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Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by Fandel here at the volume. Happy Sunday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you had a great weekend after
Speaker 1: going six days in a row. We had a couple
Speaker 1: of days off, but my wife, who had been out
Speaker 1: of town during the whole time, was in Vegas for
Speaker 1: a work trip, and all she wanted to do is relax.
Speaker 1: So guess what I did on my two days off.
Speaker 1: I watched basketball. I told myself I was gonna unplug
Speaker 1: for a little bit and disconnected. Instead I watched all
Speaker 1: the games. So that's how it goes sometimes. But on
Speaker 1: the bright side. I'm kind of in the loop, which
Speaker 1: is a good feeling coming off of a weekend. But
Speaker 1: we have a lot of basketball to talk about tonight.
Speaker 1: We're gonna start by talking some Sons Pelicans. Obviously that
Speaker 1: series looks like it's gonna be a lot more of
Speaker 1: a war than we expected, obviously fueled by injuries. We'll
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the Warriors Nuggets game today
Speaker 1: and what we might or may not have earned there,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna talk a little bit about the
Speaker 1: Celtics Nets game yesterday, which I think was the top
Speaker 1: story of the weekend in a lot of different ways,
Speaker 1: and easily the most interesting series because of the greatness
Speaker 1: we're seeing on one end and the combustion we're seeing
Speaker 1: on the other end. So we'll get into that a
Speaker 1: little bit, and then at the end, we're gonna go
Speaker 1: rapid fire through all of the series. No Carson tonight,
Speaker 1: you guys are stuck with me, but he will be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow. Let's start with the Suns and the Pelicans.
Speaker 1: So I want to start with Brandon Brandon Ingram here,
Speaker 1: and we're not gonna get too deep into his backstory
Speaker 1: because we did that the last time. He played amazing
Speaker 1: in Game two. But what I did want to touch
Speaker 1: on here is just how comfortable and successful he's been,
Speaker 1: how comfortable he looks, and how dominant he's been as
Speaker 1: a first time playoff player against an unbelievably good defensive team.
Speaker 1: The Phoenix Suns, as I've said, oh year, are a
Speaker 1: team without holes. Now the whole opened up there in
Speaker 1: the form of the Devin Booker injury, but not on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. And the Sons have
Speaker 1: always had a plethora of great wings to throw at you,
Speaker 1: various different types too. You've got your big, bruising wing
Speaker 1: and Jay Crowder, and then you've got your longer, you know,
Speaker 1: more athleticism based wing in Mikhail Bridges, and then they've
Speaker 1: got other guys that can throw at you, like Tory
Speaker 1: Craig and like Cam Johnson and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: But Brandon Ingram looks completely undeterred, and it's really impressive
Speaker 1: when you factor in the fact that he's the primary
Speaker 1: source of all of the Sun's defensive game planning. When
Speaker 1: you factor in that, around the league, we're seeing stars struggle,
Speaker 1: stars that have had a lot of postseason reps. Demarta
Speaker 1: Rosen once again struggled today you're seeing you know or
Speaker 1: you know like Demarta Rosen is a tough shot maker,
Speaker 1: and when they go in like they did in Game two,
Speaker 1: he looks great. But when they're missing, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: their whole offense feels very disjoined. At brandon Ingram has
Speaker 1: a lot of Demarda Rosen in his game, but for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, he is so much more comfortable even though
Speaker 1: he's in a much more difficult environment. And to me,
Speaker 1: it's a great bell weather for the rest of this
Speaker 1: era for the New Orleans Pelicans because if as you
Speaker 1: see around the league, Draymond Green, our colleague here at
Speaker 1: the volume touched tweeted the other day very uh in
Speaker 1: in a very inflammatory manner. He said that I can't
Speaker 1: quote him word for word. He said something along the
Speaker 1: lines of not everybody's meant for the playoffs, and he's right,
Speaker 1: because of the physicality of the way it's officiated, of
Speaker 1: the game planning. There are a lot of guys around
Speaker 1: the league to capitalize on the relatively lack of daisical
Speaker 1: nature of regular season basketball, and then they get into
Speaker 1: a postseason setting and they struggle and brandon Ingram is
Speaker 1: showing us right before our eyes that he has made
Speaker 1: for this environment. And I think there's a couple of
Speaker 1: different reasons why I talk a lot about versatility, especially
Speaker 1: when we talk about James harden Right, and the ability
Speaker 1: to attack a defense in a bunch of different ways
Speaker 1: is the key to not becoming solvable in a postseason series.
Speaker 1: And that's what I love about Brandon Ingram's game. He's
Speaker 1: got an isolation game like a triple threat face up game.
Speaker 1: He can attack you with a live dribble. He's got
Speaker 1: all of the dribble combinations. He can do isolation moves
Speaker 1: from anywhere on the floor. He can attack you out
Speaker 1: of the low post, out of the high post. He
Speaker 1: can pass out of pick and roll. He can score
Speaker 1: out of pick and roll, he can pass out of
Speaker 1: isolation help. He can do just about everything that you
Speaker 1: need from an offensive fulcrum, and as a result, he
Speaker 1: has all these different angles that he can go to.
Speaker 1: This is his third straight efficient thirty point playoff game,
Speaker 1: and I think you're gonna see a lot more of
Speaker 1: that from Brandon Ingram as the years go by, and
Speaker 1: it's a very very exciting aspect for Pelicans fans. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there are a bunch of other things. They've got a
Speaker 1: round out on that front. I don't think the Pelicans
Speaker 1: are good. I still would lean Phoenix to win this
Speaker 1: series in six or seven gay obviously and at least
Speaker 1: six games. But even if they win, they're not a
Speaker 1: team that I have any sort of grand expectations for
Speaker 1: this season. But it's a very bright future. And seeing
Speaker 1: if you're a fan of any young star in the league,
Speaker 1: you're always looking what are they gonna look like in
Speaker 1: a playoff series? And Brandon Ingram looks great. You're looking
Speaker 1: at John Morant, for instance, and he's struggling a little bit,
Speaker 1: particularly on the defensive end of the floor. You're seeing
Speaker 1: John Morand get utterly attacked intentionally almost every time by Minnesota.
Speaker 1: That's a concern. That's something that and we'll talk about
Speaker 1: that at a later point this week. But that's an
Speaker 1: example of of a of a glaring flaw that if
Speaker 1: you're a Memphis fan, you kind of have to bake
Speaker 1: into everything that you plan and as as a fan
Speaker 1: of the Grizzlies, says John Moran looks like he's going
Speaker 1: to be attacked often on the defensive end of the
Speaker 1: floor in the playoffs, same things happening to Trey Young
Speaker 1: right now, Brandon Ingram looks like a bona fide two
Speaker 1: way star that looks comfortable and successful in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Great sign for the Pelicans. I thought an interesting element
Speaker 1: of this particular game was the job that Herb Jones
Speaker 1: did on CP three. Obviously you saw them jawing at
Speaker 1: each other a lot. You know CP three, This is
Speaker 1: the theme of this series, now, you know. I talked
Speaker 1: a lot about how Devin Booker and Chris Paul kind
Speaker 1: of together amount to what a superstar brings to the table.
Speaker 1: You have Chris Paul's playmaking, So if you're playing an
Speaker 1: overly aggressive defense, he's kind of the perfect guy to
Speaker 1: put the ball in his hands because he's going to
Speaker 1: be able to consistently make you pay. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about this a lot later tonight with the Celtics. Like
Speaker 1: in the in the Nets, there's only like four guys
Speaker 1: in the entire league that can consistently make guys pay
Speaker 1: out of these overly aggressive defenses, and Chris Paul's one
Speaker 1: of them. So having that guy huge asset. Then we
Speaker 1: look at Devin Booker in gives you that same extreme
Speaker 1: high level three level scoring that you're seeing from like
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram for instance, and the two of those guys together,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul and Devin Booker bring to the table what
Speaker 1: you would expect to get from a bona fide top
Speaker 1: ten player in the NBA. But then one of them
Speaker 1: goes down. Now, with Devin Booker out, that scoring option
Speaker 1: is not there, and you saw the Sons throw an
Speaker 1: excuse me, the Appelicans throw a ton of length at
Speaker 1: Chris Paul at this point. Because of Chris Paul's slowly
Speaker 1: waning speed as he gets older, a guy like GRB.
Speaker 1: Jones can cover enough ground to kind of win some
Speaker 1: of that chess match stuff with Chris PAULI struggled a
Speaker 1: lot tonight as a score after being a dominant score
Speaker 1: in Game three. That's the way that the dynamic of
Speaker 1: a series can change when you pull out an important
Speaker 1: cog like that, And it's an interesting dynamic the rest
Speaker 1: of the series because coming into the series, who is
Speaker 1: the best player in the entire series Devin Booker, and
Speaker 1: this would be one of the few matchups where the
Speaker 1: Sons would have the best player in this series. Moving on,
Speaker 1: let's say they faced Dallas in the next round. Like
Speaker 1: Lucas the best player in that series, right, So like
Speaker 1: there and moving forward, that's gonna be a perpetual case
Speaker 1: for the Suns. This was the one series where they
Speaker 1: had that advantage. Devin Booker is better than brandon Ingram. Well,
Speaker 1: that was already kind of close with how well Brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram is playing, and now with Devin Booker out, the
Speaker 1: Pelicans have the best player in the series. That's a
Speaker 1: huge swing factor here. Still up in the air. This
Speaker 1: series is very close. I would not be surprised if
Speaker 1: the Pelicans won, but this I would be picking the
Speaker 1: Suns at this point. But it's a lot closer than
Speaker 1: it looks. And that's the way things can change based
Speaker 1: on an injury in the postseason. One other quick note,
Speaker 1: um or two other quick notes. Jonas Valancinias have been
Speaker 1: very critical of him in this series. Coming into tonight.
Speaker 1: Through three games, the Pelicans at a one twenty defensive
Speaker 1: rating with him on the floor, and we're being outscored
Speaker 1: by eight points per one Hunter possessions. And then when
Speaker 1: they had Nance on the floor without Jonas, they had
Speaker 1: a one fifteen defensive ratings, so five points better, and
Speaker 1: they were plus three point three net. I've always liked
Speaker 1: the way this team plays better with Larry Nance. You
Speaker 1: guys know how I am with traditional bigs. You guys
Speaker 1: know how I am with five out basketball and really
Speaker 1: spreading the floor, prioritizing foot speed and the ability to
Speaker 1: dribble and shoot the basketball. I'm always driven towards Larry Nance.
Speaker 1: Bill tonight, I gotta hand it to Jonas Valatunas. He
Speaker 1: was a dominant offensive player. It's the one thing you
Speaker 1: have to do to make up for a massive shortcoming
Speaker 1: is to have one elite skill that you bring to
Speaker 1: the table that makes it a net positive trade off.
Speaker 1: And if Jonas is gonna be that good offensively, that's
Speaker 1: a huge asset. I talked a lot after the book
Speaker 1: or injury with our guy Carson about how important it
Speaker 1: was gonna be for guys like Mikhail Bridges and guys
Speaker 1: like DeAndre Aton and guys like Cam Johnson to have
Speaker 1: a ton of points to fulfill some of the missing
Speaker 1: scoring from Devin Booker, because all three of those guys
Speaker 1: have more elements to their offensive scoring game than than
Speaker 1: we've seen in the last couple of years. As a
Speaker 1: result of their roles on this particular team. Well, in
Speaker 1: Game three, when the Sun's got the big win, Bridges
Speaker 1: and Etan went forty five and nineteen. Tonight they went
Speaker 1: for thirty one and fourteen. That's just not enough production.
Speaker 1: So in order for the Suns to come out with
Speaker 1: the way in which I believe they will, they just
Speaker 1: need to be better, uh, in the role players, especially
Speaker 1: scoring the basketball. My guess is that this ends up
Speaker 1: going seven, and the each team wins their home games,
Speaker 1: and then the Sun's end up advancing to the next round.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the Warriors and the Nuggets. This
Speaker 1: was a game that to me, I've seen dozens and
Speaker 1: dozens of times over the course of the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 1: A team, you know, usually when they're down three oh,
Speaker 1: one of two things going to happen. They're either going
Speaker 1: to be thinking about Cancun for lack of a better term,
Speaker 1: and be willing to wave the white flag just because
Speaker 1: it's not worth it. Or team will show fight. And
Speaker 1: usually when they show fight in that down three oh situation,
Speaker 1: they win. And the reason why is because it's in
Speaker 1: terms of human nature, there is no game in a
Speaker 1: playoff series that a favorite is gonna bring less effort
Speaker 1: then in an up three oh game on the road
Speaker 1: with a chance to close out a team that that
Speaker 1: that that is just again, you can't fight that. That's
Speaker 1: just human nature. And I thought the Golden State Guards,
Speaker 1: even though I've been very complimentary of them of their defense,
Speaker 1: Stepping Clay in particular, they're great defensive players over the
Speaker 1: course of their careers because of their commitment, not great.
Speaker 1: Clay has been great, Step has been good. But those
Speaker 1: two guys tonight, in conjunction with Jordan Pool, I thought
Speaker 1: they got bullied a bit by the by the Denver guards.
Speaker 1: I thought they didn't move as their feet as well
Speaker 1: as they needed to, and I thought that was a
Speaker 1: big part in Monte Morris going off and in Bones
Speaker 1: Highland going off, and that kind of changed the dynamic
Speaker 1: of the game. But this is the way I look
Speaker 1: at it. If you're a Golden State fan and you're
Speaker 1: looking for a silver lining Golden State more made more
Speaker 1: field goals, They had more rebounds, then more points in
Speaker 1: the paint. They had fewer turnovers, so they played a
Speaker 1: pretty damn good game. But draym On Green on the floor,
Speaker 1: they were plus eight team and they blew it in
Speaker 1: the handful of minutes that Draymond was off the floor,
Speaker 1: which is kind of the downside of this matchup. We
Speaker 1: talked a lot about Golden State's lack of interior presence,
Speaker 1: and you've seen a little bit of that over the
Speaker 1: course of the last two games, with Draymond starting to
Speaker 1: give a little bit of ground to Yokich. Defended him
Speaker 1: extraordinarily well in the first two games. It defended him
Speaker 1: well and crunch time of Game three, But for the
Speaker 1: rest of Game three and for parts of Game four,
Speaker 1: he's starting to wear down and some of that physicality
Speaker 1: matchup against Yokich, and that's that's the fear if you're
Speaker 1: a Warriors fan, is what happens if you run into
Speaker 1: a player like Eighton has been pretty good in the
Speaker 1: last two games. It's it's interesting to see how deal
Speaker 1: Drayton would hold up in seven games against Draymond. If
Speaker 1: Ambiad and the Sixers come out of the Eastern Conference,
Speaker 1: that could get interesting. But to me, is your plus
Speaker 1: A team with Draymond, You're in great shape. I expect
Speaker 1: the Warriors to win big in Game five. They'll gay
Speaker 1: They'll get another big fat check for having into their
Speaker 1: home game at Chase Center all as well in Warriors Land.
Speaker 1: I'm not particularly concerned. There were two parts of this game, though,
Speaker 1: that I wanted to touch on before we move on.
Speaker 1: One was the way that Steph was attacking attacking Nicola
Speaker 1: Yokich late, And again it's not It's not a criticism
Speaker 1: of Yokis in the sense that I'm calling him a
Speaker 1: bad basketball player. But when people start putting a very
Speaker 1: specific standard on these guys, we have to hold them
Speaker 1: to that standard. There are a lot of guys in
Speaker 1: Denver and in the analytics community that have been pushing
Speaker 1: heavily that Nikola Yokich is the best player in the league.
Speaker 1: I've always thought of him as like either in the
Speaker 1: top tier, as the guy who's clearly at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the top tier, or the top guy of the
Speaker 1: second tier, give or take, depending on which day you
Speaker 1: guys know me. I'm pretty open minded, but I the
Speaker 1: reason why I'm not. My general ideology is not to
Speaker 1: race to put people at the top. But the reason
Speaker 1: why I haven't been so willing to give that kind
Speaker 1: of credit it in respect to Yoki is because of
Speaker 1: his limitations on the defensive end of the floor in
Speaker 1: terms of his foot speed, and I didn't think I
Speaker 1: thought it was really telling tonight that at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, I should say today, at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, when it was time for the Golden
Speaker 1: State to really lock in and try to steal that game,
Speaker 1: they were just running quick ball screens with Draymond to
Speaker 1: try to get yokich Onto to uh. They were just
Speaker 1: trying to get yok Onto to step on the left
Speaker 1: wing by himself. And when I say the only metaphor
Speaker 1: I could possibly use to describe how easily Steph Curry
Speaker 1: was just dribbling right around yokich I would say that
Speaker 1: he was a traffic comp just the first time he
Speaker 1: literally just dribbled right around him, and then the second
Speaker 1: time all he had to do was kind of like
Speaker 1: hesitate and look up at the rim for a second,
Speaker 1: and he went right down the lane and got an one.
Speaker 1: That's a concern because that type of matchup exists all
Speaker 1: around the league. Even if it's not Steph the quick
Speaker 1: guard that's gonna pull Yokis out to the perimeter and
Speaker 1: a five out system that that kind of thing is
Speaker 1: going to continue to happen to Yoki throughout his career
Speaker 1: and all I did so today I tweeted out a
Speaker 1: link and I said, this is why I can't rightfully
Speaker 1: call Yokis the best player in the game when literally
Speaker 1: Golden State is attacking him and getting straight line drives
Speaker 1: to the basket every single possession at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, to the point where Denver literally had to
Speaker 1: remove him from the lineup. Mike Bloan removed him from
Speaker 1: the lineup on the biggest defensive possession of the season,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people were like, well, Steph does
Speaker 1: that to every big. That's the point. That's part of
Speaker 1: why I always say that about bigs. People said, Yokis
Speaker 1: would do that to Steph. On the other end, You're right,
Speaker 1: but Steph is at his position an above average defender,
Speaker 1: and in a five out scheme, what matters more is
Speaker 1: your ability to dribble, contain then or size at the rim.
Speaker 1: It's a far more valuable skill. The size at the
Speaker 1: rim becomes more valuable in a drop coverage. But you
Speaker 1: can't run drop coverage against the team that's gonna spread
Speaker 1: you out like that. That's the conundrum here. And to
Speaker 1: the point everyone was like, oh, well, Steph's not a
Speaker 1: fantastic defensive player too. That was the big reason why.
Speaker 1: Even though I loved Steph and everything that he brought
Speaker 1: to the table, that was one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: I had Lebron ahead of him was his ability to
Speaker 1: ly in physicality on the offensive end, in his ability
Speaker 1: to impact games defensively. Step for all of his effort,
Speaker 1: is an above average defensive player, but he's not a
Speaker 1: great defensive player. That was the difference. But again, I
Speaker 1: just thought it was jarring to watch Yoki at the
Speaker 1: end of the game getting picked on and not just
Speaker 1: picked on like you know, we're this is just the
Speaker 1: best matchup for us to go at, so let's try it. No, no, no.
Speaker 1: When they got him on the wing, it was a
Speaker 1: straight line drive and there was nothing Denver could do
Speaker 1: to recover out of it. It's a major concern. Not
Speaker 1: doesn't mean Yoki sucks, doesn't mean Yoki isn't an All Star,
Speaker 1: doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to win m v P
Speaker 1: or any of those things. All it means is that's
Speaker 1: why he's closer to the six or seventh best player
Speaker 1: in the league than the first best player in the league.
Speaker 1: That's just my opinion. If you guys disagree, that's fine,
Speaker 1: It's just the way I see the game. I don't
Speaker 1: like the idea that your super duperstar can be targeted
Speaker 1: that easily. Now, the last thing I wanted to hit
Speaker 1: on this particular game was the final play. Now, everyone
Speaker 1: loves to bag on their coach, trust me, all of
Speaker 1: you guys who have been fans of a team for
Speaker 1: a long time. I dealt with it with Laker fans
Speaker 1: this year with Frank Vogel, although I thought they were
Speaker 1: had a little bit more of a like to stand
Speaker 1: on because Frank did have a particularly rough season. But
Speaker 1: Steve curse of a very smart coach. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: he doesn't do everything that I agree with. But one
Speaker 1: of the consistent things that Warriors fans dislike about Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr is their willingness. Is his willingness to use Curry
Speaker 1: as a decoy rather than using him as the primary option.
Speaker 1: And on the last play of the game, or the
Speaker 1: pivotal play of the game, when they needed a basket,
Speaker 1: they did you step as a decoy and they tried
Speaker 1: to get a seal under the basket for Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: and Austin Rivers. Blew it up now before we break
Speaker 1: down the play Austin Rivers had a really interesting quote
Speaker 1: after the game. I don't want to play that for
Speaker 1: you guys here it is no but we had an idea.
Speaker 1: When I saw Wiggins said in that screen, I knew
Speaker 1: exactly where he was going. I've seen them run that
Speaker 1: play a couple of times. They've actually gotten us on
Speaker 1: that one time earlier in the season. So um, as
Speaker 1: soon as I saw him do that, I knew they
Speaker 1: were gonna try to throw it to him in there.
Speaker 1: When I turned and faced him and I saw him
Speaker 1: looking that way, UM, I knew I could get that steal. Uh.
Speaker 1: So you know, there's a lot of communication though tonight.
Speaker 1: Guys are telling me, you know what to do. It
Speaker 1: allows me to to to do what I do best
Speaker 1: out there, and that's defend um. So I love when
Speaker 1: we hear that kind of stuff from from players immediately
Speaker 1: after the game. One of my favorite things about having
Speaker 1: Draymond Green at the volume is his reactions within a
Speaker 1: playoff series from a player on the teams in a
Speaker 1: podcast format like this is turning into some of the
Speaker 1: best content that you can find in sports. If you
Speaker 1: guys haven't heard it, you always gotta check out Draymond
Speaker 1: Green after his games. In the volume podcast feeds Now
Speaker 1: with Austin Rivers. What he brought up, I think is
Speaker 1: a really interesting point here, because when I saw that play,
Speaker 1: you know what I thought, I thought Otto Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: Messed up because Andrew Wiggins wasn't open and he threw
Speaker 1: the pass. Now, there's a couple of interesting things surrounding that.
Speaker 1: First of all, what Austin Rivers just said is precisely
Speaker 1: why sets become less valuable in a postseason setting than
Speaker 1: they are in the regular season. Austin seen that play before,
Speaker 1: and one of the reasons why Steve Kirk called that
Speaker 1: play is because he's expecting a switch and he knew
Speaker 1: that the smaller defender was guarding Steph. He knew that
Speaker 1: if he set a solid screen, he'd get a switch,
Speaker 1: and there was even a possibility that multiple defenders would
Speaker 1: run with Steph, and he thought he'd be able to
Speaker 1: get a lob over the top to Andrew Wiggins. But
Speaker 1: that wasn't the only area of the play. If Wiggins
Speaker 1: had the deep seal on it, Austin Rivers in the
Speaker 1: past was available, you throw the pass and you get
Speaker 1: the layout. But Steph came off of that screen and
Speaker 1: was flying out to the corner, and he had an advantage,
Speaker 1: and I think he would have been open in the corner.
Speaker 1: Otto Porter Jr's job is if the read is not there,
Speaker 1: don't throw it and hits Steph in the corner. So
Speaker 1: I see why it's easy for I see why it's
Speaker 1: easy for Warriors fans to be like, here goes Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr again. He drew up a play for Andrew Wiggins. No,
Speaker 1: he drew up a play that had multiple reads, one
Speaker 1: of which was hit Andrew Wiggins. If he has an
Speaker 1: advantage because they're overplaying Steph and he it's a small
Speaker 1: guy pinned on him. That read wasn't open. There was
Speaker 1: another part of the play Steph coming out to the
Speaker 1: corner that was the guy out of Porter Jr. Was
Speaker 1: supposed to hit. And again if and all the Warriors
Speaker 1: fans are like, why didn't they just throw it into
Speaker 1: Steph Curry and let him go to work, Here's something
Speaker 1: else that might have happened. Steph Curry might have ran
Speaker 1: out to half court and grabbed the ball and he
Speaker 1: would have either been doubled at half court or if
Speaker 1: he dribbled up the floor. As soon as he got
Speaker 1: to an area of score, they would have doubled him.
Speaker 1: Or if he called for a ball screen, they would
Speaker 1: have doubled him, and the ball would have ended up
Speaker 1: in someone else's hands. And if that person, that person
Speaker 1: then suddenly becomes in the exact same position out of
Speaker 1: Porter Jr. Was in. If he makes the right read
Speaker 1: out of a full on three, everything is great. If
Speaker 1: he makes the bad read out of the four on three,
Speaker 1: the play falls apart. The play call wasn't the issue,
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr wasn't the issue. OUTO Porter Jr. Just made
Speaker 1: a bad read and then, just like Austin River said,
Speaker 1: and this is the last thing I'll say about it.
Speaker 1: These guys scout a lot. If you run a set
Speaker 1: once and it works on them, they remember it, and
Speaker 1: if it would have worked in this particular game, never
Speaker 1: would have worked again in the series because they would
Speaker 1: have snuffed it out for the next time. These these
Speaker 1: the the idea that like you can xs and oes
Speaker 1: your way to victory. There's a little bit of truth
Speaker 1: to that, But at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 1: about the players. They have to make the reads, they
Speaker 1: have to play basketball. That's why the Lakers, with one
Speaker 1: of the most you know, dumbed down offensive systems in
Speaker 1: in the entire league, won the title in because they
Speaker 1: had better players and there are players were able to
Speaker 1: execute offensively by just using their advantages and making reads.
Speaker 1: So again, I'm picking the Warriors to win big in
Speaker 1: Game five. Don't care about Steve Kirk calling that play.
Speaker 1: I had it on Auto Porter Jr. And yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: concerned about Nicolayoku's ability to play defense on the perimeter
Speaker 1: and how that changes his ceiling, you know, as a
Speaker 1: championship level player. Before we move on, I wanted you
Speaker 1: guys to check out this promo for more shows on
Speaker 1: the volume. I it's Colin Coward. I started the volume
Speaker 1: to bring you some of the most apathetic voices in sports.
Speaker 1: While you're here, make sure you hit subscribe. Thanks. Let's
Speaker 1: move on to the nets. Falling down three games to
Speaker 1: zero to the Celtics last night. Like I said in
Speaker 1: the video that I released right after the game, I
Speaker 1: wasn't shocked because I saw something in game two that
Speaker 1: had that forced me to change my outlook on a
Speaker 1: lot of different things in this playoff run. The night before,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker had strained his hamstring, and then in that
Speaker 1: particular game, I saw the Celtics in the second half
Speaker 1: hit a level of defense that I've never actually seen
Speaker 1: before in my time watching the game of basketball. There
Speaker 1: was a complete inability of the nets to generate even
Speaker 1: remotely decent quality shots. Even when Katie and Kyrie were
Speaker 1: getting to their spots, Boston was doing such an incredible
Speaker 1: job of crowding them that you could tell they weren't comfortable.
Speaker 1: And it's been one of the most interesting parts of
Speaker 1: this particular series. Boston is showing flashes of a level
Speaker 1: of defense that I haven't seen in my time watching basketball.
Speaker 1: Over the course of the last decade and a half,
Speaker 1: there are a couple of teams that have come close.
Speaker 1: You're I'm talking like the two thousand nineteen Raptors or
Speaker 1: like the Lakers. There are examples of really, really good
Speaker 1: defenses over the course of the last few years, but
Speaker 1: each of them had weaknesses in one way or another.
Speaker 1: The Lakers were not good at defending on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: At the point of attack, they actually gave up a
Speaker 1: lot of straight line drives. They were just great at
Speaker 1: rotating out of it. The Toronto Raptors had some size
Speaker 1: and quickness issues. They played Fred VanVleet and Kyle Lowry
Speaker 1: in large bursts together, or they play Marc Gasol, a
Speaker 1: guy who was good in drop coverage and good at
Speaker 1: protecting the rim, but not very mobile, not good at
Speaker 1: covering grounds, so when you got him in space, he
Speaker 1: had some issues. And there were cases to be made
Speaker 1: that the Raptors were better with Serge Ibaka at the
Speaker 1: center position. This Celtics defense is completely and utterly devoid
Speaker 1: of weaknesses. And what's crazy is they bring in pieces
Speaker 1: off the bench that even slide well into that same
Speaker 1: scheme and that same quality of defense that you get
Speaker 1: out of the core five guys. And it's been really
Speaker 1: interesting because Katie and Kyrie, you know, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that are focused on them in particular in
Speaker 1: how this series has gone. And I get it. That's
Speaker 1: kind of the way that basketball is discussed. Everyone's, especially
Speaker 1: on Twitter. It's kind of like everyone's on a side.
Speaker 1: Are you on the pro k D side of the
Speaker 1: anti k D side? Are you on the pro Kyrie
Speaker 1: side and the anti Kyrie side? But it's interesting because
Speaker 1: to me, this has been so much more about great
Speaker 1: Celtics defense than it has been about bad Nets offense,
Speaker 1: and I think we need to remember to give that
Speaker 1: credit to Boston because it's very, very important as we
Speaker 1: look forward to these next few series. Is one of
Speaker 1: the most interesting dynamics of this particular series is even
Speaker 1: though Boston is throwing the kitchen sink at trying to
Speaker 1: stop Kevin Durant and Kyrie, We've we've broken it down
Speaker 1: in detail on the show. Multiple defenders. Every time there's
Speaker 1: a dribble drive. The only time they're really operating in
Speaker 1: single coverage is when they're twenty ft from the basket.
Speaker 1: Anytime there's any action, they're grabbing and they're holding their
Speaker 1: airing on the side of sending to double two guys
Speaker 1: towards them. They're facing incredibly aggressive defensive coverage is but
Speaker 1: Boston is doing such an incredible job rotating out of it.
Speaker 1: On the back end. I've talked a lot this year
Speaker 1: about how bad the Bucks defense is because of the
Speaker 1: fact that they packed the paint and they give up
Speaker 1: wide open threes on the back end. The Bucks during
Speaker 1: the regular season gave up more than twenty wide open
Speaker 1: threes per game on the back end of their def
Speaker 1: it well in this playoff run. Through three games, they're
Speaker 1: giving up twenty wide open threes on the back end.
Speaker 1: So that's very that's that's an example of the way
Speaker 1: that they play defense. This Boston team so far in
Speaker 1: this series with Brooklyn is only giving up nine point
Speaker 1: three wide open threes against Brooklyn, less than half as
Speaker 1: many as Milwaukee is giving up in the fewest out
Speaker 1: of any of the teams in this entire playoff front. So,
Speaker 1: and I would argue that Katie and Kyrie are being
Speaker 1: pretty willing passers. We're gonna talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about them as playmakers as we get further into this,
Speaker 1: but it's not for Katie and Kyrie jacking up shots.
Speaker 1: In the last two games combined, Katie and Kyrie combined
Speaker 1: have only taken fifty eight shots, which means they're averaging
Speaker 1: between each of them are averaging less than fifteen shots
Speaker 1: per game. That's they are not out there gunning. The
Speaker 1: Boston d offense is getting the ball out of their hands,
Speaker 1: and Boston has good Brooklyn has good offensive players, Guys
Speaker 1: like Seth Curry, guys like Patty Mills, Guys like Andre Drummond,
Speaker 1: who's a pretty skilled center, right. There are good offensive
Speaker 1: players on the floor for Brooklyn working in a lot
Speaker 1: of four on three scenarios, and they're not getting anything
Speaker 1: on the back end. And that's why I keep saying, like,
Speaker 1: what caused me to have to change my outlook on
Speaker 1: this entire playoff run. Part of it was the Sons.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker's hamstring is pulled. That's a significant change in
Speaker 1: the dynamic of the Western Conference playoffs. We've talked about
Speaker 1: that in detail. But in addition to that, I have
Speaker 1: seen something from Boston that I haven't seen from certainly
Speaker 1: any other team in this Eastern Conference playoff field, but
Speaker 1: I would argue that I haven't seen this from any
Speaker 1: team in recent NBA history. They are touching a level
Speaker 1: of defense that we are that we are not accustomed
Speaker 1: to seeing, and we have to adjust our expectations moving
Speaker 1: forward because of that. Jayson Tatum blocked Kevin Durant again
Speaker 1: on a pull up jump shot yesterday. It originally got
Speaker 1: called a foul, but on the replay I thought it
Speaker 1: was clean. I thought he got the ball first, and
Speaker 1: we just don't see that very often. A huge part
Speaker 1: of that is because of how dominant Boston's team defense
Speaker 1: is Tatum is given the leeway to crowd Kevin Durant more.
Speaker 1: And because he's crowding Kevin Durant more, Kevin Durant is
Speaker 1: playing with the body underneath him more than he's used to.
Speaker 1: And Jayson Tatum has the length to get to the
Speaker 1: top of Kadi's shot. It is this unbelievable team, you know,
Speaker 1: organism that Boston has working on defense and it's flum
Speaker 1: mixed one of the best offenses in the league this year.
Speaker 1: So in second halves this season, I think third and
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, when Kadi and Kyrie are on the floor together.
Speaker 1: In the regular season, those guys averaged a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty four point eight points per one possessions. In this
Speaker 1: decond has against Boston in this series, they're only scoring
Speaker 1: a hundred and two points six So in addition to
Speaker 1: everything that they're doing, they're starting to wear them down
Speaker 1: physically and cause problems as the series and as the
Speaker 1: games are progressive. If you guys remember back in March,
Speaker 1: when Boston really was first starting to catch their stride,
Speaker 1: we did a bunch of stuff on them on our show,
Speaker 1: and I had some concerns at the time. Tatum and
Speaker 1: Brown were shooting particularly well. Obviously you were worried about
Speaker 1: Boston potentially as a half court offense. But there were
Speaker 1: a couple of very specific things that I pointed to,
Speaker 1: And it was after Boston went into Brooklyn and beat
Speaker 1: the Nets in a very very exciting game. And in
Speaker 1: that game, I couldn't help but notice that Tatum kept
Speaker 1: working down and getting Seth Curry on switches. And when
Speaker 1: he was getting Seth Curry on those switches, he was
Speaker 1: getting great looks and scoring. And then Brooklyn had to
Speaker 1: start doubling, and then Boston was getting wide open shots
Speaker 1: out of it. Meanwhile, down on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor, Boston and was running a lineup of Al
Speaker 1: Horford and Robert Williams with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: and Marcus Smart, and there were a handful of possessions
Speaker 1: where Katie scored it, particularly in switches against Al Horford,
Speaker 1: tough midrange pull up jump shots, but he wasn't getting
Speaker 1: good shots. And it was like, here, I'm attacking Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum on a very highly contested pull up three. Here's
Speaker 1: Robert Williams coming up on a switch and contesting k
Speaker 1: D on a three that he nearly blocks you were
Speaker 1: seeing k D was trying to pick from a bunch
Speaker 1: of really difficult defensive matchups and Jayson Tatum was picking
Speaker 1: from significantly easier defensive matchups. And after that game, I
Speaker 1: did a video breakdown on this very specific thing, and
Speaker 1: I said that the defense for Boston was able to
Speaker 1: buy Jason Tatum a margin for error that would allow
Speaker 1: him to potentially outplay Kevin Durant, and he has in
Speaker 1: this series, and to his credit, because I didn't see
Speaker 1: it come. I thought Katie would be the swing factor
Speaker 1: in this series, and he hasn't played well. We'll talk
Speaker 1: a little bit more about that here in a minute,
Speaker 1: but so let's let's look at this playmaking thing because
Speaker 1: the most there's been a lot of grave dancing going on,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about a little bit more in just
Speaker 1: a second, but a lot of people that are doing
Speaker 1: the grave dancing on k D and Kyrie and the
Speaker 1: nets are pointing at them as playmakers. And I get
Speaker 1: that because it's not a strength of theirs. I've talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot on the show. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a skill that I personally value a lot. That's why
Speaker 1: I've always been drawn to guys like Lebron and guys
Speaker 1: like Luka don Chich. I think it's an extremely valuable
Speaker 1: playoff skill, but people are forgetting just how rare it is.
Speaker 1: I think there's only four guys in the league that
Speaker 1: I would call like true dominant playmakers as perimeter initiators.
Speaker 1: Luka don Chits, Lebron, James Nicola, Yochi Yoki, and Chris Paul.
Speaker 1: Those are the only four that consistently make reads that
Speaker 1: thrive in that environment going against the offenses like Boston
Speaker 1: that are overly aggressive. And don't get me wrong, I've
Speaker 1: watched every one of these games twice in this series,
Speaker 1: and there have been a lot of misreads. There have
Speaker 1: been opportunities where Katie and Kyrie have missed open guys,
Speaker 1: but the same could be said for like I said,
Speaker 1: every other player in the league, with exception of that
Speaker 1: select four. Now, that's what makes them so great is
Speaker 1: they never missed those reads. Guys like Luca, guys like Lebron,
Speaker 1: Yr Kitchen, CP three, they are obsessive and they are
Speaker 1: programmed in a way that they never missed those reads,
Speaker 1: and that's what makes it very difficult to play very
Speaker 1: aggressive defense against them. But the flip side of that is,
Speaker 1: none of those guys are as good in isolation scoring
Speaker 1: as Katie and Kyrie are. It's just a different archetype
Speaker 1: of player. You're given some and you're getting some. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if I swapped Lebron James into this series, Boston's probably
Speaker 1: not as aggressive, and Lebron is gonna face a lot
Speaker 1: more single coverage because Boston is gonna be scared to
Speaker 1: double a passer as great as Lebron. But the flip
Speaker 1: side of that is Lebron in single coverage attacking guys
Speaker 1: like Tatum and Brown and now Horford all night long,
Speaker 1: he might not have as much success there as a
Speaker 1: guy like k D could, at least at this point
Speaker 1: in his career prime. Lebron, that's a different story. But
Speaker 1: my point is is like, if you're asking Katie and
Speaker 1: Kyrie to consistently make high level reads as passers against
Speaker 1: an overly aggressive defense, that's an unrealistic expectation that that's
Speaker 1: not their strength. And if you were, if they were
Speaker 1: capable of that, that very specific skill, they probably wouldn't
Speaker 1: be as good in other areas of the game. From
Speaker 1: what I can tell in this series, k D is
Speaker 1: being a willing passer. He's not forcing shots. I talked
Speaker 1: about this earlier. Katie and Kyrie have combined to attempt
Speaker 1: only fifty eight shots in the last two games. There
Speaker 1: are some forces in there, there are some possessions, particularly Kyrie.
Speaker 1: Kyrie has been a lot more recklessly aggressive than k
Speaker 1: D has. I would argue k D is actually kind
Speaker 1: of overpassed. In Game three, in particular, you can tell
Speaker 1: all of this super aggressive defense is starting to get
Speaker 1: into his head a little bit because there are plays
Speaker 1: where he's the second defender is coming, but he's not
Speaker 1: even there yet, and Katie's already panicked getting rid of
Speaker 1: the ball. So Katie hasn't been perfect here. I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit more about how I feel
Speaker 1: about how Katie's played in this series here in just
Speaker 1: a minute. But the point is is that Katie and
Speaker 1: Kyrie are doing the best that they can within their
Speaker 1: individual skill sets, at least to try to make Boston
Speaker 1: pay for their over aggressiveness. It's just they're not the
Speaker 1: type of players that are built to thrive against that
Speaker 1: specific type of defense, which brings me to honest, because
Speaker 1: Milwaukee took a two, took a three, one lead yesterday
Speaker 1: and uh and with Boston being up three, oh, that's
Speaker 1: probably what we're headed towards. We're probably headed towards Milwaukee
Speaker 1: versus Boston. And the truth of the matter is Janice
Speaker 1: is also not a fantastic playmaker. Got into an argument
Speaker 1: with some Bucks fans today, is he better than k
Speaker 1: d They both average right around six assists per game.
Speaker 1: It kind of depends on who you ask. I think
Speaker 1: Katie is a better passer than Janice, but it's not
Speaker 1: some big difference, right. Both of them are just your
Speaker 1: typical guys that are capable of making reads on occasion,
Speaker 1: but they're not dominant playmakers. Janice is gonna have very
Speaker 1: similar problems. Now there are differences. Janice is going to
Speaker 1: be able to thrive in the physicality. If Boston tries
Speaker 1: to hold him and grab him off the ball, he's
Speaker 1: gonna win that type of matchup. They're gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of like dunks and offensive rebound putbacks and things
Speaker 1: like that from Joannice. That are his unbeatable, high level
Speaker 1: skill that he brings to the table that Boston will
Speaker 1: not be able to match up with. But the flip
Speaker 1: side of that is he doesn't have any of the
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting game that guys like Kyrie and
Speaker 1: Katie have. Now, Kyrie and Katie have been atrocious as
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooters in this series, which is a
Speaker 1: credit to Boston's defense. But my point is is that
Speaker 1: Janice is going to be in some similar predicaments. He's
Speaker 1: also gonna get doubled on the catch a lot. They're
Speaker 1: gonna test his handle, They're gonna see if he can
Speaker 1: really dribble the basketball as well as as as he
Speaker 1: thinks he can. They're gonna see, they're gonna test his
Speaker 1: ability to make reads. They're going to send multiple bodies
Speaker 1: to him, and he's gonna have to make the same
Speaker 1: reads that Katie and Kyrie have been asked to make,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if he's gonna be able to
Speaker 1: make them. Johanna's fans seems supremely confident and and this
Speaker 1: is your big opportunity, Chris Middleton's out. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: have a high level three level score that you can
Speaker 1: throw the ball to as like an outletter of release
Speaker 1: valve for you in these settings, A lot is gonna
Speaker 1: be on Janice as a half court creator in this series.
Speaker 1: My prediction is that he will also struggle, just like
Speaker 1: Kadi did in my prediction as Milwaukee will lose. If
Speaker 1: he goes in there and he dominates that series, that's
Speaker 1: when I have to have a wake up call about
Speaker 1: just how good Jannie is. I just don't think that's
Speaker 1: going to happen. I think the other outcome is far
Speaker 1: more likely now with Brooklyn. This is where we're gonna
Speaker 1: get to the gray dancing here, because it's been an
Speaker 1: absolute party over the course of the last day and
Speaker 1: a half with everybody and their brother talking about how
Speaker 1: bad this Brooklyn experience has been, and it has for
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons. Should should Katie have partnered with Kyrie,
Speaker 1: a very very finicky person who's not very reliable and
Speaker 1: isn't exactly a guy that you can count on in
Speaker 1: a lot of different ways. Yeah, I disagree with that strategy.
Speaker 1: Was Steve Nash the right coach for the job? You know?
Speaker 1: Maybe not? Was it worth it to sell to go
Speaker 1: after James hard and knowing everything that was wrong with him? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Probably not? But they did find in the trade on
Speaker 1: the back end, right, there are some moves there that
Speaker 1: I disagree with. Moves on the periphery going after really
Speaker 1: old guys like LaMarcus Aldridge and Paul Millsap and Blake Griffin.
Speaker 1: Yet those are moves that I disagree with, But at
Speaker 1: the same time, let's be honest about what what they
Speaker 1: have going forward. They've got Ben Simmons coming back. I'm
Speaker 1: not surprised that he's not gonna play in Game four.
Speaker 1: Just doesn't make sense to risk his back under the circumstances. Right,
Speaker 1: I've got Joe Harris coming back six ft five mobile
Speaker 1: shooter who is an okay defensive player, significantly improved offensive
Speaker 1: play over a bunch of the options that they've had
Speaker 1: to play in this series. And then Ben Simmons gives
Speaker 1: you some of that physical presence that they were lacking
Speaker 1: in this series. So that's a massive influxive talent coming
Speaker 1: into this next season. And again, Kyrie and Katie are aging,
Speaker 1: but they're not old yet, so you can probably expect
Speaker 1: that Katie and Kyrie are going to be mostly Katie
Speaker 1: and Kyrie next year. Not to mention if there's no
Speaker 1: vaccine mandate, as long as Katie doesn't excuse me, as
Speaker 1: long as Kyrie doesn't just disappear on without telling everybody
Speaker 1: for a month. Chances are they won't be a seven seed.
Speaker 1: Chances are they'll be a higher seed. They'll have more talent.
Speaker 1: Is Brooklyn gonna win the title next year? I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know. They're not gonna be favored. So it's
Speaker 1: not like a question of of like, oh, just wait
Speaker 1: for Brooklyn next year. They're gonna run everybody. Over All
Speaker 1: I'm saying is don't dance on their grave just yet.
Speaker 1: They have moves to make, they have talent coming into
Speaker 1: the fold. They're gonna be good. A lot of people
Speaker 1: did this with the two thousand nineteen Lakers. Oh, Lebron's
Speaker 1: bringing wine to the bench. Oh, oh, Lebron is getting
Speaker 1: blocked on game winners. Lebron looks washed. And then they
Speaker 1: were holding the trophy the next year because they made
Speaker 1: some savvy moves in the off season, brought in a
Speaker 1: superstar player and Anthony Davis and a lot of things changed.
Speaker 1: So don't right off Brooklyn just yet. So let's move
Speaker 1: on to k D. I have always hated this about
Speaker 1: the way that we talk about NBA players, and it's
Speaker 1: a very twitter It's a very Twitter fueled dynamic with
Speaker 1: a lot a lot less focus on what's actually happening
Speaker 1: on the court and a lot more opportunistic slander. And
Speaker 1: we had today after uh we had today on T
Speaker 1: and T. Charles Barkley give a perfect example of what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about with his comments on k D. I
Speaker 1: want to show you guys this clip first and then
Speaker 1: I will respond to it. Let me tell you something
Speaker 1: I don't want a bad amounth to do, but I'm
Speaker 1: so you guys always talk about that championship stuff. I
Speaker 1: try to tell you all these buzz routers, they don't
Speaker 1: mean nothing to me. If you ain't driving the bus.
Speaker 1: Don't walk around and talk about Julia Champion. If you're
Speaker 1: riding the bus, I don't want to hear Come on,
Speaker 1: Shack tell him all these guys walk around to the the
Speaker 1: championship ring. Hey, y'all bus riders, were you bust Were
Speaker 1: you the bus driver? And you've got all that pressure
Speaker 1: where you have to play? Well, are you gonna get
Speaker 1: to blame? That's a different animal. That literally sounds like
Speaker 1: a tweet from a faceless account underneath, like something random
Speaker 1: that Katie would tweet in the middle of the summer.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of discourse that we're getting surrounding this,
Speaker 1: and it's disappointing to me at a bunch of different levels.
Speaker 1: First of all, throw some credit to Boston. How many
Speaker 1: times like Katie is as rounded and confident and experience
Speaker 1: two superstars you have in this league, and they have
Speaker 1: literally cut him off at the knees in this series.
Speaker 1: Give some credit to Boston. That's That's a huge part
Speaker 1: of this. The second part of it is the obsession
Speaker 1: to make this about head to head match instead of
Speaker 1: team basketball. I told you guys before this postseason even started,
Speaker 1: I said, I'm not looking forward to the Celtics potentially
Speaker 1: beating the Nets and everyone saying Tatum is better than
Speaker 1: KD now. And the reason why I said that is
Speaker 1: because I knew this would happen. Because this is how
Speaker 1: we respond to this sort of thing. I try to
Speaker 1: be consistent with this kind of stuff in two thousand seventeen.
Speaker 1: In two thousand eighteen, I thought Lebron James was the
Speaker 1: best basketball player in the world by a comfortable margin.
Speaker 1: He had just firmly demonstrated it against Steph Curry in
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen, and then this is what happened. The
Speaker 1: seventy three win Warriors that just went to seven games
Speaker 1: with Lebron requiring a game winning pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: from Kyrie Irving in a monster, amazing block from Lebron
Speaker 1: James to get the trophy. After that game, uh, Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant signed with the Golden State Warriors, so everyone with
Speaker 1: a brain knew that they were gonna probably win the
Speaker 1: next year. And guess what they did. They won fifteen
Speaker 1: playoff games, but or they lost one. They had injuries
Speaker 1: during the season and still won sixties seven regular season games.
Speaker 1: They were an incredibly dominant team. And what was everyone
Speaker 1: saying after that series? Oh, Katie outplayed Lebron. Katie's better
Speaker 1: than Lebron. Get the two thousand and eighteen. Now Kyrie
Speaker 1: is out of the picture. So same talented Warriors team
Speaker 1: one less Kyrie Irving and the Calves get swept and
Speaker 1: everyone's like, Katie's better than Lebron. Look at him out
Speaker 1: playing Lebron, look at him hitting this massive dagger shot
Speaker 1: over Lebron in Game three. And it was unfair then
Speaker 1: and it's unfair now. Basketball is a team sport. I know,
Speaker 1: it seems like fun and it's entertaining to to to
Speaker 1: pretend as though it's so that it's just this this
Speaker 1: like little mono amano boxing match. But that's not the
Speaker 1: way it works. That's incredibly low brow analysis, and so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call it out when I see it. I
Speaker 1: thought that was really lame from Charles Barkley. Now with
Speaker 1: k D has he been great in this series? Know? There,
Speaker 1: Katie deserves some criticism. He has not been impactful enough
Speaker 1: on the defensive end and as a rebounder that could
Speaker 1: have been a swing factor in this series. I have
Speaker 1: to criticize him for that. Throughout his entire career, He's
Speaker 1: always put that as less important than some of the
Speaker 1: scoring areas of his game. I believe had he embraced
Speaker 1: that throughout his career, we'd probably be having a different
Speaker 1: conversation about Kevin Durant potentially being the greatest basketball player
Speaker 1: ever right now. That's something I've consistently criticized him for.
Speaker 1: His inability to handle physicality has been a player a
Speaker 1: problem in this series. Has not been a problem at
Speaker 1: almost any other point in his career. Not since like
Speaker 1: the Memphis Grizzlies in in two thousand thirteen or whatever,
Speaker 1: have we seen a team really disrupt Katie with physicality.
Speaker 1: But in this series, it's been a problem. He's been
Speaker 1: worn down off the ball when he gets to his shots,
Speaker 1: He's missing shots he normally makes. And I believe that's
Speaker 1: a huge part of that. He has strong gold with
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum in isolation defense because of the physicality and
Speaker 1: his ability to press up on Katie and his inability
Speaker 1: to thrive in that physic physical environment. That's fair criticism. Also,
Speaker 1: he has not made enough high level reads. We talked
Speaker 1: about that in detail earlier in this segment. He needs
Speaker 1: to be able to make a defense pay for being
Speaker 1: that aggressive. That's all fair criticism. Katie did not play
Speaker 1: good enough in this series, that is fair. But he
Speaker 1: could have played way better and they still would have lost.
Speaker 1: That's how good this Boston team is. Kevin Durant could
Speaker 1: have exerted more in the physical areas of the game
Speaker 1: of defense and they still would have lost. Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: could have made more of these pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: and they still would have lost. It just would have
Speaker 1: been in five or six games instead of in four.
Speaker 1: And so what I'm saying is like, if you want
Speaker 1: to get on there and you want to show clips
Speaker 1: and talk about Katie missing reads, I'm right there with you.
Speaker 1: That's criticism, let's do it. But this lame thirty feet
Speaker 1: his rings are frauds, He's not a real champion. He
Speaker 1: sucks at all this stuff. You know that to me
Speaker 1: is just really really lame analysis. And I would hope
Speaker 1: that at some point we would be better than that.
Speaker 1: And most importantly, if I swapped Lebron and Kadi in
Speaker 1: this series and Lebron ran all of these possessions that
Speaker 1: Katie is running, would it have looked different? Potentially, meaning
Speaker 1: like Boston probably doesn't help as much. Boston is probably
Speaker 1: less aggressive, Boston probably tries to turn Lebron into a score.
Speaker 1: But I still think Brooklyn loses why because Boston is
Speaker 1: one of the best defenses I've ever seen, and they're
Speaker 1: the better team in this series. So let's let's just
Speaker 1: if you want to be critical of Katie, that's fine.
Speaker 1: Let's just at least keep it, you know fair, If
Speaker 1: that makes sense. Hi, it's Colin Coward. I started the
Speaker 1: volume to bring you some of the most apathetic voices
Speaker 1: in sports. While you're here, make sure you hit subscribe. Thanks.
Speaker 1: All right, before we get out of here for the night,
Speaker 1: we're going to do a segment that we're calling fast
Speaker 1: break where I just really quickly hit on the other
Speaker 1: series is going on around the league. I want to
Speaker 1: start with the Bucks. I thought it was really really
Speaker 1: interesting in Game three the way they went with Bobby
Speaker 1: Portis in for Chris Middleton. That going with three bigs
Speaker 1: was kind of the textbook. Mike Budenholzer, We're gonna double
Speaker 1: down on protecting the paint now for this particular matchup.
Speaker 1: It's genius because the Bulls don't know how to generate
Speaker 1: quality three is. I've talked about this a lot. Over
Speaker 1: the course of the last couple of months. The Bulls
Speaker 1: were dead last in the league in three pointers attempted
Speaker 1: per game, and so are you shocked that they could
Speaker 1: only make eighteen total threes and their two home games.
Speaker 1: I'm not shocked. That's kind of the whole, the whole
Speaker 1: point of this matchup. Milwaukee's greatest defensive weakness also happens
Speaker 1: to be Chicago's greatest offensive weakness, so it's not surprising
Speaker 1: at all that they would struggle to capitalize on the
Speaker 1: Bucks going all in on size. The tricky part there
Speaker 1: is I don't think that same strategy will work in
Speaker 1: later matchups, especially against the Celtics, Like you're seeing what
Speaker 1: the nets, it's so important to have guys around Kyrie
Speaker 1: and KD that can score because of all the attention
Speaker 1: thrown that way. That is going to happen again in
Speaker 1: the next round. They're gonna throw a ton of bodies
Speaker 1: at Janice and a ton of bodies that Drew, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna be asking other people to whoop to beat you.
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure that going with three bigs is
Speaker 1: the way to do that, but I did think it
Speaker 1: was a smart card to pull in this particular series.
Speaker 1: And here's the deal. Chris Middleton's out with the knee brain,
Speaker 1: he says, two weeks. We'll see I would be shocked
Speaker 1: if he showed up before game four, Game five of
Speaker 1: next round. But you needed to win this series, Chicago's
Speaker 1: sole game too. It was very much still kind of
Speaker 1: up in doubt at that point. You had to do something.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a smart adjustment for this particular series.
Speaker 1: I'm just really curious to see, like we talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: how they deal with the Celtics. Moving on to the Heat.
Speaker 1: You know, I had a bunch of Heat fans comment
Speaker 1: recently about how we haven't talked enough about the heat.
Speaker 1: I get that. In my defense, this Atlanta Hawks team,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is by far the most uninteresting team
Speaker 1: in this field. They're like fifteen good teams in the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Hawks in here. Sorry, if you're a Hawks fan listening,
Speaker 1: that's just the reality of this situation. Jim Jackson, who
Speaker 1: does an amazing job doing color commentary, he was the
Speaker 1: color commentator for this particular game, and he made a
Speaker 1: comment and he said, this is like watching a professional
Speaker 1: team playing a college team. And again, there's not that
Speaker 1: much of a gap in talent. But what he was
Speaker 1: trying to say, which is something that I agree with,
Speaker 1: they're not great at the details of being a professional
Speaker 1: basketball team. They don't have their rotations down sharply, they're
Speaker 1: not consistent in their effort on a possession by possession basis.
Speaker 1: They look really unorganized, particularly on the defensive end. How
Speaker 1: many times tonight did you see somebody from Miami break
Speaker 1: wide open? When the other series is around the league,
Speaker 1: you don't see as many wide open players. The Hawks
Speaker 1: have only held Miami below twenty points in a quarter
Speaker 1: twice in this series, and they lost both of those quarters.
Speaker 1: So even when the Hawks have been able to lock
Speaker 1: in and get stops, the Heat have been better than them.
Speaker 1: In those quarters. They were the sore thumb of this
Speaker 1: entire playoff field. And yes, they'll be going home in
Speaker 1: Game five, Heat fans, we will be talking a lot
Speaker 1: more Miami Heat in the next round against the Sixers
Speaker 1: or the Raptors, depending on who wins that series, which
Speaker 1: takes us to the Raptors. So what did I tell
Speaker 1: you guys before the series was the most important part
Speaker 1: for Toronto to have a chance to win. I told
Speaker 1: you guys two things. I said. They have to get
Speaker 1: out and transit, and they have to have multiple players
Speaker 1: play better than James Harden. And in this particular game,
Speaker 1: they force sixteen turnovers and at twenty two points on
Speaker 1: those turnovers, they had twenty one fast break points, which
Speaker 1: is more than twice as many as Philly had. And
Speaker 1: both Gary Trent Jr. And Pascal Siakom we're better than
Speaker 1: James Harden. And what do you know, you get a
Speaker 1: win as a results. Yakom was awesome. He at thirty four,
Speaker 1: eight and five in that game. Them beat thumb injury
Speaker 1: is interesting. I have never uh torn a ligate my
Speaker 1: ligament in my thumb. But I've sprained my thumb before.
Speaker 1: It's no fun. I had a shooting coach once back
Speaker 1: when I was playing in Utah talk about how your
Speaker 1: thumb is one of the most important parts of your
Speaker 1: shot because that's how you avoid left right misses. My
Speaker 1: there was a coach I had in Utah. I was
Speaker 1: obsessed with watching YouTube videos, and he'd watched these videos
Speaker 1: of Ray Allen, and Ray Allen would always talk about
Speaker 1: spreading your hands wider, getting your hands wider around the
Speaker 1: basketball because that helps you get more control over the basketball.
Speaker 1: Having a sprained the ligament in your thumb, I keep
Speaker 1: trying to imagine what it would be like to shoot
Speaker 1: with that, and that's complicated, and especially since Joel Embiide
Speaker 1: and his jump shooting has been kind of a weird
Speaker 1: important weapon for the Sixers in this series. That's how
Speaker 1: they stole Game three again. I am obviously picking the
Speaker 1: Sixers to win the series. That there We've never seen
Speaker 1: a team come back from three out. But as a
Speaker 1: basketball fan, I've told you guys at length how they're
Speaker 1: the team that I want to lose because their foul
Speaker 1: grifting offends me. As a basketball fan, if there was
Speaker 1: one team that you'd love to see lose three, oh,
Speaker 1: it would be these guys. And this is how it is.
Speaker 1: You go into Philly and you win. Once you do that,
Speaker 1: you take them back to Toronto. It's gonna be a madhouse,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, the pressures on the Sixers,
Speaker 1: and you hope that that pressure ends up breaking down
Speaker 1: a lot of their players and ruining their confidence. That
Speaker 1: would be your hope. That's not going to happen. I
Speaker 1: don't think, but I would be lying if I told
Speaker 1: you I wasn't rooting for that last quick hitter of
Speaker 1: the night. This Ben Simmons story, there was this conflicting reporting.
Speaker 1: Yet a report come out Ben Simmons not gonna play
Speaker 1: in Game four. Then you had reports come out that
Speaker 1: the Nets were disappointed that he decided not to play.
Speaker 1: It's a herniated disc, guys, he didn't tweak his ankle.
Speaker 1: He's got a bulging disc in his back. There's absolutely
Speaker 1: no reason to bring him back to play in this game.
Speaker 1: Regardless of whether or not Ben Simmons is coming back
Speaker 1: next year, there's just no point. The Celtics are the
Speaker 1: better team. They're going to win this series. All that
Speaker 1: could stand to happen by bringing Ben Simmons back is
Speaker 1: maybe you steal a game or two if he's a
Speaker 1: massive impact player, but you're still gonna lose the series.
Speaker 1: And Ben Simmons is back in his health in that
Speaker 1: area is more valuable at this point. I have no
Speaker 1: doubts that he would have played if they would have
Speaker 1: won Game three. To me, that's a big non story. Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate your support. We will be back after the
Speaker 1: final game. Actually, no tomorrow, We're going early. We're going
Speaker 1: right after NETS Celtics tomorrow, so be ready for that
Speaker 1: here on YouTube like usual, right after the final buzzer
Speaker 1: of Celtics NETS. I will see you guys. Then the
Speaker 1: volume