Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Saturday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys had a great week Round two coverage of the
Speaker 1: NBA Playoffs. Here at Hoops Tonight is brought to you
Speaker 1: by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? All right?
Speaker 1: We have three shows today. This morning, I'm gona be
Speaker 1: breaking down both of the games from last night, the
Speaker 1: Sun's taking Game three from the Nuggets and the Celtics
Speaker 1: stealing Game three on the road in Philly. This afternoon,
Speaker 1: we'll have a video after Game three of Heat Nicks,
Speaker 1: as well as later in the evening after Lakers Warriors
Speaker 1: Game three. All right, you guys know the drip before
Speaker 1: we get started. To subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels.
Speaker 1: You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't
Speaker 1: miss any show announcements in it. For whatever reason, you
Speaker 1: guys miss one of these shows, can't get back over
Speaker 1: to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find them
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight, all right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So in Sun's Nuggets not a
Speaker 1: whole lot of a lot in the way of adjustments
Speaker 1: that I noticed. I know that they made Yokic playing
Speaker 1: much more of a crowd, definitely set more extra defenders
Speaker 1: at him, gapped him a little bit more than they
Speaker 1: did in Game two. Jokics was obviously amazing as he
Speaker 1: usually is. I think he has seventeen assists in the game,
Speaker 1: but they did force him into six turnovers, got out
Speaker 1: into transition a lot more. The Suns had twenty eight
Speaker 1: points in transition in this game. I thought that was
Speaker 1: a big part of how they got loose offensively. Devin
Speaker 1: Booker himself had twelve points in transition. The second big
Speaker 1: adjustment I noticed is they went with a lot more
Speaker 1: Jacques Landale over DeAndre Ayton. I talked a lot about
Speaker 1: after Game one. I believe, if I remember correctly, that
Speaker 1: the short role was going to be one of the
Speaker 1: most important areas of this series, and the main reason
Speaker 1: why is because the Nuggets are bringing Nikola Jokic out
Speaker 1: really high. In these screen and roll coverages with Devin
Speaker 1: Booker and Kevin Durant, we've been talking about a similar
Speaker 1: thing when it comes to the Lakers Warriors series and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis coming out really high and the Warriors picking
Speaker 1: them to pieces in the short role with Draymond Green,
Speaker 1: and if you guys remember in that show, I talk
Speaker 1: to you guys about how it's uniquely a Golden State
Speaker 1: problem that that coverages such a bad idea, because I said,
Speaker 1: if you guys remember, it's okay to bring the big
Speaker 1: up above the level of the screen against most players
Speaker 1: because usually the short role guy's not as good or
Speaker 1: they don't have the bang bang pass sequences down in
Speaker 1: the spacing down to make teams pay out of the
Speaker 1: short role. And so you can blitz or hedge or
Speaker 1: come up high out of your drop and usually have
Speaker 1: success rotating on the back end out of that, whereas
Speaker 1: against Golden State it's like a huge pain because it's
Speaker 1: just Draymond Green down the lane, and if you commit
Speaker 1: to him, he's gonna kick it to the corner, and
Speaker 1: if you don't, he's gonna go to the rim hard
Speaker 1: and make a layup or dunk it. And it's just
Speaker 1: Golden Stay a rippy to shreds like that. But you're
Speaker 1: seeing in this series the importance of having competency out
Speaker 1: of that short role. DeAndre Ayton had a Nightmare game
Speaker 1: in the short role. In this game, there are two
Speaker 1: plays in particular that really hurt where yok is coming
Speaker 1: out high. They hit eight and on the roll. There
Speaker 1: was one where like he had a clear lane to
Speaker 1: go up with two hands and dunk the basketball and
Speaker 1: went up with a soft finger roll layup over Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior that he left short. There was another one
Speaker 1: where so we call this tagging the roller. Right, So
Speaker 1: I'm guarding the guy in the weakside corner and the
Speaker 1: rollman comes down the lane, and our screen defender came
Speaker 1: up high above the level of the screen or up
Speaker 1: above the free throw line to contain the rollman is
Speaker 1: coming directly to the rim unimpeded. Right, But the job
Speaker 1: of the weak side corner that defender, his job is
Speaker 1: to tag the roller, which means to get into the
Speaker 1: lane and at least try to do something to make
Speaker 1: it difficult for that big man to finish at the basket.
Speaker 1: But usually it's an undersized defender. There was another play
Speaker 1: I believe in the second half of this game where
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray tagged the roller on DeAndre Ayton rolling to
Speaker 1: the rim, and like that's a matchup in the NBA
Speaker 1: playoffs that you have to win. DeAndre Ayden catching on
Speaker 1: the role under the rim against Jamal Murray has to
Speaker 1: be a bucket, and it wasn't. He missed that layup too,
Speaker 1: and it just becomes a problem because what you're doing
Speaker 1: is you're allowing the Denver Nuggets to throw multiple bodies
Speaker 1: at your superstars without experiencing any sort of drop off
Speaker 1: on the defensive back line, and that's a problem. Jack
Speaker 1: Landale much better finishing out of the short role in
Speaker 1: this one, just going with power dribbles and more force
Speaker 1: towards the basket to finish, and I thought that was
Speaker 1: a big part of why he ended up playing as
Speaker 1: many minutes as they did. Jack Landel ended it played
Speaker 1: about half of this game, So again, keep that, keep
Speaker 1: an eye on that in the long run. I mean,
Speaker 1: the way I see it, Deandreten's going to have to
Speaker 1: be dominant in the short role for the Suns to
Speaker 1: have any chance to win the series. They got away
Speaker 1: with one in this game where he didn't play particularly well,
Speaker 1: but Game four is gonna be a really tight one
Speaker 1: and they're gonna need Deandreten to play better. Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna get to Devin Booker because obviously he's
Speaker 1: the hero of the night, but I want to take
Speaker 1: my time there, so I wanted to get through some
Speaker 1: of the other kind of smaller things first, Katie, I was.
Speaker 1: I thought that was a very very impressive Kevin Durant performance,
Speaker 1: and mainly because nothing was working for him. And I
Speaker 1: always think that that's when we learned the most about
Speaker 1: our competitors. I've talked to I've talked a lot about
Speaker 1: this in the past, but I've one of the things
Speaker 1: that I love about real stakes, and like the parody
Speaker 1: in the NBA, is it brings out the best in
Speaker 1: our stars because they have to be amazing in order
Speaker 1: for their team to win. Like I'm a huge Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant fan, but one of the things I didn't enjoy
Speaker 1: about him being on the Warriors is they were just
Speaker 1: so damn good that he never really had to dig
Speaker 1: that deep for them to win. He had big games
Speaker 1: like that game that game ceiling shot that he hit
Speaker 1: over Lebron James in the NBA Finals in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: Like super impressive shot, not trying to undersell it at all.
Speaker 1: That was their fifteenth consecutive playoff victory, like there were
Speaker 1: no real stakes there. They were the most unstoppable team
Speaker 1: in NBA history. If Kevin Durant could have missed that
Speaker 1: shot and it had no bearing on whether or not
Speaker 1: they were going to get the trophy. Right. What I
Speaker 1: like about seeing more parody and more even the stuff
Speaker 1: across the board is like Steph's gonna have to be
Speaker 1: incredible to beat the Lakers this year. He's gonna have
Speaker 1: to dig deep, Like Lebron James and Anthony Davis are
Speaker 1: gonna have to be incredible to beat the Warriors this year.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to dig deep. Kevin Durant is going
Speaker 1: to have to dig so deep to beat this Nuggets team,
Speaker 1: and he did last night. And what was so impressive
Speaker 1: about it is, even in that context, his go to
Speaker 1: move for his entire career, the pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: failed him. This is a guy who I talked about
Speaker 1: this year fifty five percent on pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: That is unheard of. That's the best pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooting season I can ever remember witnessing as a basketball fan.
Speaker 1: And he went five for seventeen on pull up jump
Speaker 1: shots in Game three, five for seventeen. I think he
Speaker 1: started what one for nine from the field. So imagine
Speaker 1: in a must win game, down two to Zho at
Speaker 1: home and the thing you've worked your entire life for
Speaker 1: fails you on that stage. And what did Kdie do?
Speaker 1: He said, Hell, no, I'm not losing this game, even
Speaker 1: though this is not working. I have all of these
Speaker 1: other things that I can bring to the table as
Speaker 1: a basketball player, and he made those things happen. The
Speaker 1: big thing I noticed was playing with downhill force and
Speaker 1: actually trying to get to the rim again. When you
Speaker 1: really dive in on Kevin Durant as a basketball player,
Speaker 1: there are no weaknesses anywhere, except for sometimes it could
Speaker 1: be a little reticent to attack the basket. He's incredible
Speaker 1: pull up jump shooting at every single level. He could
Speaker 1: score on pick and roll, he could score in isolation,
Speaker 1: he could score in the post. He's got every single
Speaker 1: conceivable shot type. Fadeaway's over both shoulders, one like fadeaway,
Speaker 1: pull up, going right, pull up, going left, step backs, floaters,
Speaker 1: you know, pushots in a lane. He's got everything right.
Speaker 1: He's an excellent passer, a highly underrated part of his game. Here.
Speaker 1: In the last half of his career, he'd assists with
Speaker 1: zero turnovers last night. That Kevin Durant has all of
Speaker 1: these things tied up perfectly in his skill set. He's
Speaker 1: a perfect basketball player, except for sometimes he can be
Speaker 1: a little reticent to go to the rim. Not in
Speaker 1: this game. Eleven points at the rim, another two on
Speaker 1: a floater. He attempted fourteen free throws. And again, when
Speaker 1: you play with force, you will get the whistle. It's
Speaker 1: kind of counterintuitive because you think, like the guy who's
Speaker 1: being super physically aggressive is gonna get called for fouls.
Speaker 1: But I've talked about this on the show all the time.
Speaker 1: If you play with real physical force, the refs will
Speaker 1: usually err on the side of giving you the whistle.
Speaker 1: They reward force. And like Katie turned what could have
Speaker 1: been a disaster night into thirty nine to nine and
Speaker 1: eight because all of those other areas of his game
Speaker 1: showed to the surface when his core talent failed him.
Speaker 1: He was amazing defensively in this game. On the back line,
Speaker 1: he took care of the basketball and made plays for
Speaker 1: his teammates. He generated offense by playing with Downhill four
Speaker 1: worse and they got the win. And so to me,
Speaker 1: that's like one of Katie's more impressive playoff performances, because again,
Speaker 1: five or seventeen on pull up jumpers, that's not like
Speaker 1: a a that's not like something he's in control of.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's taking the same shots he's worked on
Speaker 1: his entire career. He was getting good separation on a
Speaker 1: lot of them. They're just not going in, which, as
Speaker 1: I've said so many times on the show, is something
Speaker 1: that can absolutely happen to a pull up jump shooter.
Speaker 1: But everything else came to the surface and they got
Speaker 1: the win. But let's move to the real hero of
Speaker 1: the game, Devin Booker. That was one of the greatest
Speaker 1: scoring performances I've ever seen. Forty seven points just two
Speaker 1: free throws, the exact opposite of the pull up jump
Speaker 1: shooting spectrum. Thirteen for seventeen on pull up jumpers, ten
Speaker 1: points at the rim, twenty for twenty five from the field. Again,
Speaker 1: there's this funny quote that a tweet that was going
Speaker 1: around last night where kd from a regular season game,
Speaker 1: and I think, if I remember correctly, I have my
Speaker 1: timing right, it was from before Katie went to play
Speaker 1: with the Suns. I think you might have still been
Speaker 1: with the Nets at the time. But he said something
Speaker 1: like Devin Booker went twenty for twenty five, and he
Speaker 1: goes like, that's efing ridiculous, you know, basically complimenting Devin
Speaker 1: Booker that was in a regular season game doing it
Speaker 1: against this level of defensive attention with Yolkic coming so
Speaker 1: high out of the screens being guarded by good perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders for the most part, like just unbelievable. And I
Speaker 1: you know, I watched the game live last night. Then
Speaker 1: I went back and watched every single one of his
Speaker 1: scoring possessions again today rewatched the beginning of the game
Speaker 1: to look at defensive coverages and stuff, and the big
Speaker 1: things that stood out to me were one, just the
Speaker 1: ridiculous level of shot making. I mean, he hit these
Speaker 1: like fadeaways from ten to twelve feet that were smothered
Speaker 1: that he made. Even some of his transition baskets were
Speaker 1: completely smothered. But he did supplement it with a lot
Speaker 1: of what I would consider to be non stagnant isolation,
Speaker 1: which is something that I think is not talked about enough.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna talk about it a little bit more
Speaker 1: when we get to James Harden here in a few minutes.
Speaker 1: But when you are stagnant isolating. It's a lot harder
Speaker 1: to get separation. Your defender is keyed in on you,
Speaker 1: the back line is set up ready to help. It's
Speaker 1: just a lot harder. But what Devin Booker does a
Speaker 1: lot is he finds opportunities to attack with an advantage.
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example. So he'd pull up three
Speaker 1: on KCP on the left wing in the first half,
Speaker 1: and like on the play, he kind of flashes over
Speaker 1: to the to the wing and he catches the ball
Speaker 1: and instead of like turning and facing and slowing down
Speaker 1: to face KCP, which which he did on some other possessions,
Speaker 1: but he supplemented it with stuff like this, he just
Speaker 1: does a hard jab step to his left, takes a
Speaker 1: dribble to his right, and elevates up and shoots. But
Speaker 1: the reason why it generates separation on KCP is he
Speaker 1: did that on the catch. So kcp's in a closeout again,
Speaker 1: like something silly, Like a close out improves your chances
Speaker 1: of gaining separation from the defender by like fifty percent, Right,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get It's just a lot harder defensively to
Speaker 1: do that immediately when you're not even really keyed in
Speaker 1: and set yet versus when everything is kind of a
Speaker 1: static situation, right, so like or like you'll see him
Speaker 1: hunt transition opportunities like I was talking about, like, don't
Speaker 1: always attack against that set half court environment if you
Speaker 1: see an opportunity to get out and transition and cook,
Speaker 1: get out and transition and cook the pull up three's
Speaker 1: in transition just like walking into those shots. Right, The
Speaker 1: shot making and pick and roll, it was all there.
Speaker 1: But I thought it was a very good balance of
Speaker 1: post work attacking the basket, like there's a post up
Speaker 1: against KCP on the left block or on the right
Speaker 1: block in the first half, where he didn't fade over
Speaker 1: either shoulder. He just bam, bam, two hard power dribbles
Speaker 1: like caved in kcp's chest, reverse pivot drop step back
Speaker 1: towards the baseline, and easy bank shot off the glass.
Speaker 1: Like again, you want to supplement your top, your tough
Speaker 1: shot making with easier shots. That was a big part
Speaker 1: of what allowed him to be so efficient in a
Speaker 1: huge physical playoff environment in the must win game. Literally
Speaker 1: one of the best scoring performances I've ever seen. And
Speaker 1: you know, I've been talking about this all year this year,
Speaker 1: but I consider Devin Booker to be every bit as
Speaker 1: good as that long list of players that we talked
Speaker 1: about at the top of the league. You know, we
Speaker 1: have Steph Lebron Kadi, Jannis Jokic, and b Tatum Kawhi
Speaker 1: and I'm probably forgetting a guy or two, But like
Speaker 1: Devin Booker is straight up on that list. Like he's
Speaker 1: just on that list. He's an unbelievable playmaker compared to
Speaker 1: where he was early in his career, one of the
Speaker 1: most efficient scorers in the league, can do it from
Speaker 1: all levels, translates to the playoffs, has turned himself into
Speaker 1: above average defensive player who competes. He's got all the
Speaker 1: stuff that we typically associate with the superstar player, and
Speaker 1: he's been one of the best players in the league
Speaker 1: during this playoff run from any team that's participated. So
Speaker 1: shout out to Devin Booker. Now, will they do it
Speaker 1: three more times? Who knows, but they're certainly capable. It's
Speaker 1: like I've been talking about since the beginning of the series,
Speaker 1: the Suns are just going to have to get heroic
Speaker 1: scoring performances from Katie and Devin Booker to have a
Speaker 1: chance on the dever front. Nothing really to overreact to.
Speaker 1: I thought effort was a huge part of their issues
Speaker 1: in this game, especially in transition. They were just really
Speaker 1: sloppy getting back and getting matched up. I think their
Speaker 1: coverages are still working again as I go back and
Speaker 1: look at the footage. With exception of those transition opportunities,
Speaker 1: I thought they forced Devin Booker into a lot of
Speaker 1: tough shots and forced kd And into a lot of
Speaker 1: tough shots. There are just two amazing players who took
Speaker 1: advantage of the easier opportunities in the margins when the
Speaker 1: effort wasn't quite there. And I tend to think that
Speaker 1: if Denver plays with that same process, with a little
Speaker 1: bit better effort, they're gonna have a good chance to
Speaker 1: win Game four. I mean, heck, they took a three
Speaker 1: point lead late in the third quarter of this one.
Speaker 1: But I'm glad the Sons are making that a series
Speaker 1: because that I think that one's gonna be interesting down
Speaker 1: the stretch. All right, six of Celtics. You know, it's
Speaker 1: funny when I watched Game one and everyone was focusing
Speaker 1: on the Hardened thing, and Hardened was incredible. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to undersell it. And when I went back, I
Speaker 1: watched the film. Everyone everyone was talking about Boston and
Speaker 1: some offensive process stuff, and oh why did they post
Speaker 1: up Marcus Smart at the end. And I went back
Speaker 1: and looked at the footage, and I didn't really think
Speaker 1: Boston's offensive process was that bad. Down the stretch of
Speaker 1: that game. I thought it entirely came down to defense.
Speaker 1: They played pick up basketball defense, soft switching, playing off
Speaker 1: of James Harden, letting him feel comfortable as he got
Speaker 1: to his spots, not helping enough off of the non shooters.
Speaker 1: They let him get too comfortable and he made a
Speaker 1: ton of shots and beat them right in game one.
Speaker 1: But they just had a much better defensive effort starting
Speaker 1: in Game two, and it continued into Game three. I
Speaker 1: thought they did a great job guarding Harden and MBA,
Speaker 1: and I want to dive a little bit into the
Speaker 1: schematics of the way they did it, so specifically guarding Harden.
Speaker 1: Jylen Brown in ball pressure. He started this in game two,
Speaker 1: but it continued in game three. You see, it's like
Speaker 1: Joel Andbie wins the tip, tossed it back to James Harden.
Speaker 1: There's Jalen Brown right at half court, just like stunting
Speaker 1: and getting into James Harden just to make him not
Speaker 1: feel comfortable. Again, Like I talk about this all the time,
Speaker 1: but when you set a tone early to make a
Speaker 1: star feel uncomfortable, it's far more likely that they'll have
Speaker 1: a poor shoot versus when you allow them to feel
Speaker 1: comfortable at the beginning of the game. They might make
Speaker 1: a couple of shots now they're feeling great, and even
Speaker 1: if you do turn up the defensive intensity at that point,
Speaker 1: it might not matter. Right, Like, even that shot that
Speaker 1: James Harden hit over al Horford at the end of
Speaker 1: Game one, like that was probably their best defensive possession
Speaker 1: of that sequence. I mean, Al Horford smothered that shot,
Speaker 1: took away the drive. It was great defense. But at
Speaker 1: that point, James Harden is so comfortable and in so
Speaker 1: much of a groove that it's just not going to
Speaker 1: affect him anymore at that point. But Jalen Brown applying
Speaker 1: ball pressure forcing him to his right hand, that's important
Speaker 1: because James Harden just is not as effective getting downhill
Speaker 1: towards the rim as he goes that way and then
Speaker 1: back pressure. So in his ball screen situations, like I'll
Speaker 1: give you an example, there's play where he runs pick
Speaker 1: and roll, gets downhill, actually gets to his left hand,
Speaker 1: and Al Horford's at the rim and James Harden just
Speaker 1: does that classic thing that he tries to do, or
Speaker 1: he just drops his shoulder into the big man's chest
Speaker 1: and then tries to take like a hard step to
Speaker 1: try to dislodge him and then kind of lean back
Speaker 1: and take like a little floater off the glass. But
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, when he gets caught on the screen, he's
Speaker 1: behind James Harden Harden's downhill, but he doesn't give up
Speaker 1: on the play. He goes to his next responsibility, which
Speaker 1: is back pressure, right, and so he comes sprinting in
Speaker 1: from behind and just flies in and blocks it with
Speaker 1: one arm. And we talked about this with Jared Vanderbilt
Speaker 1: in the Warriors Lakers series. But longer defenders in back
Speaker 1: pressure actually can be really valuable in a sense that
Speaker 1: like when you're putting a guard on a guard in
Speaker 1: pick and roll, once they get caught on the screen,
Speaker 1: they're just not gonna bother anybody. But if it's a
Speaker 1: wing on a guard in pick and roll, they can
Speaker 1: actually use their length to bother people from behind. I
Speaker 1: thought Jayleen Brown did a good job that with that
Speaker 1: they also did a really nice job of gapping into
Speaker 1: driving lanes and playing off of the weekside corner in
Speaker 1: the lane. There was a big play where James Harden
Speaker 1: got all the way to the rim on the right
Speaker 1: side of the floor went for a right handed layup
Speaker 1: and James Harden wasn't making good reads in this game.
Speaker 1: But Robert Williams ended up on de Anthony Melton on
Speaker 1: this play. The Anthony Milton was on the left wing
Speaker 1: wide open, Robert Williams just ignores him and comes over
Speaker 1: and blocks James Harden at the rim. So they were
Speaker 1: just sending tons of bodies that hardened him bead throughout
Speaker 1: the game. And I didn't think either of them did
Speaker 1: really a good enough job of spraying the ball out
Speaker 1: to shooters to actually soften up the defense over the
Speaker 1: course of the game. But excellent defensive game plan from
Speaker 1: Boston on Harden, and I'm the even bead front. The
Speaker 1: big thing that I noticed was really trying to stop
Speaker 1: him from those catches at the elbow. So Joel embiid
Speaker 1: like when he's posting on the block for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: and a lot of big struggle with this. Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: struggles with this a lot too, But like when you
Speaker 1: post him on the block, he really struggles to make
Speaker 1: the kill pass, like the pass that beats the double team,
Speaker 1: not the pass that escapes the double team, but the
Speaker 1: pass that beats the double team. It's usually a cross
Speaker 1: court pass. It's usually to a three point shooter, and
Speaker 1: you hit a couple of those, and then it kind
Speaker 1: of softens things up in the paint right well. Jolanbid
Speaker 1: struggles with those specific passes. So one of the things
Speaker 1: they've been doing is instead of posting him, trying to
Speaker 1: get him the ball in a face situation at the elbow,
Speaker 1: because now he doesn't have to worry about anything going
Speaker 1: on behind him. He's facing the entire floor. If they
Speaker 1: double from this side, it's an easy kick to the corner.
Speaker 1: If they double from this side, he can kind of
Speaker 1: rip through and then pass to the other corner. It's
Speaker 1: just a much easier set of reads for him to make.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that Boston was doing is
Speaker 1: just trying to stop him from ever actually getting catches there.
Speaker 1: So what they were doing is doing a three quarter front.
Speaker 1: So usually Philly will set up and essentially like a
Speaker 1: like a like a pistol set right. So if there's
Speaker 1: one big at the elbow, guard in each corner, guards
Speaker 1: on the wings, and the guard on the wing will
Speaker 1: try to make a post entry, essentially like a high
Speaker 1: post entry. Two Joel Embiid at the elbow. But what
Speaker 1: Boston was doing was a three quarter front, So the
Speaker 1: guy who's defending Embiid has their left foot behind embad,
Speaker 1: so he can't just cut back door. He'd run into him.
Speaker 1: But then he's reaching around the front right, so it's
Speaker 1: forcing them to throw an extended pass a little bit
Speaker 1: further off the spot, which serves two purpose One, It
Speaker 1: forces it so that if he does get a catch,
Speaker 1: he's catching it further away, so instead of catching it
Speaker 1: at seventeen to eighteen feet, he's gonna catch it at
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two feet, maybe even out at the three
Speaker 1: point line. Also, then from the other wing, they're basically
Speaker 1: completely ignoring that guy and sending that guard to right
Speaker 1: behind Embiid and trying to bait them into throwing that
Speaker 1: high post entry so that guard can just come in
Speaker 1: and knock the pass away. And the Sixers just in
Speaker 1: general throughout the game did not do a good enough job.
Speaker 1: I thought of reversing the ball, because when a guy's
Speaker 1: in three quarter front, he's already submitting himself to Embiid
Speaker 1: to flip position on him and get a seal this way, right,
Speaker 1: So all you have to do is throw that skip
Speaker 1: pass over the top to the other guard and Embiid
Speaker 1: can just reverse. Now he has excellent position in the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor with the defender pinned on his backside.
Speaker 1: And so that's a calendar that I'd like to see
Speaker 1: from Philly going into Game four. But really nice job
Speaker 1: from Boston of just preventing James Harden and Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: from doing what they like to do. And again, that's
Speaker 1: playoff basketball, is forcing teams to do things that they're
Speaker 1: uncomfortable with and hoping to four stars into bad games,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I thought Robert Williams was
Speaker 1: excellent on the back line. He had three blocks. Offensively,
Speaker 1: I thought Boston. You know, I've always been really impressed
Speaker 1: by Boston's highs offensively because they're kind of the quintessential
Speaker 1: modern version of driving kick basketball, and they find a
Speaker 1: bunch of different ways to generate dribble penetration, which is cool.
Speaker 1: So they'll do it in transition. They'll do it off
Speaker 1: the dribble. They'll do it and pick and roll for sure.
Speaker 1: But one of the biggest ways that they do it
Speaker 1: is by slipping screens. So a lot of teams like
Speaker 1: to switch guard guard screens, right, So like if Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum and Marcus Smart set a screen, rather than trying
Speaker 1: to navigate that with a traditional screen and roll coverage,
Speaker 1: they'll just have the two guards switch, right. So now
Speaker 1: you have a wing on whoever the guard is for
Speaker 1: Boston and a guard on the wing for Boston. But
Speaker 1: you're not super worried about that compared to a traditional
Speaker 1: post mismatch, right. So in those switching situations, often the
Speaker 1: defenders will get confused or have a little delay before
Speaker 1: they guard who they're gonna guard, and so slipping is open.
Speaker 1: And so one of the things they've done, especially with Tatum,
Speaker 1: because Tatum is so good at finishing at the rim
Speaker 1: and making that kickout pass. But they'll have Tatum come
Speaker 1: set of guard to guard screen and then just slip
Speaker 1: to the rim and like Marcus Marter or Derek White
Speaker 1: or whatever, we'll just kind of throw that little float
Speaker 1: pass over the top, and then Tatum is now barreling
Speaker 1: downhill because the two switching defenders are still up high.
Speaker 1: Tatum is now downhill. And it's the same concept that
Speaker 1: we've been talking about with all of these short roles
Speaker 1: with Deandreyton and Jacu Landale or with Draymond Green with
Speaker 1: the Warriors. Now it's Jason Tatum barreling down the rim
Speaker 1: and the low man having to make a decision do
Speaker 1: I stop Tatum at the rim or do I stay
Speaker 1: with my shooter in the corner. And Boston has extremely
Speaker 1: good spacing. That's one of their best abilities offensively. Everything
Speaker 1: is constantly in a typical four out or five out
Speaker 1: spacing system, so there's always shooters in the corners, there's
Speaker 1: always shooters on the wing. If they're in five out,
Speaker 1: they'll be spread out a little bit further. If they're
Speaker 1: in a four out situation, there will be a guy
Speaker 1: in the dunker spot. But they have very, very consistent spacing,
Speaker 1: and so these raids are super easy. So Tatum will
Speaker 1: set the screen, he'll slip to the ram, they'll throw
Speaker 1: that little pass over the top. He'll then throw a
Speaker 1: touch pass to Al Horford in the corner, who will
Speaker 1: throw that extra pass to Derek White, because Derek White's
Speaker 1: defender rotates down to Al Horford and now Derek Whit's
Speaker 1: shooting in wide open three. And again, like driving kick,
Speaker 1: basketball is more about what happens after the initial compromising
Speaker 1: offensive play, not the beginning. Like I would argue that
Speaker 1: dribbling the ball down the floor and just trying to
Speaker 1: beat somebody off the dribble is sometimes the hardest way
Speaker 1: to do it, especially against the set elite NBA playoff defense,
Speaker 1: So finding other ways to generate that rotation situation, like
Speaker 1: slipping screens, going into the post, you know, like literally
Speaker 1: anything pushing in transition, anything that gets a defender to
Speaker 1: leave his man to offer help, which gets you into
Speaker 1: that driving kick situation. And what makes Boston so deadly
Speaker 1: and driving kick is everybody's an offensive threat. I've talked
Speaker 1: about this before, but their aggregate offensive skill is probably
Speaker 1: the best in the league. Because you got fifty points
Speaker 1: from the two j's in this game, which is basically
Speaker 1: becoming a guarantee these days. And then you get the
Speaker 1: three guard course, you have Marcus Smart, Derek White, and
Speaker 1: Malcolm Brogden, which is like one of the most underrated
Speaker 1: guard corps in the league. Like Malcolm Brogden completely dominates
Speaker 1: Game two right off the bench, and then in this
Speaker 1: game you get twenty eight from Derek White and Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart combined. Right, So, like you just have so much
Speaker 1: offensive skill on the floor that when they start doing
Speaker 1: the driving kick thing, everybody who has the basketball is
Speaker 1: a great passer, a great shooter, and a guy that
Speaker 1: can attack the rim if needed. Right. I mean we
Speaker 1: even saw Al Horford drive and dunk on Giannis, you know,
Speaker 1: in the in the conference semifinals last year. Like he's
Speaker 1: another guy that can legit play, drive and kick from
Speaker 1: the center position. That's a huge asset. And then at
Speaker 1: the end of the game, it was Jason Tatum shot making.
Speaker 1: He was really hunting Tobias Harris. They got it within seven,
Speaker 1: and he hits a post up fade away over Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris and then they get it back to six and
Speaker 1: then he's got d Anthony Melton on him. He sets
Speaker 1: a ball screen to get Tobias Harris switched on him,
Speaker 1: and then he just does like a hard step back
Speaker 1: three on the left wing and knocks it down. Basically
Speaker 1: ice is the game. Really impressive late game shot making
Speaker 1: from Tatum on the Sixers front, Like the James Harden
Speaker 1: thing is this weird, man, you've disengaged from the jump. Well, really,
Speaker 1: the whole Sixers team was disengaged from the jump. They
Speaker 1: gave up two transition threes to Boston in the first
Speaker 1: handful of possessions where they just didn't get matched up.
Speaker 1: Like Marcus mart just walks up and takes a wide
Speaker 1: open three, Jason Tatum just walks up and takes a
Speaker 1: wide open three, because guys just start talking and getting
Speaker 1: matched up. But James Harden in particular, one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things that is frustrating for me with him is
Speaker 1: he's always just a little too loose and relaxed instead
Speaker 1: of like really playing with physical force. It's the NBA playoffs, man,
Speaker 1: You're playing against one of the best defensive teams in
Speaker 1: the league and certainly one of the most talented defensive
Speaker 1: rosters in the league. Like, there is no loosey, goosey
Speaker 1: basketball that's gonna work against that team. You've got to
Speaker 1: be tight with everything. You can't just like dribble the
Speaker 1: ball soft to a spot and then throw like a
Speaker 1: looping pass. No, you've got to get there with force.
Speaker 1: You gotta play with physicality. You gotta apply pressure on
Speaker 1: the rim and really draw defenders in before you throw passes,
Speaker 1: or you're gonna have turnovers. Turn the ball over a lot,
Speaker 1: couldn't make any shots, super indecisive. There was a play
Speaker 1: where he got downhill and it had an easy floater
Speaker 1: in the lane, just didn't take it. You know, he
Speaker 1: was I talked earlier about the Robert Williams block where
Speaker 1: he just missed a wide open shooter on the week's
Speaker 1: side because he's just not making the right reads. It
Speaker 1: just was kind of a bizarre James Harden performance. And
Speaker 1: you know what's funny is this is the latest in
Speaker 1: a long line of a concerning trend with James Harden
Speaker 1: involving his game faltering over the course of a playoff series.
Speaker 1: I noticed this for the first time in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: But you know, I have this theory with James Harden
Speaker 1: that the repetitive nature of his game is what makes
Speaker 1: him easier to guard over time. So you'll see him
Speaker 1: be super dominant in game ones, and then usually over
Speaker 1: the course of the series he kind of falls apart.
Speaker 1: That's when you get those really bad games at the
Speaker 1: end of playoff series, right, So twenty eighteen against Minnesota
Speaker 1: Game one, James Harden has forty four points on fifty
Speaker 1: eight percent shooting, rest of the series, twenty five points
Speaker 1: per game on thirty six percent shooting. Against Utah game one,
Speaker 1: forty one points on forty six percent shooting rest of
Speaker 1: the series, twenty five points per game on thirty nine
Speaker 1: percent shooting Against the Warriors that year, the seven gamer
Speaker 1: forty one points on fifty eight percent shooting in game one,
Speaker 1: twenty seven points per game on thirty nine percent shooting
Speaker 1: the rest of the series. In twenty twenty in the
Speaker 1: Bubble against Oklahoma City, thirty seven points on fifty five
Speaker 1: percent shooting in game one, twenty nine points on forty
Speaker 1: five percent shooting the rest of the series. Against the
Speaker 1: Lakers thirty six on sixty percent shooting in game one,
Speaker 1: twenty eight on forty seven percent shooting the rest of
Speaker 1: the series. And those aren't as inefficient as some of
Speaker 1: his others, but again you can see the drop off
Speaker 1: from game one over the course of the series. And
Speaker 1: then this year he hit seven threes and scores twenty
Speaker 1: three points in game one against Brooklyn, shoots thirty three
Speaker 1: percent the rest of the series and averages fifteen points
Speaker 1: game one against Boston, forty five points on fifty seven
Speaker 1: percent field goals, fourteen points per game on eighteen percent
Speaker 1: field goals in the last two games. So you can
Speaker 1: see this consistent trend of like first time anybody sees
Speaker 1: James Harden, they really struggle to guard him. He gets
Speaker 1: to his spots, he knocks down a bunch of step
Speaker 1: back the through he's he puts up big numbers. Over
Speaker 1: the course of the series, they start to figure it
Speaker 1: out and again, like juxapose it with Devin Booker, who
Speaker 1: is so good at varying his attack, like this time
Speaker 1: I'm attacking in the post, this time, I'm attacking in transition.
Speaker 1: This time, I'm just gonna go on the catch and
Speaker 1: jab step and go to my spot and hit a three.
Speaker 1: This time I'm working in pick and roll, you know.
Speaker 1: This time I'm going to you know, clear out, slow
Speaker 1: down ISO and hit a hard jab step jumper going
Speaker 1: to my left right. Like he's gonna have all these
Speaker 1: different variations of his offensive attack, and so it makes
Speaker 1: him kind of actually gain strength as the series progresses.
Speaker 1: But with James Harden, it's kind of the same thing
Speaker 1: every time. It's I'm gonna isolate you, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to kind of get that left foot forward and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pound those between the leg dribbles until I kind
Speaker 1: of see you leaning one way. And if you're leaning
Speaker 1: on my step back, I'm gonna go left and drive
Speaker 1: hard to the basket. If you're leaning too hard on
Speaker 1: my left hand, I'm gonna do a hard left right
Speaker 1: crossover and try to get back to the right. If
Speaker 1: you're playing too far off of me, I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: a hard step back dribble into that step back jump
Speaker 1: shot going to my right. Like he's gonna to do
Speaker 1: that same kind of sequence of events in every single iso,
Speaker 1: and it's almost always above the break. Then you go
Speaker 1: to the pick and roll situation, same type of thing.
Speaker 1: There's no variation. He doesn't have a hard pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot in pick and roll. His jump shot in
Speaker 1: the mid range is more of a step back that
Speaker 1: he likes to take in isolation situations. So in pick
Speaker 1: and roll, it's like he's gonna go all the way
Speaker 1: to the rim, and so you can kind of funnel
Speaker 1: him properly, and especially if you can send him to
Speaker 1: his right hand. He's not gonna finish at the rim
Speaker 1: very well. So it just in a single game sample size,
Speaker 1: when people aren't familiar with it or not ready for it,
Speaker 1: he can have a lot of success. But like NBA defenders,
Speaker 1: they see that same sequence of moves dozens and dozens
Speaker 1: of times, and by game four they just have it
Speaker 1: figured out. And I mean, this is the same player
Speaker 1: that Boston had no idea what to do with in
Speaker 1: Game one and now he looks, you know, incredibly ineffective
Speaker 1: as we've progressed and we're not even I mean we're
Speaker 1: in game three, series two to one. But it is
Speaker 1: definitely a concerning trend with James Harden. I do think
Speaker 1: think that is the reason why he struggled so much
Speaker 1: in the postseason. Joelbid I thought he competed his ass
Speaker 1: off on both ends. He had thirty and thirteen and
Speaker 1: he had four blocks, but he got ten combined made
Speaker 1: field goals from James Harden, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris.
Speaker 1: That's just not going to cut it. I Mean, I've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about how that's the most talented top
Speaker 1: four in basketball. But if they're like I've talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot, but sometimes it's more simple than any
Speaker 1: sort of schematic or any sort of complicated concept. It's like, hey,
Speaker 1: did your guys play better than they did the last game,
Speaker 1: because that's going to fix a lot of your problems.
Speaker 1: Like what did I say about the Warriors series inconsistency
Speaker 1: from Lebron James From Lebron James and Anthony Davis is
Speaker 1: their biggest threat. Said to Colin, I was like, if
Speaker 1: they play great consistently, they'll beat the Warriors. If they don't,
Speaker 1: they'll lose Anthony Davis incredible. In game one, they win
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis awful. In game two, they lose Steph Curry awful.
Speaker 1: In game one, they lose Steph Curry amazing. In game
Speaker 1: two they win. You kind of get the point here,
Speaker 1: like they need James Harden to play well to have
Speaker 1: any chance to beat the Celtics. It's just a fact
Speaker 1: now from an adjustment standpoint, A couple things I'd like
Speaker 1: to see them do on the hard in front. I'd
Speaker 1: like to see them run more guard guard screens early
Speaker 1: in the possession to get a smaller defender on Harden
Speaker 1: so that he's a little bit more effective in pick
Speaker 1: and roll. Again, a big part of that's gonna be
Speaker 1: pushing with pace so that you have time to run
Speaker 1: multiple actions, and regardless of anything having to do with
Speaker 1: James Harden in general, getting the ball up the four
Speaker 1: floor clicker quicker and flipping sides I think could help
Speaker 1: a lot because Boston is loading up so much on
Speaker 1: the strong side that like just a skip pass could
Speaker 1: go a long way to get any entire defense to rotate.
Speaker 1: You do that once or twice, their shel drill just
Speaker 1: gets a little looser now instead of being completely loaded
Speaker 1: up on the side, they're only kind of loaded up
Speaker 1: on the side, which could go a long way towards
Speaker 1: helping that Joel embiid high post catch or elbow catch right.
Speaker 1: So I'd like to see them get the ball up
Speaker 1: the floor quicker and reverse sides of the floor a
Speaker 1: little bit more. We talked about this earlier with the
Speaker 1: embiid at the elbow stuff, but when they're doing that
Speaker 1: three quarter front with backside help that bracketing embiid before
Speaker 1: the catch at the elbow, that's where you want to
Speaker 1: throw that skip pass so that Joel and Bee can
Speaker 1: reverse pivot and have a good seal at the elbow
Speaker 1: on the other side of the floor. And then just
Speaker 1: in general, they need to play better defense. I didn't
Speaker 1: think their defensive effort was very sharp to start the game.
Speaker 1: They got a little bit more desperate at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, but it just was too late at
Speaker 1: that point. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for this morning. We will be back after heat Nicks
Speaker 1: at about three point thirty four o'clock ish Pacific time,
Speaker 1: and then we'll be going after Warriors Lakers. The volume