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Speaker 2: see dkang dot co slash audio. All right, welcome to
Speaker 2: hoops tonight. You're at the Volume. Happy someday everybody. Hope
Speaker 2: all of you guys are having a great night. Very
Speaker 2: excited to break down Game seven of the Warriors and
Speaker 2: the Rockets. Is the Warriors advance. We also got Game
Speaker 2: one of Cavs Pacers, a very interesting game where the
Speaker 2: Pacers threw a great punch. Sorry for the delay getting
Speaker 2: over here tonight. I had to work with mister Colin
Speaker 2: Cowherd tonight. He's the boss mans. You never say no,
Speaker 2: But I broke down a bunch of stuff with him
Speaker 2: about the first round on his show that you guys
Speaker 2: will see on the Volumes feed later. But I really
Speaker 2: wanted to take some time to get into the nitty
Speaker 2: gritty of what happened tonight. So we're gonna do that
Speaker 2: on today's show. After we hit the two games at
Speaker 2: the tail end, I'm gonna go through each of the
Speaker 2: eight first round series and talk about the biggest thing
Speaker 2: that I learned through those series. When we finish up
Speaker 2: here tonight, after we get through those three segments, we're
Speaker 2: gonna head over to playback. Over on playback, we're gonna
Speaker 2: start talking about Minnesota versus Golden State first round. We're
Speaker 2: gonna go through some film. We're gonna take questions from
Speaker 2: you guys. You're gonna get to come up on the stage.
Speaker 2: So if you're not already set up on playback, make
Speaker 2: sure you guys get set up over there on the
Speaker 2: Hoops Tonight channel. As soon as we wrap up here
Speaker 2: live on YouTube, we're heading over. I hope you guys
Speaker 2: will come hang out for another forty five minutes as
Speaker 2: we do some more stuff to talk some hoops and
Speaker 2: watch some film. So you guys on the Joe before
Speaker 2: we get started, subscribe to the Hoops and Not YouTube
Speaker 2: channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 2: Follow me on Twitter at underscore json LTS. You guys
Speaker 2: don't miss show announcement, So forget about a podcast feed
Speaker 2: where you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's
Speaker 2: also super helpful if you leave a rating in a
Speaker 2: review on that front. Don't forget about social media feeds
Speaker 2: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, where're making content throughout the
Speaker 2: remainder their season. Follow us there the last but not least,
Speaker 2: keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube comments. So
Speaker 2: after Game six, I talked about two things that would
Speaker 2: need to go right in order for the Warriors to
Speaker 2: win Game seven. One day would need to get alpurn
Speaker 2: Shanghun and Fred Van Vliet under control. Those guys went
Speaker 2: for an efficient fifty points in Game six, and two
Speaker 2: they would need to get Steph going as a scorer
Speaker 2: because even though we can create advantages, because Houston can
Speaker 2: tighten the screws the way they do, He's really the
Speaker 2: only guy who can save them when Houston's really in
Speaker 2: that type of groove defensively. We talked about this a
Speaker 2: lot after Game six. You can't point to Moses Moody
Speaker 2: to save you. You can't point to Brandon Pajemski to save you,
Speaker 2: even like with Buddy Heal's hot shooting in the first half.
Speaker 2: In that third quarter, it ultimately came down to Steph
Speaker 2: and his ability to generate offense against an elite, momentous
Speaker 2: attack from Houston. They took the first piece, they took
Speaker 2: care of that for piece right away. Right Draymon had
Speaker 2: his best defensive game of the series in my opinion.
Speaker 2: He had Shangoon in jail. His attempts close to the
Speaker 2: rim looked super disrupted. He had some bad misses there.
Speaker 2: He was beating Shangun to spot so cleanly in the
Speaker 2: second half that he kept settling for that stupid one
Speaker 2: leg fade away that he was either shooting way over
Speaker 2: the back of the rim or way short of the
Speaker 2: front of the rim. Draymon had him completely flustered defensively
Speaker 2: in that game. I want to give Kevon Looney some
Speaker 2: credit there to Kevon Luony has been great, but Draymond again,
Speaker 2: this has been a tough offensive series form. If you
Speaker 2: look at the way that the floor is set up,
Speaker 2: because they put Fran van Vliet on Draymond so that
Speaker 2: they can switch to Steph Draymond pick and roll. That
Speaker 2: took away Draymon's best piece of offensive utility for this team,
Speaker 2: which is connective playmaking leading those four on threes out
Speaker 2: of Steph Curry traps. But because they're just switching any
Speaker 2: screen with Draymon, it put him into a position where
Speaker 2: he was more of a spot up shooter, which by
Speaker 2: the way, he did hit a couple of big threes
Speaker 2: early in this game. But Draymond was in a tough
Speaker 2: position offensive in the series, and so it wasn't going
Speaker 2: to be a big box score series. That's a lot
Speaker 2: of Warriors fans saying like, oh, we're gonna, you know,
Speaker 2: take a look at Draymond after this series because he's
Speaker 2: not producing. It's like this was never going to be
Speaker 2: the series where he produced offensively because of the way
Speaker 2: Houston matched up. They kept their three switchiest defenders on Draymond, Jimmy,
Speaker 2: and Steph to try to neutralize any two man game
Speaker 2: with those two, so that you'd have to play two
Speaker 2: man game with whoever else was on the floor. But
Speaker 2: Draymond did an amazing job defensively in the series and
Speaker 2: gained control over one of the biggest problems they were having,
Speaker 2: which was Shang Gooon. Over the course of the series,
Speaker 2: all of their guards did a fantastic job on Fred
Speaker 2: van Vliet. Those guys held They held Fred and Shang
Speaker 2: Gun together to thirty eight points on thirty six shots,
Speaker 2: so very inefficient lower volume, and most of the damage
Speaker 2: that those two did was in the fourth quarter after
Speaker 2: Golden State had already taken control of the game. And
Speaker 2: that really, ultimately was why I never flipped my pick
Speaker 2: away from Golden State in this series. I just felt
Speaker 2: like Golden State could this offense if they ever needed to.
Speaker 2: I just figured they would have done it on Friday.
Speaker 2: I'm sure in the Warriors' locker room they're like, we
Speaker 2: should have done this on Friday, you know, give themselves
Speaker 2: a little bit of extra time. But they brought their
Speaker 2: requisite intensity and energy defensively tonight and they strangled Houston
Speaker 2: and that bought them quite a bit of margin for
Speaker 2: air on Steph scoring. Steph goes scoreless for almost the
Speaker 2: entire first half, but it didn't matter because Buddy Heald
Speaker 2: was incredible. Now, those of you guys who were on
Speaker 2: playback with me after Game six, we talked about this
Speaker 2: specific thing. Steve Kurlean heavily into Gary Payton in Game six,
Speaker 2: and I think it might have had something to do
Speaker 2: with foul trouble for Buddy Heald, but he just went
Speaker 2: away from Buddy Heeld. His minutes were super low, and
Speaker 2: they really really struggled offensively in that game. Right, But
Speaker 2: in this particular game, and maybe it was Gary Payton
Speaker 2: being sick. Maybe it was an adjustment from Steve Kerr,
Speaker 2: but we talked in the playback after Game six. The
Speaker 2: numbers clearly showed in this series that the Warriors were
Speaker 2: substantially better with Buddy Healed on the floor as a
Speaker 2: complimentary offensive piece than Gary Payton as complimentary defensive pace.
Speaker 2: I'm a huge Gary Payton fan. I just think this
Speaker 2: was a tough matchup for him. I was texting with
Speaker 2: Jackson earlier today. Jackson made a very interesting point. He
Speaker 2: was talking about how like in this matchup, because you're
Speaker 2: not as worried about Houston's guards doing a ton of
Speaker 2: damage just with like unbelievable star level talent, he doesn't
Speaker 2: have as much upside defensively in the series, and then
Speaker 2: the offensive limitations are still there. Gary Payton had moments
Speaker 2: in this series. He won a game in this series
Speaker 2: slipping out of ball screens right as we talked about.
Speaker 2: I think that was Game four. I remember it was
Speaker 2: either Game three or Game four. I can't remember one
Speaker 2: of the two in Golden State. But overall in this series,
Speaker 2: the team fared better with Buddy Heeled on the floor.
Speaker 2: They leaned more into him, tonight. It's that complimentary scoring,
Speaker 2: Like if Steph's gonna get face guarded and double teamed
Speaker 2: off of ball screens, there's a lot of space to operate.
Speaker 2: But he got a lot of clean looks and he
Speaker 2: was able to benefit off that. He had thirty three
Speaker 2: points on fifteen shots. But Houston made a run Iyande,
Speaker 2: a run that started in the late second half, extended
Speaker 2: into the excuse me a late first half, and extended
Speaker 2: into the early second half. Houston cut the lead down
Speaker 2: to three, and they tightened the screws and Buddy wasn't
Speaker 2: getting open and Jimmy wasn't getting open, and Steph was
Speaker 2: really the only guy who was going to be able
Speaker 2: to save them in that spot, and right when they
Speaker 2: needed him too, he got going. He had twenty two points,
Speaker 2: but that's underselling it because almost well all of that
Speaker 2: came over the final two quarters. In change. He had
Speaker 2: a little pull up three, a deep pull up three
Speaker 2: in the late first half, but all of those twenty
Speaker 2: two points came basically over the last you know, roughly
Speaker 2: twenty five to twenty six minutes of the game. He
Speaker 2: started working primarily on the ball instead of running through
Speaker 2: off ball action. There was a lot of high pick
Speaker 2: and roll, a lot of high ISO and those of
Speaker 2: us who have been following the Warriors over the last decade,
Speaker 2: we know that's the break glass in case of emergency
Speaker 2: approach for the Warriors when things get really tough on offense,
Speaker 2: and it's just the advantage of Steph. Steph can default
Speaker 2: into high ballscreen attack when he needs to, and he
Speaker 2: did an amazing job of it. Down the stretch, attacked
Speaker 2: Jabari Smith and an ISO and was able to shake
Speaker 2: him and get downhill all the way to the basket
Speaker 2: for a layup. Take that little piece and file it
Speaker 2: away from the Minnesota matchup because Steph is definitely more
Speaker 2: comfortable against taller athletes than he is against the load
Speaker 2: of the ground athletes, which is something to keep in mind.
Speaker 2: But he was the shot making was there, he was
Speaker 2: getting to the rim consistently. Steph just completely took over
Speaker 2: the game and Houston was never able to recover from it.
Speaker 2: Like guys, this is why I hold stars to that standard,
Speaker 2: especially when it's their role on that team. I knew
Speaker 2: Steph was capable of this. This is what he does
Speaker 2: better than just about anybody in the world, and it
Speaker 2: wasn't gonna be Moses Moody save in them. It wasn't
Speaker 2: gonna be Brandon Pajemski saving them. It was gonna be Steph.
Speaker 2: It had to be Steph, and Steph took that responsibility
Speaker 2: seriously and came through for his team, especially when that's
Speaker 2: your role. Like you know, it's like I, you want
Speaker 2: to know why I was really critical of Lebron after
Speaker 2: Game seven or excuse me, game five of their first
Speaker 2: round series because he wasn't rebounding. I wasn't as critical
Speaker 2: of him in the Game four loss because he only
Speaker 2: took two shots in the fourth quarter. His job wasn't
Speaker 2: to score on that team. It was Luca's job. Luca
Speaker 2: wasn't doing his job. In Game five, the Wolves kicked
Speaker 2: the shit out of the Lakers on the glass. Lebron's
Speaker 2: the one guy who was capable of anchoring them on
Speaker 2: the defensive glass, and it was him that I was
Speaker 2: seeing that was letting go of the rope and not
Speaker 2: doing his job. He's the star, he has the superpower.
Speaker 2: He's the one guy who could save them in that spot,
Speaker 2: and he couldn't do it that Luca in that Game four.
Speaker 2: He's the one guy who can create the offense against
Speaker 2: that elite defense and save the day. This is why
Speaker 2: I always look at stars before coaches, stars before role players.
Speaker 2: This is a unique sport in that in this sport,
Speaker 2: your superpower is your superpower is your superstars. They are
Speaker 2: the one being an entity on the court that can
Speaker 2: circumvent the surrounding circumstances. And when all hell broke loose
Speaker 2: tonight and Houston was making their run and a men
Speaker 2: Thompson's getting downhill with a rim every single time, Steph
Speaker 2: Curry took over the game. And when he took over
Speaker 2: the game, everyone else was helpless and the Warriors immediately
Speaker 2: pulled away. They immediately pulled away. And so those two
Speaker 2: dynamics that needed to flip the defense on Fred and
Speaker 2: Alburn and then the scoring for Steph Curry, they flipped.
Speaker 2: Warriors are able to flip the dynamic that took place
Speaker 2: over the other two games. I thought Jimmy was great
Speaker 2: again tonight. He hit a lot of stabilizing shots. He
Speaker 2: went on a little solo run in the fourth quarter
Speaker 2: that helped stiff arm the Rockets. I want to shout
Speaker 2: out Steve Kerr. I thought he coached a great series
Speaker 2: and I thought he played every right card in game seven,
Speaker 2: increasing Buddy Heels minutes like we talked about, although that
Speaker 2: might have had something to do with Garry hate and
Speaker 2: being sick. He played Kevon Looney instead of quinning post,
Speaker 2: which I thought was a really smart move after how
Speaker 2: they just got bludgeoned on the glass in game six.
Speaker 2: You needed to lean more towards rebounding. That was a
Speaker 2: really smart decision. Loony also had some really good defensive
Speaker 2: possessions on Shangun. He had some adjustments for the zone.
Speaker 2: We talked about that after game six, like they really
Speaker 2: struggled against the zone in the fourth quarter. They just
Speaker 2: had some innovative stuff. You know, there was a possession,
Speaker 2: did you guys see the possession where Jimmy got the
Speaker 2: layup because him and Steph both broke open on a
Speaker 2: back cut at the same time and they kind of
Speaker 2: almost ran into each other, but Jimmy got the layup.
Speaker 2: What they were doing in that sequence, which I thought
Speaker 2: was really smart, is they were triggering switches and then
Speaker 2: back cutting. Steph has got Shangun on him. He's running
Speaker 2: out like he's gonna go to the wing. Shanggoon passes him.
Speaker 2: Off to the next guy. Steph's watching now print as
Speaker 2: soon as he passes him off, he back cuts. Because
Speaker 2: as soon as he passes him off, he relaxes. Steph
Speaker 2: was able to get back cut right to the rim.
Speaker 2: He was actually wide open. Jimmy ended up getting the ball,
Speaker 2: same sort of thing from Jimmy trigger to switch back
Speaker 2: cut out of it. They got a wide open three
Speaker 2: for Buddy. Heel. That a really smart play design where
Speaker 2: they had Steph flash to the high post to occupy
Speaker 2: a defender right as Jimmy was racking to the right
Speaker 2: off of his man, which occupied the two top guys
Speaker 2: in the zone, and Buddy relocated across the top of
Speaker 2: the key, wide open for three. The current his staff
Speaker 2: took the time to look through some specific details for
Speaker 2: ways they could get openings against that zone defense. I
Speaker 2: thought the Warriors championship pedigree showed in a big way tonight.
Speaker 2: Is they got the winning game in Game seven. Looking
Speaker 2: forward to Minnesota, I was, Colin asked me tonight, He
Speaker 2: was like, you know, after what we saw from Houston,
Speaker 2: you know, Minnesota in theory is just a better version
Speaker 2: of Houston. You know, is Golden State just gonna get crushed.
Speaker 2: And one of the things I told Colin, I don't
Speaker 2: know who I'm gonna pick yet. I'm gonna I want
Speaker 2: to watch more film, I want to get more into it.
Speaker 2: But I am way more on the coin flip side
Speaker 2: of things then a lot of I think there's gonna
Speaker 2: be a lot of Warriors pessimism. You guys are gonna
Speaker 2: see on in sports media over the next couple of days.
Speaker 2: I think you're gonna see a lot of They're gonna
Speaker 2: go get crushed by Minnesota. And here's the thing, maybe
Speaker 2: they do. Maybe they go get crushed by Minnesota. I
Speaker 2: look at it as a fundamentally different matchup than Houston
Speaker 2: in some good ways and some bad ways. There's no
Speaker 2: doubt they're gonna be harder to guard. Julius Randall and
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards and nasried that they're an entirely different animal
Speaker 2: offensively than what Houston does. That said the other end
Speaker 2: of the floor, I do think Golden State's gonna have
Speaker 2: actually more success scoring against Minnesota than they did against Houston.
Speaker 2: There's a big difference between like the speed that Houston
Speaker 2: has on the ground in the form of Fred van
Speaker 2: Vliet and a men Thompson, which were the two defenders
Speaker 2: who did the best job on Steph and bigger athletes.
Speaker 2: Steph looked pretty comfortable tonight against Jabari Smith Junior. He
Speaker 2: looked pretty comfortable tonight against Jabari in the entire series.
Speaker 2: He looks comfortable against Dylan Brooks on an island in isolation.
Speaker 2: In those situations, those bigger, taller wings, they have more weight.
Speaker 2: They struggled to move side to side as quickly as
Speaker 2: some smaller players do, like in a weird way, like,
Speaker 2: I am very concerned about Golden State's abilities should they
Speaker 2: win the next round to compete with a team like
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City because Oklahoma City has a ton of speed
Speaker 2: on the ground. They literally are a much better version
Speaker 2: of Houston, who's really fast on the ground, excellent in rotation.
Speaker 2: They also have rim protection and also have super high
Speaker 2: level offensive talent. That's a tougher matchup for Golden State
Speaker 2: now in my opinion, after what we saw from Houston.
Speaker 2: But Minnesota it's a lot of like Julius Randalls, kind
Speaker 2: of a big upright athlete that you can move side
Speaker 2: to side on and have success against. Even Jaden McDaniels
Speaker 2: is a guy that Steph can break free of because
Speaker 2: he's a little bit stilty and upright, and Steph can
Speaker 2: move side to side against him. Working against Nas Reed,
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna have a good amount of success
Speaker 2: like that series. It's also a fundamentally different defensive type
Speaker 2: of job than what Minnesota just had against La La.
Speaker 2: Two big giant forwards that are just trying to play
Speaker 2: isoball that plays directly into what Minnesota does well. Those
Speaker 2: are matchups that Naz Red and Julius Randall can succeed
Speaker 2: in that they're not going to succeed in against Steph.
Speaker 2: Even just the concept of isolation, Minnesota is gonna have
Speaker 2: to deal with all of the ball and the player
Speaker 2: movement as guys are running around. And by the way,
Speaker 2: if you guys want to see some examples, we'll go
Speaker 2: over them in playback after the show. Come hang out
Speaker 2: with us on playback and I'll show you guys some film.
Speaker 2: The last two wins that Golden State had against Minnesota
Speaker 2: this year, Steph beat them down the stretch with off
Speaker 2: ball movement as guys like Ant and Nas and Julius
Speaker 2: Randall were not as attentive as they need to be.
Speaker 2: The job against the Lakers was a physical job. We
Speaker 2: can hold up on an island against Lebron and Luca
Speaker 2: in one on one. The job against the Warriors is
Speaker 2: a mental job. It's about tracking shooters, getting through action,
Speaker 2: communicating through tons of switches. Totally different jobs. So it's
Speaker 2: gonna be an interesting series. I think. I haven't seen
Speaker 2: the odds yet. I'll look him up here in a minute,
Speaker 2: but I do think that Golden State has the ability
Speaker 2: through Steph to have a more successful offensive series against
Speaker 2: Minnesota than they did against Houston, which I think could
Speaker 2: make it a closer series. Again, not gonna make a
Speaker 2: pick tonight, but I'm leaning much closer towards that being
Speaker 2: a coin flip series than it being some sort of
Speaker 2: giant advantage towards Minnesota. On the Houston front, I think
Speaker 2: the answer after tonight is you got to go after Yannis.
Speaker 2: I think he's the obvious decision. I think he fits
Speaker 2: the identity of the team. I think that you put
Speaker 2: everything on the table but a men Thompson. If you
Speaker 2: can combine Janis as a legitimate shot creator with everything
Speaker 2: that you have in the size and physicality of this team,
Speaker 2: you'll basically be a superstar led version of this Houston
Speaker 2: Rockets team, which I think could be super exciting. But
Speaker 2: we will talk more about the Rockets on another day.
Speaker 2: All right, So we're gonna hit Pacers Calves for a
Speaker 2: little bit and then I'm gonna go over my takeaways
Speaker 2: from each of the eight first round series, and then
Speaker 2: after that we will head over to playback for the
Speaker 2: rest of the night. So I thought the Pacers just
Speaker 2: completely caught the Calves off guard today. The Pacers offense
Speaker 2: is bill around the ability of all five players on
Speaker 2: the floor to be able to both score and playmake
Speaker 2: out of every spot. Right, So like knockdown, catch and
Speaker 2: shoot threes, but also to hit off the dribble threes
Speaker 2: out of combinations. You'll see Siakam and Turner even hit
Speaker 2: the occasional off the dribble three. Right. All five guys
Speaker 2: can score in the mid range, All five guys can
Speaker 2: score at the rim. All five guys can pass and
Speaker 2: play playmate out of any of those spots. Right. None
Speaker 2: of the guys are super high level offensive players, but
Speaker 2: they all can be super effective if they have an advantage,
Speaker 2: meaning a defender running at them versus sitting stationary in
Speaker 2: front of them, and Tyre's Halliburton is the most relentless
Speaker 2: advantage Hunter I have ever seen. You turn your head
Speaker 2: and a guy relocates or cuts behind you, Tyree's gonna
Speaker 2: hit him every single time you sink too far into
Speaker 2: nail help off the top of the off of the
Speaker 2: wing like he's gonna throw that swing pass and burn you.
Speaker 2: Every single time you get caught with a foot in
Speaker 2: the paint on the weak side, He's gonna burn you
Speaker 2: with that skip pass every single time. I thought the
Speaker 2: Cavs came out the gates today super undisciplined and unfocused
Speaker 2: in their off ball defense. Early in the game was
Speaker 2: a lot of Max Struce and Jared Allen. Those are
Speaker 2: the two guys that were consistently getting burned, just getting
Speaker 2: caught sinking into the lane and help or just not
Speaker 2: paying attention as their main is relocating or cutting around them.
Speaker 2: DeAndre Hunter, when he was in the game, he was brutal.
Speaker 2: I counted about a half dozen different mistakes that he
Speaker 2: made that directly led to good opportunities for the Pacers. Really,
Speaker 2: the Pacers offense operated at peak efficiency all night. Here's
Speaker 2: some crazy stats for you. They generated seventeen unguarded catch
Speaker 2: and shoot threes compared to just ten for Cleveland. They
Speaker 2: got better looks. They had a one seventeen offensive rating
Speaker 2: in the half court. That's insane, ninety seven for Cleveland
Speaker 2: in this game, twenty seven spot up opportunities for Indiana
Speaker 2: that they converted at a rate of one point five
Speaker 2: to six points per possession. They got over one point
Speaker 2: three points per jump shot. Overall, they shot extremely well.
Speaker 2: All their play types worked. They had a one to
Speaker 2: seventeen offensive rating on post ups including passes, a one
Speaker 2: to thirty six offensive rating, and pick and rolls including passes,
Speaker 2: a one to eleven offensive rating on isolations including passes.
Speaker 2: They just picked the calves apart tonight. And then in
Speaker 2: crunch time, like Donovan Mitchell goes on a run in
Speaker 2: that third quarter, gets down Hill a bunch, It turns
Speaker 2: into a back and forth game in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 2: and in crunch time, Indiana was able to take control
Speaker 2: again and it came down to Tyre's Halliburton beating Jared Allen.
Speaker 2: In switches. We talked a lot about this in the
Speaker 2: series preview. Inevitably, as things grind down, especially late in
Speaker 2: games in Cleveland, does a lot of switching with their
Speaker 2: bigs in general, but they did run a good amount
Speaker 2: of you know, traditional kind of picking there, like like
Speaker 2: like high drop type of looks where they tried not
Speaker 2: to switch Mobley and Allen onto guards earlier in the
Speaker 2: game if they could avoid it. But Jared Allen throughout
Speaker 2: the game at various points, a few times in the
Speaker 2: first half and then a bunch of times down the
Speaker 2: stretch was switching on to Tyrese Halliburton in screening it.
Speaker 2: And that's where the difference is between Tyreese when he's
Speaker 2: at a near MVP level versus the guy that we
Speaker 2: saw for most of the end of last year when
Speaker 2: he wasn't very explosive. He's such a smart player that
Speaker 2: if you run drop coverage or traditional at the level
Speaker 2: coverage or any sort of traditional pick and roll coverage,
Speaker 2: he just passes the ball too well. You'll get picked
Speaker 2: apart as a passer. But if you can shut down
Speaker 2: those openings by switching, you could put the onus on
Speaker 2: Tyre's Halliburton to beat you as an isolation player. And
Speaker 2: when he had his hamstring injury, he just wasn't quick
Speaker 2: enough with that first step to like consistently beat people
Speaker 2: off the dribble and make some good stuff happen there.
Speaker 2: He beat Jared Allen on a switch six times in
Speaker 2: this game for either a bucket or a kickout to
Speaker 2: somebody else for a bucket three times in crunch Time.
Speaker 2: The sequence in Crunch Time hits a step back three
Speaker 2: at the top of the key, gets down into the
Speaker 2: painted area, it takes a dramatic step back up to
Speaker 2: the top, knocks it down on the second one on
Speaker 2: the switch. Donove and Mitchell follows Miles Turner down the
Speaker 2: lane as Miles Turner is rolling, so Halliburton's sitting against
Speaker 2: Alan up top on the switch on the other side
Speaker 2: of the floor. DeAndre Hunter comes over to try to
Speaker 2: scam to try to scram Donovan Mitchell out of the switch,
Speaker 2: meaning he's going over to Donovan and being like, you
Speaker 2: get out to my man over here on the wing.
Speaker 2: I think it was nem hard and I will take
Speaker 2: Miles Turner so that I can battle with him on
Speaker 2: the glass, meaning an interchange. Right, So Mitchell's on Turner,
Speaker 2: DeAndre Hunter's coming over to scram him out of the switch.
Speaker 2: There's a little miscommunication. Donovan Mitchell's not paying attention. Donov
Speaker 2: Mitchell had a really bad game on both ends of
Speaker 2: the floor, in my opinion. We'll talk about that in
Speaker 2: a minute, but especially on defense, Donovan's not paying attention,
Speaker 2: so nem Hard's wide open. Just for a second, nem
Speaker 2: Hard's wide open, and Halliburton just throws the easy swing
Speaker 2: pass like he does every single time you make that
Speaker 2: kind of mistake, and nem Hard knocks down the three,
Speaker 2: and then he beats him to the basket, takes a
Speaker 2: series of moves towards the right elbow against Jared Allen,
Speaker 2: and then beats him with a step through moves and
Speaker 2: banks it in, and so like, even when Cleveland took
Speaker 2: a lead and the game slowed down and they got
Speaker 2: into half court, Indy was able to reassertain control just
Speaker 2: by being a better half court team than Cleveland was.
Speaker 2: And I thought Tyree's Halliburton was the best player in
Speaker 2: the in Game one. I thought he pretty significantly outplayed
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell really on both ends of the floor, and
Speaker 2: like Indy just came in and threw a great punch.
Speaker 2: I thought as a team they were great defensively, making
Speaker 2: everything hard on Donovan Mitchell. I think it's gonna be
Speaker 2: a pretty significant wake up call for the Calves on
Speaker 2: a bunch of levels, Like if you're not familiar with
Speaker 2: what the Indiana Pacers do, what a great game one
Speaker 2: just as a crash course in what makes them such
Speaker 2: a scary team. And like Tyre's Halliburton's sneaky, playing pretty
Speaker 2: close to that superstar level over the course of the
Speaker 2: last few games. And he's like cooking everybody in every
Speaker 2: which way, and he's got that offense humming at about
Speaker 2: as high a level as you'll see an offense operate
Speaker 2: in the NBA Playoffs. Really impressive game one from Indiana.
Speaker 2: On the Calves front, the attentiveness off ball is the
Speaker 2: big one. There are so many situations, especially in the
Speaker 2: early parts of the game, where Cleveland would, like you know,
Speaker 2: their guy would give up the ball and they would
Speaker 2: go relocate to somewhere else on the floor, and you
Speaker 2: would see Cavs defenders off ball just relax, and when
Speaker 2: they relax, they just would get burned every single time
Speaker 2: with the pass. Simple example, there's a play where I
Speaker 2: think it was Nie Smith. Nie Smith's on the right
Speaker 2: wing and I think he was being guarded by Max
Speaker 2: Strus was the guy guarding him, but I'm pretty sure
Speaker 2: it was Nie Smith on the right wing and Haliburton
Speaker 2: gets Jared Allen on a switch and he's dancing with
Speaker 2: the ball and Max Strus just relaxes and he kind
Speaker 2: of like sits back down towards the left elbow, like
Speaker 2: ten feet off of Nie Smith, not even helping on
Speaker 2: the drive. Jared Allen's not even compromised. Just easy swing
Speaker 2: pass over to the right wing. There's a wide open
Speaker 2: catch and shoot three for Nie Smith that he knocks down,
Speaker 2: and it's like, I know, Max Strus can be a better,
Speaker 2: more attentive defender. He lost Andrew Aaron Nee Smith on
Speaker 2: the first possession of the game, same sort of thing,
Speaker 2: sinking into nail help, staring over at the ball at
Speaker 2: Tyres Halliburton swing pass Nie Smith beats him off the
Speaker 2: dribble attacking a close out and gets a little banking him.
Speaker 2: DeAndre Hunter. Jared Allen lost Pascal Siakam a bunch of
Speaker 2: times early in the game. Like they're just as a team,
Speaker 2: they need to really be more mentally engaged defensively off
Speaker 2: the ball against this Indiana Pacers team. You cannot make
Speaker 2: those types of mistakes. You will get burned and then
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell. I thought he just did a really poor
Speaker 2: job of managing that game. He tried to solve all
Speaker 2: of his problems by scoring. I was watched. I've rewatched
Speaker 2: the entire game during the Warriors game, and I rewatched
Speaker 2: every single Cavs offensive possession, and there are just a
Speaker 2: lot of situations where Donovan's getting into the middle of
Speaker 2: the floor and there are kickout opportunities there and he's
Speaker 2: not taking them. He's taking contested floaters and step throughs
Speaker 2: and euros and things along those lines. He ends up
Speaker 2: taking thirty shots to get to you know, the thirty
Speaker 2: whatever points that he had in the game is super inefficient.
Speaker 2: He burned out all of his energy so that he
Speaker 2: had nothing for the defensive end of the floor and
Speaker 2: was getting cooked in a bunch of different ways on
Speaker 2: that end. Like I just thought, he tried to solve
Speaker 2: all of his problems by scoring, and I thought it
Speaker 2: was a mistake. Remember, Cleveland is at their best when
Speaker 2: the ball is popping around. They are a team that
Speaker 2: can generate a lot more in the way of catch
Speaker 2: and shoot threes than they demonstrated today. They played an
Speaker 2: old fashioned Cavs game from years past, as a shot
Speaker 2: creation as a shot creation team, And I thought that
Speaker 2: came down to Donovan Mitchell. I thought he got out
Speaker 2: played by Tyres Haliburton tonight pretty substantially. And like, here's
Speaker 2: the thing, the Garland news is pretty sketchy. We're hearing
Speaker 2: that his foot is a lot more serious than we thought. Obviously,
Speaker 2: I thought he was going to play today. He didn't
Speaker 2: play today. That's going to be a factor in this series.
Speaker 2: But even if Darius Garland isn't at one hundred percent,
Speaker 2: he should be able to help the flow of this offense.
Speaker 2: He should be able to at least like get the
Speaker 2: ball moving from side to side a little bit more so,
Speaker 2: even if he's not ready to go like at the
Speaker 2: level he was earlier in the season, I think getting
Speaker 2: him out there will be super helpful. And my guess
Speaker 2: is that we end up seeing him in game two.
Speaker 2: But you know, if they have to go without game two,
Speaker 2: it's about the management of the flow of the game
Speaker 2: for Donovan and which that what that means is is
Speaker 2: like he's gonna have to shoot more than he typically does,
Speaker 2: Like you probably want him around twenty to twenty four
Speaker 2: shot attempts in a situation like this with Garland out,
Speaker 2: but he needs to make a lot more swing passes,
Speaker 2: a lot more kickout passes on the drive, understanding that
Speaker 2: even if he has an opportunity to take a semi
Speaker 2: contested shot in the lane, it's about taking it easy
Speaker 2: on his legs. It's about getting the rhythm of his
Speaker 2: teammates going. It's about the engine of the offense. Again,
Speaker 2: Tyres Halliburton didn't have a massive scoring night tonight, but
Speaker 2: the Pacers scored a million points and it was based
Speaker 2: on his advantage creation. That's the game flow piece of it.
Speaker 2: It's about understanding these little bits and pieces of time,
Speaker 2: Like here's a little three minute stretch where like I
Speaker 2: really need to be looking to score the ball. Here's
Speaker 2: a stretch of the game where we got a lot
Speaker 2: of offensive talent on the field, on the court, I
Speaker 2: would actually be be better served making these sort of
Speaker 2: kickout passes. Like there was a stretch where Isaac Korro
Speaker 2: is on the floor with him for a while, and
Speaker 2: it's like I can kind of see why on some
Speaker 2: of those he's not kicking to Isaac. He's looking to
Speaker 2: be aggressive. But like there are a lot of situations
Speaker 2: where Sam Merrill or Dean Wade or like standing in
Speaker 2: catch and shoot situations and the ball is just not
Speaker 2: getting sprayed around because Donovan's trying to smash his head
Speaker 2: through a brick wall instead of taking the easy stuff
Speaker 2: that's available for him. So, in short, Indiana threw their
Speaker 2: best punch tonight and the Calves through a really shitty one.
Speaker 2: I think the Calves can play a hell of a
Speaker 2: lot better. But I also, as I mentioned in the
Speaker 2: series preview, I predicted Calves in six in large part
Speaker 2: because I do think the Pacers will have extended stretch
Speaker 2: of the series where they look really good, and they
Speaker 2: definitely showed that in game one. And here's the thing.
Speaker 2: If Darius Garland isn't gonna be ready, or if he's
Speaker 2: gonna be far from one hundred percent, this instantly becomes
Speaker 2: much more of a coin flip type of series that
Speaker 2: the Pacers absolutely can win. All right, Before we head
Speaker 2: over to playback, I wanted to take we finished our
Speaker 2: first round right out of the eight series, only got
Speaker 2: five of them right, So not a great prediction first
Speaker 2: round for me. But what I wanted to do is
Speaker 2: go through this space SCIFX series one by one and
Speaker 2: talk a little bit about what I learned in each
Speaker 2: of those series. So Cleveland Miami, really simple, just how
Speaker 2: high of a level Cleveland's offense is operating at in
Speaker 2: the half court in that series they were at like
Speaker 2: a one to eighteen offensive rating. They in their overall
Speaker 2: offensive rating, it was like astronomical off the charts, the
Speaker 2: destructive blowouts, the Ty Jerome incredible shot making, the Donovan
Speaker 2: Mitchell incredible shot making, next Strews and DeAndre Hunter hitting
Speaker 2: all those contested threes, Like the Cavs offense was just
Speaker 2: operating at such an insanely high level in Round one,
Speaker 2: which was a big thing that stood out to me
Speaker 2: from that series. Obviously not a great Round two opener,
Speaker 2: but that was my big takeaway from that specific series.
Speaker 2: Magic Celtics. I talked a lot last year after the
Speaker 2: Celtics won the title about how one of the things
Speaker 2: that I was most excited about for Celtics fans was
Speaker 2: the simple idea that Tatum in that entire playoff run
Speaker 2: operated like a second tier superstar, a very versatile player
Speaker 2: who was intricately valuable to the way that they won
Speaker 2: the title. That he wasn't bringing the scoring necess to
Speaker 2: be a true top tier, superstar type of talent. In
Speaker 2: that first round series against Orlando, I thought Tatum showed
Speaker 2: clearly that he's just playing at a much higher level
Speaker 2: than he did last year. There's some other issues for
Speaker 2: the Celtics, some other guys not playing as wellsps Porzingis
Speaker 2: isn't playing super well, a couple guys aren't shooting the
Speaker 2: ball from three as well as they typically are. But
Speaker 2: Tatum's playing a lot better and that makes up a
Speaker 2: lot of the ground in that specific spot. Pistons knicks,
Speaker 2: the Pistons are closer than we thought. Right Kate Cunningham,
Speaker 2: I think, even though he showed a lot of warts
Speaker 2: over the tail end of each of those games, I
Speaker 2: thought we saw pretty clearly the type of consistent, type
Speaker 2: of playoff weapon that Kate can be. In the big picture.
Speaker 2: We also just saw that experience matters time and time
Speaker 2: again down the stretch, the more experienced veteran team was
Speaker 2: able to make the necessary plays to win the game.
Speaker 2: The Pacers Bucks series just that Tyre Saliburton is back
Speaker 2: to the form that he was at before he got
Speaker 2: hurt last year, which fundamentally alters the ceiling of this
Speaker 2: Pacers team, the way he was attacking Giannison switches, the
Speaker 2: way he was going blow for blow with Gary Trent
Speaker 2: Junior down the stretch of Game five. That was just
Speaker 2: a really, really impressive series from Tyres that I think
Speaker 2: showed a different level of upside for Indiana than we
Speaker 2: originally thought. Oklahoma City Memphis, really Oklahoma City's passing is
Speaker 2: what stood out to me in that series. I really
Speaker 2: liked the way that they moved the ball through the
Speaker 2: middle of the floor to high quality close out opportunities,
Speaker 2: high quality cutting opportunities along the baseline. That was something
Speaker 2: they struggled with last year against Dallas. And Memphis is
Speaker 2: not a very good team, but Memphis does play a
Speaker 2: style of defense that tests your ability to make the
Speaker 2: extra pass, and I thought we saw some of Okasee's
Speaker 2: better passing games of the season in that series, which
Speaker 2: I think bodes well for them for future matchups, not
Speaker 2: just Denver, but should they face a Minnesota or a
Speaker 2: Golden State in the Conference finals, should they face a
Speaker 2: Boston in the NBA Finals, that processing speed is going
Speaker 2: to have to be really locked in for them, and
Speaker 2: I thought it looks good in the Warriors Rocket Series
Speaker 2: Series one exactly as I expected, except for that we
Speaker 2: got that extra game, and it was just one of
Speaker 2: multiple examples. And I'm going to wrap in the Lakers
Speaker 2: and the Timberwolves here for a second. Physicality matters, Like
Speaker 2: one of the biggest takeaways I had from the first
Speaker 2: round is like, if you're just a bunch of big,
Speaker 2: strong athletes, it just makes everything so much easier. And
Speaker 2: so I think there are certain teams like the Lakers,
Speaker 2: for instance, Like if I saw this exact same Lakers
Speaker 2: roster more or less going to the playoffs next year,
Speaker 2: I would discount them as a substantial threat because I
Speaker 2: thought Minnesota exposed them as a team that is just
Speaker 2: nowhere near physical enough to be able to thrive in
Speaker 2: the postseason. The Lakers are going to have to make
Speaker 2: substantial changes to their roster to be able to hang
Speaker 2: in this setting. Like I thought, it looked a lot.
Speaker 2: I thought it looked a lot closer to what happened Phoenix,
Speaker 2: you know, than some of the tougher series that we
Speaker 2: saw over the course of Minnesota's playoff run last year.
Speaker 2: And so like that piece, and then looking at the
Speaker 2: Golden State series, similarly, all those different things panned out
Speaker 2: like steph was able to find a way to score
Speaker 2: against them. You know, their defense was able to strangle Houston.
Speaker 2: But the big thing that stood that stood out there
Speaker 2: was like Houston's size and athleticism was a problem and
Speaker 2: Golden State didn't really conquer that problem until about, you know,
Speaker 2: halfway through that third quarter there in Game seven. So
Speaker 2: just a lot of takeaways for me in that first
Speaker 2: round about how important that physicality and athleticism piece is.
Speaker 2: Last note on the Lakers piece, just the importance of
Speaker 2: conditioning for your top tier players like Aunt and Julius
Speaker 2: just consistently outperforming Luca, Lebron and Austin down the clutch
Speaker 2: stretches of those games, not as read doing a ton
Speaker 2: of damage in those situations. Lots of lessons to be
Speaker 2: learned there. And then for Denver, Denver versus the Clippers.
Speaker 2: You know, I've heard a lot of talk about how
Speaker 2: depth is so important these days, and again, as I
Speaker 2: have always said, depth is absolutely important, but I still
Speaker 2: think superstars decide outcomes. And Nikole Jokic was far and
Speaker 2: away better than Harden and Kawhi in that first round series.
Speaker 2: Don't read the box score. It was a much tougher
Speaker 2: series for him in terms of efficiency and volume because
Speaker 2: he was dealing with a bigger center in Zubots. But
Speaker 2: the offense for Denver hummed at an extremely high level
Speaker 2: when Yokich was on the floor down the tail end
Speaker 2: of the series, and I thought he was the difference
Speaker 2: in all those different ways. And you can even apply
Speaker 2: that same concept to all these other series. Brunson badly
Speaker 2: outplayed Paid down the stretch of games, that's why they won,
Speaker 2: and badly outplayed Luca down the stretch of games, that's
Speaker 2: why they won. Like Halliburton, even in the Pacers series,
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum out playing Palo and Franz. It's the Superstars,
Speaker 2: Steph Curry out playing Fred van Vliet in a Game
Speaker 2: seven when it mattered Like ultimately, Superstars still determine the
Speaker 2: outcomes of these games. But happy to have the first
Speaker 2: round of the book. That's all we have for our
Speaker 2: YouTube live show tonight. We are headed over to playback
Speaker 2: right now, So again, click the link that's in the
Speaker 2: description of this video. Head over to playback. We'll get
Speaker 2: started there and just a couple of minutes and we'll
Speaker 2: take some questions from you guys. We'll let you guys
Speaker 2: come on stage, we' watch some film, lots of interesting
Speaker 2: stuff to get into. I'll see you guys over there
Speaker 2: in just a few minutes. But so guys, as always,
Speaker 2: I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight.
Speaker 2: They would actually be really helpful for us if you
Speaker 2: guys would take a second and leave a rating and
Speaker 2: a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us,
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Speaker 2: I'd really appreciate it. The volume