Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: The NBA eighty two game grind is done, and now
Speaker 2: the real fun begins. The NBA Playoffs aren't here, and
Speaker 2: it's time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments,
Speaker 2: and jaw dropping plays. I can't wait. If you're looking
Speaker 2: to make the playoffs even more exciting, DraftKings Sportsbook has
Speaker 2: you covered as an official sports betting partner of the
Speaker 2: NBA from the playing games all the way through to
Speaker 2: the finals. Now's the time to back your favorite players
Speaker 2: and teams as they chase glory. All season long. DraftKings
Speaker 2: has been the go to spot for NBA player props
Speaker 2: and that does not stop. Now. Want to make your
Speaker 2: playoff experience even more intense, Try placing a bet on
Speaker 2: your favorite player's performance. Well they drop thirty points, forty
Speaker 2: or more, it's your call. Ready to place your first bet?
Speaker 2: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook gap Now lock in your bets.
Speaker 2: Let's make this playoff run unforgettable. Here's something special for
Speaker 2: first timers. New DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to get
Speaker 2: two hundred dollars in bonus bets. Instantly make it a
Speaker 2: playoff run to remember with DraftKings. Download the Draft Kings
Speaker 2: sportsbook gap and use code hoops. That's h oops. That's
Speaker 2: code hoops for new customers to get two hundred dollars
Speaker 2: in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only
Speaker 2: on DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called Wayne
Speaker 2: hundred gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight
Speaker 2: hope and y or text hope and why to four
Speaker 2: six seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help us available
Speaker 2: for problem gambling Call eight eight eight seven eight nine
Speaker 2: seven seven seven seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please
Speaker 2: play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in
Speaker 2: Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction.
Speaker 2: Void in Ontario. New customers only. Bonus bets expire one
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms
Speaker 2: and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co. Slash audio.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume
Speaker 2: heavy Monday. Everybody hope Bob, You guys are having a
Speaker 2: great start to your week. What a wild night in
Speaker 2: the NBA as the Draft lotterly the Draft Lottery sends
Speaker 2: Cooper Flag to the Dallas Mavericks, or at least presumably
Speaker 2: at this point we'll talk about some of the possibilities there.
Speaker 2: San Antonio gets the second pick, putting them in the
Speaker 2: pole position in a Giannis Antennacumpo trade. Then we get
Speaker 2: just an absolutely crazy Nick Celtics game that comes down
Speaker 2: to the wire as the Knicks pull it out. But
Speaker 2: then suddenly at the end we get the what appears
Speaker 2: to be a devastating injury to Jason Tatum, which kind
Speaker 2: of put a bummer on everything. And then in light
Speaker 2: Slate Anthony Edwards and Julius Raynd will put on another
Speaker 2: show against the Golden State Warriors. We're going to talk
Speaker 2: briefly about the Timberwolves Warriors game. We're going to be
Speaker 2: spending most of the night on Celtics, Knicks, the Tatum news,
Speaker 2: and the draft lottery. We're also when we are done
Speaker 2: here tonight, we are heading over to playback for our
Speaker 2: our usual after show where we take callers and take
Speaker 2: questions from the chat watch film stuff along those lines.
Speaker 2: Head over to play dot TV slash Hoops tonight. Right
Speaker 2: when we finish here for the after show, you guys
Speaker 2: have the Joe before you started subscribe to the Hoops
Speaker 2: Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of
Speaker 2: our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore json lt
Speaker 2: so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about
Speaker 2: podcast fee where you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight.
Speaker 2: It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and
Speaker 2: a review on that front. We also have social media
Speaker 2: feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where Jackson is doing
Speaker 2: great work. Make sure you guys follow us there and then,
Speaker 2: last but not least, as we mentioned earlier, keep dropping
Speaker 2: mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can hit
Speaker 2: them throughout the remainder of the postseason. All right, let's
Speaker 2: talk some basketball. So the only hope for the Warriors
Speaker 2: to win this series was for their defense to stifle
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall long enough for Steph Curry
Speaker 2: to make a return. And Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall
Speaker 2: just left no chance of that being the case. Both
Speaker 2: of those guys were fantastic in these two games in
Speaker 2: Golden State, and in both games, Golden State threw a
Speaker 2: great punch and got scoring punch from some guys that
Speaker 2: have been inconsistent throughout the season. They get the best
Speaker 2: play out of Jonathan Minga that we've seen in this
Speaker 2: postseason by far, in his first kind of like long
Speaker 2: leash opportunity. The games are close in the second half
Speaker 2: both times, but in both games a little bit later
Speaker 2: in the fourth quarter in Game three, more of a
Speaker 2: mid third quarter run in Game four, but Anthony Edwards
Speaker 2: and Julius Randall are able to figure things out and
Speaker 2: get on a run and put the game away. Now,
Speaker 2: obviously it's more complicated than that. Not having Steph Curry
Speaker 2: on the floor has all sorts of trickle down effects.
Speaker 2: Jackson and I were talking about this earlier. There's like
Speaker 2: a belief that you have to have, and you could
Speaker 2: literally see when Ant's going on his scoring run. It
Speaker 2: just kind of sapped the belief out of that Warriors defense.
Speaker 2: And that's where it'd be nice if you had a
Speaker 2: guy on your team that could go on a scoring
Speaker 2: run to help you put the opponent in that sort
Speaker 2: of position. But the fact remains that against what I
Speaker 2: believe is probably the second or third best defense in
Speaker 2: the NBA, it's Oklahoma City, it's Minnesota, it's you know,
Speaker 2: it's Boston, it's Golden State. Those are the four best
Speaker 2: defenses that I've watched to this point in the season,
Speaker 2: and Golden State obviously was the number one defense in
Speaker 2: the league over the final stretch of games there from
Speaker 2: the Jimmy Butler trade. This is a very very good
Speaker 2: defense that Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall were able to
Speaker 2: score on. And this is the Anthony Edwards upside that
Speaker 2: I've been so excited about for so long. One of
Speaker 2: the things I've talked about with him is there's a
Speaker 2: certain unguardability with him that is different than the unguardability
Speaker 2: you see with Jokic or with Luca, where it's primarily
Speaker 2: built on size. Ant has size. He's sixty six and
Speaker 2: he's built like a truck, but he has this profound
Speaker 2: stop start ability which allows him to get from point
Speaker 2: A to point B, but to stop on a dime
Speaker 2: at point B and to get straight up and down
Speaker 2: into a shot. And you add to that the touch
Speaker 2: that he has built out over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: I was speaking about this in the playoff run last year,
Speaker 2: stretching into the Team USA Basketball stretch over the summer.
Speaker 2: I'm a big believer in Anthony Edwards's jump shot. The
Speaker 2: form is crisp. He gets great rotation on the ball,
Speaker 2: he has great arc on the shot. Yes, he can
Speaker 2: still have his stretches where he cools off a little bit,
Speaker 2: but overall, I believe in him as a jump shooter.
Speaker 2: And when you piece all of that together, what it
Speaker 2: allows for is the ability for him to get to
Speaker 2: any spot on the floor with his athleticism, but to
Speaker 2: have the shots necessary to pay off any of those
Speaker 2: specific spots on the floor, whether it's all the way
Speaker 2: to the rim for a dunk, whether it's a finish
Speaker 2: with either hand. He's finally starting to finish better around
Speaker 2: the basket. Over the course of the last couple of games.
Speaker 2: You can tell he's starting to figure out his angles.
Speaker 2: In this particular matchup, the short range shot, making the
Speaker 2: step throughs, and the floaters. He had a couple absurd
Speaker 2: little like lefty righty floaters at various kind of finishing
Speaker 2: angles in this game, settled into a nice easy mid
Speaker 2: range jumper. I'd like to see him that one a
Speaker 2: little bit more, and then he can take a three
Speaker 2: against a ball screen, against a drop coverage, he could
Speaker 2: take a three on a step back going to his left.
Speaker 2: He could take a three on a step back going
Speaker 2: to his right. He just has all of the shot
Speaker 2: making to tie that athleticism piece to the ability to
Speaker 2: actually finish plays and make shots. And you know, one
Speaker 2: of the big difference is, like, obviously Golden State's defense
Speaker 2: is trying to make him make higher difficulty reads. But
Speaker 2: you know, in the way that these games kind of dictate,
Speaker 2: you have to as the star, take some difficult shots
Speaker 2: over double teams. Like I thought it was flat out
Speaker 2: bizarre in this game that we saw Jimmy Butler in
Speaker 2: a very similar type of situation where his team needed
Speaker 2: him to score only take nine shots, Like because again,
Speaker 2: in this sort of situation, when the defense is as
Speaker 2: good as it is and everyone's as locked in and
Speaker 2: as focused as they are, you need a guy who
Speaker 2: can take a step back three over a contested hand
Speaker 2: and make it. That's what Jayson Tatum was doing tonight,
Speaker 2: is what Jalen Brunson was doing tonight. So Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 2: has done a lot in the Indiana Pacers series, so
Speaker 2: what Steph Curry did to the Rockets. You need somebody
Speaker 2: that can overcome the circumstances of high level defense with
Speaker 2: high level shot making. And Anthony Edwards is now pieced
Speaker 2: together this overwhelming athletic frame that he's got with elite
Speaker 2: shot making from every spot on the floor, and it's
Speaker 2: turned him into one of the great players in our game.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is again one of the best defenses
Speaker 2: in the league, and he's lightening him up. This last
Speaker 2: couple of games in his playoff career, obviously not including tonight,
Speaker 2: he's averaging twenty eight point seven rebounds and five assists
Speaker 2: on fifty nine percent true shooting thirty five career playoff
Speaker 2: games before tonight, He's about to make his second consecutive
Speaker 2: conference finals. He's just twenty three years old, still just
Speaker 2: barely scratching the surface of his potential. It has been
Speaker 2: so much fun watching him over the course of these
Speaker 2: last few seasons, and there's a part of me that's sad.
Speaker 2: Obviously and Steph are my two favorite players and they're
Speaker 2: going home, and it's unfortunate in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: I was really disappointed in the way the Lakers played.
Speaker 2: I did believe in this Golden State team. I actually
Speaker 2: think they would have won the series if Steph Curry
Speaker 2: was healthy. But at the same time, as a basketball fan,
Speaker 2: if I had to see the Reins get handed over.
Speaker 2: I liked the group that's taken over. And watching Anthony Edwards,
Speaker 2: watching Jalen Brunson, watching what Tatum did today before his injury.
Speaker 2: You know what we've got coming on the periphery in
Speaker 2: terms of what Victor woman Yama can do. Cooper Flagg
Speaker 2: coming into the league, who already has shown that he
Speaker 2: has the potential to be one of the greats in
Speaker 2: our league. Like, I feel like the league is just
Speaker 2: in a really good spot and I hate it had
Speaker 2: to be like this, But at the same time, I'm
Speaker 2: excited to watch these guys. I'm excited to see Anthony
Speaker 2: Edwards potentially versus Oklahoma City. We'll talk about that in
Speaker 2: a minute. The Julius Randall piece thirty one points tonight,
Speaker 2: eleven for twenty one from the field, coming into tonight
Speaker 2: twenty two points, six rebounds, assists on fifty nine percent
Speaker 2: true shooting in the playoffs. I feel like he has
Speaker 2: vindicated himself and shone a light on the reality that
Speaker 2: he was just banged up and out of rhythm in
Speaker 2: a lot of his previous playoff runs. He is a big,
Speaker 2: strong forward that can make shots and can pass, which
Speaker 2: is a very useful player in the NBA postseason. Obviously,
Speaker 2: he didn't get tested mentally as a defender in this
Speaker 2: series like he would have with Steph Curry. That was
Speaker 2: something that I was very interested to see in terms
Speaker 2: of a challenge for him to have to deal with.
Speaker 2: But Julius Randall, I've been so impressed by him in
Speaker 2: this entire postseason run. Looking forward for Minnesota, like we'll
Speaker 2: talk about Golden State in a minute, I don't think
Speaker 2: they should bring Steph Curry back, so I think old.
Speaker 2: I think Minnesota is going to close this out in
Speaker 2: Game five. Obviously we know what Minnesota looks like versus Denver.
Speaker 2: We got bringside seats for that last year and that
Speaker 2: was an unbelievable series. But as I mentioned after yesterday's game,
Speaker 2: I think Denver blew their chance to beat Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: in the fourth quarter last night, up by eight on
Speaker 2: that Peyton Watson hook shot. That was their chance. If
Speaker 2: there was an opportunity for them to win that series,
Speaker 2: I feel like they let it slip. It's not over,
Speaker 2: but I would make Oklahoma City a substantial favorite at
Speaker 2: this point, just like Vegas has been doing for the
Speaker 2: entire damn series. But I think I think Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: is gonna win that series, and it makes for a
Speaker 2: very interesting matchup. As you guys have seen with Denver,
Speaker 2: they've been able to play Oklahoma City into these slow down,
Speaker 2: half court environments where they're just playing a lot of
Speaker 2: high ISO basketball. And you know, Golden State was able
Speaker 2: to do similar things to Minnesota in the sense that
Speaker 2: obviously there's lots of different coverages. We saw, we saw
Speaker 2: zone in this series. We saw Jackson pointed out there's
Speaker 2: a to me and a text message. They ran a
Speaker 2: box in one possession in that second half at one point,
Speaker 2: just having Jonathan minga face guard Anthony Edwards off the
Speaker 2: ball while the other two guys sat in a to
Speaker 2: two zone. But like, there's a lot of weird stuff,
Speaker 2: but ultimately it's Anthony Edwards hitting shots over the top
Speaker 2: at the top of the key. Anthony Edwards is hitting
Speaker 2: shots out of closeouts off the weak side. That was
Speaker 2: a big thing they unlocked in the last two games,
Speaker 2: is getting at little bit more off the ball into
Speaker 2: some catch and shoot situations and then him trying to
Speaker 2: sloal them through bodies and get to the basket. Both
Speaker 2: of these defenses, Oklahoma City and Minnesota will be able
Speaker 2: to stall each other out and get them trapped in
Speaker 2: the half court. But I tell you guys, I cannot
Speaker 2: wait to see Anthony Edwards versus potentially Shay Gills as
Speaker 2: Alexander in a playoff series going toe to toe at
Speaker 2: the top of the key. I think that could be
Speaker 2: a really fun one. Again, it's not over. Denver certainly
Speaker 2: can beat Oklahoma City, but I think I think we're
Speaker 2: careening towards a Shae versus Aunt face off in the
Speaker 2: conference finals, which I think could be a ton of
Speaker 2: fun on the Golden State front. As I mentioned at
Speaker 2: the beginning of the series, I didn't see any purpose
Speaker 2: to bringing Steph back before Game six because there's just
Speaker 2: too much of a risk for him re injuring himself.
Speaker 2: And even at this point, it's like, what are you
Speaker 2: gonna do? Bring it back in Game five and win
Speaker 2: three games in a row against that physical Minnesota Timberwolves
Speaker 2: team and then roll up into a series against Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2: Like I said before this series that I thought Golden
Speaker 2: State would get smacked by Oklahoma City, So like I
Speaker 2: don't necessarily think that there's much in the way of
Speaker 2: a reward to make the risk worth it trying to
Speaker 2: like force Steph back out there into that sort of setting,
Speaker 2: and so I think that they most likely need to
Speaker 2: just leave him and let him rest and prepare for
Speaker 2: next season. We've seen enough from this Warriors team in
Speaker 2: this playoff run, I think to justify the fact that
Speaker 2: they have, you know, a real chance next year that
Speaker 2: they should go for. I think we saw some of
Speaker 2: the realities of Jimmy Butler as an offensive player in
Speaker 2: this postseason run, and that like some nights he has it,
Speaker 2: some nights he doesn't. He kind of has like a
Speaker 2: weird lack of aggression at times, and so I think
Speaker 2: they need to be targeting a pretty high level offensive
Speaker 2: player this offseason. I just all roads to me just
Speaker 2: kind of keep running back to Cam Johnson as like
Speaker 2: the obvious fit, and we'll see what they end up doing.
Speaker 2: But all in all, like just like I said, with
Speaker 2: the Lakers, it's really hard to put together a team
Speaker 2: on the fly at the trade deadline, and both teams
Speaker 2: did the best they could, and both teams had some
Speaker 2: really impressive stretches, but ultimately neither team was able to
Speaker 2: get to the level they need to get to and
Speaker 2: they just need to make the necessary pivots this offseason
Speaker 2: around their new star corp. You got Jimmy Butler, now
Speaker 2: you need to just anchor them with high level offense.
Speaker 2: Lakers got Luca. They need to reconfigure their offense around Luca.
Speaker 2: That's the processes we had into the.
Speaker 1: Summer, Blending Vice's signature dynamic storytelling with the high octane
Speaker 1: world of sports. Vice Sports brings an exciting and diverse
Speaker 1: range of programming that goes beyond the game. From action
Speaker 1: pack live events to gripping behind the scenes documentaries to
Speaker 1: hard hitting investigative pieces and in depth profiles of athletes, coaches, teams,
Speaker 1: Vice Sports captures the raw energy, drama, and passion that
Speaker 1: makes sports truly unforgettable. Catch live events and other exclusive
Speaker 1: sports programs only on Vice TV. Go to vicetv dot
Speaker 1: com to find your cable channel.
Speaker 2: All let's move on to Celtics Knicks. I want to
Speaker 2: separate what happened in the game tonight from Tatum's injury.
Speaker 2: Tatum's injury is just a huge bummer and it opens
Speaker 2: up a whole can of worms in terms of the
Speaker 2: Celtics for both their immediate future and their long term future,
Speaker 2: and most importantly, it's just sad. Like when I saw
Speaker 2: Tatum getting rolled out in the wheelchair in the tunnel
Speaker 2: and he had his head in his hands, like you
Speaker 2: could just tell how heartbroken he is. And I you know,
Speaker 2: Tatum can be a frustrating player sometimes, and he showed
Speaker 2: some of his like floor, so to speak, in this
Speaker 2: postseason in Game one, in Game two. But Tatum, to me,
Speaker 2: was so impressive the vast majority of this season, and
Speaker 2: I thought, for the first time, really played at a
Speaker 2: top tier superstar level for extended stretches, and you could
Speaker 2: just tell how much this means to him, and it
Speaker 2: just was a huge bummer to see him go down.
Speaker 2: So I want to hold that for later, because the
Speaker 2: Knicks beat the Celtics fair and square tonight to take
Speaker 2: a three to one lead. That game was over before
Speaker 2: the Tatum injury, and Nick fans deserved to celebrate their
Speaker 2: team tonight, and I want to take the next few
Speaker 2: minutes to do that before we kind of circle back
Speaker 2: to the Celtics and tat him stuff later in the show. Tonight.
Speaker 2: I thought the Knicks did an excellent job of executing
Speaker 2: their defensive game plan on the Celtics. One of the
Speaker 2: things I've consistently harped on in this series is the
Speaker 2: willingness of Tom Thibodeau to run different kinds of drop
Speaker 2: coverage with Kat or Hedge and recover sequences with Brunson.
Speaker 2: That gave Boston easy reads to get the Knicks into rotation,
Speaker 2: and they were able to get really clean catch and
Speaker 2: shoot looks out of that. I talked about how they
Speaker 2: needed to switch, understanding that they could bait the Celtics
Speaker 2: into playing isoball instead of moving the ball around, and
Speaker 2: tonight was the best they've done executing that game plan
Speaker 2: in the series, in that second half, in particular, by
Speaker 2: the way, it takes a great deal of patience to
Speaker 2: run that game plan. You have to see the bigger
Speaker 2: picture of the game, because we did see Jalen Brown
Speaker 2: drive to the basket and get layups on Cat. We
Speaker 2: did see Jalen Brown hit a step back three over
Speaker 2: the top of Cat. We saw Tay go on multiple
Speaker 2: red hot ISO shooting runs. The difference in the game
Speaker 2: for the first two and a half quarters was a
Speaker 2: stretch in the late first quarter where Tatum hit like
Speaker 2: four or five shots in a row that were all
Speaker 2: contested off the dribble jump shots in the second half.
Speaker 2: In that mid third quarter, he had another big shooting
Speaker 2: run as he kind of went bar for bar with
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson there for a little while. You have to
Speaker 2: be patient in understand the bigger picture of the game
Speaker 2: with your game plan to know that sometimes it's going
Speaker 2: to beat you, no different than when you do run
Speaker 2: drop coverage against the player that you're not as worried
Speaker 2: about burning you in those coverages. Sometimes you have to
Speaker 2: sit there and watch them make a pull up three
Speaker 2: against the drop or a floater against the drop and
Speaker 2: realize that even though you're losing that battle, maybe you're
Speaker 2: not losing the war as long as the other elements
Speaker 2: of your game plan come to fruition. The Celtics, even
Speaker 2: though Tatum had those offensive flurries like you had, the
Speaker 2: Celtics had very little in the way of offensive rhythm
Speaker 2: as a team in the second half of that game.
Speaker 2: In the second half, Jason Tatum had twenty two points,
Speaker 2: but no other Celtic was in rhythm. No other Celtic
Speaker 2: had double figures in that second half. Four different knicks
Speaker 2: were in rhythm in that second half. Four different Knicks
Speaker 2: had over ten points in that second half. As a
Speaker 2: team in the second half, the Celtics got just zero
Speaker 2: point eighty to nine points per possession in the half court.
Speaker 2: Boston in the fourth quarter generated just one unguarded catch
Speaker 2: and shoot jump shot. As a team, they locked just
Speaker 2: fifteen assists, which was their second lowest total of the
Speaker 2: entire season. So the game plan worked. It baited the
Speaker 2: Celtics into isoball, it cooked their rhythm. No one else
Speaker 2: had anything going but Jason Tatum, while the Knicks had
Speaker 2: everything go in and they were able to pull away.
Speaker 2: I thought the second key factor the game was the
Speaker 2: weirdness of that early fourth quarter stretch. So we have
Speaker 2: Brunson going blow for blow with Jason Tatum in the
Speaker 2: late third quarter like just a really fun shit. This
Speaker 2: was like a really fun game. MSG was on fire,
Speaker 2: Tatum was unbelievable, just a ridiculous game. And then we
Speaker 2: go into this early fourth quarter stretch and I thought
Speaker 2: Tom Tibodau was gonna pull a JJ Reddick for a minute.
Speaker 2: I was like, Oh, he's gonna play his starters all
Speaker 2: twenty four minutes in the second half because he stuck
Speaker 2: with his core five for the entire third quarter. But no,
Speaker 2: he goes to duce McBride in the early fourth quarter
Speaker 2: and gives Brunson a quick rest. Simultaneously, Jalen Brown is
Speaker 2: in foul trouble and he's usually the guy that leads
Speaker 2: that early fourth quarter stretch. But no, he's out of
Speaker 2: the game, so Jason Tatum has to stay in. So
Speaker 2: as a result, the Celtics more or less kept playing
Speaker 2: the same way the Knicks. That gave McHale Bridges a
Speaker 2: chance to start running action and he got into the
Speaker 2: mid range and he caught a rhythm, and we talked, Man,
Speaker 2: what was the big game that the Knicks one earlier
Speaker 2: this year where McHale hit all those mid range shots
Speaker 2: at the end? I can't remember which one it was.
Speaker 2: It was a National TV game and he hit like
Speaker 2: six or seven mid range jump shots in the fourth
Speaker 2: quarter to pull away. I literally can't remember which game
Speaker 2: it was. But after that game, if you guys remember,
Speaker 2: I came on and I talked about the concept of
Speaker 2: mid range rhythm and how mid range rhythm is different
Speaker 2: than three point rhythm in the sense that you know,
Speaker 2: you can get hot as a three point shooter and
Speaker 2: you might go, you know, you might hit four out
Speaker 2: of seven or something like that. You'll see obviously Steph
Speaker 2: Curry and Klay Thompson go crazy hot and hit six
Speaker 2: seven threes in a row. But like in the mid
Speaker 2: range is where you really can catch a rhythm to
Speaker 2: where every single shot goes in. Because it's a shorter shot,
Speaker 2: there's more margin for error, and so you catch the
Speaker 2: same type of shooting rhythm that you get behind the
Speaker 2: three point line, but on a higher percentage shot. And
Speaker 2: McHale caught some rhythm in that early fourth quarter, and
Speaker 2: so then when Bridges came back, we had ourselves a
Speaker 2: really close game because again Jason Tatum was going blow
Speaker 2: for blow with these guys. Hit two massive threes in
Speaker 2: the middle of that fourth quarter stretch. All of a sudden,
Speaker 2: It's ninety nine to ninety eight on a Jason Tatum
Speaker 2: three was seven minutes left, and from that point forward,
Speaker 2: the Knicks scored on ten of their next twelve possessions
Speaker 2: against that Celtics defense that was giving them all sorts
Speaker 2: of problems earlier in the game. McHale, Bridges, Ojananobi, and
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson all had multiple made baskets in that run.
Speaker 2: They had great rhythm the ball was when the ball
Speaker 2: was getting skipped across the court. O Jannanoby was in
Speaker 2: great rhythm to shoot a three against the closeout. McHale
Speaker 2: Bridges driving across the lane against the closeout, hitting another
Speaker 2: one of those tough right shoulder fades. They were starting
Speaker 2: the possession with Brunson, but when the initial action broke down,
Speaker 2: they were able to move the ball elsewhere and get
Speaker 2: other guys involved, and everyone was in a rhythm. The
Speaker 2: Knicks played some special basketball in that second half, and
Speaker 2: for the third time in this series, they came back
Speaker 2: from a lead of at least fourteen in the second
Speaker 2: half to win. Now again, the series isn't over. Boston
Speaker 2: certainly has a chance, but for the first time, it
Speaker 2: feels like the Knicks are in real striking distance of
Speaker 2: the finals. Now again, the Celtics are a five point
Speaker 2: favorite on Wednesday without Jason Tatum. I would not be
Speaker 2: surprised at all if the Celtics won that game. This
Speaker 2: could drag out a little bit. The Celtics have a
Speaker 2: lot of talent. They can disperse usage from Tatum to
Speaker 2: other players. I'm not mistaken They've already won a playoff
Speaker 2: game in this playoff run without Jason Tatum, so this
Speaker 2: could certainly go the distance. But I would be really
Speaker 2: surprised if Boston beat the Knicks three straight times without
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum, which means that the Knicks will very likely
Speaker 2: be in the conference finals, likely against Indiana, although that
Speaker 2: series is not over either. I was talking with Colin
Speaker 2: Coward tonight. That video is already up, We've recorded it
Speaker 2: right after Celtics Knicks. You guys can find that on
Speaker 2: his YouTube channel. But Colin was talking about how things
Speaker 2: are kind of like opening up for the Knicks now,
Speaker 2: and yes, in the sense that I mentioned this morning,
Speaker 2: if they won today, it still would be roughly a
Speaker 2: coin flip chance for them to beat the Celtics if
Speaker 2: they're healthy with Jason Tatum. But there's also another layer
Speaker 2: to this, which is the Indiana Pacers are really fucking
Speaker 2: good and they are in a hell of a zone
Speaker 2: on both ends of the floor right now. They just
Speaker 2: chewed up and spit out a Cleveland Cavaliers team last
Speaker 2: night that again won sixty four games this season, and yeah,
Speaker 2: they're a little banged up, but they are faster than
Speaker 2: the Knicks. They don't have slow footed bigs and they
Speaker 2: cut them to pieces. And so the Knicks or two
Speaker 2: and one in the season series against Indiana. I have
Speaker 2: no idea who I'm gonna pick at this point, but
Speaker 2: I immediately started to think about Karl Anthony Towns defending in
Speaker 2: space against the Indiana Pacers, and I started to just
Speaker 2: get like a little worried about how that could go.
Speaker 2: And so even though this appears to be breaking in
Speaker 2: a way for the Knicks to make it to the
Speaker 2: Conference finals, I think that that's a serious challenge waiting
Speaker 2: for them in the next round potentially with Indiana. And
Speaker 2: I mean Knicks fans know that from personal experience, although
Speaker 2: they were way more banged up with what happened in
Speaker 2: the Pacers series last year, and so it's gonna be
Speaker 2: really interesting. I'm really curious to see what ends up happening.
Speaker 2: But that could be a definitely a different series than
Speaker 2: we were expecting. We were all expecting cav Celtics in
Speaker 2: the Conference finals, and it looks like we might get
Speaker 2: Indiana versus New York, but that could be an interesting
Speaker 2: series in and of itself. Boston. First of all, I
Speaker 2: feel terrible for Tatum. As we mentioned earlier. I know,
Speaker 2: we don't know what the injury is, but we all
Speaker 2: know what it looked like, and if it is what
Speaker 2: it looked like, it's fundamentally alters the future of the
Speaker 2: Celtics franchise. Tatum's only twenty seven years old. I have
Speaker 2: no doubt that he'll make a full recovery and be
Speaker 2: an All NBA player again in this league. But there
Speaker 2: are age realities with this roster. Horford is thirty eight
Speaker 2: years old, Drew Holliday is thirty four years old. Chrisopsporzingis
Speaker 2: is about to turn thirty, but he's a very old,
Speaker 2: very injured thirty. There's very little chance that that group
Speaker 2: is championship capable or even really still all on the
Speaker 2: roster by the time Tatum recovers. Now, obviously, Jalen Brown
Speaker 2: and Jason Tatum are still a very strong foundation, but
Speaker 2: I think the Celtics need to seriously consider a fire
Speaker 2: sale with their role players this summer. I would begin
Speaker 2: to look at next year like the Warriors year in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, after Klay Thompson tore his ACL and after
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant Torre's achilles, I would be looking to flip
Speaker 2: any useful role player that you can for as much
Speaker 2: opportunity to bring assets in so that you can then
Speaker 2: pivot around Tatum and Brown two years from now. The
Speaker 2: only guy that I would negotiate especially staunchly with is
Speaker 2: Derek White because he's young enough and still just such
Speaker 2: a proven useful role player in this league. But everyone else,
Speaker 2: if you let them age out, you just lose any
Speaker 2: value that they have, and so I would look to
Speaker 2: move Drew Holliday, I would look to move chrisops Porzingis.
Speaker 2: I would look to move any of those guys with
Speaker 2: the opportunity to bring in stuff that allows you to
Speaker 2: rebuild around Tatum and Brown in the future. Then you
Speaker 2: can use next year as an opportunity to continue to
Speaker 2: explore different players that fit the mold of what the
Speaker 2: Celtics role players need to be, Guys that can defend, shoot, pass, rebound, drive, closeouts,
Speaker 2: all of that stuff. You have an opportunity to pivot
Speaker 2: here and again, like this is the thing when you
Speaker 2: really zoom out again. I think the Celtics could have
Speaker 2: won this series still, but the Knicks up three to
Speaker 2: one is very different than the Knicks up two to zero.
Speaker 2: They just got to get you once in three tries,
Speaker 2: I would have made the Knicks a hair over a
Speaker 2: coin flip favored to beat you at that point. So
Speaker 2: chances are you were heading into this summer without another
Speaker 2: championship anyway, potentially cutting costs and then running a team
Speaker 2: out there next year that probably isn't as good in
Speaker 2: a league where Oklahoma City gets better, where San Antonio
Speaker 2: could potentially have gyanis, where the Rockets could potentially have KD,
Speaker 2: where the thunder or a year better like it just
Speaker 2: this could This was already kind of looking like a
Speaker 2: shorter window. And so with that being the case, obviously
Speaker 2: the Tatum injury is terrible news, but it allows you
Speaker 2: a year's worth of time where the wins and losses
Speaker 2: don't matter, and so you can use that year to
Speaker 2: do everything you need to do to make it so
Speaker 2: that you're positioned well to contend with Tatum again on
Speaker 2: the other side of that window. And again, guys, we
Speaker 2: literally have seen this work. The Warriors won a title
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two with an older version of Steph
Speaker 2: and an older version of Draymond. They weren't as talented
Speaker 2: as the previous iterations of the team, but Steph was
Speaker 2: better than ever because he was smarter than ever, and
Speaker 2: they had a roster that was just perfectly curated around
Speaker 2: their skill set. They caught like a flash in a
Speaker 2: pan and they were able to go win a title.
Speaker 2: So again, this is not a death sentence for the
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum era in Boston, but it is a death
Speaker 2: sentence for this specific iteration of the roster, and with
Speaker 2: that being the case, they need to make the associated
Speaker 2: pivot this summer. It's just crazy to me. I was
Speaker 2: literally when I was making my notes here. I just
Speaker 2: can't believe that we went from the Cells looking like
Speaker 2: championship favorite in my opinion, to we're staring down the
Speaker 2: barrel of a full rebuild. This summer just a wild
Speaker 2: night in the NBA, and we haven't even got to
Speaker 2: the craziest thing that happened in the NBA night, which
Speaker 2: is the Draft lottery. So upfront, if you're looking for
Speaker 2: me to say that the league rigged the lottery, I'm
Speaker 2: just never going to be that guy. I'm sure you
Speaker 2: can find plenty of that type of content out there,
Speaker 2: especially in the next few days, but you're not going
Speaker 2: to get it from me. The league literally uses one
Speaker 2: of the Big four accounting firms to audit the draft lottery,
Speaker 2: specifically so that they can guarantee its legitimacy to the
Speaker 2: NBA Board of Governors. Like people pay real dollars and
Speaker 2: cents to buy these franchises, like the Celtics just sold,
Speaker 2: the Utah Jazz just sold, the Phoenix Suns just sold.
Speaker 2: They need to be able to sell competitive legitimacy, and
Speaker 2: that's why they audit the draft lottery. You're not going
Speaker 2: to hear the conspiracy theories from me. Go elsewhere. If
Speaker 2: you want that sort of thing, that's it. If you
Speaker 2: do believe that the league rigs the draft lottery, today
Speaker 2: is the day to make that case. Because Dallas gets
Speaker 2: Cooper Flagg after losing Luka Doncic, and san Antonio gets
Speaker 2: the second pick, which puts them on the doorstep of
Speaker 2: a trade for Giannison Tennant Coombo. First, let's talk Dallas.
Speaker 2: It's a little weird because trading Luca for Anthony Davis
Speaker 2: pushed their timeline into a win now position. It doesn't
Speaker 2: make sense to have an old injured Kyrie and an
Speaker 2: old injured Ad on the roster with an eighteen year
Speaker 2: old forward that has superstar potential. Now, the basketball fan
Speaker 2: in me would love to see Cooper Flag and Anthony
Speaker 2: Davis play together. I just imagine Cooper Flag at the three,
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis at the four, Derek Lively at the five,
Speaker 2: just an absurdly big frontline. You can imagine a scenario
Speaker 2: where they then trade PJ. Washington and Daniel Gafford for
Speaker 2: more ball handling. They anchor that awesome three, four, five,
Speaker 2: and they're just really fun basketball team. But I think
Speaker 2: Nico Harrison probably needs to pick a lane here, and
Speaker 2: that would mean either trading Cooper Flag to a team
Speaker 2: that is in a different timeline, So for instance, calling
Speaker 2: the Celtics up and offering Cooper Flag in a package
Speaker 2: for Jylen Brown, or calling up the Atlanta Hawks and
Speaker 2: going for Trey Young, or calling up the Sixers and
Speaker 2: going for Tyreese Maxi, or calling up the Suns and
Speaker 2: going for Devin Booker, something along those lines. Or they
Speaker 2: need to consider trading Anthony Davis and just pivot towards
Speaker 2: a full rebuild with Cooper Flag. As for which option
Speaker 2: I prefer, it entirely depends on what the trade packages
Speaker 2: look like, depends on who you can get. Like if
Speaker 2: you can get Devin Booker for almost nothing like that,
Speaker 2: to me, would be a deal that would be worth
Speaker 2: at least considering, because Devin Booker alongside Anthony Davis with
Speaker 2: a with Derek Lively and all that depth and all
Speaker 2: that athleticism they have would be an interesting team. But
Speaker 2: it all just depends on which direction you want to
Speaker 2: go and which options are available. But like, if you
Speaker 2: want to build around Cooper Flag, you bet you're better
Speaker 2: off putting him in a situation where you can fail
Speaker 2: and he can make mistakes and learn how to play
Speaker 2: basketball at his own pace and surround him with the
Speaker 2: pieces he needs for long term contention, in which case
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis is one of your best options that you
Speaker 2: have available. And then there's a whole bunch of really
Speaker 2: cool options for Anthony Davis. I saw someone tweet out
Speaker 2: what if Anthony Davis ended up in Golden State. I
Speaker 2: was like, that would be absolutely insane. There's all sorts
Speaker 2: of crazy stuff that can happen. I have a feeling
Speaker 2: we are going to see an absolutely wild summer of
Speaker 2: player movement in the NBA. And then the last piece
Speaker 2: of this that we'll get to before we get out
Speaker 2: of here, tonight, the second pick going to San Antonio.
Speaker 2: You can see everything taking shape right. The Dame injury
Speaker 2: made it so that a Yiannis trade is a near certainty.
Speaker 2: The thunder might literally be too good. Is like if
Speaker 2: they got Yiannis, I think that would just be boring
Speaker 2: for the league and for everyone. Kevin Durant is a
Speaker 2: more natural basketball fit in Houston where they can't shoot
Speaker 2: than he is in San Antonio, like where he's skinny
Speaker 2: next to Victor Webbin Yama. I think like Gianni's actually
Speaker 2: makes more sense in San Antonio. And so now San
Speaker 2: Antonio can add the prospect of drafting Dylan Harper to
Speaker 2: their trove of assets that they can offer Milwaukee. Dylan
Speaker 2: Harper is an outstanding big guard prospect that started to
Speaker 2: dig into his footage a little bit today. I usually
Speaker 2: don't dig into the draft until after the finals, so
Speaker 2: we won't go any further into Dylan Harper. But the
Speaker 2: people I talk to that I trust say, Dylan's awesome,
Speaker 2: and then he's kind of like a shoe in number
Speaker 2: two overall pick this year. And you can call up
Speaker 2: Milwaukee now and you can offer a package that doesn't
Speaker 2: have to include a Stefan Castle because it's got that
Speaker 2: number two pick involved, you can build a package around,
Speaker 2: you know, Dylan, like Dylan Harper as the number two pick,
Speaker 2: Devin Vessel for salary filler, you know, either Harrison Barnes
Speaker 2: or Keldon Johnson, something along those lines, additional picks, filler,
Speaker 2: whatever you need to do. Milwaukee could then completely refill
Speaker 2: their draft pick trop and get two really intriguing young
Speaker 2: guards to reinvigorate their fans into launch a rebuild, while
Speaker 2: the Spurs on the other end of that could feel
Speaker 2: a line up next season with Daron Fox, Stefan Castle,
Speaker 2: Jannison Tennankumpo, and Victor Wembenyama, which would be insane in
Speaker 2: the Western Conference. I think there's a lot of natural
Speaker 2: fit between Giannis and Victor. Giannis over the years has
Speaker 2: not been as good of a pick and roll defender
Speaker 2: as he has been a low man defender. So you
Speaker 2: can imagine a universe where Victor's guarding pick and roll,
Speaker 2: Jannis is guarding as the lowman. I like having Giannis
Speaker 2: as a big, physically imposing forward next to the thinner
Speaker 2: Victor webbin Yama. Victor's really developing into a great catch
Speaker 2: and shoot player and a player that likes to operate
Speaker 2: beyond the three point line. It's a clear space, it
Speaker 2: inverts the spacing. There's all sorts of advantages to the
Speaker 2: two of them partnering together. I think they would be
Speaker 2: a super interesting team out in the Western Conference. We'll
Speaker 2: continue to dive into these concepts over the course of
Speaker 2: the coming weeks as we get more information. But man,
Speaker 2: we are headed for one hell of a summer in
Speaker 2: the NBA on the heels of what was a crazy
Speaker 2: trade deadline. All right, guys, that's all we have for
Speaker 2: right now. Again, we're gonna head over to playback to
Speaker 2: take some callers and some questions from you guys. We'll
Speaker 2: hang out for another forty five minutes there tonight. As always,
Speaker 2: Ne sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting
Speaker 2: the show again Playback dot Tv slash Hoops tonight. I'll
Speaker 2: see you guys in just a few minutes. What's up, guys.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 2: Oops tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 2: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 2: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 2: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 2: do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: The volume