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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel Here at the volume, I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Timp Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope you are all
Speaker 1: having a great startier week. Another action packed night in
Speaker 1: the NBA postseason. We got effectively a game winner from
Speaker 1: John Murant. We're gonna start with that tonight. We're gonna
Speaker 1: break down Sons Pelicans. We're gonna get into the games
Speaker 1: that I missed from last night, so we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into the Sixers and the Raptors. We have another series
Speaker 1: that ended tonight with the heat and the Hawks will
Speaker 1: touch on that briefly, and then for those of you
Speaker 1: guys who are listening at the end of the show,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do another ask Jason anything, So in the
Speaker 1: chat drop any questions that you have and we will
Speaker 1: get to them tonight at the end of the show.
Speaker 1: But let's start with the grizz in the Wolves, very
Speaker 1: very interesting basketball game. Game fives in a series tied
Speaker 1: at two have always been on my favorite playoffs settings.
Speaker 1: That's the the game that it. Both teams are immensely
Speaker 1: familiar with each other, both teams know exactly what each
Speaker 1: other want to do, and it truly comes down to
Speaker 1: can you do what you do better than they do
Speaker 1: what they do? If you guys remember, I think it
Speaker 1: was last week we were talking about the Raptors falling
Speaker 1: down behind the Sixers, and I think it was back
Speaker 1: when they were down to oh and I talked to
Speaker 1: you guys about how, you know, everyone talks about how
Speaker 1: the Playoffs are about matchups, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: truth to that, but it goes deeper than that, you know,
Speaker 1: Like it's the concept of styles making fights, but it's
Speaker 1: not just the styles that make the fights, it's which
Speaker 1: style wins. Because each team has a style. We just
Speaker 1: talked about this with Jonas Valancunas in Game four of
Speaker 1: this series. He's been really bad through the first three games,
Speaker 1: played really well in Game four and it turned what
Speaker 1: had been a bad matchup for the Pelicans into a
Speaker 1: good matchup because of what he did to control his style.
Speaker 1: The foot speed was an issue with him, but he
Speaker 1: brings size to the table, so if he's dominant with
Speaker 1: his size, it undercuts anything like that. It's no different
Speaker 1: than like Connor McGregor when he was in his prime,
Speaker 1: knocking everybody out if he could make the fight quick.
Speaker 1: He had such a great knockout punch that it swung
Speaker 1: a lot of fights that otherwise might not have gone
Speaker 1: his way. Then Nate Diaz came in and made him
Speaker 1: go from round to round and tested his stamina, and
Speaker 1: it changed the style on Connor and exposed a weakness
Speaker 1: for him, and interestingly enough, in order for him to
Speaker 1: even the score and their rematch, he had to embrace
Speaker 1: some of those long form strategies like kicking the ship
Speaker 1: out of his leg a million times and earning points
Speaker 1: and things like that. That way to win a fight
Speaker 1: by decision, right, And it's not just about what your
Speaker 1: strength is. It's about can you inflict your strength on
Speaker 1: somebody well enough that their strength doesn't win in that
Speaker 1: specific matchup. Usually I like to have a theme for
Speaker 1: the show, and we had a couple of different themes
Speaker 1: last week, and that's gonna be the theme for this show.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be brought up several different times. The idea
Speaker 1: of a team actually controlling the style of the fight.
Speaker 1: And what's so interesting about the grizz In Wolves series
Speaker 1: is when each when either team has control, they look dominant.
Speaker 1: The Grizzlies all season long have been this freakishly athletic,
Speaker 1: high flying team that gets out in transition and gets
Speaker 1: all of this stuff in the open floor. And I
Speaker 1: told you guys all season I was worried about them
Speaker 1: in the postseason when the game slows down in dealing
Speaker 1: with half court scenarios because they don't have a ton
Speaker 1: of half court creators. They have John Moran, and that's
Speaker 1: pretty much it. Desmond bains like basically an off ball player,
Speaker 1: more of like a Clay Thompson archetype than he is
Speaker 1: like a C. J. McCollum arketype, better at creating off
Speaker 1: of an advantage than he is at creating by himself.
Speaker 1: And then the same goes for Jaren Jackson Jr. For
Speaker 1: give him the right matchup and you give him tons
Speaker 1: of space. Yeah, he could do some work in the
Speaker 1: half court, but a lot of things have to break
Speaker 1: his way, and I was concerned about them. They kind
Speaker 1: of remind me of the New York Knicks from last year,
Speaker 1: much much better version. To be clear, the New York
Speaker 1: Knicks were not a two seed, but there was a
Speaker 1: dynamic to what the New York Knicks did that was
Speaker 1: more effective in the regular season than it was in
Speaker 1: the postseason. And what that had to do with was
Speaker 1: they had one half court creator, right, Julius Randall. But
Speaker 1: they were kind of like a freakishly athletic, try hard,
Speaker 1: defense oriented team that loved to get out In transition,
Speaker 1: then they ran it to an Atlanta Hawks team. Last
Speaker 1: year's Atlanta Hawks team was much more serious than this
Speaker 1: year's team is. We're gonna talk about that later tonight.
Speaker 1: But that Atlanta Hawks team kept them in the half
Speaker 1: court and it turned into a chess match. And the
Speaker 1: problem was Julius Randall was the only guy who could
Speaker 1: create his own shot in the Atlanta defense was devoting
Speaker 1: all of their attention to Julius Randall, so he had
Speaker 1: a rough series in the Knicks offense completely fell apart,
Speaker 1: and a similar thing has been happening to Memphis in
Speaker 1: this series. How does the seven seed. They've won two
Speaker 1: games in this series and in the other two two
Speaker 1: of the other games they had monster late leads that
Speaker 1: they blew. So Minnesota could have very well already won
Speaker 1: this series in five. So Memphis has shown some real
Speaker 1: holes in what they do. And to me, it reminds
Speaker 1: me of that Nix team from last year, like I said,
Speaker 1: a better version of it. But all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you have a Minnesota team that's trapping them in the
Speaker 1: half court. Often when they get in the half court.
Speaker 1: Like we've talked about, Minnesota has one of the best
Speaker 1: perimeter defense teams in the league. They're not a great
Speaker 1: back line defensive team. They're not like a rim deterrent team,
Speaker 1: like a Anthony Davis under the rim or Click Cappella
Speaker 1: DeAndre in big vertical shot blocker under the rim. That's
Speaker 1: not their style they are. We're gonna guard you on
Speaker 1: the perimeter and keep you in front and not even
Speaker 1: let you get to the paint, let alone try to
Speaker 1: finish over everybody and all series long, when Minnesota has
Speaker 1: been able to hang onto that rope and keep control
Speaker 1: of their style of play, they've been dominant. But like
Speaker 1: so many other young teams around the league, they fall
Speaker 1: apart when they get into a situation where consistency is
Speaker 1: a factor, when they have to do it possession after
Speaker 1: possession after possession. That's what you expect from young teams.
Speaker 1: It's one of the big reasons why I told you
Speaker 1: guys last week that I'm off Memphis as a title contender.
Speaker 1: They're not serious enough, consistently enough to not get beat
Speaker 1: by a serious team down the line. Phoenix Suns, for instance,
Speaker 1: tonight Chris Paul led team team that's dealt with some
Speaker 1: pain and suffering losing in the NBA Finals after being
Speaker 1: up to zero. They are dead serious, and they were
Speaker 1: there was no chance in the world that they were
Speaker 1: going to come out in this game. Five have a
Speaker 1: flat stretch. Memphis has had three or four extended flat
Speaker 1: stretches in this series where they don't play hard, where
Speaker 1: their defense is lazy, where they're kind of like more
Speaker 1: style and less substance, and it's gotten them into a
Speaker 1: bunch of big holes, but there were times in the
Speaker 1: series several points, like in Game three when they blew
Speaker 1: back to back fifteen point leads in the same game
Speaker 1: where Memphis was able to rest control of that get
Speaker 1: out and transition more. I thought a super interesting part
Speaker 1: of this particular game was late game decision making. I
Speaker 1: told you guys back when Minnesota was going on their
Speaker 1: run during the regular season. You know, I love Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about him on the show. I
Speaker 1: have a ton of excitement about him in the long run.
Speaker 1: Even the shots he took in that fourth quarter, even
Speaker 1: though I disagreed with some of them from a shot
Speaker 1: selection standpoint, they were disclose to going in. There's a
Speaker 1: version of Tonight's story where Anthony Edwards basically executes the
Speaker 1: Memphis Grizzlies, and maybe that will be coming down the line.
Speaker 1: But he's a kid. He's young, and D'Angelo Russell is
Speaker 1: a little older. But he's not exactly your savvy, slow
Speaker 1: down point guard, and he went rogue on one of
Speaker 1: the final possessions of the game with better players on
Speaker 1: the floor, took a crazy, terrible pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: that he pricked that was my concern the entire time
Speaker 1: with this Minnesota Timberwolves team. Can Anthony Edwards in D'Angelo
Speaker 1: Russell make the right decisions down the stretch of games Minnesota.
Speaker 1: You can tell throughout this whole series when they are
Speaker 1: in the flow of the game, they're very confident when
Speaker 1: they don't have to think about the one possession but
Speaker 1: rather the fifty possessions, meaning like early portion of the game,
Speaker 1: second quarter, third quarter, when they don't stress about messing up.
Speaker 1: They look so good because del and and are flowing
Speaker 1: and they're being aggressive. Karl Anthony Towns is playing with
Speaker 1: the crowd and he's being aggressive. But then they get
Speaker 1: down to the handful of possessions and suddenly it's not
Speaker 1: about your points per possession. It's not about how effective
Speaker 1: your offense is. Usually it's about this possession and this
Speaker 1: decision I have to make. And you know, there was
Speaker 1: an interesting moment I can't even remember if it was
Speaker 1: the end of the third quarter beginning fourth, but John
Speaker 1: Morant took off an absolutely destroyed Malik Beasley with a
Speaker 1: poster dunk, And it was kind of funny because John
Speaker 1: Moran has been trying that exact same dunk like dozens
Speaker 1: of times since he got in the league and nearly
Speaker 1: gotten himself killed a half dozen times with awful falls
Speaker 1: because trust me that they're just super super dangerous plays
Speaker 1: when you get bodies underneath you when you're flying that high.
Speaker 1: But he finally got one. But I don't know if
Speaker 1: you guys noticed, but almost immediately after that play, the
Speaker 1: entire demeanor of John Morant changed. I think before that dunk,
Speaker 1: he only had ten points in the game through three quarters.
Speaker 1: Minnesota was really holding them in check in the half court.
Speaker 1: I believe he had nine or ten assists at that point,
Speaker 1: so it's not like he was ineffective, but he was
Speaker 1: limited in a lot of different ways. And starting with
Speaker 1: that dunk, John Morant made a conscious effort and deliberate
Speaker 1: decision to attack the rim. Do you guys remember very
Speaker 1: next possession a day of near poster eyes, two more
Speaker 1: Minnesota Timberwolves, and then the possession right after that aggressively
Speaker 1: to the rim, finished left hand on the left side
Speaker 1: of the rim. He was consistently getting to the paint
Speaker 1: down the stretch of that game. And this is the thing,
Speaker 1: it's not like Minnesota's defense got worse. It was an
Speaker 1: intentional effort. It's exhausting. It takes understanding angles and being
Speaker 1: more picky about when you drive. But John Morant knew
Speaker 1: that even though it was gonna be a very difficult job,
Speaker 1: he was gonna put his head down and go to
Speaker 1: the rint. On the other end of the floor, D'Angelo Russell,
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards and Carl Towns became jump shooters, and in
Speaker 1: their defense, they were making them through most of the game.
Speaker 1: They had a fourteen point lead, I think it was
Speaker 1: in the thirteen or fourteen right around the middle point
Speaker 1: of the fourth quarter, so it was working. But again,
Speaker 1: it's not about the fifty possessions. It's about the ten
Speaker 1: or fifteen right at the end of the game. And
Speaker 1: for those ten or fifteen possessions at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, John Morant was being aggressive and getting to
Speaker 1: the basket, and Anthony Edwards and D'Angelo Russell and Carl
Speaker 1: Towns were settling for jump shots. Again, Anthony Edwards had
Speaker 1: to pull up threes in that fourth quarter that were
Speaker 1: this close to going in, but they weren't great shots.
Speaker 1: One of them he had John Ray on him right
Speaker 1: on the left wing. John More has been a horrific
Speaker 1: perimeter defender in this series, there's no way in the
Speaker 1: world that he would have been able to keep Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards from putting his head down and go into the
Speaker 1: rim and settled. As we call it in basketball now.
Speaker 1: I think that word gets used too often because I
Speaker 1: think people have an unrealistic expectation of how exhausting it
Speaker 1: is to go to the rim. But in a small
Speaker 1: sample size, when you absolutely need baskets, you gotta take
Speaker 1: what you can control. You can't control whether or not
Speaker 1: a jump shot goes in. I remember arguing with Laker
Speaker 1: fans in the two thousand twenty finals game five up,
Speaker 1: three games to one, Lebron drives to the basket, kicks
Speaker 1: out the Danny Green at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: Danny Green is wide open shot to win the trophy,
Speaker 1: and all the Laker fans were slandering him because he
Speaker 1: missed it. But here's the thing. The best shooters in
Speaker 1: the league, when they're wide open, never right a So
Speaker 1: it's just as likely that he'll miss as he'll make.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards works really hard on his pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooting game, and he's been shooting really, really well on
Speaker 1: pull up jump shots of late We've talked about it
Speaker 1: a lot on the show, but on your best day,
Speaker 1: you might make half of them. And that's the issue.
Speaker 1: You're putting the fate of the game in chance instead
Speaker 1: of something that is far more reliable. John Morant took
Speaker 1: one jump shot in that fourth quarter of one three
Speaker 1: pointer in that fourth quarter, top of the key, wide
Speaker 1: open on an offensive rebound by Brandon Clark. Brandon Clark
Speaker 1: was unbelievably dominant in that fourth quarter offensive rebounding. He
Speaker 1: had three, I believe, all contested in traffic, all unbelievably
Speaker 1: massive little details about the game of basketball that kind
Speaker 1: of go underneath the surface. You think about a battle
Speaker 1: between John and and Dill and Aunt and don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, that's the core decision makers of the series,
Speaker 1: and they're obviously the biggest guys swinging the impact. But
Speaker 1: on the big play where John rand tied the game,
Speaker 1: or when he made the shot that gave them a
Speaker 1: one point lead, what happened was is in transition, the
Speaker 1: Grizzlies ran like a three man action at the top
Speaker 1: of the key like Towa, two ball screens for Jaw
Speaker 1: and on the play, Uh, there was a switch and
Speaker 1: I believe it is. It was Jade McDaniels ended up
Speaker 1: on Brandon Clark and Jenny. Jenny McDaniels is big and
Speaker 1: tall and athletic, but Brandon Clark is bigger and stronger
Speaker 1: and more athletic, and so he just pinned Jaden underneath
Speaker 1: the basket. They gotta stop. They forced to miss, but
Speaker 1: Brandon Clark just jumped up over everybody and grabbed it
Speaker 1: and swung it out to John Morant for the big shot. Again,
Speaker 1: the types the quality of shots that Memphis was getting
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter was we are not leaving this
Speaker 1: to chance. We're putting our head down, We're going to
Speaker 1: the rim. We're winning every physical altercation. These are things
Speaker 1: we can control. We are not going to leave this
Speaker 1: game to chance. The Timberwolves left the game to chance
Speaker 1: by taking contest to jump shots. Like I said, there's
Speaker 1: a version of that story where if they make them,
Speaker 1: you win. It looks great, there's a highlight reel that's great.
Speaker 1: But there's a version of that story where you miss them,
Speaker 1: and that's and that ended up being what actually happens.
Speaker 1: That's that's another concept we're gonna get to a little
Speaker 1: bit later in the show. The idea of controlling what
Speaker 1: you can control. We're gonna get to that. When we
Speaker 1: talked about the Sun's series, you know, I talk a
Speaker 1: lot about the concept of why you can't afford to
Speaker 1: trick off games in a playoff series. It's really hard
Speaker 1: to be the time a team four times out of seven.
Speaker 1: And I would argue that Minnesota has played well enough
Speaker 1: to beat Memphis four times already out of five tries,
Speaker 1: They're probably gonna lose this series. I would imagine that
Speaker 1: there's a better than fifty percent chance at Minnesota wins
Speaker 1: Game six and sends this to Game seven. But even
Speaker 1: if Minnesota does win Game six, the numbers tell us
Speaker 1: that the home team almost always wins Game seven almost
Speaker 1: every single time. I can't remember exactly what the percentages,
Speaker 1: but it's more than three fourths of the time. So
Speaker 1: chances are you're gonna lose the series now, and you
Speaker 1: played well enough to win four of the five games,
Speaker 1: but you lost focus in three pivotal stretches or late
Speaker 1: first half in Game three, between the third and fourth
Speaker 1: quarter of Game four of also of Game three in
Speaker 1: the same game, and then tonight in the in the
Speaker 1: late fourth quarter section of the game three times where
Speaker 1: you lost focus and you cost you a series. And
Speaker 1: now if Minnesota does win this series in seven games,
Speaker 1: they will have had to effectively beat Memphis six times
Speaker 1: out of seven tries. Those are the little details that
Speaker 1: win and lose playoff series. That's why I'm always lower
Speaker 1: on young teams. And that's why I value perimeter decision
Speaker 1: making so much. Having a ball handler, not a big,
Speaker 1: a ball handler that can set you up on offense
Speaker 1: from the perimeter and and make intelligent basketball decisions not
Speaker 1: just for himself but for everybody on the team. And
Speaker 1: I thought that was was the hallmark of Jaws game tonight,
Speaker 1: which is his first big playoff moment. Obviously, he's played
Speaker 1: well in the playoffs before, played well enough to eliminate
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors last year in the playing tournament,
Speaker 1: played well enough to steal a game from the Jazz
Speaker 1: in the first round. But this was his first bona fide,
Speaker 1: real playoff moment. Game five, team with expectations, series tied
Speaker 1: it to down big adversity in front of your home crowd,
Speaker 1: Palms get sweaty, everyone starts to feel tight, and Jaw
Speaker 1: settled down, threw away any chance, didn't settle for bad
Speaker 1: jump shots, put his head down and went to the rim,
Speaker 1: and as a result, he swung potentially a whole playoff
Speaker 1: series because if Memphis wins, I think you could make
Speaker 1: a realistic case that Minnesota played better in this series.
Speaker 1: And so that's a huge moment for Jah. Looking forward
Speaker 1: for Memphis, I still am concerned about them. Like I said,
Speaker 1: they're not serious enough. Their half court offense concerns me.
Speaker 1: And then John's defense has been a real problem over
Speaker 1: the course of this series. Kind of reminds me of
Speaker 1: Malik Monk, where like he's got this freak athleticism and
Speaker 1: a decent set of physical tools, good long arms. He's
Speaker 1: not short by any stretch of the imagineation. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: shorter than a wing, but he's not short by any
Speaker 1: stretch of the imagination. But he's very thin. And basketball's
Speaker 1: game of angles and physicality in the playoffs, wins and
Speaker 1: you can't have Patrick freaking Beverly consistently attacking you. And
Speaker 1: they attack Job with other switches as well, But the
Speaker 1: problem is is that they get even an inch of
Speaker 1: an angle on jaw, they just blow through his shoulder
Speaker 1: because he's not strong enough to hold his ground, so
Speaker 1: I think for his entire career unless he bulkes up
Speaker 1: a little bit, which who knows how these got These guys,
Speaker 1: you know, are going to transition as the age, Like
Speaker 1: John could end up looking like Russell Westbrook one day,
Speaker 1: to be built like a truck. You just don't know.
Speaker 1: But if he's day, he's thin like this, that kind
Speaker 1: of changes the way you have to construct the team.
Speaker 1: You've got to construct the team in a way that
Speaker 1: covers for his defensive shortcomings, a lot more length, a
Speaker 1: lot more athleticism, so on and so forth. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I would predict Minnesota to win Game six, but I
Speaker 1: think Memphis is gonna end up winning the series either
Speaker 1: in six or in seven. Moving on to the Suns
Speaker 1: and the Pelicans. So, like I said, you have to
Speaker 1: control what you can control. Phoenix's Upship's creek in a
Speaker 1: lot of different areas of this series. Right, Devin Booker's out,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a easily their most important player. I
Speaker 1: think you could have made the case last year that
Speaker 1: Chris Paul was the most important player because Devin played
Speaker 1: better this season. But with his shot creation, it puts
Speaker 1: a lot on everybody else, and what you saw in
Speaker 1: game four this series was some of the things that
Speaker 1: are out of your control not go well. Chris Paul
Speaker 1: didn't play well. IRV Jones guarded him extremely well. You know,
Speaker 1: Michail Bridges and Deandreton didn't play as well. A lot
Speaker 1: of things didn't go right. But you can control the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. You can control your decision making.
Speaker 1: I thought it was really really interesting that in this
Speaker 1: big game, in a big environment like this, that Phoenix
Speaker 1: was able to get as many stops as they did.
Speaker 1: The Phoenix limited their turnovers the way they did. Those
Speaker 1: are the things you can control. And there's been a
Speaker 1: couple of weird dynamics right like the Pelicans have utterly
Speaker 1: demolished Phoenix on the offensive glass in this series. I
Speaker 1: haven't seen the numbers updated from tonight, but I think
Speaker 1: they're averaging right around fifteen offensive rebounds per game. A
Speaker 1: lot of that's matchup oriented. New Orleans is sending a
Speaker 1: ton of guys to the glass at the expense of
Speaker 1: their transition defense. There's a bunch of reasons why they're
Speaker 1: getting as many offensive rebounds as they are, but that's
Speaker 1: extra possessions. That's fifteen additional possessions per game, so you
Speaker 1: have to make up for that. When you factor in
Speaker 1: losing Devin Booker and having so much offensive scoring load
Speaker 1: on Chris Paul, you can't afford to have a bad
Speaker 1: defensive night. You can't afford to have a bunch of turnovers.
Speaker 1: And that's why I love having a grown ass man,
Speaker 1: a grown adult who's been in the setting so many
Speaker 1: times as the guy that you can lean on in
Speaker 1: these settings. Chris Paul was built for this type of setting.
Speaker 1: That's why I decided, even after the Devin book injury,
Speaker 1: Brooker injury, that I predicted the Sons would win the
Speaker 1: game and win the series. It'll be another story in
Speaker 1: the next round. Adding Luca to the picture, that's a
Speaker 1: whole other animal. Luca is gonna have a hell of
Speaker 1: a time getting eight and out on the perimeter, working
Speaker 1: against Chris Paul and isolation. I'm really curious to see
Speaker 1: how he fares against some of the longer wings for Phoenix.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be a super super interesting matchup if they
Speaker 1: get to that point. But Chris Paul and his i
Speaker 1: Q and his experience I believe was gonna be enough
Speaker 1: to control the series. And it was even in a
Speaker 1: even in a predicament like Devin Booker going down, obviously
Speaker 1: they got a much They got a much better night
Speaker 1: out of Mikhal Bridges, they got a much better night
Speaker 1: out of DeAndre eight. And I talked a lot with
Speaker 1: you guys about how important it was to have those
Speaker 1: two guys carry the scoring load that Devin Booker, but
Speaker 1: with him being out takes out of the picture. One
Speaker 1: other interesting note on this game, New Orleans is reliance
Speaker 1: on isolation. So if you look at the UHUM, if
Speaker 1: you look at the box score after the game, Phoenix
Speaker 1: has twenty eight assists to New Orleans is fourteen, And
Speaker 1: a big part of that is just the way they play.
Speaker 1: You know, New Orleans kind of plays a similar style
Speaker 1: to Brooklyn in the sense that they rely on their
Speaker 1: two primary shot creators, Brandon Ingram and c. J. McCollum,
Speaker 1: to attack matchups all over the floor. The problem is is,
Speaker 1: just like what happened with Katie and Kyrie, if you
Speaker 1: run into a really good defensive team like it's gonna
Speaker 1: turn into a tough shot making contest. And what's more
Speaker 1: reliable Phoenix bruising you on the inside forty six points
Speaker 1: in the paint Phoenix, executing in pick and roll, getting
Speaker 1: high quality shots or brandon Ingram and c J McCollum
Speaker 1: taking tough isolation jump shots on every single possession. It's
Speaker 1: not a surprise that they didn't play particularly well as
Speaker 1: a result, but that's all I had on that particular game.
Speaker 1: We're gonna bring Carson on and we're gonna get into
Speaker 1: some of the other series is and go over some
Speaker 1: questions that he might have, And hey, guys, just remember,
Speaker 1: if you're listening and you're in the chat, we're doing
Speaker 1: a mail bag at the end, So any questions that
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Speaker 1: code Jason T. All right, Well, Jason, we're gonna play
Speaker 1: a game here called what have we learned? As you said,
Speaker 1: we're gonna run down some key points from a few
Speaker 1: series and you're gonna tell me what your takeaways are
Speaker 1: from that. So we're gonna start with the Miami Heat,
Speaker 1: who finished off the Hawks today in five game What
Speaker 1: do you think we've learned from their performance? And moving
Speaker 1: on pretty convincingly in Round one. So I thought this
Speaker 1: was the least interesting series in the first round, and
Speaker 1: I'm glad it's over. Atlanta. To me was, like I
Speaker 1: said many times on the show over the course of
Speaker 1: the last week, they were the sore thumb of this
Speaker 1: playoff field. They were the one team that seemed to
Speaker 1: be clearly a level below everyone else that was playing
Speaker 1: among the other fifteen teams. You know, I have three
Speaker 1: big takeaways that I learned from this series. One, there's
Speaker 1: an issue with Trey Young. There there were so many
Speaker 1: people that jumped on Luca early on that they're kind
Speaker 1: of turned into this like counter tray movement. And then
Speaker 1: last year in the playoffs. Because he won two playoffs series,
Speaker 1: there became this additional trade Young movement, like oh, Lucas
Speaker 1: never won a playoff series, Trays already won two. And
Speaker 1: anybody who actually watched the Hawks last year knows that
Speaker 1: they beat a NIXT team that had no half court creation.
Speaker 1: They beat a Philly team that was literally combusting on
Speaker 1: the floor in front of our eyes to the point
Speaker 1: where they had to reconstruct after the season with the
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons situation, and Atlanta had an awesome defense. Truth
Speaker 1: of the matter was is Trey Young shot below fort
Speaker 1: from the field last year in the playoffs, and he
Speaker 1: shot thirty one percent from three, and he wasn't terrible.
Speaker 1: He had more mints, obviously, but there were a lot
Speaker 1: of things that broke his way in that series. In
Speaker 1: that run, the reality with Trey Young is in the
Speaker 1: playoff environment, when the physicality is allowed to go to
Speaker 1: another level and guys are allowed to grab, when they're
Speaker 1: allowed to hold slim slight players struggle. It's just a fact.
Speaker 1: We have so much evidence of this throughout NBA history
Speaker 1: and this year's postseason run obviously, only five games average
Speaker 1: fifteen point four points on thirty two percent from the
Speaker 1: field in eight percent from three. I love Trey Young's
Speaker 1: game in in some areas great passer, willing pastors kind
Speaker 1: of like Luca, like actively looking for his shot, but
Speaker 1: also has the ability to make the high level reads.
Speaker 1: The differences is I think Tray is a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a gunner. But the biggest difference between the
Speaker 1: two of them, and the reason why Luca is so
Speaker 1: much better and the reason why it's silly to ever
Speaker 1: put them in a conversation together, is Luca can lean
Speaker 1: on you, man, and in all of these matchups, Luca
Speaker 1: is gonna pick on a small guy and he's gonna
Speaker 1: bully him. He's gonna pick on a big guy and
Speaker 1: uses his moves to get him to get a step,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna pin him on his backside, and he
Speaker 1: has the strength to hold them off. I know this
Speaker 1: has been something that I've leaned on a lot in
Speaker 1: my basketball analysis over the course of the last few years,
Speaker 1: but it's something I believe very strongly in. Like these
Speaker 1: playoff series, is are physical fist fights, and size does matter.
Speaker 1: There are guys that have overcome to have been able
Speaker 1: to overcome it over the course of the years, Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: even though he's thin, what happened with Boston, that's an outlier,
Speaker 1: usually does well. Steph Curry six three, kind of slight,
Speaker 1: but he's so good in almost every single area of
Speaker 1: the game, and he's good enough defensively that it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter as much. But I've always leaned on guys that
Speaker 1: are more physical. Trey Young, good player, He's solid. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure that his ceiling could possibly be much higher
Speaker 1: than it already is right now, because what is there
Speaker 1: that Trey could add to his game at this point
Speaker 1: with his physical limitations. And then the last two things
Speaker 1: really quick. Miami's offense. I told you guys all the
Speaker 1: season I was worried about them in the half court.
Speaker 1: Atlanta was the twenty six ranked defense in the regular season.
Speaker 1: In Miami only scored a hundred and fifteen point nine
Speaker 1: points per one Hunter possessions in this series, which would
Speaker 1: rank seventh among playoff teams. Really really curious to see
Speaker 1: what their offense looks like in the next round. Regardless
Speaker 1: of whether or not they play Toronto or play Philly,
Speaker 1: they're gonna play a significantly better defensive team. And the
Speaker 1: last but not least Jimmy Butler's health. We talked about
Speaker 1: this right before the end of the regular season. This
Speaker 1: dude is like practically playing every other night now. In
Speaker 1: the regular season, he'll play one or two games in
Speaker 1: a row and then he needs a rest, and then
Speaker 1: here he is missing a playoff game for a sore knee.
Speaker 1: I love Jimmy Butler's game. He's a bona fide playoff player.
Speaker 1: A lot of the things that I just talked about
Speaker 1: with physicality and decision making or why he's such a
Speaker 1: dom a playoff player. But if the dude can't stay
Speaker 1: on the court, like that's just one other massive red
Speaker 1: flag for the Miami Heat. So let me ask you
Speaker 1: a little bit more about Trey first, because I think
Speaker 1: when you are looking at one man offensive engines, he
Speaker 1: stands certainly among the league's best. Right in terms of
Speaker 1: ry output. He led the league in total points and
Speaker 1: assists this year, was very efficient in doing so, lead
Speaker 1: the Hawks offense to be the second most efficient basketball
Speaker 1: without a really high level second creator on that team.
Speaker 1: So how much of what we saw in this series
Speaker 1: do you think is a product of actual things about
Speaker 1: his game that are not sustainable in the playoffs versus
Speaker 1: issues with the Hawks roster construction and the fact that
Speaker 1: they didn't have that second guy who could really punish
Speaker 1: the Heat for dedicating overwhelming attention to Tray night in
Speaker 1: and night out, because obviously it's inexcusable from him. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was, I would say, kind of a shockingly bad series.
Speaker 1: But which of those factors do you think is more
Speaker 1: important and was more impactful there? Well, the conversation we're
Speaker 1: having about Trey is kind of similar to the one
Speaker 1: we had about Yoki, Like the conversation I'm having is
Speaker 1: more about his ranking in the league. I'm with you,
Speaker 1: there are roster shortcomings here, Like you need if you're
Speaker 1: gonna have a guy like Trey Young that has to
Speaker 1: operate with the live dribble from the perimeter or out
Speaker 1: of pick and roll, you need to have a bigger
Speaker 1: wing that you can throw the ball to to try
Speaker 1: to generate physical offense, a guy that can attack, seize mismatches.
Speaker 1: You know, Danielle Gallinari just never really amounted to that.
Speaker 1: You know, Badanovitch was just way too inconsistent, and he's
Speaker 1: not big enough to be that kind of rim pressuring
Speaker 1: guy anyway. So, like kind of like again, the archetype
Speaker 1: of boy on Bogdanovitch with Utah is kind of what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, Like someone like that that can take
Speaker 1: a different element to their offensive attack. And then again,
Speaker 1: you have to have a defense like you did last
Speaker 1: year again, unsung hero of last year's play off team,
Speaker 1: and Atlanta wasn't a dominant playoff team last year in
Speaker 1: the regular season by any stretch of the imagination, but
Speaker 1: they did hit a level in the postseason that allowed
Speaker 1: them to eke out a lot of games. Defense Again,
Speaker 1: it's like it's something that you can count on and
Speaker 1: you will. You'll be shocked at how many times in
Speaker 1: a playoff series or a playoff game where you'll see
Speaker 1: a team that will shoot poorly, have a lot of turnovers,
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys, have bad nights, but you end
Speaker 1: up winning somehow, and it's just because you played so
Speaker 1: well on defense that you forced them to not play
Speaker 1: well as well. So like there, let me be clear,
Speaker 1: Trade can be the best player on a championship team.
Speaker 1: You just he's far enough down the list that so
Speaker 1: many things above him have to be perfect, like has
Speaker 1: to be with surrounded by tons of defensive talent has
Speaker 1: to have a co star that can pressure the rim
Speaker 1: and is more physical. A lot of things would have
Speaker 1: to be perfect around him in order for that to
Speaker 1: work out. Going back to the Heat for a second,
Speaker 1: do you feel significantly different about them now compared to
Speaker 1: before the series and where do you feel like they
Speaker 1: are in the Eastern hierarchy of contenders right now? I
Speaker 1: would think they're gonna be the worst team left in
Speaker 1: the second round. Uh they I would give them an
Speaker 1: outside chance to beat whoever comes out of the Sixers
Speaker 1: Raptors series, because both of those teams have gaping holes,
Speaker 1: like just like you've seen from Toronto in this series,
Speaker 1: there's a massive chasm between what they look like when
Speaker 1: they're bad and what they look like when they're good,
Speaker 1: you know, And and the same thing goes with the Sixers,
Speaker 1: like when they when they're humming, they were whooping Toronto's ass,
Speaker 1: and they've looked unrecognizable in the last two games. So like,
Speaker 1: Miami will be capable of beating either of those teams,
Speaker 1: but they're also capable of losing to either of those
Speaker 1: teams for the same reasons we discussed earlier. Nothing really
Speaker 1: has changed for me other than the fact that you
Speaker 1: know they they're playing Duncan Robinson less. That was to
Speaker 1: be expected because he's having issues on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: I don't think Kyle Lowry is as important as everyone
Speaker 1: else thinks he is, just at this point in his
Speaker 1: career because he's a little bit older. But the health
Speaker 1: is a concern to Like. I would say that I
Speaker 1: was already low on them before the playoffs, but I'm
Speaker 1: even lower now. Like I give them a zero percent
Speaker 1: chance to get out of the East. Wow, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that that's pretty reasonable because of a lot of
Speaker 1: the offensive limitations that you've talked about in the inconsistency there.
Speaker 1: I will say they are wildly impressive defensively, and I
Speaker 1: do think that you know that gives them some sort
Speaker 1: of chance. But I think that you're probably right. They
Speaker 1: would be probably that last team in the next round.
Speaker 1: The their defense, it kind of reminds me of Dallas.
Speaker 1: They have great defensive players on the floor. Bam Adebile
Speaker 1: unbelievable defensive player, you know. P J. Tucker I think
Speaker 1: is underrated because so many people are focused on his
Speaker 1: limitations Offensively. Jimmy Butler is obviously incredible. They have great
Speaker 1: defensive players, but so much of what they do involves
Speaker 1: convincing average to below average defensive players to to work
Speaker 1: their ass off, which I which is a credit to
Speaker 1: the Heat organization, to be clear. But they're gonna run
Speaker 1: into a team, probably the Celtics in the conference finals,
Speaker 1: that are gonna have excellent defensive personnel to match the
Speaker 1: dedication in the effort. Another thing too, from a matchup standpoint,
Speaker 1: One of the things that we're gonna talk about this
Speaker 1: later here just a couple of minutes, but the Raptors
Speaker 1: are starting to expose Joel embid with foot speed and
Speaker 1: we'll talk more about that in a minute. Against this
Speaker 1: particular matchup with Miami, I think they're going to be
Speaker 1: able to get away with dropping Joel Embiid all series.
Speaker 1: And if they can keep Joel embiad drop all series,
Speaker 1: that completely shuts off the paint, turns Miami into only
Speaker 1: a jump shooting team. So there's some matchup stuff too
Speaker 1: that I think is is gonna end up getting in
Speaker 1: their way. Not a bad defensive team, but I think
Speaker 1: there's a massive chasm between their defensive ceiling and like
Speaker 1: Boston's defensive ceiling for instance. Sure, yeah, I think the
Speaker 1: Dallas comparison is interesting. I feel like the personnel is
Speaker 1: more impressive. But I agree with you. I mean, Boston
Speaker 1: right now is in a class of their own on
Speaker 1: that end. So you mentioned some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: we've seen out of Philly slumping a bit in their
Speaker 1: last couple of games. One up, three oh on the Raptors.
Speaker 1: Now we're looking at three too, we're headed back to Toronto.
Speaker 1: What do you feel like you've learned from what we've
Speaker 1: seen in the last couple of games and what's been
Speaker 1: going on in that series, Jason, this is such a
Speaker 1: classic series for understanding why it's so important not to
Speaker 1: overreact to one game or two two games. Obviously there's
Speaker 1: the wrinkle of them having fallen down three oh, and
Speaker 1: that being something that's never been done before. But in
Speaker 1: game three, Toronto played really well, and honestly, it came
Speaker 1: down to particularly Siakum and VanVleet really struggling offensively to
Speaker 1: the point where they couldn't close the deal in that game.
Speaker 1: Way too much was on you know, Gary Trent Jr.
Speaker 1: To make plays or O. G. N and and Obi to
Speaker 1: make plays. But the truth is is like if you
Speaker 1: were watched the first two games of that series, and
Speaker 1: then watched game four and five. They they are massively
Speaker 1: on wreck ignizable between the two the two stretches of games,
Speaker 1: and it's because in a playoff series so much can change.
Speaker 1: We talked about this at the beginning. I said the
Speaker 1: theme of the show was styles make fights, but that
Speaker 1: the stuff it's about the style that wins the fight. Well,
Speaker 1: coming into this series, we talked at length about how
Speaker 1: Joel Embide and James Harden were the best two players
Speaker 1: in the series, probably that that uh Philly had more
Speaker 1: talent than they should win, but they had some specific flaws.
Speaker 1: Won their transition defense to Joel Embiad's ability to handle
Speaker 1: double teams, three James Harden and his abilities to score
Speaker 1: in single coverage, and then four Joel Embiid and James
Speaker 1: Harden in a driving kick system. Those are my four
Speaker 1: big gaping holes that I saw in this Philly roster.
Speaker 1: So what sucks is those advantages. Toronto was completely geared
Speaker 1: and equipped to inflict on Philly. They had all the
Speaker 1: length and athleticism to cause James Harden problems and to
Speaker 1: cause and be problems and double teams, all the length
Speaker 1: and athleticism to get up in floor and transition to
Speaker 1: get into driving kicks scenarios where they can take advantage
Speaker 1: of their lack of foot speed. They had all of that,
Speaker 1: they had the coach to do it too, but they
Speaker 1: just did it. In the first two games of the series,
Speaker 1: the Raptors allowed a hundred and thirty five point eight
Speaker 1: points per one hundred possessions. In the first two games
Speaker 1: of the series, the Sixers ran them off the floor
Speaker 1: in transition, So the same thing that they should have
Speaker 1: been doing to Philly happened to them. So even though
Speaker 1: Toronto had advantages, Philly was playing so well in Toronto
Speaker 1: was playing so poorly that none of that materialized and
Speaker 1: they got their ass kicked. In the three games since,
Speaker 1: the Sixers are being held to one hundred and two
Speaker 1: points per per one hundred possessions, literally thirty three points
Speaker 1: fewer more than thirty three fewer points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions compared to the first two games of the series.
Speaker 1: Toronto's just playing better man huge part of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: Fred VanVleet is their best perimeter initiator. Fred VanVleet is
Speaker 1: a very good defensive player at the guard position. But
Speaker 1: he's small, and there are there's all these different ways
Speaker 1: that we look at defense, and you know, in isolation defense,
Speaker 1: van Fleet's ability to get up underneath you and slide
Speaker 1: his feet and be physical as valuable, but covering ground
Speaker 1: in rotation, there's a ceiling there for VanVleet. He's small,
Speaker 1: can't cover as much ground, so they take VanVleet out
Speaker 1: of the lineup all of a sudden, Gary Trent Jr.
Speaker 1: Who's six five without shoes on. Gary Trent Jr. Was
Speaker 1: the smallest player they played. Everybody else other than him
Speaker 1: is massive, long and athletic. So suddenly Toronto looks a
Speaker 1: lot more imposing defensively just because of the lineups that
Speaker 1: they're going with. There was a really, really really interesting
Speaker 1: sequence late fourth quarter excuse me, a middle third quarter
Speaker 1: of Game five of game uh you have Game five,
Speaker 1: so you guys have probably seen this clip was going
Speaker 1: around social media like crazy, and I specifically have been
Speaker 1: on this train all season long, so of course I
Speaker 1: have to bring it up tonight. I talked to you
Speaker 1: guys about how I love Joel embid Joel Embiad's game,
Speaker 1: and I love Nikola Yoki's game, but I could never
Speaker 1: include them in the list of best players in the
Speaker 1: league because as dominant as they are at their position,
Speaker 1: they have foot speed limitations that you can target specifically
Speaker 1: in transition and in five out scenarios. Well. One of
Speaker 1: the things that Toronto has figured out so far in
Speaker 1: this series as it's progressed is Joel Embid can't guard
Speaker 1: their quick forwards on the perimeter pretty average players. So
Speaker 1: there was a sequence in the third quarter We're on
Speaker 1: five consecutive possessions in isolation, not like, oh, he's attacking
Speaker 1: a close out, not like, oh, Joel Embid was helping
Speaker 1: on someone else and had to step over and was
Speaker 1: out of disadvantage. No staring Joel embat in the eye
Speaker 1: and driving to the basket on it. First play, precious
Speaker 1: thatch you a faces up at the foul line, does
Speaker 1: a jab step. Joel Embiad buckles, drives to the basket,
Speaker 1: draws a foul. Very next play, O G and and
Speaker 1: Nobi kind of like fakes like he's gonna use a
Speaker 1: screen and roll. Joel Embiad is dropped way off of
Speaker 1: him like ten ft. O g hits the gas and
Speaker 1: punches the gap blows right by Embad for a done
Speaker 1: next possession kind of semi transition man on man on man.
Speaker 1: There's no help. It's just Joel Embiid on an island
Speaker 1: with Precious that you A pressus that you A just
Speaker 1: does it through the legs, dribble and just blows by Embead,
Speaker 1: no chance, wide open lay up. Next possession, same exact thing.
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam on the right wing just drives by right
Speaker 1: by Joel Embiad for a layup. And then finally on
Speaker 1: the fifth consecutive possession, out of the left corner, Pressous
Speaker 1: Thatchua drives on Embead and Beat actually makes him use
Speaker 1: a counter move this time, but Precious just up fakes.
Speaker 1: He goes up and under and makes a lamp on
Speaker 1: the left side of the rim. Five consecutive possessions. Or
Speaker 1: they scored on Joel Embiad in isolation situations because their
Speaker 1: players are faster, and that again is Precious. Achua, O
Speaker 1: g n and ob In Pascal Sika all very good
Speaker 1: basketball players. None of them are dominant offensive engines, and
Speaker 1: Joel and Beat can't guard them on the perimeter. It's
Speaker 1: just a limitation in their individual games. Yo Kitchen Embeat
Speaker 1: not a criticism of them as like they're not top
Speaker 1: ten players, or they don't deserve to win m v
Speaker 1: P or any of those things. Just why I personally
Speaker 1: am always gonna lean towards a Janice or Lebron or
Speaker 1: a kd is because if you put them in that
Speaker 1: type of setting, a game that goes up and down,
Speaker 1: or a game that's stuck in the half court, a
Speaker 1: game that's five out, or a game that's more traditional
Speaker 1: with you know, a lot of pick and roll and
Speaker 1: guys underneath the basket with less less spacing, they can
Speaker 1: thrive in all of those In ironments would Joe Yo
Speaker 1: kitchen and beat if the style exits their comfort zone,
Speaker 1: they have shortcomings and you're seeing Toronto attack that. Another
Speaker 1: big part here in the series. We talked about how
Speaker 1: there was no way in the world that James Harden
Speaker 1: or that the the Raptors could not have one of
Speaker 1: the top two or three players in the series and win.
Speaker 1: They would need to and through the first two games,
Speaker 1: I would argue and Bead was the best player, Maxi
Speaker 1: was the second best player, in Harden was the third
Speaker 1: best player. Before we got to a single Raptor well,
Speaker 1: Maxi's cooled off last three games, fourteen points on thirty
Speaker 1: nine percent from the field, eight percent from three Hardened
Speaker 1: looks like the same guy he has for the last
Speaker 1: three months, like a totally fine secondary creator who can
Speaker 1: make passes out of pick and roll and stuff. But
Speaker 1: he's not a great isolation player anymore. He's not doing
Speaker 1: well in spot up situations, and he's really bad defensively.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of liutations there. Here's the reality
Speaker 1: of the situation. There's two games left and Beat uh
Speaker 1: and Beat is the best player in the series. The
Speaker 1: Sixers have more talent and they have one of those
Speaker 1: games at home, so the Sixers should win. But there's
Speaker 1: a ton of pressure on them. Now they have to
Speaker 1: start by going up to Toronto. If you lose that
Speaker 1: game in Toronto, which Toronto, it's like probably like a
Speaker 1: coin flip, right. If Toronto wins game six, now you're
Speaker 1: coming home. But there's a boatload of pressure, and we've
Speaker 1: seen how James Harden reacts in those situations. I'm still
Speaker 1: seeing Joel Embid rely too much on foul drifting. One
Speaker 1: last note on this series. One of the things that
Speaker 1: I noticed when I watched the tape this morning, Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid is starting to be relegated a little bit to
Speaker 1: the perimeter. On offense, He's having some success in situations
Speaker 1: where he's off ball and he happens to catch around
Speaker 1: the rim, and he's still as dominant as ever there.
Speaker 1: It's a bucket or foul every time, basically, but the
Speaker 1: post ups with Embiid, Toronto's figured him out. They're getting
Speaker 1: the ball out of his hand. He's not getting good
Speaker 1: stuff out of that anymore. Down the stretch of Game five,
Speaker 1: and Bead was kind of floating around the perimeter, getting
Speaker 1: rid of the basketball, doing a lot more dribble handoffs,
Speaker 1: taking a lot of tougher jump shots. It's an interesting
Speaker 1: dynamic you're starting to see. You know, early in the series,
Speaker 1: guys like Precious to Chua, Ken birch and O g
Speaker 1: and uh O g and Obi and Pascal, I mean,
Speaker 1: all of them have seen time on Embiid, but each
Speaker 1: of them at the beginning of the series were super tentative.
Speaker 1: They didn't want to commit fouls. They weren't being physical,
Speaker 1: they weren't testing his handle. They're kind of feeling things out.
Speaker 1: Watch the way they're guarding and Bead now they're testing
Speaker 1: his handle, they're reaching, they're being aggressive, they're getting up
Speaker 1: underneath him. They're starting to have some success there. So
Speaker 1: like if there was ever a time that earlier I
Speaker 1: was just wishing it would happen. Now this is a
Speaker 1: real potential outcome. Toronto has a game at home, a
Speaker 1: chance to win, and then Game seven and in Philly
Speaker 1: anything happened. This thing is still up in the air.
Speaker 1: Although I am still picking Philly because they are the
Speaker 1: better team, so obviously, I mean, the three oh come
Speaker 1: back would be completely unprecedented historically and wildly amusing for
Speaker 1: a number of reasons, largely that you would have two
Speaker 1: guys who have just become notorious for playoff under performance
Speaker 1: and collapses, with Doc Rivers and Harden being at the
Speaker 1: forefront of it. You say that Philly is still the favorite,
Speaker 1: but it's possible for Toronto to do it. What do
Speaker 1: you think is the most important thing that needs to
Speaker 1: happen if Toronto is actually gonna pull it off, And
Speaker 1: if you had to estimate a probability of the Raptors
Speaker 1: actually doing it and winning this series, what range would
Speaker 1: you put that in? I put it in about so
Speaker 1: a little a little less than a coin flip. The
Speaker 1: biggest thing is going to be the offensive end. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a legit Carson. They have a legit chance to
Speaker 1: win this series. It's I think the key is gonna
Speaker 1: be the offensive end. Pascal s has been playing well.
Speaker 1: O g and Obi has been playing well, hitting shots.
Speaker 1: Precious a Chiwa, this dude in Miami. He was kind
Speaker 1: of just like another undersized forward who tried really hard,
Speaker 1: who and I say undersized, like had more of the
Speaker 1: size of a wing, but didn't have the skills. So
Speaker 1: he was playing kind of as a forward and just
Speaker 1: kind of like a do everything utility player. He is
Speaker 1: showing flashes of offensive potential on the perimeter that are
Speaker 1: really really exciting. And he's young. I think he's only
Speaker 1: twenty two if I remember correctly. You correct me if
Speaker 1: I'm wrong there, Carson, Like, Precious looks amazing. There was
Speaker 1: a play in the first half it was like like
Speaker 1: late second quarter where Joel and Be was helping on
Speaker 1: a play where O g and Nobe was isolating against
Speaker 1: James Harden and O Gennobe threw a skip pass too
Speaker 1: Precious Schua in the corner and Precious had already made
Speaker 1: a couple of jump shots in the game, so and
Speaker 1: Bead had to close out hard, and Precious did like
Speaker 1: an up fake and ripped through the baseline and threw
Speaker 1: down a dunk right before the shot clock buzzer. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, that looks like a straight up slasher wing
Speaker 1: and that doesn't look like unskilled forward like he's showing
Speaker 1: some flashes there. So the key is going to be
Speaker 1: can Toronto score enough to win this series? And so
Speaker 1: it's gonna come down to guys like Precious playing well.
Speaker 1: O G and Pascal obviously is that is their best
Speaker 1: individual shot creator with with Van Vleet out, so I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna come down to them on the offensive end. Well,
Speaker 1: the name of the game here is what have we learned?
Speaker 1: And there's very few people who are better to learn from,
Speaker 1: I think when it comes to talking about basketball then
Speaker 1: our colleague here the volume Draymond Green. He recently gave
Speaker 1: his thoughts on his pot on the net struggles against
Speaker 1: the Celtics, So Jason, let's take a listen to what
Speaker 1: he had to say. I just thought in that series,
Speaker 1: Boston made it a point that Kevin Durant and Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irvan will not beat us we know those two guys
Speaker 1: can beat us, They're not going to beat us. And
Speaker 1: what it looked to me as there was no one
Speaker 1: to get those two guys in position to score the
Speaker 1: ball where they like to score the ball from. And
Speaker 1: so you and up seeing a ton of turnovers. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, I saw the numbers with like Katie uh
Speaker 1: and his turnovers versus Jayson Tatum and all the different things.
Speaker 1: But the reality is Brooklyn struggled to get stops the
Speaker 1: entire series. You struggle to get stops. You come down
Speaker 1: against the set defense every single time you come down
Speaker 1: to court. I don't care how good of an offensive
Speaker 1: team you are or what offensive players you've got on
Speaker 1: your team, playing against the set defense every time it
Speaker 1: is nearly impossible. So, Jason, obviously you've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about how brilliant the Celtics defense has been and explored
Speaker 1: the net struggles offensively, But what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1: First of all, Uh, I have so much respect for
Speaker 1: Draymond as a basketball mind, and it really really makes
Speaker 1: me feel good to hear him say some of the
Speaker 1: similar things that I have said over the years. It
Speaker 1: makes me feel like we gotta be doing something right
Speaker 1: over here. How often do we talk about set defenses
Speaker 1: and the difference between attacking in transition inter semi transition
Speaker 1: versus in the half chord. Why it's so important to
Speaker 1: get stops and all that stuff. You know, a couple
Speaker 1: of things. He's hit the nail on the head. They
Speaker 1: absolutely went to take away Katie and Kyrie. Um. I
Speaker 1: think it's a little bit more difficult than it looks
Speaker 1: to try to get them in spots where they can succeed,
Speaker 1: because that was a big part of the series, was
Speaker 1: fighting them off of position with physicality at different spots
Speaker 1: on the floor, and even when they tried to run
Speaker 1: actions where you know, like there was an in bounced
Speaker 1: play in Game three baseline out of balanced play where
Speaker 1: like we're like Katie and Kyrie and Nick Claxton were
Speaker 1: all kind of in like a triangle, and like Katie
Speaker 1: and Kyrie set across screen and then Nick Claxton like
Speaker 1: fake setting a screen and they cut back and Tatum
Speaker 1: and Brown and Grant Williams. I think we're the three
Speaker 1: defenders involved, and they're literally hugging all three nets on
Speaker 1: the play. And when Jalen Brown and Grant Williams do
Speaker 1: the switch on the Katie Kyrie screen, they just like
Speaker 1: shoved the player like Kyrie and Katie to each other,
Speaker 1: and then like grabbed him again. And then on the
Speaker 1: play when Nick Claxton goes to fake back to the basket,
Speaker 1: Hated like grabs him again and he reaches in and
Speaker 1: gets a steal on the inbounds pass. It runs the
Speaker 1: other way, and I'm just like, well, here you go. Here,
Speaker 1: You're trying to run in action and it just doesn't
Speaker 1: work because Boston's just beating the ship out of you
Speaker 1: off the ball. It's just kind of the nature of
Speaker 1: the way they play. And I think I think it's
Speaker 1: just it's just the important it's the important reality of
Speaker 1: the way that playoff basketball gets so much tougher. It's
Speaker 1: really important that he was talking about attacking against the
Speaker 1: set defense, because the Celtics offense really really got going
Speaker 1: in the second halves of this series. In the first half,
Speaker 1: first quarter, second quarter, Brooklyn was able to get a
Speaker 1: lot of stops. It's a big part of why they
Speaker 1: had early leads in every game. But as the game
Speaker 1: forget progress, they had a lot of problems. I wanted
Speaker 1: to share some very specific of some kind of in
Speaker 1: the details stats from this series, because the series was
Speaker 1: interesting on a couple of different levels. It was it
Speaker 1: was an example of you know, we talked about styles
Speaker 1: making fights, but these two teams have very similar styles.
Speaker 1: Like Brooklyn is a team that has to get out
Speaker 1: and transition a lot, so is Boston. Brooklyn is a
Speaker 1: team that likes to switch a lot, so is Boston.
Speaker 1: Brooklyn is a team that likes to attack mismatches on
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, so is Boston. But
Speaker 1: Boston kind of is like the better version of them.
Speaker 1: They're kind of the evolved version of them. Kind of
Speaker 1: like that, Like I've been talking about a lot on
Speaker 1: the show there what the future of basketball looks like
Speaker 1: on so many different levels, and and you saw that
Speaker 1: show up in the numbers. So obviously the Nets relied
Speaker 1: a lot in isolation. They isolated about four percent of
Speaker 1: their possessions in this series. The interesting thing is they
Speaker 1: only scored zero point eight three points per possession and
Speaker 1: isolation with Katie and Kyrie on most of those possessions.
Speaker 1: The Celtics and isolation possessions averaged one point one nine
Speaker 1: points per one possession or points per possession, which is
Speaker 1: fascinating because I said, all towards the end of the
Speaker 1: regular season and coming into the series, I said, the
Speaker 1: biggest difference between these two dynamics is Tatum gets to
Speaker 1: attack better matchups. He gets to go after Set Curry,
Speaker 1: he gets to go after Patty Meals. He gets to
Speaker 1: go after bigger, slower defenders or smaller, skinnier defenders. He
Speaker 1: had all of these different options, and Katie and Kyrie
Speaker 1: were just picking from an all you can eat buffet
Speaker 1: of all defense level guys. So of course it was
Speaker 1: gonna be a huge pain in the butt. So to
Speaker 1: give you an idea, the Celtics only lated on eight
Speaker 1: point six percent of their possessions compared to almost fourteen
Speaker 1: percent for the Nets. Yet the Celtics only scored three
Speaker 1: fewer points in isolation possessions than the Nets did. They
Speaker 1: scored on fifty one point four percent of their ISOs
Speaker 1: and the Nets only scored on thirty six point eight
Speaker 1: percent of their ISOs. I talked about how they where
Speaker 1: they wore Brooklyn down defensively in the second halves. Did
Speaker 1: you know that the Celtics in this series scored nineteen
Speaker 1: field goals per game in the restricted area compared to
Speaker 1: only twelve for Brooklyn. Bullying them inside, we talked a
Speaker 1: lot about Jalen Brown exploiting size Mitch mismatches and getting
Speaker 1: all the way to the rim them on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: Al Horford was active on the offensive class and there
Speaker 1: so is Marcus Smart. They just they've won all of
Speaker 1: these little areas of the game that were so important
Speaker 1: to the way Brooklyn played. Boston just came in and
Speaker 1: did them better. There were ten minutes of clutch time
Speaker 1: in this series, so remember NBA dot Com defines clutch
Speaker 1: time is five or fewer minutes remaining score within five points.
Speaker 1: In ten minutes of clutch time, Boston held Brooklyn. Again.
Speaker 1: Kyrie and KD two of the best closers in basketball.
Speaker 1: But for those of you guys who've listened to the
Speaker 1: show over the course last few years, I always say,
Speaker 1: closing is very complicated. It's not just about isolation scoring.
Speaker 1: It's about perimeter decision making. It's not about one possession,
Speaker 1: it's about the last five to ten possessions. It's about defense.
Speaker 1: There's so many different things in closing. The Celtics, the
Speaker 1: Nets had the two best closers on the floor in
Speaker 1: terms of guys who can create their own shot. They
Speaker 1: averaged just fifty eight point eight points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions and ten minutes of of clutch possessions. So Boston
Speaker 1: utterly stifled Brooklyn in crunch time. As a result, in
Speaker 1: those ten minutes, Boston outscored Brooklyn by fifteen points. And
Speaker 1: then lastly, you know, to Draymond's point, when Boston, when
Speaker 1: Boston didn't score, when Brooklyn got a stop and they
Speaker 1: were able to get out in transition, they scored one
Speaker 1: point three one points per one per transition possession. That's
Speaker 1: a great number. So when they got out in transition,
Speaker 1: they were scoring very, very easily. But then when they
Speaker 1: get stuck, and then when they got stuck in the
Speaker 1: half court, that was when they got killed. It was
Speaker 1: just it was a it was a classic case of
Speaker 1: Brooklyn running into like the serious, grown up version of themselves.
Speaker 1: You know, Brooklyn was so much better than all of
Speaker 1: the detractors wanted to act like they were in this series.
Speaker 1: But Boston, you know, because like Brooklyn is not a
Speaker 1: dumpster fire. They just had a lot of drama. They
Speaker 1: had Ben Simmons drama, they had the Kyrie Irving drama.
Speaker 1: They have some old, washed up guys on the roster,
Speaker 1: but there's some real serious basketball players on the team.
Speaker 1: But Boston is what Brooklyn would look like if it
Speaker 1: was well run. You know, stars that are dedicated to
Speaker 1: the craft, that are not interested in the extracurriculars. You know, uh,
Speaker 1: a willingness to be coached, checking ego at the door,
Speaker 1: commitment to defense, signing players that are for the betterment
Speaker 1: of the team rather than personalities or resumes, things along
Speaker 1: those lines. You know, Boston is the grown up, professional
Speaker 1: version of Brooklyn, and it was cool to see them
Speaker 1: beat Brooklyn at their own game. So Draymond talks about
Speaker 1: sort of some of the issues was maybe a lack
Speaker 1: of that table setting presents who can get you know,
Speaker 1: those great scores going in their spots. You highlighted a
Speaker 1: bunch of the offensive issues that the that the Nets
Speaker 1: facing that matchup, and you know, I think the lack
Speaker 1: of paint production and paint offense stands out there. So
Speaker 1: just given all of those issues that we saw, is
Speaker 1: there a specific personnel adjustment that you look at, like
Speaker 1: one type of player who you think, boy, the Nets
Speaker 1: are really missing that guy who they could also even
Speaker 1: conceivably get because obviously they are pretty tied up cap wise,
Speaker 1: But is there a certain spot that you look at there.
Speaker 1: I agree with Draymond from the standpoint of like a
Speaker 1: playmaker would work great. The issue is is, like it's
Speaker 1: such a rare breed, like k D is already as
Speaker 1: good of a playmaker as the vast majority of the
Speaker 1: better playmakers in the league. There's just that group of
Speaker 1: four guys, you know, the Chris Paul's, the Lucas, the
Speaker 1: Yokichen and the Lebrons that are like on another level
Speaker 1: above them. And that's why I value those guys so much.
Speaker 1: There's so few of them, Like, is there one player
Speaker 1: who's close to that grouping? Like I mean, guys like
Speaker 1: guys like Trey Young and James Harden are good passers,
Speaker 1: but there's obviously huge chasm between what they can do
Speaker 1: and those guys, and so I don't think they can
Speaker 1: attain that type of players. So what I would target
Speaker 1: in a in a potential Reeving trade I talked about
Speaker 1: We talked about this a little bit last night, actually,
Speaker 1: like the idea of building a Boston type of of
Speaker 1: of concept with Katie at the Helm. So try to
Speaker 1: flip Kyrie for you know, Kyrie is gonna be overpaid
Speaker 1: on that contract, so try to flip him for other
Speaker 1: overpaid Wings guys that are six six to six eight
Speaker 1: that are willing to work on the defensive end aren't
Speaker 1: anywhere near as good offensively as Kyrie, but neither is
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown. Neither is you know, uh, Marcus Smarter. These
Speaker 1: guys that are playing for Boston, they're just they're building
Speaker 1: off of their defense, Like Boston. Boston is scoring twenty
Speaker 1: four points in transition per game in this playoff run,
Speaker 1: which leads all the teams in the playoffs, So they're
Speaker 1: getting easy opportunities off of their stops, which is making
Speaker 1: guys like Jalen Brown, Marcus Smart, guys that are good
Speaker 1: offensive players, but they're not great offensive players, but they're
Speaker 1: having great offensive moments because of the openings that are
Speaker 1: created by their defense on the offensive end. So I
Speaker 1: would try to flip Kyrie for that archetype of player,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. Yeah. Absolutely, All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all we have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate your support.
Speaker 1: As always, we will be back tomorrow after the final
Speaker 1: game of the night, which I believe is Nuggets Warriors,
Speaker 1: so come hang out off to the final buzzer of
Speaker 1: Nuggets Warriors. As always, we appreciate your support and we
Speaker 1: will see you then