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Speaker 1: net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by Fandel here at the volume. I am Jason
Speaker 1: timp Happy Sunday, Everybody happy Saturday. I'm sorry. I saw
Speaker 1: something on Twitter earlier today talking about how it was
Speaker 1: a Saturday that felt like a Sunday, and apparently that's
Speaker 1: what's happening in my head as well. I hope all
Speaker 1: of you guys are having a great weekend so far,
Speaker 1: awesome day of basketball. Before we get to for far
Speaker 1: too much further into this, if we hear anything about
Speaker 1: what's going on with John randsknee, we will touch on
Speaker 1: it in the show. Obviously at this point, we do
Speaker 1: not know anything. At this point, we're gonna start by
Speaker 1: talking some Warriors and Grizzlies. Stick around for later in
Speaker 1: the show. We're gonna break down Celtics Bucks as well
Speaker 1: as the two games from last night, which turned a
Speaker 1: couple of at the time boring playoff series into much
Speaker 1: more interesting playoff series. That's what happens when one team
Speaker 1: that wasn't playing any defense started playing defense and another
Speaker 1: team added their center who may or may not be
Speaker 1: the best player in the league. So we will get
Speaker 1: to all of that. Make sure you guys stick around
Speaker 1: for the whole show. A couple of housekeeping notes, don't
Speaker 1: forget to like this video and subscribe to the channel.
Speaker 1: Check out our newsletter. You can find the link to
Speaker 1: that in the description to this video. It's a great
Speaker 1: way to keep up with all of our content. And
Speaker 1: then follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt That's
Speaker 1: where you can see all of my film breakdowns that
Speaker 1: go through some of the we get into the weeds
Speaker 1: on this show a little bit, and it helps to
Speaker 1: see some video that backs up the things I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: But let's start with Golden State and Memphis and before
Speaker 1: we get into some of the nitty gritty details of
Speaker 1: this game, I wanted to take a minute to talk
Speaker 1: about Jordan Pool because we've talked about him on the
Speaker 1: show before as a bridge, right, a bridge from two
Speaker 1: eras you've got, you know, It's it's so important when
Speaker 1: you're trying to have sustained success in the NBA to
Speaker 1: draft well and to make moves on the margins that
Speaker 1: keep your team filled with talent, and not just talent,
Speaker 1: but new energy and new ambition. Right. And when you're
Speaker 1: talking about, like, for instance, the gold San Antonio Spurs team,
Speaker 1: it's not that Tim Duncan didn't care as he got older,
Speaker 1: or that Managed Nobley and Tony Parker weren't you know,
Speaker 1: as invested as they were when they were younger. But
Speaker 1: as their physical decline was taking place, they needed an
Speaker 1: influx of talent in order to bridge the gap long
Speaker 1: enough for the San Antonio management to try to bring
Speaker 1: in a new crop of stars. Right. That's what Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard represented to them, And Kawhi Leonard obviously kept that
Speaker 1: ship floating, even to a greater extent that I think
Speaker 1: even Spurs management expected. But that's kind of what Jordan
Speaker 1: Poole has turned into for the Warriors. Right, You've got
Speaker 1: this existing core group of stars and Steph Clay and Draymond,
Speaker 1: and then you've got this future of stars. You know,
Speaker 1: Moses Moody looks like a very good, you know, three
Speaker 1: and D type of wing. Jonathan cominga looks like Jeff
Speaker 1: Green right now, which again the question becomes does he
Speaker 1: become Jeff Green or Tracy McGrady from there, because Jeff
Speaker 1: Green obviously didn't have the consistent ceiling to really be
Speaker 1: as valuable in the league as we all thought he
Speaker 1: would be. But Jonathan Coming has got all the flash
Speaker 1: of like freaky athletic six nine swing man who can
Speaker 1: guard multiple positions and you know, create shots off the
Speaker 1: bounce and pressure the rim in a way that a
Speaker 1: lot of guys through Golden State haven't been able to
Speaker 1: over the years. And then you have James Wiseman, who
Speaker 1: we don't know what the deal is with him, obviously
Speaker 1: missed this entire season. But they've got this new crop
Speaker 1: of stars and they've got this old crop of stars.
Speaker 1: But you can't you can't tow both of those lines.
Speaker 1: It's a dangerous game to play. You get caught in
Speaker 1: the middle and it can be a problem. Well, Jordan's
Speaker 1: Pool is so good already that he represents a bridge
Speaker 1: between those two eras. But what's even more interesting to
Speaker 1: me is the specific way that he adds so much
Speaker 1: juice to this Warrior's offense. If you look at the
Speaker 1: Warriors offense and what made it so great in the
Speaker 1: two thousand tens, it was a combination of a bunch
Speaker 1: of different things. It was Steph Curry and his ability
Speaker 1: to drag defenders away from the three point line. We
Speaker 1: talked a lot about guys taking defensive attention, but the
Speaker 1: vast majority of defensive attention that you saw in pre
Speaker 1: these years in NBA history was rim attention, right Lebron
Speaker 1: driving to the basket and everybody collapsing and him spraying
Speaker 1: out to shooters. That's what you're used to seeing. Well,
Speaker 1: Steph did like an inverse version of that, where he
Speaker 1: was pulling guys away from the rim, and so suddenly
Speaker 1: Golden State was running these four on threes on the
Speaker 1: back end and getting layups and dunks NonStop because no
Speaker 1: one was under the rim. Right. What helped make that
Speaker 1: work was guys like Clay Thompson, who was an excellent
Speaker 1: three point shooter but also a great movement three point shooter,
Speaker 1: and he was great at attacking close outs, and so
Speaker 1: he was great at capitalizing on the attention that Steph
Speaker 1: would pull away from the rim. And then Draymond Green.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows what he does great offensively or defensively, but
Speaker 1: one of the biggest things that he's brought to this
Speaker 1: team over the years is his playmaking out of the
Speaker 1: short role. So when guys send two bodies to Steph,
Speaker 1: Steph just hooks it over the top to Draymond. He's
Speaker 1: barreling down the middle of the floor, and if guys
Speaker 1: come into him, he's great at making reads out of that.
Speaker 1: That's kind of been the the traditional organism of Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors basketball, and it's always been important to have
Speaker 1: guys around those three that are smart, guys that can
Speaker 1: make quick decisions in four on threes. One thing they
Speaker 1: have never had, though, is like a true straight line
Speaker 1: drive threat. Steph is very good at weaponizing his shooting
Speaker 1: to get past people, and that does apply rim pressure
Speaker 1: to a certain extent. Same thing with Clay, whether it's
Speaker 1: pump bacon drive or just guys closing out recklessly because
Speaker 1: they're terrified in him rolling to the rim or Draymond
Speaker 1: rolling to the rim simply because no one's guarding him.
Speaker 1: They get that kind of rim pressure. What they don't
Speaker 1: get is what you've seen from John Rant in this series,
Speaker 1: which is me staring you right in the face and
Speaker 1: me just going right around you because you can't keep
Speaker 1: me in front. They've never had that really athletic verdict,
Speaker 1: like straight line drive threat, and you've seen how much
Speaker 1: that can damage a defense. This is a very good
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors defense. They can't do anything with John
Speaker 1: morand they can't do anything with him because they cannot
Speaker 1: keep him in front. Having that dynamic is a totally
Speaker 1: different type of offensive warping that comes on that creates
Speaker 1: openings for other people. Jordan's Pool is that guy for
Speaker 1: this offense. He is the guy that can stare you
Speaker 1: in the face and hit a quick move and he's
Speaker 1: already passed you. But he's not just passed you because
Speaker 1: you were pressing up on his shot. He's not passed
Speaker 1: you as you're kind of slowly meandering your way into
Speaker 1: the lane. No, no, no, he is flying by you
Speaker 1: like a blur, and it just causes everybody to collapse
Speaker 1: around him. And what's amazing, he's actually a great passer,
Speaker 1: which is unusual for a player that age, especially a
Speaker 1: player that is this polished as a score. A lot
Speaker 1: of guys that come out looking like this are more
Speaker 1: scoring focus, that don't pay as much attention to the
Speaker 1: flow of an offense and things along those lines. Well,
Speaker 1: makes it especially dangerous is he's doing these things with
Speaker 1: Stephan Clay on the floor with him. So when you've
Speaker 1: got Stephen Clay and Andrew Wiggins. By the way, a
Speaker 1: lot of people have a misplaced representation of of Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins because of his career in Minnesota. He's turned himself
Speaker 1: into a bona fide three and D player, three point
Speaker 1: shooter on decent volume, of a great defensive player. But
Speaker 1: when you have Andrew Wiggins on the floor with Steph
Speaker 1: Curry and Clay Thompson, and you have a guy that
Speaker 1: can be a straight line driving threat the way that
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool does, it adds this whole other dynamic to
Speaker 1: the offense. You know, when Steph would when Steph was
Speaker 1: in his absolute peak, every single screen and roll at
Speaker 1: the top of the key was a trap, Like every
Speaker 1: single time. No matter what, if you didn't trap step
Speaker 1: you're gonna get beat. Right. So, as a result, they
Speaker 1: were playing a ton of four on three. Well, you're
Speaker 1: seeing a little bit less of that as step has
Speaker 1: gotten older. Having Jordan's Pool be able to quickly compromise
Speaker 1: the defense with straight line drives is giving a lot
Speaker 1: more four on three opportunities. But with Steph actually involved
Speaker 1: in that action, it's it's been super super interesting to see.
Speaker 1: And that's the that's the dynamic that's gonna make this
Speaker 1: team super interesting going forward because I think Jordan Pool
Speaker 1: is going to be an All Star one day. And
Speaker 1: so when you have a guy who right now is
Speaker 1: like at this moment, an All Star level player, that's
Speaker 1: a massive influx of talent, you know. That's that's that's
Speaker 1: what is allowing this group to age gracefully. Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: had a big night tonight, but he hasn't really looked
Speaker 1: the same since his injuries. Draymond Green is still the
Speaker 1: same defensive defensive monster that he's always been, but he's
Speaker 1: never been able to recreate the offensive pop that he
Speaker 1: had in two thousand sixteen. Right, So a lot of
Speaker 1: like trying to get back to the amount of talent
Speaker 1: that was there in two thousand and sixteen and two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen has been a chore because of injuries and
Speaker 1: because of aging, which is just the natural order of things.
Speaker 1: Having Jordan Pool come in here and play like this,
Speaker 1: that gives you time for Jonathan Cominga to have three
Speaker 1: four or five years to get better, for James Wiseman
Speaker 1: to have three four or five years to get better,
Speaker 1: and you not have to panic trade them in pursuit
Speaker 1: of instantaneous talent. So if you're a Warriors fan, the
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool thing just has to be so incredibly exciting
Speaker 1: for you. Let's get into the game a little bit though.
Speaker 1: This was an interesting game. You know, Memphis, For as
Speaker 1: much as I've criticized them for not coming out serious
Speaker 1: a lot in this playoff from they came out dead
Speaker 1: serious tonight. That was what was so strange about them
Speaker 1: getting blown out the way they did early on in
Speaker 1: the game. Their dribble contained was fantastic. They were defending
Speaker 1: really well on the perimeter, and John Rant just went
Speaker 1: right back to what he did at the end of
Speaker 1: Game two. He was just getting into the lane and
Speaker 1: making easy kickouts to guys and they were getting great
Speaker 1: shots every time they jump out to an eighteen to
Speaker 1: eight lead. Golden State had eight turnovers in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: That was part of that. You know, Golden State through
Speaker 1: this entire era, there's been one consistent flaw. It's they
Speaker 1: don't take care of the basketball, and a team like
Speaker 1: Memphis that runs really well, they're gonna put you behind
Speaker 1: the eight ball there. So Memphis jumps out to a
Speaker 1: big lead. I have a personal theory. A lot of
Speaker 1: people disagree with me about this, but I believe that
Speaker 1: it's actually better to get off to a slow start
Speaker 1: than it is to get off to a fantastic start,
Speaker 1: because I'm a big believer in like, you have to
Speaker 1: really lock in, and when you really lock in, it's
Speaker 1: hard to get out of that zone. But when you
Speaker 1: get out of it, it's hard to get back into it.
Speaker 1: And so a lot of times getting punched in the
Speaker 1: mouth is exactly what you need to lock in. And
Speaker 1: then the rest of the game you're so dead I focused.
Speaker 1: Whereas so many times you see something like that, like
Speaker 1: you saw from Memphis. They come out and for like
Speaker 1: six minutes they are locked in, but then they get
Speaker 1: a big lead, they let their foot off the gas
Speaker 1: and now they're getting punched in the mouth. And that
Speaker 1: was the dynamic that took place in that first quarter.
Speaker 1: But again it was John Moran. You know, we have
Speaker 1: to stay a little bit positive on Memphis here. John
Speaker 1: Morand continues to be completely unguardable. There's absolutely nothing they
Speaker 1: can do with him. They can't even keep him from
Speaker 1: hanging on the rim. He's just getting by people and
Speaker 1: dunking on everybody. He's so good at like you can't
Speaker 1: help out of the corners because he's just so reflexive
Speaker 1: with his passes to those corners. That dude is a
Speaker 1: flat out star. I said on the show a while
Speaker 1: back during the regular season that I thought John Morand
Speaker 1: was better than Derrick Rows, was better than Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: you know, like he's better than Donovan Mitchell, better than
Speaker 1: all of these guys that came up that where your
Speaker 1: your typical super freak athletic uh point guards. He's better
Speaker 1: than all of those guys. He's already a better shooter
Speaker 1: than any of those guys. That he's flat out a superstar.
Speaker 1: But their biggest, their biggest shortcoming right now is they
Speaker 1: don't have any offensive creation outside of him if he's
Speaker 1: not creating something, nobody else on Memphis can. At the
Speaker 1: end of the third quarter, Memphis was down by twenty
Speaker 1: one points. Memphis didn't have a single player at that
Speaker 1: point in the game other than Jaw that either had
Speaker 1: more than ten points or more than three assists, so
Speaker 1: they didn't have anybody else on the team that they
Speaker 1: could lean on to create. I know Desmond Bane is
Speaker 1: dealing with a back issue right now, and and that
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff is really hard to gauge how
Speaker 1: much it's limiting a player. But even when des m
Speaker 1: Baine was at his peak of health, he never was
Speaker 1: a great shock creator. He always was feeding off of
Speaker 1: attention dedicated to other people. He's more Clay Thompson than
Speaker 1: he is C. J. McCollum. As I always say on
Speaker 1: the show, Jaren Jackson Jr. Has potential to attack mismatches,
Speaker 1: but he's so young and he's so undisciplined right now
Speaker 1: that he just doesn't understand how to read defense is
Speaker 1: well enough to use to really weaponize that the way
Speaker 1: you need to. He's kind of a bull in a
Speaker 1: china shop when he's attacking. When he's attacking those mismatches,
Speaker 1: so Jaws kind of stuck on an island trying to
Speaker 1: create everything. And that's gonna be the big thing that
Speaker 1: Memphis is gonna have to address in this offseason if
Speaker 1: they do lose, is find somebody else that can consist.
Speaker 1: Didn'tly basically played the point forward role for them and
Speaker 1: start at the top of the key and try to
Speaker 1: help make decisions for people. But you know, for as
Speaker 1: much as I can complain about Memphis offense, it was
Speaker 1: their defense I cost him this game, specifically dribble contain.
Speaker 1: You know, we talked about this in the Minnesota series.
Speaker 1: You know, Minnesota was one of the best teams in
Speaker 1: the league at keeping guys in front on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot on this show about how, you know,
Speaker 1: back in the day, dribble contain was nowhere near as
Speaker 1: important because you had all these big guys around the basket.
Speaker 1: It had more to do with your rim protector, your
Speaker 1: help side defense than your ability to keep people in
Speaker 1: front off of the drive. I think ironically, the Lakers
Speaker 1: one playing a vintage style. They won having JaVale McGee
Speaker 1: under the basket with Anthony Davis. They won with Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard and Anthony Davis even when they went small, you know,
Speaker 1: is Anthony Davis and Lebron on that back line. The
Speaker 1: whole that Danny Green was not super quick with his feet,
Speaker 1: wasn't great at keeping people in front. Cantabious called Pope
Speaker 1: was okay, not great, you know, Alex Crusoe was good
Speaker 1: at it. But they had a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: gave up line drives. They were is really good at
Speaker 1: funneling you into their help. But as the league has evolved,
Speaker 1: now almost every team in the league is playing four
Speaker 1: or five guys that can all pass, dribble and shoot.
Speaker 1: Look at this Warrior's lineup when you have Steph Curry
Speaker 1: on the floor with Clay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan
Speaker 1: Poole with let's just say it's Draymond. Those four guys
Speaker 1: can all pass, dribble and shoot really well, and then
Speaker 1: Draymond can pass and dribble really well. So if you
Speaker 1: get into a system where guys are getting beat off
Speaker 1: the dribble, it's just one thing after another. Your defense
Speaker 1: is just all over the place. You can't hope to
Speaker 1: recover at that point. So at this point in the league,
Speaker 1: it's never been more important than it is right now
Speaker 1: to have guys that can sit in a defensive stance
Speaker 1: and at least make it hard for people to beat
Speaker 1: you off the dribble. There's a huge difference between Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool dusting somebody at the perimeter and having a full
Speaker 1: head of steam towards the rim and Jordan Pool having
Speaker 1: to do two or three move and then a counter
Speaker 1: move because the dude slid once and he had to
Speaker 1: make a counter move and now he's spinning into the lane.
Speaker 1: Now he doesn't have it had his team. That gives
Speaker 1: much better opportunity for guys to help and recover off
Speaker 1: of that. No one's no one's saying you can never
Speaker 1: give up a drive, but you have to occasionally make
Speaker 1: it difficult to get a foot in the pain. It
Speaker 1: can't be easy all the time. And what you've seen tonight,
Speaker 1: John and this is John Rand's biggest weakness right now,
Speaker 1: and it's the biggest thing that's gonna hold him back
Speaker 1: as his career develops. He's gonna have to really really
Speaker 1: adopt this side of the basketball. It's got the athleticism
Speaker 1: for it, but you have to contain John Moran is
Speaker 1: offering absolutely no resistance on the perimeter. And again, Memphis,
Speaker 1: their defensive structure is kind of vintage. They used to
Speaker 1: play two bigs all the time. But even when they don't,
Speaker 1: let's say Jaren Jackson's down there or Brandon Clark is
Speaker 1: down there. It's kind of like Desmond pain is not
Speaker 1: a great dribble. Contain guy Tias Jones not a great dribble.
Speaker 1: Contain guy Dy Anthony Melton's okay, not great. John Moran
Speaker 1: is not a great dribble. Contain guy Kyle Kyle Anderson
Speaker 1: is slow footed. They have a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: are great athletes, but in like a big athletic wing
Speaker 1: kind of way, not like a quick laterally keep people
Speaker 1: in front of you kind of way, and that that
Speaker 1: put them behind the eight ball NonStop in this game,
Speaker 1: especially against the Golden State team. You know, the way
Speaker 1: that they play with their ball movement, it's especially difficult
Speaker 1: because of the predicaments that they put you in because
Speaker 1: of how threatening their players are off the ball. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not like like Golden States job guarding John Moran
Speaker 1: is different. It's like they just have to deal with
Speaker 1: this one guy that keeps coming at them from the
Speaker 1: same spot on the floor top of the key dribble drive.
Speaker 1: We had figure out how to contain that. We had
Speaker 1: figure out how to help and recover off of that.
Speaker 1: The Steph Clay Jordan Poole thing. Everyone's in a different
Speaker 1: spot of the floor each time down the floor. Everything
Speaker 1: looks different, Each possession is unique. It puts an extra
Speaker 1: an extra tax on your brain and your ability to
Speaker 1: stay focused and pay attention during that time. I thought
Speaker 1: another huge element in this game it was Golden States
Speaker 1: shooting regression. They shot like absolute ship in game two.
Speaker 1: They were uh Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Pools, Steph Curry, and
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson combined to go seven for thirty six from
Speaker 1: three in game two and on the tape. When I
Speaker 1: watched the tape, great looks. A lot of really good looks.
Speaker 1: There's some tough ones in there, but a lot of
Speaker 1: really good looks. Again, when you see shooting percentages, it's
Speaker 1: always helps to go back and look at the tape
Speaker 1: and just look at the quality of the shots. Was
Speaker 1: it one of those nights or was the team defending
Speaker 1: you really well? Memphis was giving up a lot of
Speaker 1: really good shots to great shooters, especially in that second half,
Speaker 1: and Golden State just wasn't making them well. Tonight, Wiggins, Pool,
Speaker 1: Steph and Clay went eleven for twenty one from three.
Speaker 1: That's great positive regression. Clay Thompson looked fantastic tonight. You know,
Speaker 1: specifically with these types of injuries. I talked a lot
Speaker 1: on this show about rhythm, and I you know, I
Speaker 1: appreciated that. Draymond Green on his last episode specifically mentioned
Speaker 1: this because you know, again, those guys I played at
Speaker 1: the college level, but these guys are pros. They have
Speaker 1: a lot more credibility than I do. To hear them
Speaker 1: say it, it carries more weight. But this is why
Speaker 1: I say that so off and like you have to
Speaker 1: you have to account for the fact that getting rhythm
Speaker 1: as a basketball player takes time, not just within the game,
Speaker 1: but also within a long span coming back from that
Speaker 1: many injuries. Being away from the game for as long
Speaker 1: as Clay has been, he was never even if he
Speaker 1: feels fantastic, even if you told me his body was
Speaker 1: more athletic than it was pre injury, it takes a
Speaker 1: long time to dial it in. Think about what jump
Speaker 1: shooting is like. Again, if I take a three, I'm
Speaker 1: six six I have six ten wingspans. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of moving parts right long arms that like one slight
Speaker 1: millimeter mistake in alignment can mean a foot at the
Speaker 1: end of the shot. And if I'm taking shots from
Speaker 1: ft like it is a it is an exact science
Speaker 1: getting the ball to go through the rim often and
Speaker 1: if you are off by just the slightest bit, it
Speaker 1: can take a long time to really dial in those details.
Speaker 1: And so for Clay, you, especially as a Warriors fan,
Speaker 1: you gotta bear with him through some of that. You
Speaker 1: gotta be willing to You gotta be willing to understand
Speaker 1: that he's working through something. I remember when I broke
Speaker 1: my foot between my first and second year playing in college, like,
Speaker 1: I played horrible and nonconference play even though my body
Speaker 1: was back, it was just that all of that timing
Speaker 1: stuff was off, all of that rhythm stuff was off.
Speaker 1: Then I got into conference play, snapped into gear and
Speaker 1: made the All Conference team. But like if you looked
Speaker 1: at my numbers in the way I played in the
Speaker 1: first half of the season, I was absolutely horrific because
Speaker 1: I was coming back from an injury and it just
Speaker 1: takes time to get that stuff back. So seeing Clay
Speaker 1: look like himself again. And you know, one of the
Speaker 1: big indicators with Clay is audacity. Him and Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: it's always been about the shots that they're willing to take.
Speaker 1: That's a great sign of where they're at mentally. And
Speaker 1: there was a stretch there in that third quarter where
Speaker 1: you could just tell Clay looked confident again. There was
Speaker 1: a play where he caught the ball in the right corner.
Speaker 1: He knew exactly what was gonna happen. He's like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pump thick. This dude's gonna a flying by me.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get a look, and he actually missed it,
Speaker 1: but it was like you could just tell, like in
Speaker 1: his head he was processing things at the right speed. Finally,
Speaker 1: later in the corner or earlier in the quarter, he
Speaker 1: made a one legged running three going into the lane
Speaker 1: and like popped through the net like it was dead on.
Speaker 1: There's no chance he was missing it. So seeing Clay
Speaker 1: get a little bit back, that's again we talked about
Speaker 1: the influx of talent with Jordan Poole. That's kind of
Speaker 1: like another influx of talent having Clay Thompson regained some
Speaker 1: of his form and obviously defense is another side of that.
Speaker 1: He'll have to get a little bit better, but it's good.
Speaker 1: It's good to see that Clay looks good looking forward.
Speaker 1: In this series, I game threes are tough because I
Speaker 1: almost always favored the home team in game three. It's
Speaker 1: their first home game of this series. The teams are
Speaker 1: already somewhat familiar with each other, so no one's getting surprised, right,
Speaker 1: and generally speaking, the home team playing in game three
Speaker 1: is at in motivation advantage unless they happen to steal
Speaker 1: both games on the road. But like if you're looking
Speaker 1: at Golden State, they lost game two, should have one
Speaker 1: blew an opper tunity. They lost game too, right, and
Speaker 1: so this was a great opportunity for them to come
Speaker 1: into their home floor and regain control the series. You
Speaker 1: knew they had a motivational advantage. Same thing was going
Speaker 1: on with the Bucks. They got absolutely destroyed in game two.
Speaker 1: I know there was like kind of like a second
Speaker 1: half of things got a little bit more interesting, but
Speaker 1: they were down sixty five to forty forty, So they
Speaker 1: were going to come out on their home floor and
Speaker 1: want to and want to take care of business. This
Speaker 1: is I always call this the buzz Saw game. It's
Speaker 1: one of my favorite games to bet, and yes, yes
Speaker 1: I bet on the two home teams today, but like,
Speaker 1: this is one of my favorite games to bet because
Speaker 1: this is the one game in the series where I
Speaker 1: think home court plays the biggest role Game three, regardless
Speaker 1: of what's going on unless the home teams up to
Speaker 1: oh already, Game four is going to be a different challenge.
Speaker 1: Memphis is gonna go look at the film and they're
Speaker 1: gonna see immediately where all their missed opportunities were, particularly
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor, particularly with dribble
Speaker 1: drive contained. They're going to come into Game four with
Speaker 1: the whole other level of focus. Now they will be
Speaker 1: the desperate team. There's always like a little bit of
Speaker 1: a flat feeling in Game four when like the home
Speaker 1: crowd always has a little bit less of an impact
Speaker 1: in that second game. Right, So this is good, it's
Speaker 1: not over. I picked Golden State for a reason. I
Speaker 1: think they're the better, smarter team, and I think they
Speaker 1: have more creation. I think they I always look at
Speaker 1: half court like how well can a team succeed within
Speaker 1: the half court? And I always trusted Golden State more
Speaker 1: in those moments but the series is not over. I
Speaker 1: told you guys, it's so important for Golden State to
Speaker 1: try to end this series quickly because of the way
Speaker 1: that Memphis can physically wear you down over the course
Speaker 1: of the series, crashing the offensive glass and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: By the way, weird a side plot of this series.
Speaker 1: Golden State has been amazing on the glass. Coming into
Speaker 1: this series, we all thought Memphis was gonna destroy them
Speaker 1: down there, and they've been great. Special credit Gary Payton Jr.
Speaker 1: Before Garry Patton the second before he got hurt, and
Speaker 1: then also Andrew Wiggins and Auto Porter Auto Porter Jr. Again.
Speaker 1: And this is part of another thing with the way
Speaker 1: the game has changed. It used to be that the jet,
Speaker 1: like the average shot distance was so much closer to
Speaker 1: the rim that there were fewer longer rebounds. So what
Speaker 1: became so important was big guys that could rebound. Right
Speaker 1: in the modern NBA, with how many long distance shots
Speaker 1: there are, shots are coming flying off the rim all
Speaker 1: over the floor, So guard rebounding, wing rebounding is more
Speaker 1: important now than it's ever been in the history of
Speaker 1: the league. Having a guy like Otto Porter Jr. Who
Speaker 1: has just got like kind of a heat seeking missile
Speaker 1: for the basketball is a great asset, especially at his size,
Speaker 1: and him and Andrew Wiggins have been fighting and clawing
Speaker 1: for contested rebounds this entire series and it's neutralized as
Speaker 1: significant portion of Memphis's attack. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: Memphis is gonna keep coming. It's like I've been talking
Speaker 1: about with the Milwaukee Boston series, like it's not about
Speaker 1: keeping you honest in front one time or even five
Speaker 1: times you have to, it's can you still do it
Speaker 1: on the nine, seven time on time when things really
Speaker 1: start to wear you down. So getting a three one advantage,
Speaker 1: taking it back to Memphis and closing this series out,
Speaker 1: that's the best way to prevent any sort of long
Speaker 1: term wear and tear that can take place over the
Speaker 1: course of this series. So Game four is a big opportunity.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a good game that these both of
Speaker 1: these games are gonna be on Monday night. Monday Night
Speaker 1: will be a super, super interesting night. We will absolutely
Speaker 1: be going live after the final buzzer the last game
Speaker 1: that night, and I can't wait because though game four
Speaker 1: in a two one series, that's always the big turning point.
Speaker 1: Are you going are you going back three one? Are
Speaker 1: you going back to two huge difference between those two situations.
Speaker 1: Everything's gonna come down to who can who can sit
Speaker 1: in a stance and get a stop, who can keep
Speaker 1: somebody in front, who's willing to do that job, specifically
Speaker 1: with Jordan Poole, who can create shots other than jaw.
Speaker 1: One of the things that Memphis has been doing a lot,
Speaker 1: and they might have to do more, is have Highest
Speaker 1: Jones out there more, to have another guy on the
Speaker 1: floor that can kind of make decisions at a high
Speaker 1: pick and roll especially. One of the things that's been
Speaker 1: working really well for Memphis is Jaren Jackson is shooting
Speaker 1: the ship out of the basketball. I think he made
Speaker 1: three more threes tonight, three or four more threes tonight.
Speaker 1: Him being such a threat in screen and pop situations
Speaker 1: is gonna get guys like Ties Jones downhill. They might
Speaker 1: have to play him more because they need some more
Speaker 1: offensive creation. But the flip side of that, that's another
Speaker 1: small guy on the floor. That's another guy who's not
Speaker 1: a great defensive player. That's the predicament that Golden State
Speaker 1: puts you in. I talked about this in last night's show,
Speaker 1: like that our last show that we did good teams
Speaker 1: put you in predicaments where you have to make these
Speaker 1: types of decisions, and Memphis is going to be in
Speaker 1: that type of uh, in that type of position. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I still pick Golden State. And my guess is that
Speaker 1: this at this point that they'll win in six. My I,
Speaker 1: my I will predict that Memphis will win Game five
Speaker 1: and the Golden State will win Game four. But Golden
Speaker 1: State should be gunning to try to end this thing
Speaker 1: in five before physicality becomes a problem. Before we move
Speaker 1: on to the Bucks in the Celtics, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to hit our housekeeping notes again really quick. Make sure
Speaker 1: you like this video and subscribe to our channel. Check
Speaker 1: out our newsletter it's in the description to this video.
Speaker 1: Great way to just stay up to speed about what's
Speaker 1: coming on the horizon for the volume, and then remember
Speaker 1: to follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt. I
Speaker 1: regularly do the analysis that kind of backs up the
Speaker 1: things that I'm talking about on the show. It's a
Speaker 1: great place to kind of see examples of the things
Speaker 1: that I'm talking about. But before we move on, here's
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Speaker 1: on to Boston Milwaukee, which was an incredible game which
Speaker 1: I predicted to be an incredible game. This was the
Speaker 1: game that I thought Milwaukee would win before the series
Speaker 1: when I picked Boston in five, which obviously, as of
Speaker 1: right now is very much wrong. But as I told
Speaker 1: you guys after Milwaukee stole Game one, I expected this
Speaker 1: to be a super long series just because of the
Speaker 1: dynamics of home court advantage. The reason why I liked
Speaker 1: Milwaukee's chances most in Game three was because it's typically
Speaker 1: the game where the underdog has the best opportunity to win.
Speaker 1: It's your first game at home in a series where
Speaker 1: you're already familiar with the other team, and you've played
Speaker 1: twice already too, you're almost always the more desperate team,
Speaker 1: even if you did manage to steal a game like
Speaker 1: Milwaukee's coming from getting absolutely destroyed in Game two. They
Speaker 1: had a little bit of a fake come back in
Speaker 1: the second half. They were down sixty to forty at
Speaker 1: halftime in Game two. This was their night to come
Speaker 1: out in front of their home crowd and take a
Speaker 1: lead in this series, and they did. Now, it was
Speaker 1: super interesting in a bunch of different levels, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna get into all of it, because there was a
Speaker 1: moment where I thought Milwaukee was gonna blow them out
Speaker 1: early in the game. I actually tweeted out I expected
Speaker 1: Milwaukee to blow them out because Boston was really sloppy
Speaker 1: in some specific areas that we'll talk about. Then we
Speaker 1: have this weird stretch to start the fourth quarter where
Speaker 1: Boston locks in and like you could just tell they
Speaker 1: were in a completely different brain space on offense and
Speaker 1: we're executing and getting great shots, and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: they have a lead. Then you have this weird final
Speaker 1: possession for our second to last possession for Boston where
Speaker 1: they get back to back completely wide open threes to
Speaker 1: potentially steal this game and take a two one lead
Speaker 1: when you've played horrible all night long. And then it's
Speaker 1: amazing move from Jhannice to take the lead, get a stop,
Speaker 1: Honice defends Jalen Brown at the rim, and then they
Speaker 1: go down in and Drew Holiday has that little float
Speaker 1: in the lane and it's over. Just like a crazy
Speaker 1: helter skelter up and down type a game on a
Speaker 1: bunch of different levels. But Milwaukee takes the lead. You know,
Speaker 1: I said, I said before this series that if Janice
Speaker 1: were to beat this Celtics team, I thought it would
Speaker 1: be an accomplishment on par with what Lebron did in
Speaker 1: two thousand seven beating that Detroit Pistons team. And I
Speaker 1: don't mean there's obviously there's differences. Lebron was younger than
Speaker 1: Janice at that point. For Lebron, that took his team
Speaker 1: to the finals. I don't think the Pistons were the
Speaker 1: best team in the league that year. I actually think
Speaker 1: this Boston team is the best team in the league.
Speaker 1: But the similarities were just the huge talent disparity between
Speaker 1: the two teams. That Detroit team I think had four
Speaker 1: All Stars the previous year, and all those guys were
Speaker 1: still very much at that level in two thousand seven
Speaker 1: versus a team where it was solid role players but
Speaker 1: no second star and kind of just one kind of
Speaker 1: heliocentric superstar that has the opportunity to potentially overcome the
Speaker 1: much better team. That's kind of the parallel that I
Speaker 1: was trying to draw there. And what happened was is
Speaker 1: Detroit was the better team clearly demonstrate I did it
Speaker 1: for large portions of the series. But Lebron just reached
Speaker 1: down and touched a level of basketball that have not
Speaker 1: very many people in the world have ever done, and
Speaker 1: it was too much for the Pistons, and next thing
Speaker 1: you know, they were losing in six games. And that's
Speaker 1: the opportunity that Janice has here. They're not as good
Speaker 1: as Boston and any facet of the game. Boston's better
Speaker 1: at generating high quality half court shots. You saw that
Speaker 1: down the stretch of that game. They got wide open
Speaker 1: shots almost every possession in that fourth quarter they executed
Speaker 1: fantastically well. Then on the defensive end they were locking
Speaker 1: in and making everything difficult on Milwaukee. But down the
Speaker 1: stretch of that game, Janice was able to create shots
Speaker 1: when there was nothing versus Boston missing good shots. But again,
Speaker 1: as I've always talked about jump shots, there's a expected value,
Speaker 1: but it's always up in the air. Sometimes they go in,
Speaker 1: sometimes they don't. Getting to the rim, closer to the
Speaker 1: rim stuff is more dependable. Janice last two made field
Speaker 1: goals in this game. We're really nice to a little
Speaker 1: hook shot in the lane against Jalen Brown and then
Speaker 1: that awesome Euros step around Grant Williams for the game winner.
Speaker 1: Those are once he made the move, it's like that's
Speaker 1: going in. That's a dependable move. Joannice overcame a clear
Speaker 1: talent disadvantage tonight with his own individual greatness and one
Speaker 1: a basketball game, and now he is a two to
Speaker 1: one lead against the team that I think is better.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna dip into a bunch of different parts
Speaker 1: of this game. I wanted to start with that fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Let's start with you, honest in particular. And again it's
Speaker 1: like you saw down the stretch of that game. They
Speaker 1: when they went to Drew Holiday in isolation situations, he
Speaker 1: had a couple of shots that he made, but for
Speaker 1: the most part, it was really difficult for him, and
Speaker 1: he actually got blocked on a bunch of his pull
Speaker 1: up shots. They tried to run some screen and roll
Speaker 1: action with Drew and with Joannice on one side of
Speaker 1: the floor, and they would kind of meander into the lane,
Speaker 1: but Boston would compress around them and things weren't really open,
Speaker 1: and guys like Pat Connors and he made one corner three,
Speaker 1: but then he missed his last couple out from the perimeter.
Speaker 1: So they didn't really have anything working for them. But
Speaker 1: there was one thing that was definitively working for them,
Speaker 1: and it was Janice Antenna Komba. Just imagine I think
Speaker 1: it was early fourth quarter on the right block against
Speaker 1: Grant Williams, the one where Keeby Brown had a freak
Speaker 1: out about about Janice dropping his shoulder. And we'll talk
Speaker 1: a little bit later about Janice and officiating. But and again,
Speaker 1: really quick note for you Bucks fans, not liking the
Speaker 1: way Janice is officiated is not the same thing as
Speaker 1: not liking Janice. Those are two completely different things. Just
Speaker 1: because I love Lebron and I am totally okay with
Speaker 1: the fact that he does not get a lot of
Speaker 1: foul calls when he's trying to bullyball people all the time.
Speaker 1: But we'll get to that in a little bit. On
Speaker 1: the right wing, it's bump, bump, and then get into
Speaker 1: the lane for that hook shot over the top. That's
Speaker 1: a It was defended perfectly by Grant Williams. The only
Speaker 1: thing he could have done better is maybe flopped to
Speaker 1: try to take a charge. But Janice just got to
Speaker 1: that little half hook in the lane that he made.
Speaker 1: And by the way, as I tweeted out, that little
Speaker 1: half hook, to me, that's the Honests go to move.
Speaker 1: That's the move that he can have to beat a
Speaker 1: set half court defense, not the fade a ways, not
Speaker 1: the one legged step backs, not the three wing shot.
Speaker 1: It's that. It's the let me just bump you once
Speaker 1: and then step into the middle and take that right
Speaker 1: handed hook in the middle of the lane. It's unguardable.
Speaker 1: His release point is way too high. He can get
Speaker 1: it in any circumstance and it's a high percentage shot.
Speaker 1: He can He's not quite there yet, but I would
Speaker 1: imagine that he's capable of getting to the point where
Speaker 1: that is like a super super high percentage efficient go
Speaker 1: to move for him, something that he can go to,
Speaker 1: kind of similar to the way that same shot was
Speaker 1: for Tim Duncan. But then he had like two spin
Speaker 1: moves on on on Jalen Brown in the lane, one
Speaker 1: where he got really good separation and got a dunk,
Speaker 1: and then the other one Jalen did a good job
Speaker 1: is sliding in front of him, and he went back
Speaker 1: to that little hook shot and made it. And then
Speaker 1: on the final possession, same thing. Nothing's open, didn't settle,
Speaker 1: did a beautiful like rip to the right and then
Speaker 1: a beautiful quick euro step to the left and got
Speaker 1: just clear around Grant Williams and he's right at the
Speaker 1: rim and finishing at the rim. That's unbelievable offense down
Speaker 1: the stretch. He honest is the biggest rub on him
Speaker 1: compared to his peers at the top of the league
Speaker 1: is his ability to create shots in the half court.
Speaker 1: And is he as good as Lebron at it? No?
Speaker 1: Is he as good at as Kevin duran at it
Speaker 1: knows he is good at you know, Luca and Yokich
Speaker 1: and some of these guys at the very top of
Speaker 1: that list. No, but he has turned himself into a
Speaker 1: player who's very good at it. He's probably in the
Speaker 1: tier right below those guys. And that's good enough for
Speaker 1: your honest. When you're good, when you're as good at
Speaker 1: everything else in basketball as jannest Is is, you if
Speaker 1: you're as dominant defensively as he is, If you're as
Speaker 1: incredible in transition as he is, if you're as incredible
Speaker 1: as an offensive rebound or finishing around the rim, if
Speaker 1: you're as incredible defensively both on the perimeter and and
Speaker 1: help side, and as a leader, and physically and your
Speaker 1: ability to thrive in in fist fight type environments, if
Speaker 1: you're good at all of that, then you don't have
Speaker 1: to be the best half court scorer in the entire league.
Speaker 1: But if you're very good at it, that's enough. And
Speaker 1: he is very good at it, and that's that's enough
Speaker 1: for him to be the best player in basketball. And
Speaker 1: that's what he is right now. We have to acknowledge
Speaker 1: that because he's demonstrating for us on a playoff stage.
Speaker 1: You guys know me, I was slow to admit that
Speaker 1: because I'm always gonna be slow. I'd rather be late
Speaker 1: to the party than disrespect established guys by bumping them
Speaker 1: to the front before they deserve it. But Janice deserves
Speaker 1: it now. He has clearly demonstrated it. This is the
Speaker 1: second postseason in a run where he a second postseason
Speaker 1: in a row where he's clearly demonstrated that he's better
Speaker 1: than anybody else in this field. He's doing it, and
Speaker 1: again he has to do two more times. There's a
Speaker 1: lot a lot of basketball left in this series. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk more about Boston here in just a minute,
Speaker 1: but I had to start with jannest He deserves the
Speaker 1: shout out best player in the world, and he's half
Speaker 1: halfway towards stealing a series against a far superior team
Speaker 1: that was a NINUS two favorite. On FanDuel before the series.
Speaker 1: A couple more quick notes on Milwaukee. I thought brook
Speaker 1: Lopez was a monster tonight, big double double, was crashing
Speaker 1: the offensive glass like crazy, and then especially early in
Speaker 1: the game, he kind of turned into an interesting release
Speaker 1: valve for Milwaukee in the half court, just throwing the
Speaker 1: ball to him on the post, even even against someone
Speaker 1: like Al Horford is a great post offender. You know,
Speaker 1: when you lose Chris Middleton, especially in rescue situations like
Speaker 1: lake clock don't have time to run in action. You
Speaker 1: need someone to throw the ball too that can create
Speaker 1: a play. And that was kind of an interesting wrinkle tonight,
Speaker 1: the ability to throw the ball down to brook Lopez
Speaker 1: on the block. He scored there a couple of times.
Speaker 1: He had a big and one there in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: It's an interesting kind of wrinkle in this series. Then
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday was a monster again. That was the big
Speaker 1: swing factor in Game one. I told you guys, he
Speaker 1: was the second best player on the floor. I'd say
Speaker 1: probably Jalen Brown was the second best player in the
Speaker 1: four today, but Drew Holiday was a definitive number three
Speaker 1: and he was definitely better than Tatum tonight. It's a
Speaker 1: huge swing factor. We'll talk about Tatum in just a minute,
Speaker 1: but his shot making was huge again and he had
Speaker 1: a bunch of big shots down the stretch, had a
Speaker 1: big fade away along the baseline in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and then he had the shot that kind of ice
Speaker 1: the game when Tatum fell over and he hit that
Speaker 1: kind of wild little floater in the lane. So another
Speaker 1: big one from Drew Holiday. But I want to talk
Speaker 1: about Boston a little bit. You know, their offense was
Speaker 1: the story of this game in two different ways, because
Speaker 1: they were so incredible offensively in that fourth quarter and
Speaker 1: they were so bad offensively through the first three quarters.
Speaker 1: I told you guys that, you know after one of
Speaker 1: the big reasons why uh it hasn't gone as smoothly
Speaker 1: for Boston as I predicted before the series was they
Speaker 1: go through these extended stretches where their offensive decision making
Speaker 1: becomes poor. And this was something that Emil Udoka specifically
Speaker 1: talked about before Game two, talking about early contested shot clock,
Speaker 1: early in the shot clock, contested threes off the dribble,
Speaker 1: and threes that don't come off of multiple driving kicks.
Speaker 1: And in this entire game, Boston allowed themselves to get
Speaker 1: psyched out. And for the record, this is a credit
Speaker 1: to Milwaukee's defense. Milwaukee's defense because it is so good
Speaker 1: at specific things and we get other things. It can
Speaker 1: mess with your head, especially if you're like natural priorities
Speaker 1: as a basketball player are to attack that thing that
Speaker 1: they're specifically good at. You have to rewire yourself to
Speaker 1: make the right reads in these situations. That's the predicament
Speaker 1: that Milwaukee puts you in. But almost immediately from the
Speaker 1: start tonight I saw the same kind of offensive decision
Speaker 1: making from Boston that I saw in Game one, driving
Speaker 1: into rim protectors instead of trying to get the rim
Speaker 1: protector out of position before attacking or kicking to open
Speaker 1: shooters quick three point shots and transition off the dribble
Speaker 1: and off the catch. Just a lot of them weren't
Speaker 1: even open. And then, you know, some of this I
Speaker 1: got a credit Milwaukee with because you know Milwaukee's defense.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this a lot on this show, and
Speaker 1: Bucks fans are all like, no, no, no no, Milwaukee, their
Speaker 1: defense is actually good. It was just brooke up and no, no,
Speaker 1: it wasn't. Their Their defense was bad. They were literally
Speaker 1: twenty in the NBA after the All star break and
Speaker 1: defensive rating like there's you can't blame brook Lopez for
Speaker 1: being a bottom third defense in the NBA. They were bad, okay,
Speaker 1: But again, as I've said, the way they were bad
Speaker 1: was they oversold to the paint and they gave up
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff on the back end. But again,
Speaker 1: it's not like the scheme was let people shoot. No,
Speaker 1: they have stuff built into their scheme to rotate two shooters.
Speaker 1: They just weren't good at it. They didn't do a
Speaker 1: good enough job when they'd sell out to the paint
Speaker 1: at spreading back out when the ball was popping around
Speaker 1: on the perimeter to get two shooters. Tonight, they did
Speaker 1: a much much better job of that. Boston only took
Speaker 1: thirty three threes and I thought they forced a lot
Speaker 1: of those, so much better job from Milwaukee and this
Speaker 1: specific game at rotating around two shooters. But again, Boston
Speaker 1: bought into that or played into that a lot with
Speaker 1: their own shot selection. In terms of their basketball i Q,
Speaker 1: they have guys and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and
Speaker 1: Marcus Smart who are who have shown a lot of
Speaker 1: growth over the course of the last few years as
Speaker 1: decision makers. But it's not consistent, they still have stretches
Speaker 1: where they dip into it. I thought Tatum part of
Speaker 1: the reason why he had a rough night tonight was
Speaker 1: he was taking difficult shots instead of kind of letting
Speaker 1: the game come to him. And then as he was,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're two for a live and two
Speaker 1: for twelve, two for thirteen, you almost feel like it's
Speaker 1: not your nights. You start really forcing the act in.
Speaker 1: But that was that to me, was what killed him.
Speaker 1: And you know, and again it comes down to the
Speaker 1: transition element. So we remember in game one, um Milwaukee
Speaker 1: has twenty eight fast break points, and we talked about
Speaker 1: how Boston's defense and the half court was excellent, but
Speaker 1: they struggled defending and transition and a huge part of
Speaker 1: it was their bad shot selection. Well, game two they
Speaker 1: tightened all of that up. They only give up six
Speaker 1: fast break points. Well tonight they gave up twenty one
Speaker 1: fast break points again. And my guess is that when
Speaker 1: I look at the data tomorrow, the half court defense
Speaker 1: is gonna be excellent, and my guess is it's gonna
Speaker 1: be in transition where they got killed again, which is
Speaker 1: a damn shame because it's like a proven winning formula
Speaker 1: there for them. That's right there on the table, like
Speaker 1: take smart shots, play smart offense. You will win because
Speaker 1: your defense is better than there spy a lot, so
Speaker 1: trap him in a half court game and you're gonna win, right,
Speaker 1: And they did in the fourth quarter. That's the wild part.
Speaker 1: Down the stretch of that game. That entire fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: Boston's offensive execution was excellent. Guys were driving and kicking
Speaker 1: instead of driving into trap thinking trying to finish. Guys
Speaker 1: were passing on the early shot clock shots that weren't
Speaker 1: as good as other shots. Down the stretch, they were
Speaker 1: getting fantastic looks. Really, the only possession I had a
Speaker 1: problem with was Jalen Brown. So they're up one. They
Speaker 1: get back to back winde open threes. I think one
Speaker 1: of them was for Jalen and one of them was
Speaker 1: for al Horford if I remember correctly, But they were
Speaker 1: both wide open shots. Both of them had a chance
Speaker 1: to ice the game. You missed them both, it happens,
Speaker 1: they go down. Yannice scores. Okay, so now they're up.
Speaker 1: But again the shot Janice took was a really difficult
Speaker 1: like euro step through the lane, all time great move
Speaker 1: from an all time great player, but you're still getting
Speaker 1: better shots in the other end, right, like go down
Speaker 1: and execute, and Jalen went off script early possession, kind
Speaker 1: of got a lane to the basket. Janice came over
Speaker 1: to help, and Jalen obviously saw him because Jalen didn't
Speaker 1: go straight up to the rim, he like tried to
Speaker 1: dive into Janice's body to drive contact and he ended
Speaker 1: up through it, throwing the ball right into the bottom
Speaker 1: of the rim. Turnover. Then they go down and that's
Speaker 1: when Drew Holiday makes the shot that puts him up
Speaker 1: three rights. But for the most part in that fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: up until that Jalen Brown possession, Boston was really smart
Speaker 1: with their offensive execution. They took the right shots, and
Speaker 1: when they take the right shots, they're the better offensive team.
Speaker 1: They don't have the supreme offensive talent of j Honice,
Speaker 1: but what they do have is five guys on the
Speaker 1: floor at almost at almost any given moment in time,
Speaker 1: they have five guys on the floor that can shoot, dribble,
Speaker 1: and pass. And when you have those things, that's when
Speaker 1: you get those awesome possessions where there's multiple driving kicks,
Speaker 1: and that's when you really get open shots against this
Speaker 1: Milwaukee defense. When they do that, that's when they're gonna
Speaker 1: have their best chance to win. But I thought that
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter was really telling. You know, there was
Speaker 1: a moment that where I'm like, oh man, Boston's gonna
Speaker 1: win this series in five because this was the game
Speaker 1: Milwaukee had to win. Boston played like crap for three quarters.
Speaker 1: This is the game you have to win, and Boston
Speaker 1: almost stole it. That's what tells me right now, judging
Speaker 1: by what I saw in overall half court shot quality
Speaker 1: through three games. Now Boston gets better shots. They just
Speaker 1: do Again, if if Janice is going to score forty
Speaker 1: two a game with bad shots, like with terrible opportunity
Speaker 1: and terrible spacing, then Milwaukee's gonna win, right And that's
Speaker 1: that all time great type of accomplishment that I was
Speaker 1: discussing earlier. But Boston's getting better shots, they should win
Speaker 1: the series. I expect them to win the next three games.
Speaker 1: One last note with Janice. I talked a lot after
Speaker 1: Game one. At first, after Game one, I was kind
Speaker 1: of critical of Joanna's first shot selection, but then after
Speaker 1: I went back and watched the tape, I've relented and
Speaker 1: said that I was wrong and that in reality, Joannice
Speaker 1: is slowly starting to wear down the wall of the
Speaker 1: Boston defense. That's the important detail. Like again, like guys
Speaker 1: at Gal Horford and Grant Williams, they are capable of
Speaker 1: sliding their feet and taking Janice's shoulder to the chest
Speaker 1: and absorbing it for a possession, and then two possessions,
Speaker 1: and then three possessions, and then four possessions. But around
Speaker 1: that possession it starts to get kind of exhausting. And
Speaker 1: then there comes a point where Janice is staying at
Speaker 1: the same level of strength that he's always going to
Speaker 1: be a at and your defenders are just gonna start
Speaker 1: to be a step slow or be a little bit
Speaker 1: more willing to open up that shoulder rather than hold
Speaker 1: their ground right, And that's when things start to go through.
Speaker 1: I thought today was the first time in this series
Speaker 1: where you really saw Boston's defense break. So they give
Speaker 1: up twenty two points in that first quarter, they give
Speaker 1: up twenty four points in the second quarter, they give
Speaker 1: up thirty four points in that third quarter. Janice was
Speaker 1: a monster in that quarter. I'll have to go back
Speaker 1: and look at the film. So again, you guys wanna
Speaker 1: are gonna wanta follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow morning, I'll dive into some of the film of
Speaker 1: this in particular. But in that third quarter, Janice broke
Speaker 1: through that wall. Now all of a sudden, he's dunking everything. Now,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, he's getting the free throw line.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, he's starting to plow people over
Speaker 1: and they're not getting in his way the way that
Speaker 1: they were earlier in the series. It's an interesting thing
Speaker 1: to watch because again, that's why I thought this Again,
Speaker 1: I told you guys coming into this that I expected
Speaker 1: Boston and win Game four. But for those of you
Speaker 1: guys who watched our last show, you remember I said,
Speaker 1: but they have a chance to win game three because
Speaker 1: they had three days off, and I thought that would
Speaker 1: give them chance to physically recover to the extent where
Speaker 1: they'd be fresh enough to stay in front of you,
Speaker 1: honest in this game. And what was kind of his ours.
Speaker 1: I thought Boston's defensive intensity to start this game wasn't great,
Speaker 1: which was a whole other issue. But again, Janice has
Speaker 1: demonstrated that he can wear down this Boston defense over time,
Speaker 1: which is significant because you play again in two days,
Speaker 1: you know, and I expect Boston to win, like I said,
Speaker 1: but Janice's example, the honest's opportunity is to keep dropping
Speaker 1: that shoulder, to keep trying to run people over, to
Speaker 1: keep breaking down that wall, to have more of those
Speaker 1: thirty four point quarters. That's how you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: steal one of these games down the line, because I
Speaker 1: do think Boston's going to get one in Milwaukee at
Speaker 1: some point, so you're gonna probably have to get another
Speaker 1: one in Boston, right, So that's the honest's opportunity. Keep
Speaker 1: breaking down the wall, keep wearing people down. So my
Speaker 1: prediction before the series was Boston in five. I thought
Speaker 1: they'd win their two home games. I thought they'd lose
Speaker 1: Game three, that they'd win Game four, and then I
Speaker 1: thought they'd win Game five. Well, Milwaukee has derailed that
Speaker 1: by stealing Game one, right, but they won Game three,
Speaker 1: which I expected. However, I think the half court shot
Speaker 1: quality has demonstrated that Boston is the better team. I
Speaker 1: expect Boston to win Game four. I expect him to
Speaker 1: win Game five at home, and then I think they'll
Speaker 1: win Game six in a defensive slug fest back in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: But if you're a Bucks fan Janice has demonstrated that
Speaker 1: he is capable of overcoming that with his own individual greatness.
Speaker 1: The opportunity is there for him. Like I said, he's
Speaker 1: halfway there, a long way to go, but that's the chance.
Speaker 1: What's gonna win the best team in basketball or the
Speaker 1: best player in basketball. We're going to find out over
Speaker 1: the course of the next week. Hi, it's Colin Coward.
Speaker 1: I started the volume to bring you some of the
Speaker 1: most authetic voices in sports. While you're here, make sure
Speaker 1: you hit subscribe. Thanks. All right, let's break down last
Speaker 1: night's games for just a few minutes. These two series
Speaker 1: is we're kind of snoozers compared to the Celtics, Bucks
Speaker 1: and the Warriors Grizzlies for a couple of different reasons.
Speaker 1: I thought Dallas really mailed in the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor the first two games, and against the team
Speaker 1: as good as Phoenix, that's just gonna make for some
Speaker 1: uncompetitive basketball games, and that's what happened. And then of
Speaker 1: course with Miami, they just simply had the easiest path
Speaker 1: to this point out of any of the sixteen teams.
Speaker 1: I thought Atlanta was far and away the weakest link
Speaker 1: out of this sixteen team playoff fields, it was just
Speaker 1: really difficult to learn anything from them. I mean, look
Speaker 1: at the Pelicans as the eighth seed in the West
Speaker 1: and how much they gave Phoenix a run for their money,
Speaker 1: and how much better they looked on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor compared to that Atlanta Hawks. Teams just difficult
Speaker 1: to learn anything. And then they get into this next
Speaker 1: round and Joel and beads out and on a team
Speaker 1: like Philly, especially with Doc Rivers and the way he
Speaker 1: wanted to replace Embiid with like the worst starting center
Speaker 1: in in the league right now, it was just really
Speaker 1: difficult to get a feel for what that series is
Speaker 1: actually gonna look like when they had n't beat on
Speaker 1: the floor. So let's start with Philly. In Miami, I
Speaker 1: the specifically was looking at the Mbat thing from two angles.
Speaker 1: How would Miami be able to guard him? And then
Speaker 1: would Miami be able to handle him underneath the basket
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor. We'll get to
Speaker 1: that in just a minute. So from the start, what
Speaker 1: I thought was really interesting is I was expecting them
Speaker 1: to try to keep bam At a bio on em
Speaker 1: beat as much as possible because of single coverage, and
Speaker 1: when they did try to attack, and when they did
Speaker 1: try to post up and beat against Bam, they did
Speaker 1: stay single coverage. There wasn't any sort of double team,
Speaker 1: and Bam did a great job in those settings, made
Speaker 1: him Bead settled for jump shots and Bead was not
Speaker 1: getting good shots there. That's a great sign looking forward
Speaker 1: for the series with Miami on defense, knowing that they
Speaker 1: don't need to double team Joel een Bead on those
Speaker 1: post ups, right, But obviously Philly is gonna put you
Speaker 1: through the ringer of off ball screens, grible handoffs with Embiad,
Speaker 1: and screen and roll with James Harden, right. And so
Speaker 1: what I thought was really interesting is in all of
Speaker 1: those situations, Miami immediately switched those screens and we're happily
Speaker 1: willing to put smaller players onto beat and switches. And
Speaker 1: the reason why is you could tell and they're they're
Speaker 1: an extremely well coached team who's extremely disciplined on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor. What they would do is
Speaker 1: just immediately front. So if they ran a ball screen
Speaker 1: and there was a switch, whoever switched on too. Embiad
Speaker 1: would stay on his high side so that when Embiad
Speaker 1: rolled down to the post, he could go wherever he wanted,
Speaker 1: but there was a player in front of him disrupting
Speaker 1: the post entry. And then immediately they would help out
Speaker 1: of the weak side corner. Because when someone is fronting
Speaker 1: you in the post, you have to kind of seal
Speaker 1: them like arm on their back and ask for a
Speaker 1: pass over the top. Well, that lob pass over the
Speaker 1: top opens up the opportunity for the defender coming from
Speaker 1: behind to steal that pass. And then even when Mbiad
Speaker 1: would catch it down there, he would catch and immediately
Speaker 1: be sandwiched by the guy that was fronting him on
Speaker 1: the front side and the guy that was helping on
Speaker 1: the backside. Zomb would have to hold the ball high.
Speaker 1: He couldn't come down with it or he gets stripped.
Speaker 1: It was a really complicated situation for him down there.
Speaker 1: In Miami did an excellent job in all of those settings.
Speaker 1: Credit to them for having an excellent scheme and then
Speaker 1: having a player in Bama at a bio that makes
Speaker 1: it so you can't attack them in single coverage. So
Speaker 1: you can't just come down the floor and dump it
Speaker 1: to him in the post. You have to run screening actions.
Speaker 1: But when you run screening actions, they just immediately snapped
Speaker 1: into that front with the backside help. And that's a
Speaker 1: credit to how well coached they are and how disciplined
Speaker 1: and committed they are to the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: You ever seen those videos, uh that would go viral
Speaker 1: from time to time of like NBA players synchronized where
Speaker 1: it'd be like three guys at the same time that
Speaker 1: would all start running on defense simultaneously, and it would
Speaker 1: almost look like they were mirror images of each other,
Speaker 1: Like three guys would all complain at the ref at
Speaker 1: the exact same time with the exact same arm wave,
Speaker 1: and those videos would go viral. That's the way Miami
Speaker 1: looks when they're snapping into their defensive coverage. Is in
Speaker 1: any of these specific scenarios, like you'd see screen and
Speaker 1: Roll with Harden and embiid quick switch and be dives
Speaker 1: down to the post, and immediately you would just see
Speaker 1: Miami snap into position. Everyone would be exactly where they
Speaker 1: need to be. Guys fronting the post, Guys sitting run
Speaker 1: under the basket waiting for the lob over the top,
Speaker 1: dudes are digging into their help lanes where they're comfortable
Speaker 1: closing out to shooters, just really really impressive defensive team.
Speaker 1: That's all great, But the problem is is all year long,
Speaker 1: I told you guys, I was concerned about Miami's half
Speaker 1: court offense, particularly down the stretch. This year, they really
Speaker 1: struggled in that specific area. And the issue is is
Speaker 1: they don't have a lot of guys that are great
Speaker 1: shooters that are decision makers for them. So they have
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that can shoot. Tyler Harrock shoot
Speaker 1: Duncan Robinson, X True's you know, gave Vincent. A lot
Speaker 1: of those guys are knocked down three point shooters. Even
Speaker 1: p J. Tucker has shot well out of the corner.
Speaker 1: But the problem is is they don't guard p J.
Speaker 1: Tucker out there. They don't guard Jimmy Butler as if
Speaker 1: you can shoot really well. They certainly don't guard Bamata
Speaker 1: Bio as if you could shoot well. And when you're
Speaker 1: gonna play the vast majority of your minutes with those
Speaker 1: guys on the floor, it allows guys to sink into
Speaker 1: the paint, especially teams that have a lot of size
Speaker 1: and so specifically, I was concerned based on what happened
Speaker 1: in the NBA Finals. Anthony Davis ignored Bamata Bio and
Speaker 1: all because Miami runs an offense very similar to what
Speaker 1: Denver does, where it's a lot of like Yo Kich
Speaker 1: will be at the high post and it's a ton
Speaker 1: of dribble handoffs in ball screen is trying to get
Speaker 1: their guards going downhill over the top of him, and
Speaker 1: if guys go underneath, they stopping the ssue jump shots.
Speaker 1: If guys chase over the top, they continue to go
Speaker 1: into the rim. It's really simple concept, but part of
Speaker 1: the reason why it works is you have to press
Speaker 1: up on Yokis because Yokich will turn and shoot on you.
Speaker 1: But the issue there too is if you get pressed
Speaker 1: up on Yokich, he can kind of spin off of
Speaker 1: you because he's so good with his body position that
Speaker 1: he'll get into the lane to The problem is with
Speaker 1: bam at a Bio, you do not have to press
Speaker 1: up on him at the high post in those situations.
Speaker 1: And so I was always concerned that a real rim
Speaker 1: protector would be able to utterly flummix this Miami offense
Speaker 1: because they'd sink off of Bam and just sit in
Speaker 1: the basket and disrupt everything, just like Anthony Davis did.
Speaker 1: In the finals, which was a massive swing factor in
Speaker 1: that series. Obviously, Lebron was the most important player on
Speaker 1: that team, but in many of those postseason series, Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis as a defensive weapon was just a massive swing
Speaker 1: factor in those series. Well, and one exactly is I
Speaker 1: would have expected tonight. So to give you an idea,
Speaker 1: the uh in Game one and two, Miami averaged forty
Speaker 1: seven points in the paint in those two games Game
Speaker 1: three with Joel embid playing points in the paint, So
Speaker 1: basically redunction reduction in excuse me, a thirty three percent
Speaker 1: reduction in your paint production based solely on having Joel
Speaker 1: embiad in there, which automatically led to them scoring in
Speaker 1: the seventies. And what you saw too is you could
Speaker 1: literally see it kind of the dynamic taking place on
Speaker 1: the floor. Like Bam at the top of key dribble
Speaker 1: hand off to someone like Kyle Lowry. Kyle Lowry kind
Speaker 1: of gets downhill and beat ignores Bam and kind of
Speaker 1: like corals Lowry right right around the elbow and Lowry
Speaker 1: has to swing it to the other side at which
Speaker 1: point and b drops back. Then it will be Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler and he'll come flying off and and be kind
Speaker 1: of corrals Jimmy Butler until he has to kick it out,
Speaker 1: and then it'll be like Gay Vincent or Max Russ
Speaker 1: or somebody coming over the third time, and you just
Speaker 1: see him be kind of crawling everything from right around
Speaker 1: the charge circle because he just doesn't have to guard
Speaker 1: bam at a bio. That's the trouble there, and as
Speaker 1: a result, it led to these extended stretches where Miami
Speaker 1: couldn't score. They had a five minute stretch in the
Speaker 1: first quarter zero points. They had another three and a
Speaker 1: half minute stretch spanning from the first to the second
Speaker 1: quarter where they did not score. They had a four
Speaker 1: minute stretch stretching into halftime and just after halftime where
Speaker 1: they went completely scoreless, and then spanning the third and
Speaker 1: fourth quarters, they had another four minute stretch where they
Speaker 1: went completely scoreless. That's four separate stretches that were at
Speaker 1: least three and a half minutes long where Miami could
Speaker 1: not score a point. As a result, they at the
Speaker 1: at this last stretch, the last four minute score let
Speaker 1: stretched to stretching into the fourth quarter. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: they were down by ten points. And you saw especially
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter Phillies transition attack because where they
Speaker 1: started to get going, a lot of Tyrese Maxie grabbing
Speaker 1: the ball just go on the length of the floor. Also,
Speaker 1: Danny Green terrible game too, but he was lights out.
Speaker 1: I think he was six for seven from three in
Speaker 1: this game. He's one of the best guys in league
Speaker 1: history at sprinting in transition to the corner where he
Speaker 1: and get three point shots there, and he was killing
Speaker 1: in that specific area. It's more the more or less
Speaker 1: the same from what you expect down the line, Like
Speaker 1: James Harden good, not great, but he was great kind
Speaker 1: of getting guys into the right spot and making decisions,
Speaker 1: which is his one remaining elite skill at this point.
Speaker 1: And again tires Maxie that it's just so important as
Speaker 1: that soul transition force getting out after Philly gets stops.
Speaker 1: Really interesting series to see. Moving forward again, Miami was
Speaker 1: bought a two zero lead by virtue of the Joel
Speaker 1: and Beat injury, so obviously Philly has a lot to
Speaker 1: overcome here. But if they can't figure out how to
Speaker 1: score on Joel and Beat in the paint with Bam
Speaker 1: at a bio on the floor, there could be some
Speaker 1: serious issues moving forward, um with Miami's ability to score,
Speaker 1: and they still have to notch two more wins against
Speaker 1: this defense. So right now, I'm i'm I'm refraining from
Speaker 1: making a pick at this point because I'd like to
Speaker 1: see one more game, But after Game four I'll try
Speaker 1: to make a pick again. Originally, if I thought embiad
Speaker 1: was available for all games of the series, I would
Speaker 1: have picked Philly and six. But obviously just just tossing
Speaker 1: Miami two of games makes that really really hard to do.
Speaker 1: All right, let's quickly move on to Dallas and Phoenix
Speaker 1: for just a few minutes. So again this series, you know,
Speaker 1: we talked a lot after Game one. I talked to
Speaker 1: you guys about the massive increase in degree of difficulty
Speaker 1: going from a really bad Utah Jazz defense to a
Speaker 1: really really good, excuse me, a really really good Phoenix
Speaker 1: Suns defense. Obviously, there was gonna be an adjustment period. There.
Speaker 1: You're adjusting two longer, more athletic defensive players, guys that
Speaker 1: are more committed to containing on the perimeter, better backside rotations.
Speaker 1: Utah was terrible at all of those things, so there
Speaker 1: was gonna be an adjustment. But the interesting thing was
Speaker 1: there's another adjustment Dallas has to make, and I thought
Speaker 1: Richard Jefferson did a really nice job in the color
Speaker 1: commentary of explaining this specifically, but he talked about how
Speaker 1: against Utah, I think Dallas lulled themselves into a little
Speaker 1: bit of a sense of security over how good their
Speaker 1: offense was and their ability to carry themselves on offense.
Speaker 1: And the reality is that they succeeded the second half
Speaker 1: of the season on the strength of their defense. They
Speaker 1: were very good defensive team despite not having great defensive
Speaker 1: Personality's credit to Jason Kidd, and it's a credit to
Speaker 1: their commitment on that end of the floor, particularly from
Speaker 1: guys like Dorri and Phinny Smith and Reggie Bullock, who
Speaker 1: Luca shouted out after Game three. Well, in games one
Speaker 1: and two of this series, Dallas's defense was horrific. They
Speaker 1: gave up a hundred and twenty eight point nine points
Speaker 1: per Hunter possessions in game one, a hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: six point five points per one hund possessions in game two.
Speaker 1: That's awful. And in Game three, they just simply were
Speaker 1: more dialed in on that end of the floor, so
Speaker 1: much more effort, especially from guys like Luca more willingness
Speaker 1: to Yeah, you can save some energy, but you got
Speaker 1: to give a certain amount of effort to hold your
Speaker 1: own here much better ball pressure. Reggie Bullock did an
Speaker 1: unbelievable job in this game. So did Dorri and Phinney Smith.
Speaker 1: They only gave up a hundred and three point six
Speaker 1: points per one Hunter possessions in game three. That is
Speaker 1: a massive That is a thirty three point drop from
Speaker 1: where they were in game two. And that's and as
Speaker 1: we've talked about, that's so important to what they do
Speaker 1: on the offensive end of the floor. When you do that,
Speaker 1: it makes it so that because both of these teams
Speaker 1: play very slow, it's not a very up and down game.
Speaker 1: It's not like watching Issoda verse Memphis. These are two
Speaker 1: guys in Luca and Chris Paul that love to strangle
Speaker 1: the pace of the game, but there's usually a quick
Speaker 1: push after a miss just to get up into the
Speaker 1: front court to maintain matchups. We talked a lot about
Speaker 1: this after Game two cross matches, the idea of in
Speaker 1: transition defense having to pick up someone that's not your
Speaker 1: man that leads to a predicament to start the next possession. Well,
Speaker 1: when Dallas gets more stops. Luca. There was a many
Speaker 1: there were many possessions where he's coming down the floor
Speaker 1: guarded by Chris Paul, coming down the floor guarded by Campaign,
Speaker 1: and he was able to quickly turn those into post
Speaker 1: ups and get baskets. That way. Dallas has to get
Speaker 1: stops to reach their individual ceiling, and they were able
Speaker 1: to get a lot more stops in Game three and
Speaker 1: as a result, they were able to hang around better.
Speaker 1: Maxi Clebo was awesome, you know, uh, you know, it
Speaker 1: was there's this interesting predicament earlier in the playoffs where
Speaker 1: it was like, Okay, do we go with Dwight Powell,
Speaker 1: who's a much better defensive player and it was kind
Speaker 1: of like a vertical spacing threat rolling to the rim,
Speaker 1: or do we go with Maxi Cleban, who's not as
Speaker 1: good of a defensive player but as more of a
Speaker 1: emmitter shooter, and how he can stretch the defense that way.
Speaker 1: And they ended up going with cleeb a lot to
Speaker 1: try to punish Rudy Gobert. Right, But I've been really
Speaker 1: really impressed with Cleban's defense. You know, he's he looks
Speaker 1: small out there because he's been playing against two monsters. Right,
Speaker 1: he's been going against Dandra eight and against and against
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert, so he's gonna look small, but he's kind
Speaker 1: of like a little bit more of like a wing
Speaker 1: than he is a big He's very mobile, he can
Speaker 1: attack close outs, he can put the ball on the floor,
Speaker 1: he covers ground in rotations, and he fights down low. Obviously,
Speaker 1: he's gonna lose that matchup a lot of times in
Speaker 1: terms of the physicality going against guys that big, but
Speaker 1: he's done a really nice job and he's been absolutely
Speaker 1: vital to their offense in this series against Phoenix the Mouth.
Speaker 1: The Mavericks are scoring nine point five more points per
Speaker 1: one Hunter possession with Maxie Cleeb on the floor than
Speaker 1: they are without him. He's turned into a super, super
Speaker 1: important player if you're if you're a Dallas fan. Again,
Speaker 1: I'm still picking Phoenix to win this series in six,
Speaker 1: but if you're a Dallas fan, you should be feeling
Speaker 1: a lot more confident about your chances to win this
Speaker 1: series after what happened last night. A couple of things.
Speaker 1: Defense was much better, and it seemed to be associated
Speaker 1: with efforts. You can kind of toss out those first
Speaker 1: two games in a lot of different ways to Luca
Speaker 1: missed a lot of easy shots in the game. He's
Speaker 1: eleven for twenty five, but specifically in the first half
Speaker 1: when Dallas was playing pretty well, he was missing open
Speaker 1: shots time and time again down the floor. I do
Speaker 1: think Luca will shoot better in games as the series
Speaker 1: goes along, And most importantly, Jalen Brunson finally got going
Speaker 1: in game three. That was the concern. He was awful
Speaker 1: in games one and two in Dallas. You've got a
Speaker 1: little bit of Spencer Dinwoodie in game two, but not enough.
Speaker 1: You need Jalen Brunson to be good in order if
Speaker 1: you'd have a chance to win this series. He was great.
Speaker 1: He had twenty eight points, four rebounds in five assists.
Speaker 1: If he can replicate that a few more times in
Speaker 1: the series, you've got a chance. And then, last but
Speaker 1: not least, the Suns I think are shooting better. They've
Speaker 1: got three players right now shooting over from three on
Speaker 1: decent volume. Jake Crowder is shooting six from three on
Speaker 1: six attempts. You have to think there's gonna be some
Speaker 1: kind of regression to the mean there. Meanwhile, if you
Speaker 1: look at Dallas, is core rotation players, none of them
Speaker 1: are shooting over from three. Not that someone's going to,
Speaker 1: but if there's a chance for shooting regression in this series,
Speaker 1: it's far more likely that Dallas will shoot a little
Speaker 1: better than Phoenix down the stretch here. Then vice versa
Speaker 1: again remains to be seen, and as we always say,
Speaker 1: a lot of that comes down to shot quality and
Speaker 1: how well defenses are playing. So obviously Dallas has to
Speaker 1: continue to defend and do a lot of things right.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is that they have a puncher's
Speaker 1: chance now. It looked early after after two games that
Speaker 1: Phoenix was far superior. Dallas demonstrated in game three that
Speaker 1: they have a punch. It's a it's a it's a
Speaker 1: long shot, but they absolutely have a chance to win
Speaker 1: this series. Al Right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for today. I sincerely appreciate your support. As always, we
Speaker 1: will be back tomorrow night after the final buzzer of
Speaker 1: the last game, and I will see you guys. Then
Speaker 1: the volume