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Speaker 1: here at the Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. I'll foll of
Speaker 1: you guys are having an incredible week. Got a jam
Speaker 1: pack show for you tonight. We're gonna be breaking down
Speaker 1: all three games from the perspective of both teams. Well,
Speaker 1: the las Age just cannot beat the Denver Nuggets. I
Speaker 1: really thought that'd get a couple. I was wrong. I
Speaker 1: think they're gonna get swept. I think they're out of here.
Speaker 1: On Saturday, we're gonna break it down. You guys know
Speaker 1: the jove before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, so excuse me, to my new YouTube channel
Speaker 1: so you don't miss any more of videos. Follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at underscore Jason lt. So you guys, don't
Speaker 1: miss any show announcements, don't forget about a podcast feed
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast under Hoops tonight. In the
Speaker 1: last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions and
Speaker 1: those YouTube comments. We're gonna hit a couple of mail
Speaker 1: bags a week the rest of the way through the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So Game three in the NBA Playoffs in the first round,
Speaker 1: in particular, those of you guys who've been around the
Speaker 1: show for a while will know what I refer to
Speaker 1: these games as I refer to these as the buzzsaw games, right,
Speaker 1: especially when the team is down to oh because there's
Speaker 1: usually a gigantic gap in urgency between the two teams.
Speaker 1: And then obviously you're shifting to the home you're shifting
Speaker 1: to the other team's home arena, and that typically leads
Speaker 1: to more confidence in your lower level role players. That
Speaker 1: typically leads to sometimes a better whistle. Officials generally will
Speaker 1: get caught up in the emotion of a crowd. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like a human nature thing, right, And then
Speaker 1: also like that athletic advantage of playing with forced type
Speaker 1: of advantage that comes from that comes from the urgency
Speaker 1: shift that like the home crowd is just like cure
Speaker 1: scene on that like it just it just makes it
Speaker 1: that much crazier, right, And like I actually placed my
Speaker 1: first three bets of the NBA postseason this year. I
Speaker 1: bet on all three home teams tonight, and I actually
Speaker 1: hit on the first two obviously, And I was flirting
Speaker 1: with a I've bet an alternate spread on the Sixers
Speaker 1: Nicks game, and as I was watching the Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid free throw shooting contest at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, it was definitely a little hectic, but I
Speaker 1: ended up getting out of there with that one. But anyway,
Speaker 1: the one team that managed to flip that script was
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets. But like you saw the BUZZSA, the
Speaker 1: Orlando Magic completely demolished the Cavs on the glass, completely
Speaker 1: demolished them, and not as much in transition, I should
Speaker 1: say they demolish them on the offensive glass. They demolished
Speaker 1: the Cavs on the offensive glass. They do a bunch
Speaker 1: of damage with their physicality and with Franz Wagner and
Speaker 1: Pala Bancaro just working at close shots around the rim,
Speaker 1: and the dynamic just shifts, their role players hit shots.
Speaker 1: It's a blowout, right, Like, obviously, the Sixers finally get
Speaker 1: some contributions from some of their role players, and some
Speaker 1: guys hit some shots. They finally get some production out
Speaker 1: of Kelly Eubray, and they win that game convincingly. Right.
Speaker 1: But what I find to be interesting, and this is
Speaker 1: actually something that has been one of my biggest lessons
Speaker 1: that I've learned in the first round of this postseason
Speaker 1: and every year in the playoffs, I learned lessons, right, Like,
Speaker 1: we're always kind of learning not just about the game
Speaker 1: in general, but also as the game is changing as
Speaker 1: the years go by, as the NBA kind of moves
Speaker 1: into the future. Right. But one of the things that
Speaker 1: has been a lesson for me in this first round
Speaker 1: throughout the playoffs is that the finesse guys are kind
Speaker 1: of getting their ass kicked, and they're getting their ass
Speaker 1: kicked by intelligent athleticism and strength, right, And that is like, like,
Speaker 1: even just look at the Wolves Suns matchup, for instance,
Speaker 1: that's the Suns team that dominated the Wolves in the
Speaker 1: regular season. Here we are in the playoffs and the
Speaker 1: Wolves kick their ass twice. And that is a team
Speaker 1: that has a lot of intelligent size in athleticism, while
Speaker 1: the Sons are a finesse team and it's been an
Speaker 1: ass kicking right Specifically, the role players for the Lakers,
Speaker 1: D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reeves, Torrey and Prince like Spencer Dinwiddie,
Speaker 1: these guys are all like these finesse kind of like
Speaker 1: skill players on the perimeter, and they've run into these
Speaker 1: like athletic wrecking balls like Contavious Cabbo Pope and Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon and Christian Brown and Peyton Watson and they're just
Speaker 1: getting their They're getting their ass kt That's really been
Speaker 1: the story of this series. To give you guys an idea,
Speaker 1: non Lebron and Ad Lakers have one hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: one points and fifty six rebounds in this series. Non
Speaker 1: Murray Jokic Nuggets have one hundred and eighty points and
Speaker 1: eighty three rebounds in the series. That's the difference. Like,
Speaker 1: I think Anthony Davis and Jokich have been amazing basically
Speaker 1: ever game. I think Murray had a poor shooting series,
Speaker 1: but hit a bunch of clutch shots in the first
Speaker 1: two games, and then I thought Murray was pretty great
Speaker 1: Tonight and Lebron James I thought was really good in
Speaker 1: Game two, pretty good in Game one, and pretty bad
Speaker 1: Tonight relative to his relative to what his box score
Speaker 1: numbers showed. But I think Lebron and Murray have been
Speaker 1: more or less on the same level, and Jokicchen and
Speaker 1: Ad have been more or less on the same level.
Speaker 1: But it's been a complete and total ass kicking down
Speaker 1: the roster. This is crazy. Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior tonight had forty nine points and twenty five rebounds.
Speaker 1: That's a Wilt Chamberlain Circle circa the nineteen sixties. Like that,
Speaker 1: that's the type of production they were getting out of
Speaker 1: their front court, not counting Nicole jokicch and I find
Speaker 1: it really fascinating and honestly like it gives me this
Speaker 1: like interesting perspective looking back at the twenty twenty Lakers,
Speaker 1: And I always knew size and strength was an advantage
Speaker 1: for that team, but I'm even seeing now just how
Speaker 1: much that matters at this point in the NBA playoffs, Right,
Speaker 1: Like that team was built on intelligent athleticism and strength.
Speaker 1: Alex Caruso, Coentavious Caldwell, Pope Dwight Howard, right, even Kyle Kuzma,
Speaker 1: like even Danny Green. They were all big, strong, high
Speaker 1: IQ players, and that that next to Lebron and ad.
Speaker 1: Did they struggle in the half court scoring sometimes? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Did they struggle sometimes and go cold from the three
Speaker 1: point line? Yeah? That was a big story going into
Speaker 1: the bubble in the in the seeding games before they
Speaker 1: got into the first round, and especially through the first
Speaker 1: game against Portland, right. But then like they just kicked
Speaker 1: everybody's ass with intelligent athleticism and strength, And I think
Speaker 1: I think that's even been exacerbated as the league has
Speaker 1: shifted more and more towards the towards the physicality side
Speaker 1: of things. And that actually started in regular season this year,
Speaker 1: but I even think this postseason has been more physical
Speaker 1: and more just kind of like nasty and rock fighty
Speaker 1: than other playoff rounds that we've seen in the past.
Speaker 1: I think the entire league is shifting more towards that,
Speaker 1: And honestly, I thought that was the story of tonight's game.
Speaker 1: Like Aaron Gordon just carried the Nuggets through that initial
Speaker 1: portion of the game when the Lakers were engaged and
Speaker 1: there was a brief stretch there too in the second
Speaker 1: quarter where Jamal Murray hit a bunch of nice pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots that I helped kind of keep the
Speaker 1: game kind of close. But Aaron Gordon was a monster
Speaker 1: in that first half. And then the Nuggets came out
Speaker 1: in that third quarter. In just that first couple of
Speaker 1: minutes of the third quarter, they threw a really good
Speaker 1: punch just for a few minutes, and the Lakers let
Speaker 1: go of the rope. And then as soon as they
Speaker 1: let go the rope, it was over. And honestly, that
Speaker 1: was kind of as a as a person who roots
Speaker 1: for the Lakers. That was the biggest disappointing thing for
Speaker 1: me tonight, is like I thought, the Lakers straight up
Speaker 1: let go of the rope for literally, what is it,
Speaker 1: five halves of this series? The obviously the first two
Speaker 1: games and then the tonight. In the first half, the
Speaker 1: Lakers kind of went toe to toe with the Nuggets
Speaker 1: for the most part, and like, what's crazy about it?
Speaker 1: And this is honestly, you know, I said this before
Speaker 1: the series. The reason why I, even when the Lakers
Speaker 1: were up twenty, I never actually thought they had a
Speaker 1: substantial chance to win the series is because I knew
Speaker 1: that the Lakers were talented enough to go blow for
Speaker 1: blow with the Nuggets for spurts, and I thought they
Speaker 1: could get a game or two, but I never I
Speaker 1: never thought they could sustain against this team. And it's
Speaker 1: like they're literally like playing tug of war, and they
Speaker 1: let go of the rope in that second half and
Speaker 1: then it just got turned into bad body language. And
Speaker 1: now it's like the effort craters and their defensive rotations
Speaker 1: are worse, and their execution on offense gets worse, and
Speaker 1: it just gets worse and worse, and then the bottom
Speaker 1: basically fell out. And I want to credit the Nuggets
Speaker 1: because they smelled blood in the water and they went
Speaker 1: for it. And you know, it's interesting because I was
Speaker 1: wrong about this series. I picked the Nuggets to win.
Speaker 1: I thought they'd win in five or six games, but
Speaker 1: I really did think the Lakers would get one or two.
Speaker 1: And the main reason why is like I think this
Speaker 1: Lakers team is more talented and better than last year's team.
Speaker 1: They just have the continuity. They a couple of key
Speaker 1: role players had better seasons than they did last year.
Speaker 1: The five out offense kind of optimized all five of
Speaker 1: those starters to kind of play together and reach heights
Speaker 1: offensively that they hadn't reached. They were bad offense last
Speaker 1: year with more or less the same guys. Right, they
Speaker 1: were a bad offense last year, and this year they
Speaker 1: were the third best offense in the league over the
Speaker 1: last forty six games of the season. Right, this was
Speaker 1: a good offensive team. And so I really thought they'd
Speaker 1: be able to do some damage, at least a little
Speaker 1: bit of damage in this series before they'd inevitably lose. Right,
Speaker 1: And I was just wrong. They're gonna get swept. And
Speaker 1: I think kind of trying to diagnose that, I really
Speaker 1: just come back to I just think it's a really
Speaker 1: bad matchup. And what I mean by that is like
Speaker 1: Lebron and Ad are a bad matchup for the vast
Speaker 1: majority of the league. They're too big at power forward
Speaker 1: and they're too big at center. And they did a
Speaker 1: lot of damage this year to really good teams with
Speaker 1: that advantage. That's how they beat the Clippers so many times.
Speaker 1: That's how they beat the Suns so many times. That's
Speaker 1: how they beat the Thunder so many times. That's how
Speaker 1: they beat the Bucks. You know, like they just perpetually
Speaker 1: were able to weaponize their front court as their supreme advantage. Right,
Speaker 1: if you were listing the advantages that the Lakers have,
Speaker 1: it's like lebron ad front court is number one on
Speaker 1: that list, and then beneath that, it's like really skilled
Speaker 1: offensive players around him that can kind of play in
Speaker 1: that mix. Right, that's their advantage. But here's the problem.
Speaker 1: Denver is bigger than them in the front court. They
Speaker 1: just are like a Yokich is bigger than Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon and Lebron are more or less the same size.
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon's not quite as strong, but he's a little
Speaker 1: bit taller, right, and at this phase of his career
Speaker 1: is able to really match up with Lebron athletically in
Speaker 1: a way that when Lebron's twenty five nobody could. Right.
Speaker 1: And then Michael Porter Junior is just a bigger, better
Speaker 1: basketball player than Ruey Hachamura. And so now imagine this
Speaker 1: scenario your best advantage as you try to inflict it
Speaker 1: on Denver, You're running into basically a bigger, stronger front
Speaker 1: line that you can't weaponize that against. Okay, so now
Speaker 1: your biggest advantage has been more or less mitigated, removed
Speaker 1: from the equation. Right now, we shift down to the
Speaker 1: rest of the roster, and that's where Denver's advantages kick in.
Speaker 1: And it's like, oh wait, like Contavious call Well, Pope,
Speaker 1: maybe not as skilled as D'Angelo Russell, maybe doesn't have
Speaker 1: the high highs that d' angelo Russell can bring to
Speaker 1: the table, But on a night in, night out, basis
Speaker 1: as a two way player for the Denver Nuggets, he's
Speaker 1: just a better basketball player tonight. KCP didn't put up
Speaker 1: big numbers, but how many times did you see ad
Speaker 1: try to make some move in the lane on your
Speaker 1: kitch and CACP come in and strip it down or
Speaker 1: dig down on somebody else, driving and pick and roll
Speaker 1: like he just is everywhere making plays Defensively, Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: was an athletic wrecking ball in this game, causing problems.
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior just perpetually hitting big shot after big shot,
Speaker 1: grabbing big rebound. It is a mismatch down the roster.
Speaker 1: And so essentially, if your biggest advantage gets canceled out
Speaker 1: by Denver and all of your secondary advantages are just
Speaker 1: not as good as Denver, then there's not really a
Speaker 1: pathway to victory anymore. Your only pathway is essentially variants,
Speaker 1: and you kind of got a little bit of that
Speaker 1: it in game two, right, Like, in Game two, you
Speaker 1: shot the ball really well and Denver didn't, and you
Speaker 1: got close enough. But even then you couldn't close the
Speaker 1: deal because Denver's personnel on the defensive end is more
Speaker 1: versatile than yours, and they were able to make an
Speaker 1: adjustment to mitigate what you were doing offensively, play you
Speaker 1: into some of your worst tendencies, and then they walked
Speaker 1: you down at the end of the game and scored
Speaker 1: on eight of their last nine possession, right, And so
Speaker 1: that's the thing, Like, it doesn't really matter if the
Speaker 1: Lakers closed the gap in terms of their you know,
Speaker 1: abilities as a basketball team between last year and this year.
Speaker 1: And I still truly believe that last year they threw
Speaker 1: the team together together at the deadline. They didn't have continuity,
Speaker 1: they were running a different offense, a lot of guys
Speaker 1: were learning on the fly. This year's team, same squad
Speaker 1: from training camp to now, new offense, better production. They
Speaker 1: are a better team than they were last year. But
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter because strictly within the context of this matchup,
Speaker 1: they can't hang. And matchups are a huge deal in
Speaker 1: the NBA these days. Why do you think the Pelicans
Speaker 1: have the Sacramento Kings in the Golden State Warriors number.
Speaker 1: It's because they have lanky perimeter defenders to throw up
Speaker 1: against the smaller guard initiators for the other team, and
Speaker 1: those teams don't have the interior size to punish the
Speaker 1: Pelicans bad defensive front line. So it's just a bad matchup.
Speaker 1: That doesn't necessarily mean that the Pelicans aren't. Like I
Speaker 1: think the Pelicans and the Warriors and the Kings are
Speaker 1: all kind of on the same level as basketball teams
Speaker 1: in the aggregate versus the rest of the league. But
Speaker 1: when you put them against each other, the Pelicans can
Speaker 1: can just confront all of Golden State and Sacramento's strengths,
Speaker 1: and it makes it so that they're incapable of what
Speaker 1: the Pelicans go against the Kings this year six and
Speaker 1: zero or something like that, Like it was complete in
Speaker 1: total dominance, right, And that's kind of more or less
Speaker 1: what I see between the Lakers and the Nuggets. Lakers
Speaker 1: had a lot of success this year against a lot
Speaker 1: of good teams, but this particular team has consistently had
Speaker 1: their number, and there's been nothing that they can do
Speaker 1: about it. And one last thing I want to say.
Speaker 1: I want to say about the Nuggets like this, this
Speaker 1: team has a basketball character in terms of their night
Speaker 1: in and night out effort and focus and energy like
Speaker 1: in the postseason that I think helps them avoid the
Speaker 1: unforced errors that can occur in a playoff run. For instance, Boston,
Speaker 1: Boston tricks off a game against Miami last night playing
Speaker 1: some of the worst defense I've ever seen them play.
Speaker 1: Twenty seven of the forty three threes that they allowed
Speaker 1: Miami to shoot I thought were significant and defensive breakdowns
Speaker 1: like it was bad. Like that team, they have trouble
Speaker 1: maintaining their level. They kind of oscillate up and down right,
Speaker 1: And so what happens is is like against a good team,
Speaker 1: when you dip down, you could take a loss, and
Speaker 1: that could put you in a predicament where now your
Speaker 1: margin for error is smaller. And Denver's just not like that.
Speaker 1: They always pull on the rope, and the really good
Speaker 1: teams might be able to pull on the rope with
Speaker 1: them and hang on for a while. But for the
Speaker 1: most part, Denver's not gonna give you ground just for
Speaker 1: the sake of giving ground. They're not gonna give you
Speaker 1: ground with sloppiness. They're not gonna give you ground with
Speaker 1: inconsistent effort. They're not gonna give you ground with guys
Speaker 1: not accepting their roles and going off script and not
Speaker 1: doing their jobs. I loved that quote from Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: after the game. I don't know if you guys remember,
Speaker 1: but the reporter was kind of trying to bait him,
Speaker 1: you know. He was like asking him questions about the
Speaker 1: Lakers matchup specifically, and what is it about these guys
Speaker 1: that you guys give him all these problems blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: and he's just like, no, no, no, it's about us, and
Speaker 1: I am just trying to do what I can to
Speaker 1: help my team win. And what's interesting about that is
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon, when he was with Orlando, he was all
Speaker 1: interested in becoming this like versatile scoring forward. And what's
Speaker 1: so fascinating about what he's done in Denver is he's
Speaker 1: been like, the hell with all that they need me
Speaker 1: to basically play center while Jokic plays like point forward
Speaker 1: at the top of the key area with all this
Speaker 1: two man game and triuble handoff stuff and five out stuff, right,
Speaker 1: and He's like, fine, I'll do that. You need me
Speaker 1: to just grab every offensive rebound and hut to the
Speaker 1: rim every single time my man turns his head and
Speaker 1: sprint up and down the floor and transition and guard
Speaker 1: the other team's best defensive forward. If that's all you
Speaker 1: need me to do, That's what I'll do. I was
Speaker 1: actually thinking during the game, like, no one would ever
Speaker 1: consider Aaron Gordon to be a top thirty, top forty
Speaker 1: player in the NBA because of his statistical production. But
Speaker 1: if you actually just were to kind of just focus
Speaker 1: it down strictly to winning impact, he's probably a lot
Speaker 1: higher on that list than we give him credit for.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of guys in the league that
Speaker 1: put up big numbers in specific roles for teams that
Speaker 1: can't impact winning the way that Aaron Gordon does. And
Speaker 1: I like, like you, he is just he's just so
Speaker 1: useful and so impactful and so underrated in my opinion.
Speaker 1: Moving on to the Lakers, just really quickly before we
Speaker 1: move on. Lessons have to be learned from this, and
Speaker 1: I'm skeptical about it because this is the front office
Speaker 1: that has consistently missed the boat on this kind of thing, right,
Speaker 1: This is the same front office. That was like, oh,
Speaker 1: KCP and Alex Caruso and Dennis Schroeder and all these
Speaker 1: guys missed some shots in twenty twenty one during the
Speaker 1: Sun series, So let's bail on him and find shooting.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, never mind, and we actually want a third star,
Speaker 1: So forget about Buddy Heal. Let's go after Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: And they don't realize that Alex Cruso and KCP were
Speaker 1: two of the most important pieces to when they won
Speaker 1: the title, not because of them knocking down three point shots,
Speaker 1: not because of their offensive ceiling, but because of their floor.
Speaker 1: And I've noticed that as the game has gotten more physical,
Speaker 1: it's more the floor that matters than the ceiling, because
Speaker 1: like when everything gets grinded down into the mud, it's
Speaker 1: everyone's playing like shit to a certain extent, you know,
Speaker 1: at least in terms of their like finesse efficiency. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the big strong stars like the uh the Nikola Jokicic's
Speaker 1: of the world are gonna thrive in those environments. But
Speaker 1: the finesse player like Jamal Murray, his shot making has
Speaker 1: been key in the series. Go look at his percentages.
Speaker 1: He's been below fifty percent in every game. If I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, I think he finished tonight like eight for
Speaker 1: twenty one. He's been shooting poorly the majority of the series.
Speaker 1: That doesn't matter his floor because he's big and strong
Speaker 1: and he does find a way to hit some shots
Speaker 1: no matter what it like, all three games hit pivotal shots.
Speaker 1: Forget about the percentages. He hit pivotal shots in all
Speaker 1: three games, right, Like KCP had a bad shooting night tonight,
Speaker 1: Who cares, he was all over the place. As an athlete,
Speaker 1: if your floor is high, that matters more in the
Speaker 1: postseason than your ceiling. And again, like, I don't have
Speaker 1: any optimism about the Laker front office about being able
Speaker 1: to figure that out because I genuinely just don't think
Speaker 1: they get it. But hopefully this year will be the
Speaker 1: year that they learned about that. Danzel Russell, you know,
Speaker 1: it's been a really this is Delo is actually the
Speaker 1: perfect example of this theory, because Delo's ceiling is really
Speaker 1: damn high. You saw what he did in Game two
Speaker 1: when he was hitting shots. Go back into the postseason
Speaker 1: last year, Game four against Memphis, just massive three point
Speaker 1: shots in the fourth quarter because he caught a little
Speaker 1: mini heater in the fourth quarter that put the Lakers
Speaker 1: in position to win that game. Right, we all know
Speaker 1: what a Delo's ceiling is. But Dlo's floor is so
Speaker 1: bad because he goes so cold and his decision making
Speaker 1: gets so poor, and he's so useless on the defensive
Speaker 1: end of the floor that he's like downright damaging like
Speaker 1: half the time. And so it doesn't really matter how
Speaker 1: highest ceiling is if when you need him in a
Speaker 1: big game like this, you don't know what you're gonna get, right,
Speaker 1: And like I we have to be critical because this
Speaker 1: is the same guy that said all season that he
Speaker 1: wanted all the smoke. He literally said that. This is
Speaker 1: the same guy after Game two that said that he
Speaker 1: still believed his team was gonna win this series. He
Speaker 1: was writing checks and then he didn't cash them. He
Speaker 1: he put forth an abysmal two way performance tonight, zero
Speaker 1: for seven from the field, lost all over the place
Speaker 1: on defense. There's a video of him pouting outside the
Speaker 1: team huddle after the game, and I'm like, I I
Speaker 1: just never he never addressed his floor as a player,
Speaker 1: and that was the problem. He's so worried about his ceiling,
Speaker 1: and he work more on shooting, more on playmaking. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna lean into being this highly volatile offensive player
Speaker 1: instead of addressing his weaknesses, which is his possession to
Speaker 1: possession focus outside of what he's doing offensively, outside of
Speaker 1: what he's doing with the ball in his hands, I
Speaker 1: should say, And that ended up being what basically did
Speaker 1: him in Again, here we are one year after he
Speaker 1: was played off the floor against Denver, and in two
Speaker 1: of the three games, he's been downright destructive to the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Like they but if they decide to and we'll see
Speaker 1: what because the Lakers have a lot of stuff they
Speaker 1: have to figure out this obviously, and who knows if
Speaker 1: Lebron is gonna want to look somewhere else. Who knows
Speaker 1: if the entire ownership in front office group just wants
Speaker 1: to move on from the Lebron Ad pairing. Like, we
Speaker 1: don't know what's gonna happen, Right. I thought Ad was
Speaker 1: for more or less great in this series to this point,
Speaker 1: and that obviously is an excellent kind of foundational piece
Speaker 1: to try to build around. But I mean, he's gonna
Speaker 1: be thirty one next year, right, and so there's stuff
Speaker 1: that they got to figure out. But like, if they
Speaker 1: do try to run it back if they run it
Speaker 1: back and they go, hey, we're doing the ad Lebron
Speaker 1: thing again, that you you need to package d'angela Russell
Speaker 1: and draft compensation and whatever you need to do if
Speaker 1: it's more than one deal, and you need to bring
Speaker 1: in intelligent athleticism and strength to put alongside Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis, guys with high floors that maybe don't
Speaker 1: have the ceiling, because not only will that be better
Speaker 1: for them in the regular season, but when we get
Speaker 1: into these rock fights, when we get into these physical
Speaker 1: playoff games, those are gonna be the guys that are
Speaker 1: able to play all right, Moving on to six Ers Nicks.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things I talked about going
Speaker 1: into this postseason run is when it comes to Joel Embiid,
Speaker 1: his playoff history kind of comes down to a similar theme. Right.
Speaker 1: He struggles with some of the aggression that the defenses
Speaker 1: bring to the table, and he'll have bad turnovers and
Speaker 1: he'll struggle to kind of bully his way to the basket,
Speaker 1: and he never really developed that like consistent like five
Speaker 1: to seven feet from the basket, like over the top
Speaker 1: game like Jokic has, and that I think has made
Speaker 1: his game a little bit more volatile, but he's been
Speaker 1: bad head for the most part because his jump shot
Speaker 1: hasn't gone in. That's been the primary issue. Every year.
Speaker 1: He shoots pretty damn well for the entire regular season,
Speaker 1: and then he gets into the postseason and he can't
Speaker 1: make a jump shot. And since he can't make a
Speaker 1: jump shot and he can't make the over the top shot,
Speaker 1: his game kind of falls apart, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Al Horford's in his head and he doesn't know what
Speaker 1: to do, and now he's kind of like mitigated within
Speaker 1: that series, right, That's been kind of the story, but
Speaker 1: and beats potential for like a just a complete wrecking
Speaker 1: ball stretch has always been there because he is bigger
Speaker 1: and stronger than everybody, because there isn't anybody that can
Speaker 1: actually guard him when he's playing confident and comfortable offensively,
Speaker 1: and he does have a very very very good jump shot.
Speaker 1: He's an excellent jump shooter, and he is capable of
Speaker 1: knocking down shots in the postseason. He just hasn't done
Speaker 1: it to this point, and so honestly, tonight kind of
Speaker 1: felt like him breaking through in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: Now there's a lot to get frustrated about if you're
Speaker 1: a Sixers fan. Tonight, I did not think they had
Speaker 1: a good defensive defensive game. They really really did a
Speaker 1: poor job guarding bruntson and all screens. Uber and Nick
Speaker 1: Batoum were just a little unfocused and getting caught off
Speaker 1: guard when he was rejecting screens or why when he
Speaker 1: would just kind of dribble around at the top of
Speaker 1: the key and act like he's surveying the floor, He
Speaker 1: kind of hit the Jets quick and beat him off
Speaker 1: the dribble. They were then out of position in their
Speaker 1: ball pursuit and committing fouls from behind. That was a
Speaker 1: big issue. In the fourth quarter. There were possessions where
Speaker 1: Embiid was like glued up to Hartenstein on the weak
Speaker 1: side while Brunson's driving by Batooma on the other side.
Speaker 1: Like it was not a good defensive effort. Honestly, the
Speaker 1: only reason the Sixers won this game is they they
Speaker 1: shot the shit out of the basketball in that second half,
Speaker 1: and like specifically in the third quarter, Tyres Maxi and
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid were just spamming that pick and pop and
Speaker 1: Embiid was hitting threes. And it started in the early
Speaker 1: third quarter with him hitting little mid range shots, and
Speaker 1: then towards the end of the third quarter he started
Speaker 1: hitting that pick and pop three point shot and it
Speaker 1: kind of bailed them out. And so honestly, I think
Speaker 1: it'll work to Nick Nurse's benefit because I think Nick
Speaker 1: Nurse is gonna be able to go into a film
Speaker 1: session with the team after this game and be like, Hey,
Speaker 1: who won. This is great? You've played well enough to
Speaker 1: be up or you're down one two, but you've played
Speaker 1: well enough to be up to one. That's great. But
Speaker 1: we gotta be a lot better for game four. And
Speaker 1: I think I think we'll get much more of like
Speaker 1: a stuck in the mud kind of rock fight game
Speaker 1: in game four, And I think we'll get a better
Speaker 1: defensive effort out of the sixers in that game, and
Speaker 1: that that one is gonna be one where you're probably
Speaker 1: not gonna shoot quite as well and you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to win a different way. Right, This is kind of
Speaker 1: the buzzsaw concept that we were talking about. It's why
Speaker 1: you got ham Payne hidden shots and Kelly u Bray
Speaker 1: a couple of shots like you get you get better
Speaker 1: production from your role players at home, right, Like that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of to be expected. Tyre's Maxy was awesome again,
Speaker 1: not his most efficient night, but he had a step
Speaker 1: back jump shot going, especially in that third quarter stretch.
Speaker 1: Uh uh. You know, Tyres Masey, I think has been
Speaker 1: a it's been a clear uh success story this year
Speaker 1: in the sense that when Daryl Morrin moved off of
Speaker 1: James Harden and especially when he made the move more
Speaker 1: for draft compet and one useful role player and Nick Batoom,
Speaker 1: that put a lot of pressure on Tyree s Maaxy.
Speaker 1: Hey man, you're the number two, show us what you got,
Speaker 1: and I think he's passed that test. With Flying Colors,
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of like a trash talking match
Speaker 1: that's starting to take shape between Maxi and Brunson too,
Speaker 1: Like the Brunton at an and one against Maxie in
Speaker 1: the second half are like Pump faked and leaned into
Speaker 1: him and held the follow through right in Maxie's face,
Speaker 1: and Maxi went back down on him on the other
Speaker 1: end and his step back in his face and they're
Speaker 1: kind of going at each other and like he's got
Speaker 1: the confidence, he's got the natural ability in the postseason
Speaker 1: to him just comes down to a simple combination of
Speaker 1: jump shooting and downhill rim pressure. It's like the perfect
Speaker 1: complimentary skills. If you were both a deadly over the
Speaker 1: top shooter and a deadly downhill threat. It just puts
Speaker 1: every defensive player that tries to guard you in a bind.
Speaker 1: He's done a really nice job on the Embiid picking
Speaker 1: pops of dragging his defender as far off to the
Speaker 1: side as possible so that it's a longer close out right,
Speaker 1: Like that is a speed element too. If you come
Speaker 1: off the ball screen and you're too close and to
Speaker 1: the pop, it's just an easier rotation for Hartenstein. Right.
Speaker 1: As far as the play with Mitchell Robinson and Joel Embiid,
Speaker 1: there's no defending it. It was a dirty play. He
Speaker 1: was out of line. I'm glad that the league didn't
Speaker 1: eject him just simply because that'd be kind of a
Speaker 1: shitty way to win a series. Like if I'm the
Speaker 1: Knicks as a competitor, I want to beat the Sixers
Speaker 1: at full strength, and I want to beat them because
Speaker 1: Embiid did something stupid in the second quarter. I don't
Speaker 1: think Embiid was trying to hurt Mitchell Robinson. I think
Speaker 1: he was just he made a really bad, split second decision,
Speaker 1: a really stupid, unsafe decision because he was angry because
Speaker 1: he got ran over. I think that's what it was.
Speaker 1: Doesn't justify it, but I that's to me a discretion thing. Yeah, ya,
Speaker 1: Levy a fine on embiid and you make sure he
Speaker 1: understands that he can never do that again. But I
Speaker 1: understood the league being like or the officials being like,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna kick and beat out in Philly in
Speaker 1: the second quarter or this game for something like that,
Speaker 1: or or whenever it happened its first or second quarter.
Speaker 1: But like I honestly too, like the city of Philadelphia
Speaker 1: might have never let those officials get out of that
Speaker 1: arena alive if that, if something like that would have happened.
Speaker 1: Like there's a there's like a like by the book
Speaker 1: way of looking at that incident, and then there's like
Speaker 1: a realistic way of looking at that incident, and when
Speaker 1: you look at it through that from that perspective, I
Speaker 1: understood what the officials were doing. A big part of
Speaker 1: this game too, just role players coming back and hitting shots.
Speaker 1: That's an important piece of it, right. The big one
Speaker 1: for me, though, is the defense on runs in and this
Speaker 1: is something that I think that the Sixers are gonna
Speaker 1: have to adjust in game two. One of the things
Speaker 1: that I really didn't like in this game is they
Speaker 1: were doing a little too much defending the action two
Speaker 1: on two and staying glued on guys off the ball.
Speaker 1: And I understand, like Josh Hart's been hitting shots, and
Speaker 1: I understand like there have been guys that have made
Speaker 1: you pay over the course of the series from time
Speaker 1: to time, and obviously, like you don't want to just
Speaker 1: make easy reads available. But one of the things that
Speaker 1: was working in games one in game two is they
Speaker 1: were digging down a lot and making Brunton play in traffic,
Speaker 1: and he was getting into some precarious positions on the
Speaker 1: floor where he was surrounded by three four guys and
Speaker 1: turning the basketball over taking extremely difficult shots. You're on ball.
Speaker 1: Defenders were doing a better job of pursuit tyres. Maxie
Speaker 1: in particular, had much better defensive games in Game one
Speaker 1: and two than he did in Game three. Right Nicks
Speaker 1: made some adjustments too. They were running Brunton off more
Speaker 1: zoom action, like out of the corner where he'd like
Speaker 1: come off of a him down into a dribble handoff,
Speaker 1: so that like it's not as obvious as as Brunson
Speaker 1: just dribbling up the floor into a ball screen. But
Speaker 1: I still think there's a lot of area for improvement
Speaker 1: there for Philly, and they're going to have to have
Speaker 1: a better defensive effort in Game two if they're going
Speaker 1: to get this one. I do think best guess at
Speaker 1: this point, I think the Sixers will win Game four.
Speaker 1: But like I came into this series thinking the Sixers
Speaker 1: were going to win, and the Knicks have shown me
Speaker 1: that that toughness gap is actually even wider than I
Speaker 1: thought it was, and I'm actually pretty concerned about their
Speaker 1: ability to win in Madison Square Guard and again, especially
Speaker 1: after what happened in Game two. And so I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna bail on my pick yet, but I will tell
Speaker 1: you guys that I certainly don't feel as confident in
Speaker 1: it as I did before the series. Not that I
Speaker 1: felt super confident in the Sixers to begin with, but
Speaker 1: that is the team that I ended up picking. All right,
Speaker 1: moving on to Caves Magic before we get out of
Speaker 1: here for the night. Magic got off to a rough
Speaker 1: start in this one. They were playing in jumpers, right
Speaker 1: and left and the Cavs went up ten to three.
Speaker 1: Fronz Wagner ended up finally getting the lid off the
Speaker 1: rim with the corner three out of the left corner,
Speaker 1: and from there the Magic just basically took over Jalen
Speaker 1: Suggs immediately. It's a three, and it's just like they
Speaker 1: just got their confidence and got going from there on. Offense,
Speaker 1: the story of this game and this entire matchup really
Speaker 1: and it's something that the Magic had been doing all season.
Speaker 1: But Pawlo is basically your point guard, right and they're
Speaker 1: just running a lot of these like ghost screens with
Speaker 1: Jalen Suggs as man and you know, obviously there's like
Speaker 1: a hedge and recover element to that where Jalen Suggs
Speaker 1: was able to attack closeouts where like again we talked
Speaker 1: about this with Grayson Allen and the Suns in the
Speaker 1: Timberwolve series. But sug sets a screen, he slips out
Speaker 1: to the top of the key palette, throws it back
Speaker 1: to him. The hedger is like sprinting back to him.
Speaker 1: He's hitting threes and driving out of that. He was
Speaker 1: getting really good rim pressure out of that. Also, a
Speaker 1: really good transition game from Jalen Suggs just flying down
Speaker 1: the lane, had a big dunk on a spot up
Speaker 1: at the top of the key when I think it
Speaker 1: was Darius Garland kind of lost sight of him off
Speaker 1: the ball, but when they were able to switch that,
Speaker 1: when Jalen got a really good screen and they were
Speaker 1: able to get a switch. One of the things that
Speaker 1: I appreciated was like early in the game, Powell was
Speaker 1: settling for further away jump shots, and obviously he's at
Speaker 1: this phase in his career a little bit of an
Speaker 1: inconsistent jump shooter, but he's actually like pretty damn good
Speaker 1: when he gets closer to the basket when he's in
Speaker 1: there like that seven to fifteen foot range, And he
Speaker 1: finally started getting some better matchups and those ghost screens,
Speaker 1: and he was getting downhill. Franz was doing this too,
Speaker 1: but getting closer to the rim and taking those short
Speaker 1: range jump shots. Like we too often we break down
Speaker 1: shot making into like three levels, right, it's three level scoring,
Speaker 1: it's the rim, it's the three point line, it's the
Speaker 1: mid range, right, But I actually look at more like
Speaker 1: four levels. It's like the rim, the three point line,
Speaker 1: long twos, which to me are an inefficient shot that
Speaker 1: you should only take when you have to. But then
Speaker 1: there's like short twos. These are shots that are like
Speaker 1: inside of the foul line, you know, all around the basket, right,
Speaker 1: how Low hits seven of those, Tonight hits seven jump
Speaker 1: shots in that like seven to fifteen foot range, those
Speaker 1: are a lot easier those Like again, when I talk
Speaker 1: about pull up jump shooting, it's a lot about lyft.
Speaker 1: It's a lot about getting separation and getting lyft right.
Speaker 1: And so when you're doing that further away from the basket,
Speaker 1: they just turned into really difficult shots to make. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like the James Harden story. His entire career
Speaker 1: is built on this like step back three that he
Speaker 1: can hit in the regular season. Then he gets to
Speaker 1: the postseason and it's like a super inconsistent shot for him.
Speaker 1: Why because Yeah, in a super physical and intense playoff game,
Speaker 1: shooting a step back jump shot from twenty five feet
Speaker 1: seventeen times, like however many times he takes it in
Speaker 1: game is just really really difficult. Right, It's a fatiguing shot.
Speaker 1: But like, no matter how tired you are, if you
Speaker 1: get closer to the basket, you don't need as much
Speaker 1: lift to get a decent look there. It's kind of
Speaker 1: been what Kawhi Leonard has been so efficient within his career.
Speaker 1: He's not hitting nineteen footers every single time, He's hitting
Speaker 1: thirteen footers every single time. And that just imagine a
Speaker 1: free throw. It's literally inside the free throw line, and
Speaker 1: you can imagine how much that kind of makes things easier.
Speaker 1: And Palow is just absolutely dominant in this game. And
Speaker 1: I think that, to me is where Plow's ceiling lies.
Speaker 1: His ceiling lies is basically like the forward version of
Speaker 1: Jokic in the sense that like he needs to bully
Speaker 1: his way in close to the rim and just get
Speaker 1: deadly with those like short range over the top shots,
Speaker 1: turn around jumpers over both shoulders, a hook shot over
Speaker 1: his left shoulder. Franz kind of went to one of
Speaker 1: these today where it's like almost like a euro step
Speaker 1: into like a lean back, one leg fade away, but
Speaker 1: not from far, like from five feet from the rim
Speaker 1: like that. That is an area where you can get
Speaker 1: really accurate if you're shot making. And by the way,
Speaker 1: don't tell me that doesn't matter. That's the shot that
Speaker 1: makes Jokic the best player in the world. Like Jokic's
Speaker 1: ability to hit that shot is what has separated him
Speaker 1: and Pallo is a supremely gifted forward. He is bigger
Speaker 1: than the vast majority of the players that play his
Speaker 1: position around the league, and that's where his advantage is.
Speaker 1: But he got going with those short range jumpers and
Speaker 1: he started hitting threes, and him hitting four of them
Speaker 1: in this game. Like I mentioned before, Jalen sugs nine
Speaker 1: for eleven with twenty four points. A lot of attacking
Speaker 1: off of those ghost screen actions. I think Cole Anthony
Speaker 1: had a really good second quarter shift. Markel Foltz did
Speaker 1: some nice work off the bench as well. Again that's
Speaker 1: to be expected. You go on the road, your role
Speaker 1: players can struggle. You come home, your role players can
Speaker 1: play better. But as a team, they just had a
Speaker 1: much better jump shooting night. This is a bottom ten
Speaker 1: jump shooting team. They're tied for twenty third in the
Speaker 1: NBA in jump shot efficiency during the regular season, but
Speaker 1: they at one point two to two points per jump
Speaker 1: shot tonight completely flipped the script. Hit a bunch of shots,
Speaker 1: bloom out right, not even close. On defense, a swarming
Speaker 1: effort from everybody, more switching. Cleveland went out of their
Speaker 1: way to kind of try to target Palo and early
Speaker 1: in the series, if you remember, like Palo and Franz
Speaker 1: when they were getting targeted in ball screens, they were
Speaker 1: almost like or since of paloin Franz and Paalo and
Speaker 1: Jonathan Isaac early in the series were almost like defending
Speaker 1: those ball screens, almost like in a drop coverage. And
Speaker 1: I mean, those are guys that just don't have a
Speaker 1: ton of experience guarding like that. And so I was
Speaker 1: advocating early in the series for more switching, and they
Speaker 1: did more. They've been doing more switching as the series progresses,
Speaker 1: really since the second half of Game one. But Cleveland
Speaker 1: was going out of their way to try to attack Palo,
Speaker 1: and he held up pretty damn well. It committed a
Speaker 1: couple of fouls where he was just getting a little handsy,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, slid his feet, was contesting
Speaker 1: shots and was doing a good doing a good job.
Speaker 1: This series, to me, feels like a series where the
Speaker 1: home team is gonna win out. Obviously, if Cleveland can
Speaker 1: steal one in Orlando, it'll be over quicker. If they
Speaker 1: steal game four, then this this thing's over in five.
Speaker 1: I don't think Orlando's gonna win in Cleveland at all.
Speaker 1: But I do think Orlando is a good chance to
Speaker 1: win all their home games. It kind of goes back
Speaker 1: to what I was talking about at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the show. This is the buzzsaw, right, but that buzz
Speaker 1: saw is exacerbated by the athleticism. You know. The Lakers
Speaker 1: just don't have the athletes to be a buzzsaw for Denver, right,
Speaker 1: But Orlando sure as hell does to Cleveland. They are
Speaker 1: the bigger, more athletic team, right. They out rebounded Cleveland
Speaker 1: fifty one to thirty two. They were twenty one to
Speaker 1: eleven in fast break points, fourteen to five in offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: That is a complete and total physical dominance of the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Cavaliers. So again, this is where home court advantage matters.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be concerned if I was a Cavs fan,
Speaker 1: because I literally don't think Orlando can beat Cleveland and Cleveland.
Speaker 1: But this could be a long series just based on
Speaker 1: how difficult it is to match Orlando's physicality when they're
Speaker 1: at home. All right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for
Speaker 1: supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1: We have Jovann Buja coming on the show. The volume