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Speaker 1: welcome to Hoops tonight present. If I fandel here at
Speaker 1: the volume, Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: had a fantastic weekend, if for whatever reason you missed it.
Speaker 1: Last night, after the final buzzer, I went live with
Speaker 1: Colin Coward for about a half hour and we got
Speaker 1: into a bunch of details from this particular series. We
Speaker 1: also touched on some Utah jazz in wake of the
Speaker 1: Quinn Snyder firing, and we also got to a little
Speaker 1: bit of Lakers. So if for whatever reason you missed that,
Speaker 1: you can find it on the Volumes YouTube channel as
Speaker 1: well as on the Calling Cowhard podcast feed. A couple
Speaker 1: of other quick notes before we get started, remember to
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt. I'm going
Speaker 1: to get to a ton of XS and O's today
Speaker 1: stuff in the weeds, and there is a lot of
Speaker 1: video evidence of the things that I'm talking about that
Speaker 1: I clipped out this morning during my film session and
Speaker 1: put on my Twitter feed, So you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: go there to see the video clips that I'm directly referencing.
Speaker 1: And last, but not least, for whatever reason you miss
Speaker 1: a portion of the show, or you miss a portion
Speaker 1: of any of our shows and you don't have the
Speaker 1: time to check them out on YouTube, go follow our
Speaker 1: podcast feed right now. It's under Lakers tonight. We put
Speaker 1: the audio of these videos on that feed typically about
Speaker 1: an hour after we finished recording, so make sure you
Speaker 1: follow us there so you don't miss any of our content.
Speaker 1: So I've really appreciated in this NBA Finals series having
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do my show in the off days.
Speaker 1: And obviously we'll probably end up having some games in
Speaker 1: this series where we go right after a game. But
Speaker 1: what I appreciate about the doing it on the off
Speaker 1: days is I really have an opportunity to go over
Speaker 1: the film with a fine toothed comp I enjoy doing
Speaker 1: the instant reaction breakdowns for you guys, and obviously that's
Speaker 1: gonna consistently be a big part of what we do
Speaker 1: here at this show and at this company. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, you miss some stuff in the first view.
Speaker 1: You might have a wrong impression in your first view
Speaker 1: of a game, and it's nice to have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to go back over the film because you just learned
Speaker 1: so much more that way. And I'm really really excited
Speaker 1: to share with you guys all this stuff that I
Speaker 1: learned from my film session this morning. I want to
Speaker 1: start with a macro topic, kind of like what I
Speaker 1: did with Game one and Game one. If you guys remember,
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about Boston's perimeter size, the fact
Speaker 1: that with the combination of Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: and Marcus Smart. They're just so big and strong and
Speaker 1: athletic on the perimeter that it gives them some significant
Speaker 1: mismatches over the Golden State perimeter players. As a result,
Speaker 1: they were getting amazing dribble penetration. And dribble penetration is
Speaker 1: vitally important to this Boston team because they're at their
Speaker 1: best when they're driving and kicking. I've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about this on the show UH in the last couple
Speaker 1: of months, but Boston's best line up without Orford at
Speaker 1: the five, with Tatum and Brown, and with Derek White
Speaker 1: and Marcus Smart, they have five players that can all shoot, pass,
Speaker 1: and dribble. You know, al Horford is not the best
Speaker 1: guy to put the ball on the floor and dribble,
Speaker 1: but he can do it pretty well compared to most bigs.
Speaker 1: And then all four of those perimeter players are pretty
Speaker 1: damn good at all three of those things. And so
Speaker 1: when you get the five of them together and they're
Speaker 1: all driving and kicking and passing and shooting, they get
Speaker 1: fantastic shots. But that initial dribble penetration is vitally important.
Speaker 1: Why because guys like Marcus smart and Al Horford and
Speaker 1: Derek White are not great at getting dribble penetration against
Speaker 1: a set defense, but if you can get them attacking closeouts,
Speaker 1: they're really good at extending that advantage. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot of responsibility on Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown to
Speaker 1: create that initial bit of dribble penetration to get the
Speaker 1: defense to collapse so that everything else can work for Boston.
Speaker 1: In Game two, Golden State completely rectified at drivel penetration issue,
Speaker 1: and they did it with two things, and both of
Speaker 1: them I thought were really smart, And both of them
Speaker 1: came down to Steve Kurt and a couple of really
Speaker 1: really smart adjustments. The first one was one that was
Speaker 1: kind of, uh, one of the I kind of expected
Speaker 1: to see at some point in the series. If you
Speaker 1: guys remember I talked about how I really liked Wiggins
Speaker 1: on Tatum, and Wiggins through two games has done an
Speaker 1: excellent job guarding Tatum, big shock. He did an excellent
Speaker 1: job guarding Luca, so you could expect that. But what
Speaker 1: I was worried about was the other matchup Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: because you want to keep Draymond Green in help right
Speaker 1: like they did in game one, Draymond Green basically ignored
Speaker 1: al Horford and was roaming around on the inside helping
Speaker 1: on everything else. They did a good job there, but
Speaker 1: as a result, Al Horford got all those open threes
Speaker 1: and that was going to be an issue, right So
Speaker 1: I was concerned about whether or not Golden State would
Speaker 1: be willing to risk switching Draymond Green out to Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: because if you switch him out to Jalen Brown, it's
Speaker 1: harder for him to help because he's gonna be guarding
Speaker 1: at the point of attack so much more. But help
Speaker 1: is a lot less necessary if there isn't as much
Speaker 1: drible penetration. And so the move from cur and Draymond
Speaker 1: to switch Draymond off of Horford and put him onto
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown completely change the dynamic of this series because
Speaker 1: Wiggins is already doing a good job with Tatum, but
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown getting his dribble penetration taken away by Draymond
Speaker 1: completely changed that driving kick dynamic that Boston kept trying
Speaker 1: to get into. I tweeted out today and you can
Speaker 1: find it on my Twitter feed. Two screenshots from the
Speaker 1: shot charts on on the ESPN at and if you
Speaker 1: look at the one on the left, it's Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: shot chart in game one. If you look on the
Speaker 1: one on the right, it's Jalon Brown shot charting game two.
Speaker 1: The only difference there being Draymond Green is the primary
Speaker 1: defender in game two, and obviously the visual representation is
Speaker 1: incredibly jarring how frequently Jalen Brown was getting into the paint.
Speaker 1: So go look at that if you want to see
Speaker 1: the visual representation. But here's some numbers. In game one,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown attempted eleven total shots in the paint and
Speaker 1: three in the restricted area. That's pretty damn good against
Speaker 1: the great Golden State defense. That helps a ton in
Speaker 1: the paint. In game two, only four attempts in the
Speaker 1: painted area and zero in the restricted area. That's how
Speaker 1: much that changed the dynamic of Boston's offense or without
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown able to get that initial dribble penetration, and
Speaker 1: with the job that Wiggins was doing on Tatum, it
Speaker 1: changed that dynamic a lot. But it wasn't just Draymond.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of guys. Steph steph uh. Step
Speaker 1: has always been underrated as a defensive player, but he
Speaker 1: did a really nice job with his contain on Derek
Speaker 1: White Andrew Wiggins, like I just said, did a great
Speaker 1: job in Tatum, and there were a lot of possessions
Speaker 1: where Gary Payton Jr. Was on Al Horford. And because
Speaker 1: Gary Payton Jr. Plays so much bigger than he is,
Speaker 1: and because Al Horford's not a great hasn't demonstrated to
Speaker 1: be much of a post up threat in this series,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to in a minute, they were able
Speaker 1: to switch Gary Payton onto a lot of those balls
Speaker 1: screens and contain things there. And most importantly, and this
Speaker 1: was the second adjustment from Kurr at halftime for the
Speaker 1: first half, and I said this on last night's show
Speaker 1: with Colin. For the first three halves of the series,
Speaker 1: Boston was the more physical team and they weren't dominant,
Speaker 1: but I thought I thought Boston demonstrated to be slightly
Speaker 1: better than Golden State in terms of their two way
Speaker 1: ability through the first three halves of this series. But
Speaker 1: it was because Golden State wasn't matching the physicality of
Speaker 1: Boston in that third quarter last night, and I would
Speaker 1: imagine this was an adjustment from Kerr. Golden State came
Speaker 1: out and made it a blood bath. Physically, and that,
Speaker 1: in combination with what Draymond Green was doing to Jaln Brown,
Speaker 1: completely shut down Boston's offense. How did it manifest well?
Speaker 1: In game one, the Celtics had thirty three assists game two.
Speaker 1: In game one, the Celtics only had thirteen turnovers. In
Speaker 1: game two nineteen, that was nineteen turnovers led to thirty
Speaker 1: three points for Golden State getting out in transition, which
Speaker 1: we'll get to here in a minute. They the Celtics
Speaker 1: generated twenty three wide open threes in game one, in
Speaker 1: game two only thirteen, so as you can see, containing
Speaker 1: that dribble penetration from Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum and
Speaker 1: from Derek White and Marcus Smart. Again, this is a
Speaker 1: team effort from Golden State. Prevented Golden State from having
Speaker 1: to get into rotation is often often which took away
Speaker 1: from Boston's ability to drive and kick to open shooters,
Speaker 1: and it completely stunted Boston's offense. So huge credit to
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr, Huge credit to Draymond Green. What a weapon
Speaker 1: to have in your arsenal, A big man that you
Speaker 1: can switch out onto a wing, one of the better
Speaker 1: slashing wings that we have in the league and completely
Speaker 1: shut him down. And a huge part of that was
Speaker 1: just understanding the physicality. This is the NBA Finals. You're
Speaker 1: allowed to get away with so much. I was joking
Speaker 1: with cal Hm last night. There was a play with
Speaker 1: Draymond guarding Jalen Brown right in the middle of the floor.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown ended up taking a turnover over turn, a
Speaker 1: turnaround jump shot over his left shoulder and he bricked it.
Speaker 1: And they will go back to the replay. Jeff and
Speaker 1: Gundhy's like complimenting Draymond on his defense, and I'm watching
Speaker 1: the video and I'm like, man, Draymond fouled him like
Speaker 1: six times on that play. But I don't have any
Speaker 1: problem with it because everyone's fouling. Boston's foulon too. If
Speaker 1: this is a series where everyone is fouling, and I
Speaker 1: think Steve Kerr understood, especially as the team had a disadvantage.
Speaker 1: Subconsciously with referees, they will always let the team with
Speaker 1: the disadvantage get away with more. It's a subconscious thing.
Speaker 1: I don't believe in rigged playoff series or anything like that.
Speaker 1: I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do think human
Speaker 1: nature comes into play in situations like this, referees they
Speaker 1: can't help themselves. They're going to favor the underdog. Not
Speaker 1: that Golden States the underdog, but they were down one
Speaker 1: oh in the series. Is it's a natural way things go,
Speaker 1: and capitalizing on that leeway to be the more physical
Speaker 1: team was just a really really smart play from Golden State,
Speaker 1: and it would be really really smart for Boston to
Speaker 1: try to do the same thing in Game three. I
Speaker 1: want to talk about Boston's offense for a minute. So
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown had
Speaker 1: twenty six points on eight of fifteen from the field,
Speaker 1: six of eight from three, and the rest of the
Speaker 1: game they only had nineteen points on five for twenty
Speaker 1: one from the field and three for ten from three.
Speaker 1: This is the huge difference between process and results. You
Speaker 1: know that that whole Joel Embi things, trust the process.
Speaker 1: The whole idea there is like, hey, we're not getting
Speaker 1: results on the court, we're taken, but there's something we're
Speaker 1: building here. We're accumulating talent to make a run. Right,
Speaker 1: that's the idea. Your your process is always more important
Speaker 1: than the results because results can carry you in the
Speaker 1: short term, right, Wild results that go one way or
Speaker 1: the other. But if you're playing seven games against the team,
Speaker 1: if you're playing almost three fifty minutes of basketball, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be the team with the better process that has
Speaker 1: the advantage because the small sample size variation isn't in
Speaker 1: your favor anymore. There's you have to have many hot streaks,
Speaker 1: not just one hot streak. And when I was watching
Speaker 1: the tape again, twenty six points eight or fifteen shooting
Speaker 1: six of eight from three for Tatum and Brown in
Speaker 1: the first quarter. They were great shots. Jalen Brown's first
Speaker 1: two shots that he made were a random contested pull
Speaker 1: up three over the top of of Draymond Green on
Speaker 1: the left wing, and then a transition pull up three
Speaker 1: like from twenty six ft on the left wing, both
Speaker 1: early in the shot clock, no attempt to create any advantage,
Speaker 1: just dribble up and shoot and they went in. That's awesome,
Speaker 1: And Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown are really talented players,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna have moments where they make plays like that,
Speaker 1: but it's not good process. I tweeted out of video,
Speaker 1: you can find it on my Twitter feed where I
Speaker 1: clipped out like nine or ten possessions from that first
Speaker 1: quarter that demonstrate exactly what I'm talking about. This has
Speaker 1: been the story of Boston throughout this entire season, and
Speaker 1: especially in this playoff run. They go through stretches where
Speaker 1: their offensive decision making makes absolutely no sense. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how many times in that video you'll see
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum or Jalen Brown just dribble up the floor
Speaker 1: and shoot or drive into the lane and see Golden
Speaker 1: State collapsed at the basket with easy kickout opportunities to
Speaker 1: wide open shooters and just force things around the basket.
Speaker 1: Boston was twelve thirty from inside the paint last night.
Speaker 1: That's hard to do. That means you're jacking up shots
Speaker 1: over heavy contests in the paint when the whole point
Speaker 1: of your offense is driving kick to get open shots.
Speaker 1: This team to frequently lose his sight of of of
Speaker 1: who they are. But this is the this is the
Speaker 1: problem with not having a point guard. There was a
Speaker 1: sequence there in the second half that I thought, uh
Speaker 1: or in the first half, second quarter that perfectly encapsulated
Speaker 1: what I was talking what I'm talking about right now.
Speaker 1: So Tatum runs in action, I believe with a Horford
Speaker 1: the top of the key and gets Tamanubi Elites on
Speaker 1: a switch on the left wing Flora's space. Pritchard's in
Speaker 1: the left corner. So good shooter, He's got the Elites
Speaker 1: on it. Take him to the rim. He can't guard you.
Speaker 1: He doesn't play for the most part for this team
Speaker 1: because he can't guard. And he sure as hell can't
Speaker 1: guard you Tatum. But all he did was kind of
Speaker 1: randomly throw a left to right crossover that accomplished nothing
Speaker 1: and then swing the ball to Derek right and the
Speaker 1: possession was effectively over. Derek White ended up having to
Speaker 1: throw some garbage up. Then they go down and they
Speaker 1: get a stop, and Tatum comes down on very next
Speaker 1: possession after getting a stop and just Jack's up an
Speaker 1: early clock contested pull up three over Andrew Wiggins and
Speaker 1: he makes it. But again it's like, that's bad process.
Speaker 1: You had a great mismatch opportunity against Golden State's worst
Speaker 1: defender and you didn't even attempt to attack it. Then
Speaker 1: on the next possession you dribbled up the floor and
Speaker 1: shot a pull up contested three over their best perimeter defender, Like, well,
Speaker 1: what is the process there? I don't understand now. In results.
Speaker 1: That's three points and two possessions. That's a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty offensive rating. That's great in the smalle sample size.
Speaker 1: It worked out for you, but that's bad process. The
Speaker 1: team offense for Boston for the entirety of the game
Speaker 1: was horrible. I talked about this last night with Colin,
Speaker 1: but I thought Tatum's game in Game one was better,
Speaker 1: even though he didn't shoot nearly as well, because he
Speaker 1: was getting consistent gerbral penetray ration and as a result,
Speaker 1: he had thirteen assists. Okay, great, you turned it on
Speaker 1: as a scorer a little bit in this game. You
Speaker 1: hunted your pull up jump shot a lot. You made
Speaker 1: six out of nine threes. You made some tough fade
Speaker 1: away jumpers. That's great. They all were pretty Boston. Your
Speaker 1: team offense combusted. So it's not about Tatum scoring. It's
Speaker 1: about your team offense. And within this team offense, it's
Speaker 1: vitally important for Jason Tatum to create dribble penetration. You know,
Speaker 1: especially with this adjustment putting Draymond Green onto Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: I don't know that you can count on Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: anymore to create that initial advantage. They're letting Draymond play
Speaker 1: defense with his hands. He's very very good as a
Speaker 1: physical defender. When he's allowed to be physical. Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: is not gonna get triple penetration. You might need to
Speaker 1: have him be your second side creator. You might need
Speaker 1: to have Jalen Brown attacking clothes outs. You need to
Speaker 1: get Draymond Green into hell help. And the only way
Speaker 1: to do that is for Tatum now to be that
Speaker 1: initial creator, and they might have to mix it up
Speaker 1: even further, might have to be a little bit more
Speaker 1: Derek White, Like, look at Derek White and be like,
Speaker 1: hey man, I need you just to put your head
Speaker 1: down and try to beat Steph off the dribble, try
Speaker 1: to get that initial penetration, try to engage Draymond Green
Speaker 1: and help. The other thing, too, is they've got to
Speaker 1: figure out, so what do you what's the natural progression here?
Speaker 1: If Draymond is guarding Jalen Brown, what's the other matchup
Speaker 1: that that creates? So if Draymond, a big man for
Speaker 1: Golden State, has to go out to the perimeter to
Speaker 1: shut down a perimeter player for Boston, now Clay Thompson,
Speaker 1: who was guarding Jalen Brown, has to guard al Horford,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was kind of smart because they
Speaker 1: just had Clay Thompson hug up on Al Horford didn't
Speaker 1: help as a result, Al Horford at zero three point
Speaker 1: attempts because you just wantn't open because they're basically playing
Speaker 1: four on four with Clay Thompson for the most part
Speaker 1: out of the play just hugged up to Al Horford.
Speaker 1: But what's the counter there? Are you gonna let Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson just guard Al Horford? Apparently yes, because they only
Speaker 1: had one post up for Horford on Clay Thompson in
Speaker 1: the entire game. I tweeted out the link, you can
Speaker 1: find it on my Twitter feed. And on that play,
Speaker 1: Al Horford drew a double team from Daymond Green because
Speaker 1: guess what, they don't want Klay Thompson on the island
Speaker 1: gets Horford, It's not gonna go well. And Horford didn't
Speaker 1: see the double team coming ended up smoking a layup
Speaker 1: over the top. But the point is is that is
Speaker 1: the matchup you have to attack. Then if Golden State
Speaker 1: is going to concede a physical advantage to take away
Speaker 1: one of your physical advantages, you have to attack them
Speaker 1: on the other front. So in Game three, I hope
Speaker 1: to see a lot for Boston's sake, I hope to
Speaker 1: see a lot more Al Horford posting up on Clay Thompson,
Speaker 1: forcing those double teams, which is another great way to
Speaker 1: get in your driving kick Al Horford post up, Here
Speaker 1: comes the second defender, kick out to Jalen Brown or
Speaker 1: whoever it is. Horford reloc kates to the corner. You're
Speaker 1: back in your five out. Now we're driving and kicking again.
Speaker 1: It's an easy way to counter that. They just need
Speaker 1: to get back to the style of offense they played
Speaker 1: in Game one, which is slashing and driving and kicking.
Speaker 1: And the only way they're gonna do that is if
Speaker 1: they figure out how to get that initial advantage and
Speaker 1: if Tatum it's gotta it's gotta be Tatum, but you
Speaker 1: also need to get it from one more place. It
Speaker 1: needs to be either Derek White slashing or those Al
Speaker 1: Horford post ups. All right, let's move on to Golden
Speaker 1: State on offense. So I thought the most obvious adjustment
Speaker 1: from Golden State in Game two was to avoid the
Speaker 1: half court at all costs. I said I talked about
Speaker 1: before the series. You know, I think Golden State has
Speaker 1: more offensive talent overall, then Boston, I think that goes
Speaker 1: without saying stuff, is by far the best offensive player
Speaker 1: in the series. And then you've got Jordan Poole, you
Speaker 1: got Clay Thompson and Guy Andrew Wiggins. They've got a
Speaker 1: ton of offensive talent on this roster. They got lots
Speaker 1: of shooting, right, But in the half court, when Boston,
Speaker 1: who's the bigger team is especially on the perimeter, is
Speaker 1: allowed to be physical, they can make up that offensive gap.
Speaker 1: And if that's manifested throughout this series. In the half court,
Speaker 1: so far through two games, Boston has a ninety seven
Speaker 1: point four offensive rating. Golden State is a point six
Speaker 1: offensive rating. That's basically a wash. We're talking about one
Speaker 1: point there, right. So the game plays out in a
Speaker 1: half court, it could go either way. But in transition
Speaker 1: I've been on this this entire playoff front, Boston is
Speaker 1: a terrible transition defense team. There. Guys constantly fall down
Speaker 1: when they drive to the basket searching for calls. In
Speaker 1: general against Golden States physicality last night, any time they
Speaker 1: were getting hacked, they were more concerned with just raking
Speaker 1: their arms out trying to draw fouls than being physically
Speaker 1: strong with the basketball. They were turning to the basketball
Speaker 1: over complaining to the refs and jogging back on defense.
Speaker 1: They did that against Miami, they did it against Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: and they did it against Milwaukee. They were going to
Speaker 1: do it against Golden State and they did. As a result,
Speaker 1: Golden State, who's a good transition defense, held Boston so
Speaker 1: far through two games to an eight eight point five
Speaker 1: offensive rating on transition opportunities. That's insane u transition defense
Speaker 1: from Golden State, especially for a team as athletic as Boston.
Speaker 1: Golden State in comparison, is scoring a hundred and nine
Speaker 1: point seven points per transition opportunity in the series. That's
Speaker 1: where the dynamic is right and we've seen this with
Speaker 1: Boston before in previous series. Is but in the half court,
Speaker 1: this series is kind of a wash, and Boston has
Speaker 1: some advantages there and they very well may win this
Speaker 1: series if it stays in the half court. But if
Speaker 1: Golden State can persistently continue to push the ball up
Speaker 1: the floor like they have through two games, they're gonna
Speaker 1: win because they are a much better transition team and
Speaker 1: that's where they have their advantage. They forced Boston into
Speaker 1: nineteen turnovers with their physicality. Those live ball turnovers do
Speaker 1: such an amazing job of compromising their defense as they're
Speaker 1: trying to get back and gives you the opportunity to
Speaker 1: get out and score easy baskets. Golden skate. Golden State
Speaker 1: scored thirty three points on Boston turnovers last night. Imagine
Speaker 1: in an NBA Finals game, an absolute rock fight, where
Speaker 1: you're struggling to get to a hundred points. How nice
Speaker 1: it is when you can get a third of your
Speaker 1: offense by running out for open shots and layups. That's
Speaker 1: the advantage of pushing the ball in transition now in order.
Speaker 1: Like we talked about earlier, I talked the whole beginning
Speaker 1: of the show. We talked about Golden States perimeter defense,
Speaker 1: the way they contained dribble penetration, in the way that
Speaker 1: forced turnovers and through Boston's offense out of whack. In
Speaker 1: order to score and transition, you absolutely must get a
Speaker 1: lot of stops and force a lot of turnovers. And
Speaker 1: that's what Golden State did last night. That was a
Speaker 1: huge advantage to them, unlocking the offensive bursts that they had.
Speaker 1: The other vitally important element to Golden State's offense that
Speaker 1: finally went their way there in that second half last
Speaker 1: night was they got some secondary creation. Jordan Poole finally
Speaker 1: got going. For those of you guys who follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter, I was talking about during the first half
Speaker 1: that through three halves, Boston looked like the slightly better team,
Speaker 1: and a huge part of that was the fact that
Speaker 1: if you were ranking offensive players in this series through
Speaker 1: three halves, you would have ranked Steph one, and you
Speaker 1: probably would have named three or four Celtics before you
Speaker 1: got to another Warrior because you were you weren't getting
Speaker 1: anything from Jordan Pool and you weren't getting anything from
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson. That initial that initial advantage creation, like I
Speaker 1: talked about for Boston, the job that Jason Tatum has
Speaker 1: to get into the paint, or if they can't get
Speaker 1: it from Jalen Brown having to do the Al Horford
Speaker 1: post ups or more Derek White drives. That's all about
Speaker 1: creating that initial advantage. And you can't just get it
Speaker 1: from one guy. It's just too much to ask, right,
Speaker 1: And so it was gonna be vitally important for Golden
Speaker 1: State to take control of the series to have one
Speaker 1: of those guys, either Clay Thompson or Jordan Pool or
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins get going offensively. Now, I don't think Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins is going to get going offensive to too much
Speaker 1: of an extent here in terms of it. As an initiator,
Speaker 1: he'll score attacking closeouts and knocking down threes as part
Speaker 1: of Golden State system. But against this really good Boston defense,
Speaker 1: I don't think you can just throw Wiggins the ball.
Speaker 1: Same thing goes for Clay, Like Clay has taken all
Speaker 1: the same crazy wild Clay shots that he always takes,
Speaker 1: but he's not getting open shots. I don't see a
Speaker 1: version of this series where Clay consistently gets going because
Speaker 1: his shot quality isn't good enough. It's kind of goes
Speaker 1: back to that process results thing we were talking about. Yes,
Speaker 1: the results aren't good, but the problem, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: not a process issue. It's just a limitation at this
Speaker 1: phase of his career, and against this great of a
Speaker 1: Boston defense, he's struggling to create looks. So it turns
Speaker 1: out it's got to be Jordan Poole, and it was
Speaker 1: I talked about in my series preview. There was a
Speaker 1: game this year with Jordan Pool scored twenty nine points
Speaker 1: against Boston. It was a blowout but he showed the
Speaker 1: ability to score against that Boston defense, and so coming
Speaker 1: in to this series, I figured Jordan Pool would have
Speaker 1: to be this guy. And I know there's defensive limitations
Speaker 1: there and they're gonna have to figure out ways to
Speaker 1: do that. Like I I think the easy way is
Speaker 1: playing alongside uh Draymond Green and Kevan Luney. That's where
Speaker 1: they have enough interior size and physicality to compensate for
Speaker 1: a lack of perimeter size and physicality. So maybe that's
Speaker 1: what they have to do. But the more Jordan Pool,
Speaker 1: the better, because getting Jordan Pool going is what allows
Speaker 1: them to have that second initial creation so that they
Speaker 1: can keep their Golden State basketball working, which is always
Speaker 1: very similar to Boston. It starts with Steph or Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool dragging multiple defenders and then the rest of the
Speaker 1: guys playing Warriors basketball in the back end. So it's
Speaker 1: good to see Pool get going last night. He's going
Speaker 1: to have to be consistently good in this series for
Speaker 1: Golden State to win, which I think absolutely is possible.
Speaker 1: Like I said, the Clay thing, the Wiggans thing, I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're gonna get from them, but Pool
Speaker 1: is absolutely up to the challenge and they need him
Speaker 1: to be great in order to win it. One last
Speaker 1: night on gold One last note on Golden State. On offense,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry, who has been wrongfully maligned as a bad
Speaker 1: playoff player by nefarious characters in the basketball community, is
Speaker 1: on his way to an absolutely amazing NBA Finals right now.
Speaker 1: Through two games, he's averaging thirty two six and five
Speaker 1: on six tru shooting, and he's plus fifteen overall. He's
Speaker 1: been the best player in this series by mile. And
Speaker 1: it's only been two games and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: basketball left to be played. But Steph has been better
Speaker 1: against this Boston defense than either of Jimmy Butler or
Speaker 1: Janice or KD. And again, like obviously they're different teams
Speaker 1: than Dynamics are different. They were able to load up
Speaker 1: on Janice in a way that they can't with Steph.
Speaker 1: But my point is is Steph is playing fantastic basketball
Speaker 1: and the scoring efficiently as wild some of its scheming.
Speaker 1: Boston continue used to drop the two massive threes that
Speaker 1: Step hitting the third quarter that kind of ice the game,
Speaker 1: one in the middle of the floor and one on
Speaker 1: the right wing that was deep. Both were against drop coverage,
Speaker 1: So some of it is him capitalizing on Boston's coverage,
Speaker 1: but that's to his credit, and he's been an absolute
Speaker 1: monster in this series. He if they win, he's absolutely
Speaker 1: gonna be Finals MVP, and he's absolutely gonna deserve it.
Speaker 1: And I hope eventually everyone erases whatever it is their
Speaker 1: weirdo misconceptions about who step is as a playoff performer,
Speaker 1: because the dude just continues to be incredibly dominant at
Speaker 1: this level, always has been incredibly dominant at this level,
Speaker 1: and I just I just don't understand why he doesn't
Speaker 1: get that credit. So instammation before we get out of
Speaker 1: here today, a couple of quick rundown of adjustments. So
Speaker 1: for Boston, they have to clean up their offensive process.
Speaker 1: That was their biggest mistake in Game two. They have
Speaker 1: to continue to generate rim rim pressure, or draw double
Speaker 1: teams from Al Horford post ups, whatever it is they
Speaker 1: have to do. They got to get that first compromising
Speaker 1: of the defense that gets them to collapse so that
Speaker 1: they can get their driving kick aim going. Secondly, get
Speaker 1: back in transition. Stop flopping, stop complaining at the officials,
Speaker 1: stop jogging, get back. You're too athletic of a team
Speaker 1: to be this bad in transition defense, that's something they
Speaker 1: have to rectify in Golden State is going to actively
Speaker 1: hunt those opportunities. Take care of the basketball. Live ball
Speaker 1: turnovers are another easy way to get gold State going
Speaker 1: in transition. That's just decision making. I thought a huge
Speaker 1: part of that was the physicality. When Golden State came
Speaker 1: with the physicality, Boston wilted. They didn't fight through it.
Speaker 1: They didn't take care of the basketball. They turn it
Speaker 1: over away too much and it killed them. Post up
Speaker 1: Al Horford more, if they're going to put Draymond Green
Speaker 1: on Jalen Brown and put Clay Thompson on Al Horford,
Speaker 1: you have to punish them for doing that. And if
Speaker 1: you do so, they will force Draymond back into that
Speaker 1: matchup with with Horford, which will allow Jalen Brown to
Speaker 1: have a better matchup. That is the the easy counter there.
Speaker 1: They have to take advantage of that. Also, put Brown
Speaker 1: on the second side. Don't let him try to drive
Speaker 1: by Draymond. He's not going to be able to Draymond
Speaker 1: too good of a defense player in this series is
Speaker 1: too physical. But if you put Tatum or whoever, or
Speaker 1: Horford or whatever it is you're gonna do to create
Speaker 1: that initial advantage. Have that on the first side. Get
Speaker 1: Draymond to come over to help. Now you're kicking to
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, he has an opportunity to attack a close out.
Speaker 1: That's when his athleticism is gonna be most useful. With
Speaker 1: the way the matchups are playing out at this point,
Speaker 1: at least until you can get Draymond off of Jalen Brown.
Speaker 1: For Golden State, so far Kevon Looney and Draymond Green
Speaker 1: in twenty nine minutes, the series are plus nineteen and
Speaker 1: there negative outside of those minutes, so that's clearly been
Speaker 1: your best opportunity. We talked a lot about Boston's perimeter size.
Speaker 1: The best way for Golden State to fight Boston's perimeter
Speaker 1: sizes to play big. Obviously, it hurts them on the
Speaker 1: offensive end, but there's so much better defensively there that
Speaker 1: it's actually working out as a net positive for them. Again,
Speaker 1: plus nineteen and twenty nine minutes, I think it's like
Speaker 1: a plus thirty net rating per one hunter possessions, which
Speaker 1: is amazing. That's also a great group that you can
Speaker 1: pair with Jordan Poole, who you desperately need for offense.
Speaker 1: And allow yourself to make up for some of his
Speaker 1: offensive shortcomings. The other thing too, if they start posting
Speaker 1: Horford on Clay, just put Clay onto the Clay onto
Speaker 1: Rob Williams. Rob Williams is not a post player. You
Speaker 1: can have the same impact there. Let Looney bang with
Speaker 1: Horford and take away those post ups. Now they're really
Speaker 1: in a bind because how do you put Now You're
Speaker 1: asking Rob Williams basically to punish Clay as an offensive rebounder,
Speaker 1: which he hasn't done much of an uh to this point.
Speaker 1: And then, last, but not least, continue to bring the physicality.
Speaker 1: If you allow Boston to be the more physical team,
Speaker 1: you will lose the series because they are the bigger,
Speaker 1: stronger team. But if, like in the second half of
Speaker 1: Game two, if you win the physicality battle, you're also
Speaker 1: the more skilled team. And if the more skilled team
Speaker 1: also wins the physicality battle, they will dominate the series.
Speaker 1: So keep bringing that physicality and you'll continue to have
Speaker 1: that advantage. All right, That is all I have for today.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what the plan is for Game three yet,
Speaker 1: but I'll let you guys know as soon as I know.
Speaker 1: No matter what, we will have something right after the
Speaker 1: final buzzer of A three on Wednesday night. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys supporting me, supporting the network,
Speaker 1: and supporting the show. And I'll see you guys in
Speaker 1: a couple of days. The volume