lot of supplementary playmaking.
Speaker 2: When Miami does over index, he's hitting the tough threes.
Speaker 2: You know, he had a couple when things were still
Speaker 2: a little choppy early in that game where he just
Speaker 2: was like perfectly guarded and hit it anyway, and like
Speaker 2: that is exactly what you wanted out of the box
Speaker 2: with the Max Streets experience. I thought he was perfectly
Speaker 2: fine in the playoffs last year, even though his numbers
Speaker 2: weren't great. You know, I thought it was one of
Speaker 2: those things where his impact to the game against Orlando
Speaker 2: and Boston exceeded his you know, his point production. But
Speaker 2: boys at nice to have both, like where he is
Speaker 2: like just giving you everything, you know, I mean, what
Speaker 2: a sequence for him where Wiggins blows by, Jerome is
Speaker 2: getting ready to yam at and Struce gets there, goes
Speaker 2: straight up completely stemies him at the rim. And poor
Speaker 2: Wiggins has had a few of those this series where
Speaker 2: he thought he had a runway and did not, but
Speaker 2: you know, completely stemies him at the rim, comes down,
Speaker 2: just fills the exact perfect gap, gets a wide open
Speaker 2: three and hits it, and basically, I mean the game
Speaker 2: was over. It was real over after that one. And like,
Speaker 2: as two card carrying Max Struce fans, I feel like
Speaker 2: it's been a very satisfying series against Miami, especially with
Speaker 2: how many people in Miami we're in our year saying
Speaker 2: now he's not a playoff riser, Be careful, be careful, right,
Speaker 2: not a playoff player. It's like, well, sure, it looks
Speaker 2: like this time, huh, guys.
Speaker 3: And not only that, you know, the playoff trash talk
Speaker 3: started before game one where Bam was basically saying, we
Speaker 3: don't give an f about Max Struce right, like there
Speaker 3: was disrespect me and thrown that way. And you know,
Speaker 3: I agree with you. I think Max played better than
Speaker 3: he shot in last year's playoffs. But it's nice to see,
Speaker 3: you know that overall game be there. And not only
Speaker 3: was he great, the UVA Cavaliers were terrific coming in
Speaker 3: off the bench, but the Cavs to go on in
Speaker 3: eighteen oh run you know in the first quarter where
Speaker 3: where Donovan doesn't even score a point within it, that's
Speaker 3: that's special stuff. Like they really really played terrific tonight.
Speaker 3: And I thought it was interesting too, because with no
Speaker 3: Darius Garland in the lineup, Kenny had a few options
Speaker 3: right that he could go to. I was interested to
Speaker 3: see where he'd go. Is he going to go defense first?
Speaker 3: Is he going to play size opted for shooting and spacing,
Speaker 3: We're putting Sam Maryly in there that lineup.
Speaker 1: And then quickly decided not to opt for that. The
Speaker 1: rest of the game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, the starting lineup was outscore thirteen to nineteen.
Speaker 3: In the game, they had a fifty nine offensive rating,
Speaker 3: which you know, the shooting didn't really work out, was missed. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I agree with that. It's but you know, I found
Speaker 3: it interesting that after starting with Sam, Kenny did go
Speaker 3: larger kind of throughout the afternoon. He opted to kind
Speaker 3: of move Dean Wade up above Isaco Korro in the
Speaker 3: rotation of this one, and we really saw quite a
Speaker 3: few large lineups. The best lineup that we had in
Speaker 3: terms of production only played two minutes and thirty seconds,
Speaker 3: but it was that ty Max, Hunter, Wade and Allen
Speaker 3: lineup that outscored Miami ten nothing in those two and
Speaker 3: a half minutes. So the Cavs had a lot of
Speaker 3: size out there, and I think that's what made it
Speaker 3: easier for them to exploit some of those individual matchups
Speaker 3: one on one defensively without you know, really doing some
Speaker 3: of the probing and as much work as they had
Speaker 3: in the past to hunt out guys like Tyler hero
Speaker 3: Duncan Robinson and some of the other guys that have
Speaker 3: struggled really to keep up defensively when they are trying
Speaker 3: on the defensive end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it is hard I will say this,
Speaker 2: Miami played an awful game. They were not sharp, They
Speaker 2: played relatively listless. You know, I'm not sure I've seen
Speaker 2: a team throw away so many passes as I did
Speaker 2: in that first quarter for Miami as the game was
Speaker 2: getting away from them. You know, Bam out of Bio
Speaker 2: had six turnovers. It's very rare a guy a sinner
Speaker 2: even gets the ball enough to have six turnovers.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: A lot of weird miscommunication ones too, where he was
Speaker 3: throwing to where he thought a guy was going to
Speaker 3: be and they just weren't there anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, like I'm trying to like figure out exactly how
Speaker 2: much to like weigh some of the rotation stuff. I
Speaker 2: guess is why I'm saying that, Because like, they did
Speaker 2: play so bad, and in the first quarter, the Cavs
Speaker 2: started out getting great wide open looks at Donnie and Sam.
Speaker 2: I think got three wide open like no one within
Speaker 2: ten feet of them threes and clanked all three of them,
Speaker 2: you know. So, but I do think it's interesting that
Speaker 2: in and it goes to show for anyone who's worried
Speaker 2: about Kenny being overly orthodox or like overly locked in
Speaker 2: on any individual player that the game where Kenny rewards
Speaker 2: Sam for playing really well in games one and two
Speaker 2: with a starting spot, is the ends up being the
Speaker 2: game he plays the least minutes in of the series.
Speaker 2: He played twenty one to twenty and then in this
Speaker 2: game nineteen, so like, it just goes to show like,
Speaker 2: and of course with one less you know, healthy player
Speaker 2: in the rotation, but Terry's missing, So even you know
Speaker 2: you're going to apply a modifier on that nineteen, it
Speaker 2: just goes to show like he's just going to play
Speaker 2: the guys who make the most sense for what's working
Speaker 2: against them. And I do think that size was really valuable.
Speaker 2: I think the biggest rotational change was Dean Wade got
Speaker 2: a lot of run in this game. Yeah he didn't
Speaker 2: score at all, but boy was he locking up. Yeah,
Speaker 2: absolutely shut off heroes water a couple of times, moved
Speaker 2: the ball pretty well, rebounded pretty well.
Speaker 1: What do you think of his minutes? I agree with you.
Speaker 3: I thought he played really well defensively, and it's a
Speaker 3: little bit it reminded me of Game one with Sam Merrill,
Speaker 3: where Miami just like looks at him and goes, well,
Speaker 3: we can attack him. Felt like they were trying to
Speaker 3: attack Dean, you know, we don't do that. I would
Speaker 3: definitely not recommend doing so. You know, he is a
Speaker 3: really really solid defensive player and I like going bigger,
Speaker 3: right like that.
Speaker 1: That's kind of been one.
Speaker 3: Of the things that we've discussed since the DeAndre Hunter
Speaker 3: trade of Hey, we actually had this option to play
Speaker 3: a little bit bigger, and it just always feels better
Speaker 3: when you're the team that's kind of bullying.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: The Cavs once again, you know, won the hustle battle,
Speaker 3: they won the offensive rebound battle. It really felt like
Speaker 3: they were taking it to Miami. I love how they
Speaker 3: attacked the rim mobile, you know, hanging on the rim
Speaker 3: over top of bam at a bio like all of
Speaker 3: that felt so good. But you know, I think what
Speaker 3: Kenny's done has been merit based to your point, right,
Speaker 3: like what lineups are working, which guys have it going,
Speaker 3: Which combinations on any given night are giving me my
Speaker 3: best look? Right, Like, he's really letting guys go out
Speaker 3: there play with comfort, and if they perform, he's going
Speaker 3: to give them the space to work. He's going to
Speaker 3: give them that ability to do their best work, just
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Speaker 3: I thought Wade was very good.
Speaker 2: I will say the only I haven't had a lot
Speaker 2: of rotational quibbles with Kenny. Only Tom I was like,
Speaker 2: I don't love this is when he and Ocoro were
Speaker 2: sharing the floor. I just think in a playoff setting,
Speaker 2: there's just not enough like quick trigger on the floor
Speaker 2: if you do that, especially because you're going to be
Speaker 2: playing him next to you know. I want to say
Speaker 2: it was Jarrett at the five, so not a guy
Speaker 2: who's gonna do a lot of self creation himself or
Speaker 2: frankly shoot for more than four or five feet away
Speaker 2: from the hoop. Like I thought that was the only time.
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, they need just a little more juice.
Speaker 2: And I think Donovan in those minutes actually kind of
Speaker 2: bailed them out with a couple of tough buckets, kind
Speaker 2: of kept them at bay. Plus, I mean they were
Speaker 2: just guarding so well. I mean the data is not
Speaker 2: available yet, but the number I'm actually the stat I'm
Speaker 2: most interested to check was how many attempts Miami got
Speaker 2: off with zero.
Speaker 1: To four seconds left on the shot clock.
Speaker 2: Because it felt like two out of every three possessions,
Speaker 2: like they were just trying to kick the bam in
Speaker 2: the corner for a contested three with like three seconds left.
Speaker 3: It was nuts, really really impressive performance. And you know,
Speaker 3: you talk about the rotations, little things that Kenny Atkinson
Speaker 3: has done throughout the series. It's such an odd series
Speaker 3: to evaluate because I don't feel like, you know, Eric
Speaker 3: Spolstve is having a bad coaching series, Like I think
Speaker 3: he's made adjustments that make sense. I think the guys
Speaker 3: that have been, you know, out there makes sense. Duncan
Speaker 3: Robinson was really good in Game one, Games two and three.
Speaker 3: He can't really get on the court, but the Calves
Speaker 3: have attacked him far too my he doesn't do enough
Speaker 3: to justify being out there.
Speaker 1: He's pulled Alex Berks from the rotation.
Speaker 2: Like Jared Weiss by the Way of the Athletic brought
Speaker 2: up a really good point that one of the things
Speaker 2: Mobley has done so well. You know, he's talking about
Speaker 2: how you know, Mobley really has been cementing his defensive
Speaker 2: Player of the Year in these last couple of games,
Speaker 2: and he mentioned that so much of what Mobley does
Speaker 2: is prevent the shot from happening, so he doesn't even
Speaker 2: need to contest them. And like the Duncan Robinson dribble
Speaker 2: handoff game, he is just all over that, you know,
Speaker 2: he without giving up too much ground. And I know
Speaker 2: it sounds a little silly to be like, oh, look
Speaker 2: at how well the Calves are doing holding off a
Speaker 2: bench player on the Heat, but like Robinson's whole job
Speaker 2: is to turn games, yep, by hitting three threes in
Speaker 2: you know, two minutes, and the fact he just isn't
Speaker 2: even getting the show. He got one attempt up in
Speaker 2: eighteen minutes. Like you want to talk about a thing
Speaker 2: that's like very damning for their offensive health. One attempt
Speaker 2: for the guy who like on this heat team, where
Speaker 2: like with this kind of offensive output just shows you
Speaker 2: he can't get free, he can't get the kind of
Speaker 2: looks that he you know, it's not like he's a
Speaker 2: shy shooter.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's he's a fire drill player, right like when
Speaker 3: he's coming off screens, bam, Anebio sets terrific screens. He's
Speaker 3: one of the best dribble handoff guys in the league.
Speaker 3: Usually you get a scramble. In Game one, there was
Speaker 3: actually a scramble every time Duncan was getting the ball.
Speaker 3: He wasn't always able to get a shot off, but
Speaker 3: he was at least able to generate an advantage, get
Speaker 3: the Cavs defense into rotation, and create opportunities for other guys.
Speaker 3: That wasn't happening in games two and three. And you know,
Speaker 3: I I don't think we're going to see a better
Speaker 3: movement shooter in the playoffs. Like no disrespect to Sam
Speaker 3: Hauser and some of the guys that Austin runs similar
Speaker 3: actions too, but they don't run those actions as quickly
Speaker 3: as Duncan Robinson does. They don't get the shots off
Speaker 3: as quickly as Duncan Robinson does. I think that it
Speaker 3: is important data to have of how the Calves are
Speaker 3: defending those types of actions. I think Boston is going
Speaker 3: to be a very different type of test, right, Like
Speaker 3: we see what they do. They try to generate screens,
Speaker 3: then they attack the Calves in isolation. They're going to
Speaker 3: try to attack Darius. They're going to try to attack Donovan, right,
Speaker 3: not because they're poor shooters, but because they're shorter, Like
Speaker 3: that's what it is. But you know with Miami, when
Speaker 3: the Calves attack, it's not, Hey, we're getting a shorter
Speaker 3: Tyler Hero here and we're shooting over them. They're getting
Speaker 3: by Hero, they're getting by Robinson. Those guys look confused
Speaker 3: out there, they are out of position. They're able to
Speaker 3: generate these quality looks at the rim. And you know,
Speaker 3: I was beginning to say before, I don't feel like
Speaker 3: supposed being out coached, and I don't feel like Kenny
Speaker 3: is doing anything revolutionary from an adjustment and standpoint. The
Speaker 3: initial game plan is just so good for the Calves.
Speaker 3: They've cleaned up little things, right, Like, I think the
Speaker 3: defensive communications got better. I think the way that they're
Speaker 3: attacking the rim, they're finding some of that low hanging
Speaker 3: fruit and working to improve on what they're already doing.
Speaker 3: But there just hasn't been that need to really adjust
Speaker 3: because what they are doing is so damn good. We
Speaker 3: have a team here that even without Darius in the lineup,
Speaker 3: probably six guys that were playing today would start on Miami.
Speaker 3: That that disadvantage really ends up showing up here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that number might be low. I think
Speaker 2: there might be more guys. I mean this this Miami.
Speaker 1: Let's run through it.
Speaker 3: Let's let's run through it here mobile us, I said
Speaker 3: without Darius, I.
Speaker 1: Said without Darius.
Speaker 2: So certainly four of the five starters tonight would start
Speaker 2: for them. I think it is very very possible Ty
Speaker 2: Jerome would start for them. I mean they're starting Davion
Speaker 2: Mitchell right now. I think it is certain that DeAndre
Speaker 2: Hunter would start for them. Yes, and uh, that's six. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there you go, that's six. I was I was, well,
Speaker 2: I didn't realize you weren't counting. There is so but
Speaker 2: but even yeah, even a guy like Dean Wade could
Speaker 2: be getting minutes if they wanted to like bench their
Speaker 2: rookie center, who is having a really hard time in
Speaker 2: this series. Like, I don't know if there's a I'm
Speaker 2: sure I wonder at if at the end of the series,
Speaker 2: Evan is going to turn to kalel where and be like,
Speaker 2: been there, bro, I remember what it's like to be
Speaker 2: a kid in a in a playoff series. It's hard
Speaker 2: because he's just he can't you know. They just tortured
Speaker 2: that poor kid. With empty side pick and rolls over
Speaker 2: and over and over again, and Jarrett's spacing on the
Speaker 2: role was just always perfect in a way that allowed,
Speaker 2: you know, allowed a clean pocket pass and too much
Speaker 2: ground for where to have to cover. It felt mean
Speaker 2: spirited often over the course of this one.
Speaker 3: I like it, man, That's that's what I want, right
Speaker 3: like it. I want to be relentless with how we
Speaker 3: attack teams. I want this team to continue to show
Speaker 3: how great they were in the regular season. This is
Speaker 3: exactly what I wanted to see in the series. This
Speaker 3: is exactly what I was hoping when we were doing
Speaker 3: the series preview. I wanted Miami because I thought it
Speaker 3: was the toughest test outside of Orlando. But you know,
Speaker 3: the Orlando test doesn't have to do with basketball, it's
Speaker 3: can you survive without you know, losing limbs. I thought
Speaker 3: Miami schematically was going to test them the most. I
Speaker 3: thought that was the best defense available, you know, out
Speaker 3: of the three teams. Once Orlando was out of the mix,
Speaker 3: I thought it was the best coach. I thought that
Speaker 3: was the best defensive player. Like Bamane Bios, You're the
Speaker 3: best defensive.
Speaker 1: Player you will see in the playoff. At least in.
Speaker 3: Terms of big men. I think BAM's the best big
Speaker 3: men there. I wanted to see the Calves come out,
Speaker 3: want to make a statement in the series and make one.
Speaker 3: That's when I picked the sweep at the start. I
Speaker 3: felt like this team was capable of doing it and
Speaker 3: that they were going to go out and try to
Speaker 3: make that statement, and for them to do it in
Speaker 3: the way that they have. For them to do it
Speaker 3: tonight without Darius, I think we are seeing more data
Speaker 3: that is going to filter through my confirmation bias and
Speaker 3: tell me that this team is ready to contend for
Speaker 3: a championship.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think the only thing that you know, leaving this
Speaker 2: game that you go the only thing you can really
Speaker 2: not feel good about is that Darius didn't play right.
Speaker 2: The rosy glasses kind of mentality is they felt like
Speaker 2: they had the series in control, and you know, I
Speaker 2: didn't think it was worth you know, being a little
Speaker 2: rich ski with a with only one day off, you know,
Speaker 2: on Monday game coming up. But I think he would
Speaker 2: have played if he felt good enough to play, and
Speaker 2: especially after some extracurriculars in the press room heading into
Speaker 2: this one.
Speaker 1: So I just let's.
Speaker 3: Actually, let's let's go there, angsty boy, what were your
Speaker 3: thoughts on on Darius, you know, kind of pointing out
Speaker 3: the obvious in terms of how the Cabs had been
Speaker 3: attacking Miami.
Speaker 2: I thought it was like a little out of pocket. Okay,
Speaker 2: it's not done. You don't normally hear that, Like, you
Speaker 2: don't normally hear it, So like it's at least it's
Speaker 2: a it's a story for our reason, right, I mean,
Speaker 2: people are normally you don't put a player's name, you know,
Speaker 2: in that conversation. You know, However, practice the day before
Speaker 2: had basically been like you know, obviously there's certain players
Speaker 2: were targeting, like certain certain guys we want to go,
Speaker 2: like he was cracking a smile, But you're right, you
Speaker 2: normally don't put a player's name on it there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So like, but like I don't know, this is where
Speaker 2: I'm not going to adjudicate it because I don't know
Speaker 2: what these guys are saying to each other out there.
Speaker 2: Like maybe Hero told Darius he was trash at the
Speaker 2: end of the game too, And you know, Hero said.
Speaker 1: They did have some words at the end of game two.
Speaker 1: Then they were annoyed with each other. And do I
Speaker 1: like it? Yes. Do I think it's fun? Yes? Do?
Speaker 1: I like the hero shot back at Darius.
Speaker 2: And was like, you know, he doesn't play any defense either,
Speaker 2: which you know not true, But you know, do I
Speaker 2: like that?
Speaker 1: Yes? Do?
Speaker 2: I like that the Cavs are talking with their chest
Speaker 2: out a little bit and not just the nice young
Speaker 2: men we know them to be.
Speaker 1: I think it's all good.
Speaker 2: I think it's all fine, And like, if this game
Speaker 2: showed us anything, it's that like the Miami Heat are
Speaker 2: not motivation away from competing in this series, Like they're
Speaker 2: not bulletin board material away from competing in the series.
Speaker 2: They're not on the re the same level. So that's why,
Speaker 2: Like I didn't leave it worried.
Speaker 1: I didn't feel like.
Speaker 2: Well, why would you try to make them mad? Just
Speaker 2: win quietly like whatever. You know, I'm not on the court.
Speaker 2: I don't know what these dudes are saying to each other.
Speaker 2: I do know that Darius I've never heard him do
Speaker 2: that before. Yeah, so I'm going to assume it was earned,
Speaker 2: because Darius doesn't have a track record of talking like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's you know, my initial response had some angst
Speaker 3: to it. I was like, oh no, Like I like,
Speaker 3: let's not poke the bear I've send there. I'm like,
Speaker 3: you know, if Miami wins Game three, you're going to
Speaker 3: have that back and forth.
Speaker 1: But you know, I.
Speaker 3: Don't mind it, man Like. Here's the thing, whether you're
Speaker 3: talking about being a contender, whether you're talking about, you know,
Speaker 3: putting a spotlight on yourself, you're going to get proportional
Speaker 3: praise and you're going to get proportional criticism. Right Like
Speaker 3: you're you are welcoming that all. And I don't want
Speaker 3: this team to fly under the damn radar, man Like,
Speaker 3: I want this team to be a contender. I want
Speaker 3: this team to be a contender with their chest. That
Speaker 3: means that when you have a poor game, you're going
Speaker 3: If you have a poor game and you lose, you're
Speaker 3: going to face criticism. Donovan, you know he didn't shoot
Speaker 3: well in this game, He'll that'll go under the radar
Speaker 3: because the Caves had a great game and they got
Speaker 3: the win. I am okay with Darius putting a spotlight
Speaker 3: on himself. Obviously, you know he wasn't able to play
Speaker 3: in this game. That's going to lead to jokes. People
Speaker 3: are going to get their comments off.
Speaker 1: It's all part of it.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: If you feel like you want to put some extra
Speaker 3: expectations on yourself, go ahead, because you know what, Like
Speaker 3: I feel like this is a year that this the
Speaker 3: Caves can go out and win a championship. I don't
Speaker 3: want to fly under the radar and do that. I
Speaker 3: want the smoke. I wanted the you know, the toughest
Speaker 3: matchup in the first round. I want Boston to be
Speaker 3: fully healthy in the conference finals. I want the toughest
Speaker 3: matchup in the second round. I want this team to
Speaker 3: be tested. If this team goes out and they pass
Speaker 3: all of those tests and they win a championship, guess
Speaker 3: what I want. I want another championship. I want to
Speaker 3: keep contending. I want this window to stay open. I
Speaker 3: want the pressure. I want the highs and the lows.
Speaker 3: So if they want to do that, go right ahead.
Speaker 3: It's just part of the game. Like people are going
Speaker 3: to get their jokes off, you know. With Darius not
Speaker 3: playing today, that's I don't I think the joke stopped
Speaker 3: at thirty seven points.
Speaker 1: I think they did too.
Speaker 2: I guess to take it to put a button on
Speaker 2: the Darius stuff, you know, I guess my question is
Speaker 2: like if if he's still a little sore. Do you
Speaker 2: play him game four or do you in and try
Speaker 2: to just close out the series knowing that, knowing for
Speaker 2: a fact that Indiana Milwaukee is at least going five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd be tempted to just thinking to the end
Speaker 3: of the regular season. When he first had this toe
Speaker 3: issue pop up, he missed one game with it, came
Speaker 3: back after and I believe that's when he went nuts
Speaker 3: against either Chicago or New York when one of those
Speaker 3: two games, it was the New York one that he
Speaker 3: went nuts after missing a game with the toe. So
Speaker 3: I'm sure if he's healthy enough to play, he'll want
Speaker 3: to play. Who knows, maybe he even wanted to play tonight.
Speaker 3: I would err on the side of caution, just because
Speaker 3: toes are something that can linger for so long and
Speaker 3: you want to get that right. And one of the
Speaker 3: benefits of winning a series in four US you get
Speaker 3: some time off. So if you're able to give him
Speaker 3: that extended time off, maybe you do it. But if
Speaker 3: the medical staff feels like, hey, like this isn't in
Speaker 3: a point where we're concerned, we feel like it's good
Speaker 3: to go go.
Speaker 1: Right on ahead.
Speaker 3: If I had to guess his reaction after game two
Speaker 3: probably had something to do with what was said on
Speaker 3: the court, and it probably had to do with frustration that,
Speaker 3: you know, he reinjured the toe and was limping so
Speaker 3: hard to end the game, right, Like, that's that's a
Speaker 3: frustrating thing. This is the first time he's missed a
Speaker 3: playoff game with with the Cavs, so I'd err on
Speaker 3: the side of caution. It's the one of the benefits
Speaker 3: of being up three to zero. But I'm perfectly comfortable
Speaker 3: with trusting the medical staff because they've been very trustworthy
Speaker 3: all season long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you what we are many things. We
Speaker 2: are not doctors. But with that said, like I am
Speaker 2: if they if there is a preference to letting him
Speaker 2: just sit and trying to close out this series with
Speaker 2: everyone else, Like if you don't, if you didn't think
Speaker 2: they could do it without Darius going into today, you
Speaker 2: should definitely change your mind, because they absolutely can beat
Speaker 2: this Heat team down a key player or even two.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think.
Speaker 2: This team has been so consistent in what they're prioritizing
Speaker 2: through this run, you know, through this season, and uh,
Speaker 2: I gotta say I'll be surprised to see him to
Speaker 2: go in Game four but I'll be very pleasantly surprised
Speaker 2: because that means because to me, if we see him play,
Speaker 2: then he feels pretty darn good.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, hopefully if he does play, he
Speaker 3: looks very good, right, Like he's been terrific so far
Speaker 3: in the series. So I guess we'll see there. I
Speaker 3: just want to put them away in four, no matter
Speaker 3: who's out there.
Speaker 1: A sleep would be satisfying.
Speaker 2: But I think I'm at the point now where I'm
Speaker 2: not going to get worked up if they lose Game
Speaker 2: four because they've they've you know, because I my definition
Speaker 2: of the gentleman's sweep is when the first three lose
Speaker 2: the fourth and then win the fifth.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 3: I was going to mention that we we talked about
Speaker 3: that a little bit in Cleveland. It's you go go ahead,
Speaker 3: go with you Ranta about Boston being called that last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just anyone, any series winning in five is not
Speaker 2: an automatic gentleman's sweep. A gentleman's sweep is you've swept
Speaker 2: them a cave one three in a row, and then
Speaker 2: you allow them to have one for posterity because you
Speaker 2: are a gentleman. And then you then you take care
Speaker 2: of business in game five at home, you know, get
Speaker 2: get yourself one more game of home revenue at the gate,
Speaker 2: you know, but that is a gentleman's sweep, is not
Speaker 2: just any series in five. But I guess my point is,
Speaker 2: as long I don't actually care, what happens in Game
Speaker 2: four will not affect the way I feel about the
Speaker 2: team heading into round two, round three, round four, whatever
Speaker 2: it is, unless someone gets hurt or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I want to see a wrap up. You know,
Speaker 3: anytime you're out there on the court, something can happen.
Speaker 3: So let's take care of business. I expect Donovan to
Speaker 3: bounce back from what happened in Game three. The Cavs,
Speaker 3: you know, they slayed a lot of demons here. We
Speaker 3: saw them not play well in Game three against Orlando
Speaker 3: after having a lead. They haven't played well in afternoon
Speaker 3: games all season. They've struggled in Miami historically over the years.
Speaker 3: All of those things were checked off and they found
Speaker 3: a way to win in dominant fashion here. So that
Speaker 3: was an incredibly encouraging game. You know that Miami's going
Speaker 3: to play with a lot of pride and they're going
Speaker 3: to try to prevent a sweep in game four. But
Speaker 3: I feel pretty good about the cast chances of going
Speaker 3: out there and taking care of business, ending their season
Speaker 3: and giving themselves some time off. And as you mentioned,
Speaker 3: we know that Milwaukee, Indiana's already going five. Boston lost
Speaker 3: to Orlando. You look around the NBA, okay, see very well.
Speaker 3: Could have lost the last two games. You know, they
Speaker 3: were down twenty nine before Dork took out Jaw. They
Speaker 3: almost lost even without Jaw tonight. It's you can't take
Speaker 3: any of these matchups for granted. You know, any team
Speaker 3: can beat anyone in any given game, and playoff tensity
Speaker 3: is a different animal. So with the Cavs to be
Speaker 3: so dominant through three games, I think is a really
Speaker 3: really great sign. But big thanks to everyone tuning in
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