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Speaker 1: You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great week. Well, just like
Speaker 1: Boston and Denver gave us last time, we got another
Speaker 1: incredible basketball game off the top. I just want to
Speaker 1: shout out all the players or whatever they were dealing
Speaker 1: with physically, forgiving it a go in this game. I
Speaker 1: always appreciate it when the players know that we want
Speaker 1: to see a great game, and obviously when they want
Speaker 1: to compete when they see an opportunity to measure themselves
Speaker 1: against the best in the league, and they play through
Speaker 1: whatever little aches and pains they're dealing with. And we
Speaker 1: just got another classic between Denver and Boston, clearly the
Speaker 1: two best teams in the league in my opinion. We're
Speaker 1: gonna break down the game from the perspective of both teams,
Speaker 1: and then we'll get out of here for the night.
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Speaker 1: in tomorrow's show. On Friday. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So Nikola Jokich I got a bunch of crap. About
Speaker 1: a week and a half ago when I said something
Speaker 1: that I truly believe. It was a mailbag question that
Speaker 1: I got. Someone just asked like, Hey, how would you
Speaker 1: rank the level Nikola Jokic is at relative to Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant and Steph Curry and what they were at at
Speaker 1: their peaks? And I said something I truly believe, which
Speaker 1: is that I think Nicole Jokic is playing at a
Speaker 1: higher ceiling than either of those guys. I think his
Speaker 1: ceiling is at a similar level on a trajectory that
Speaker 1: what you've seen from the guys that are at the
Speaker 1: very top of NBA history, guys like Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in the light right. And
Speaker 1: one of the big reasons behind that is like there
Speaker 1: is an inevitability with NIKOLEA. Jokic. You know, down the
Speaker 1: stretch of this game. We're gonna talk about the late
Speaker 1: game execution here in a minute, but down the stretch
Speaker 1: of his game, it was like there were a couple
Speaker 1: of massive swings that went Boston's way, Like there was
Speaker 1: that play where Nikola Jokic got fouled underneath the basket
Speaker 1: or may or may not have gotten fouled. He certainly
Speaker 1: thought he did complain and got a technical. Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: makes a defensive play, runs out the other end, gets
Speaker 1: an and one, and they get a technical. It's like
Speaker 1: a six point swing and turns should have been like
Speaker 1: a thirteen point lead down into a seven point lead
Speaker 1: or whatever it was at that point if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: And then there was that sequence late where Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: makes a couple of big mistakes, takes a bad pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot early in the shot clock, and then
Speaker 1: he dribbles too much against Jayleen Brown and gets ripped.
Speaker 1: And on the other end, Drew Holliday, who had been
Speaker 1: ice cold all night on his jump shot, takes and
Speaker 1: makes two pull up jump shots, and these swings are
Speaker 1: going in Boston's favor. But like, did anybody ever actually
Speaker 1: feel like Denver wasn't gonna win that game? Did anybody
Speaker 1: ever feel like when Nikole Jokic caught the ball on
Speaker 1: the block or on the roll, regardless of whether or
Speaker 1: not it was a single coverage situation or a help situation,
Speaker 1: did you ever think that he wasn't gonna score? I
Speaker 1: felt like it was inevitable. That's what it was like
Speaker 1: for me watch the game, and I would imagine that
Speaker 1: most of you guys would agree. When he was on
Speaker 1: an island against Porzingis, it wasn't like maybe he'll make it,
Speaker 1: maybe he won't. It's like he's going to make it.
Speaker 1: And then every single time he drew the baseline helper,
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon is so big there on the baseline, he
Speaker 1: just can hit that little pass to him underneath the
Speaker 1: basket and he can finish. The one time Nikole Jokicic
Speaker 1: missed a shot at the rim, he engaged the help
Speaker 1: defender in this case Jaylen Brown and Aaron Gordon. Because
Speaker 1: he drew that second defender, Aaron Gordon is free and
Speaker 1: clear underneath the basket to rise up for the second
Speaker 1: of his two obscene dunks that he had in this game.
Speaker 1: You know, like when I look at the other best
Speaker 1: players in the world, it's like with a guy like
Speaker 1: Steph Curry or Kevin Durank, just those two guys. For example,
Speaker 1: Kevin duran had a beautiful game the other night against Denver,
Speaker 1: got a win. But how did he win the game?
Speaker 1: He won the game by hitting a crazy difficult pull
Speaker 1: up three off the dribble over a great Aaron Gordon contest,
Speaker 1: a shot that he hits probably against that type of
Speaker 1: defender situation in the mid thirties, right, and then in
Speaker 1: overtime hit a bunch of tough, contested pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: And KD is one of the best players in the
Speaker 1: world and he's capable of making those shots, but there's
Speaker 1: a variance element to it. Might go in, might not.
Speaker 1: And we've all seen environments where the other stars in
Speaker 1: the league that can go cold, and like, meanwhile, Jokic
Speaker 1: has a bad game against Phoenix, and it's like bizarre
Speaker 1: because you just never see him have those types of
Speaker 1: moments because his go to moves around the basket are
Speaker 1: shots that he makes seventy percent of the time. There
Speaker 1: is very little variance there, and whatever covers you throw
Speaker 1: to him in those situations, he will pick you apart.
Speaker 1: There is a complete helplessness in that department that makes him,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, by far, the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: I like, literally, Boston's getting major swings down the stretch
Speaker 1: on huge sequences and it just doesn't matter because they
Speaker 1: could not get a stop, and they could not get
Speaker 1: a stop because nobody on the planet can do anything
Speaker 1: with Nikola Jokic. You just have to pray he has
Speaker 1: a weird game like he did against Phoenix, where he
Speaker 1: doesn't want to shoot the basketball like it really is
Speaker 1: to me, it's the most dominant stretch that I've seen
Speaker 1: from an individual player since Lebron James in the twenty
Speaker 1: twelve twenty thirteen stretch when he won those two titles
Speaker 1: and won the Olympic gold medal. That like, that's that's
Speaker 1: where that's the level nikole Yjokic is playing at right now.
Speaker 1: Now he's got to close the deal, he's got to
Speaker 1: go into this postseason and he's got to get that
Speaker 1: second title in a row to demonstrate that dominance. But
Speaker 1: in terms of just in a vacuum right now as
Speaker 1: a player, what he's doing, he right now is playing
Speaker 1: at that level and there's nobody there's there's nobody in
Speaker 1: the league that can do anything with him. It was
Speaker 1: it was absurd. Down the stretch of that game, you
Speaker 1: just knew it was going in. Oh, he's at single cover.
Speaker 1: J On Porzingis, He's going to score here. It's just
Speaker 1: going to happen. Oh, like Jylen Brown stepped over on
Speaker 1: the baseline like Aaron Gordon's gonna get a dunk here,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's just going to happen. It's it is.
Speaker 1: It is complete helpless basketball. And that's the That is
Speaker 1: the by far the best regular season team in the
Speaker 1: league in Boston, a team that has probably the best
Speaker 1: accumulation of defensive personnel in the league outside of maybe Minnesota,
Speaker 1: and they had no shot now getting into some of
Speaker 1: the actual stuff that was happening during the game. Early
Speaker 1: on in the game, Denver was having a lot of
Speaker 1: success attacking Boston switching by slipping out of three man action.
Speaker 1: So I've we've had a lot of opportunities to talk
Speaker 1: about switching, but we haven't really had a chance to
Speaker 1: kind of dive into some of the schematics of it,
Speaker 1: because like there's multiple ways to attack switching, right, Like
Speaker 1: one pigging on matchups, right, Like I want to get
Speaker 1: this smaller defender on this bigger offensive player, and I
Speaker 1: want to try to bully into the basket. I want
Speaker 1: to get this bigger defender who is slower onto my
Speaker 1: small quick guard and I want to take him out
Speaker 1: to the perimeter and I want to dust him off
Speaker 1: the dribble right or the like. That's the matchup attacking
Speaker 1: part of it right. Second part of it is rebounding right. Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I get a switch. I got a big guy underneath
Speaker 1: the basket. I've now pulled their center out to the perimeter.
Speaker 1: All I got to do is get it shot up.
Speaker 1: As long as it misses in the general vicinity of
Speaker 1: the rim my guy's gonna get the offensive rebound. That's
Speaker 1: a way that you can attack switching right. But one
Speaker 1: of the best ways to do it to get easy shots,
Speaker 1: to get like shots within the flow of an offense,
Speaker 1: is to slip out of screening actions, specifically three man
Speaker 1: actions because they're more confusing. So imagine a two man action.
Speaker 1: I'm running up the wing and I'm just doing a
Speaker 1: dribble handoff to the guy coming out of the corner.
Speaker 1: The guy guarding on the corner, he's going to take
Speaker 1: me as I after I throw the dribble handoff and
Speaker 1: I kind of run through, he's gonna guard me, and
Speaker 1: the guy that's guarding the ball handler's gonna switch on
Speaker 1: to the guy who's getting the dribble handoff. There's some
Speaker 1: easier stuff there. You can still get slips out of there,
Speaker 1: but only when the defenders are in poor position. As
Speaker 1: long as they're in decent position, you can kind of
Speaker 1: contain that. But as soon as a three man action
Speaker 1: takes place, it gets way more convoluted. For the switching
Speaker 1: defense at that point, there has to be so much
Speaker 1: more communication and like you'll see, like you'll see like
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior kind of walk his man down to
Speaker 1: the block, like Jamal or like CACP and Nikole Jokic
Speaker 1: will both like go down to set a pin down
Speaker 1: screen and then you think Michael Porter Junior is gonna
Speaker 1: come off, but then suddenly he slips back door and
Speaker 1: then CACP comes off, and then you'll like they'll just
Speaker 1: do these like crazy interchanges in these three man screening actions,
Speaker 1: and they're designed to take advantage of the confusion that
Speaker 1: arises when teams are trying to switch. And so Denver
Speaker 1: had some success against Boston's defense early in this game,
Speaker 1: capitalizing on the easy shots they could get with complicated
Speaker 1: three man screening actions and slipping out of it. When
Speaker 1: we got to the end of the game, it was
Speaker 1: pretty straightforward. They were switching the Murray Jokis pick and
Speaker 1: roll and then every single to every single possession. And again,
Speaker 1: we talked about this a lot on this show, especially
Speaker 1: the Celtics fans, Like we've been covering basically every Celtics
Speaker 1: game for the last for the last month or so,
Speaker 1: and as we've been trying to kind of build out
Speaker 1: our understanding of them heading into the postseason. And you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things I talk about with Boston all
Speaker 1: the time is they kind of freelance a lot, and
Speaker 1: they just kind of play, you know, the same style
Speaker 1: of basketball at the end of the game that they
Speaker 1: play during the middle portions of the game, right, like
Speaker 1: you like, for instance, Djew Holliday got three jump shots
Speaker 1: down the stretch of this game, missed one badly, and
Speaker 1: then made the last two right and they ended up
Speaker 1: being huge shots in the game. But like, do you
Speaker 1: think Denver is running offense to get Contavious Calwell Pope
Speaker 1: shots at the end of the game. No, Like if
Speaker 1: the ball ends up in Casep's hands, because that's just
Speaker 1: the way the play developed, as they ran in a
Speaker 1: two man action or something to try to get to
Speaker 1: their sweet spots and it ends up in Casey P's hands. Fine,
Speaker 1: But like Boston just kind of plays freelance basketball regardless
Speaker 1: of the situation. To win in crunch time, it is
Speaker 1: an extremely diligent process on both sides of the floor.
Speaker 1: On the offensive end, it is about being relentless about
Speaker 1: hunting down the best possible shot, not just a shot
Speaker 1: you'd be cool with in the flow of the offense.
Speaker 1: Like Peyton Watson made some really nice jump shots in
Speaker 1: this game. He made a kind of a pull up
Speaker 1: jump shot. Wonder will pull up off of a close
Speaker 1: out on the left wing, hit like a turnaround jump
Speaker 1: shot over his left shoulder. If he was closing the game,
Speaker 1: there's no way in hell he's getting that shot. For Denver,
Speaker 1: they are going to make sure they get him into
Speaker 1: a position where he's a threat. Usually, if he's closing
Speaker 1: in that situation, he's gonna be cutting in some sort
Speaker 1: of situation where his athleticism is a factor right now.
Speaker 1: Obviously he wasn't playing at the end of this game.
Speaker 1: But my point is is there's a difference in the
Speaker 1: offense that Denver runs in the flow of the game
Speaker 1: versus what they do in crunch time. In crunch time,
Speaker 1: it is Jokis Murray two man game, and if Jokich
Speaker 1: is getting a favorable matchup, he is going to get
Speaker 1: the ball every single time in that situation. He is
Speaker 1: going to rumble stumble his way to the basket for
Speaker 1: a shot that he's gonna make seventy percent of the time,
Speaker 1: or if you help off of him, he's going to
Speaker 1: hit Aaron Gordon underneath the basket or a high level
Speaker 1: shooter for an easy catch and shoot three. On the
Speaker 1: weak side, They're extremely diligent about getting the right shot. Again.
Speaker 1: I talked about it earlier in the show, but like
Speaker 1: every single time Boston got this close, Denver just got
Speaker 1: two points again in a way that Boston was completely
Speaker 1: helpless to stop. Now I have some ideas for what
Speaker 1: Boston could potentially adjust to do to try to make
Speaker 1: it a little bit more difficult, and we'll talk about
Speaker 1: that here in a minute. But that gap in late
Speaker 1: game execution just just jumps off the screen. Again. Boston
Speaker 1: just still doesn't quite know what they want to do
Speaker 1: at the end of these games. And like they like
Speaker 1: if the pick and pop three is falling, which is
Speaker 1: like one of the most common shots that you'll see
Speaker 1: Boston get either through a porzingis ball screen and pop
Speaker 1: or you know, a ghost screen from one of their guards.
Speaker 1: If the pick and pop threes are falling great. You know,
Speaker 1: Sam and Gundy after the game went on this rant
Speaker 1: about how like, oh, if I'm Boston, I feel good
Speaker 1: about this game. We shot poorly. Here's the thing. You
Speaker 1: shot poorly against Denver. This time. You shot poorly when
Speaker 1: you blew the lead against Cleveland for nine straight minutes
Speaker 1: to end the game. You missed every single jump shot
Speaker 1: you took. You shot poorly when you lost to Denver.
Speaker 1: The last time, you shot poorly when you lost to
Speaker 1: the Lakers at home. You shot poorly when you lost
Speaker 1: to the Clippers at home. You shot poorly when you
Speaker 1: lost to the Bucks. All of their losses look like this,
Speaker 1: and specifically it tends to happen against higher level competition
Speaker 1: when the physicality ratchets up a level. You know. And
Speaker 1: there's some real positives from Boston in this game, and
Speaker 1: some stuff that makes me even feel even more confident
Speaker 1: about their chances in a series against Denver. But the
Speaker 1: reason why Denver is the safer bet, the reason why,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, Denver's been sitting there is the best
Speaker 1: NBA Finals bet this year. They're getting like plus four
Speaker 1: fifty odds or whatever to win the title as a team,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, that's like got roughly a coin flip
Speaker 1: chance of winning it, and if they're healthy, I'd be
Speaker 1: surprised if they did it. And the reason why is
Speaker 1: because they do in those situations always get the best
Speaker 1: available shot. They do know exactly what they want to do,
Speaker 1: and then on the other end of the floor they
Speaker 1: can defend. They did a great job on Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: in this game. Aaron Gordon got cooked by Jaylen Brown.
Speaker 1: That's something we're going to talk about in a minute.
Speaker 1: Even those last two jumpers that chrisops Porzingis took, the
Speaker 1: one off the dribble, Jokic got a great contest on
Speaker 1: the one above the break on the left wing. Kic
Speaker 1: got a great contest on They're all guarding too. That
Speaker 1: used to be the rub on this team was you
Speaker 1: can score on them, and now it's like just they're
Speaker 1: every bit as good as the other great defenses at
Speaker 1: the top of the league. Like they may not have
Speaker 1: the crazy stifling level that you can see in Minnesota
Speaker 1: get to, but they can get relatively close to that.
Speaker 1: And when you combine that with that slowdown half court execution.
Speaker 1: It just feels inevitable. They did a really good job
Speaker 1: forcing turnovers in this game and getting out and scoring
Speaker 1: on him. They scored sixteen points on twelve Boston turnovers,
Speaker 1: some really critical pick sixes. KCP in particular, were super
Speaker 1: active in those passing lanes. They outscored Boston nineteen to
Speaker 1: eleven in fast break points. Aaron Gordon got, like I said,
Speaker 1: kind of cooked by Jaylen Brown, which again we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about here in a minute, but I thought that
Speaker 1: he was magnificent along the baseline, that element of him
Speaker 1: being able to just it's really simple because the pass
Speaker 1: is always coming on time and on target. He just
Speaker 1: sits there in the dunker spot and it's not even
Speaker 1: about the pass. He waits until whoever's guarding him commits,
Speaker 1: and then as soon as he commits, he just basically
Speaker 1: gets into his one to two and jumps and then
Speaker 1: from there it's like, if it's a miss, he's dunking it.
Speaker 1: If it's a lot, he's dunking it. You know. Uh.
Speaker 1: By producer Paul, we were talking about this before the show,
Speaker 1: that last little hook shot that it looked like Jokic
Speaker 1: shot and then Aaron Gordon dunked it. There was a
Speaker 1: similar one against the Lakers. What was that last week
Speaker 1: on Saturday? And we were talking before the show, like,
Speaker 1: did do you think that's on purpose? And you know,
Speaker 1: I honestly don't know, And I hope I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: doing a show with Adam Mars tomorrow's, I'm gonna ask
Speaker 1: him about it. But like, I hope that maybe at
Speaker 1: some point a Denver reporter will ask him about it too.
Speaker 1: But like, I wouldn't be surprised if Jokic literally talks
Speaker 1: to Gordon and goes like, hey man, when I shoot
Speaker 1: a hook shot, if your defender comes over to help
Speaker 1: on the hook shot, just intercept the hook shot and
Speaker 1: dunk it, like, just go for it. Just treat it
Speaker 1: like a pass. I wouldn't be surprised if that's a
Speaker 1: conversation that they've had, because again, like, do you think
Speaker 1: Jokic gives a damn No, He just wants the point.
Speaker 1: He just wants the points on the scoreboard, and that
Speaker 1: that is such a vitally important part of this. Like again,
Speaker 1: you know people, you know, one of my buddies, Anthony
Speaker 1: Irwin kind of went commented underneath my tweet. I had
Speaker 1: a tweet after the game where I talked about how
Speaker 1: I think Nikole Jokis is at the highest level that
Speaker 1: I've seen a player be at since Lebron James in
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen in terms of his how much he is
Speaker 1: ahead of the rest of the league. And Anthony goes, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: like that's true, but also he's surrounded by like this
Speaker 1: perfectly fitting starting five, And I want to be clear, like,
Speaker 1: like I obviously that's the case, and Denver has done
Speaker 1: an immaculate job constructing a roster around Nikole jokicch but
Speaker 1: you need to have a good basketball team to win.
Speaker 1: There's nobody out there that's just winning with garbage. That's
Speaker 1: just not a thing. So to me, like that's a prerequisite,
Speaker 1: like that, like we're not even talking about a serious
Speaker 1: basketball team if they don't have talent around their star.
Speaker 1: And the difference between what Denver has and what a
Speaker 1: lot of other teams have is instead of like multiple
Speaker 1: stars and star power, they have guys that are stars
Speaker 1: in their roles. And then Jamal Murray, like I think
Speaker 1: he's a star at a specific skill, which is like
Speaker 1: he just is an outstanding shot maker, and he's actually
Speaker 1: become a much better passer over the years as well.
Speaker 1: And he finds a way to make defensive plays to
Speaker 1: get a strip on Christops Porzingis in a post up tonight,
Speaker 1: and he can find a way to kind of make
Speaker 1: some plays there. But like everyone is just perfect in
Speaker 1: their role. And that's the thing. Like Nikole Jokich is
Speaker 1: the guy that operates further away from the basket off
Speaker 1: the dribble, whether he's catching on the role in the
Speaker 1: short role or he's posting up and he's rumbling and
Speaker 1: stumbling to the basket, like we talked about all the
Speaker 1: dribble handoff actions. He runs on the perimeter. So that
Speaker 1: opens up the baseline because Nikole Jokic is not actually
Speaker 1: operating along the baseline that often. And so Aaron Gordon's
Speaker 1: role on the team is to clean stuff up along
Speaker 1: the baseline. And is he awesome at that? Sure he is,
Speaker 1: But like again, that to me is not something that
Speaker 1: takes away from Nikole Jokic. Like every basketball team that's
Speaker 1: accomplished anything in NBA history is awesome. Right, Like even
Speaker 1: if we go back and look at like like the
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen Calves that beat the Golden State Warriors. It's
Speaker 1: like Kyrie Irving was the Jamal Murray for that particular team.
Speaker 1: It's just this all time great shot maker j R.
Speaker 1: Smith guarded extremely well on that series and was an
Speaker 1: outstanding shooter. He was kind of like the KCP for
Speaker 1: that particular team. Right, Like Tristan Thompson was a dude
Speaker 1: that did a ton of damage on the offensive glass
Speaker 1: and could guard in multiple different coverages. Right, Kevin Love
Speaker 1: was the guy that could dominate on the rebounds and
Speaker 1: spot up in space the floor. Like, every team has
Speaker 1: to have these roles filled. And I just think Aaron Gordon, Look,
Speaker 1: is he perfectly crafted for that role. Yeah, but your
Speaker 1: value to a basketball team only matters within the scope
Speaker 1: of your basketball team, and Aaron Gordon is immensely valuable
Speaker 1: to Denver because of his vertical spacing. There were two
Speaker 1: plays tonight. The lob pass from Jamal Murray it was
Speaker 1: way too high. As I'm watching, I'm like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: too high. Just somehow grabbed it and dunked it behind
Speaker 1: his head. It was absurd. And then that one and
Speaker 1: Nicole Jokic spin along the baseline where he drew Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown in help, but he missed it over the front
Speaker 1: of the rim and he just caught it from down here,
Speaker 1: just jackhammered it over the top of his head. Just
Speaker 1: an unbelievable air in Gordon. Game did get cooked by
Speaker 1: Jaalen Brown. That's something he's gonna have to figure out.
Speaker 1: But we'll talk about that in a minute. Peyton Watson
Speaker 1: just an absolute athletic wrecking ball in this game. I
Speaker 1: had a mailbag question earlier this week from someone asking, like,
Speaker 1: what is it gonna take for Peyton Watson to become
Speaker 1: a guy that could be like, you know, a future,
Speaker 1: you know, a staple in this Denver franchise, just in
Speaker 1: the long run, right, And like there are little things
Speaker 1: that he has to get better at. Right, Like he
Speaker 1: was hitting his jump shot tonight hit a huge three
Speaker 1: in the second half and hit three mid range jump
Speaker 1: shots if I remember correctly, But he struggled to make
Speaker 1: jump shots against Phoenix. That was an issue, right, And
Speaker 1: so like there's consistency on that front that he's gonna
Speaker 1: have to work out. There was a possession in the
Speaker 1: first half where the Nuggets had a pick and roll
Speaker 1: completely under control two on two and he was guarding
Speaker 1: Sam Hauser as one of Boston's best shooters in the
Speaker 1: right corner, and he was just sinking way too far
Speaker 1: in the lane for no reason, and he got beat
Speaker 1: on a skip pass and he in Sam Houser knocked
Speaker 1: down the shot. But like, those are little things that
Speaker 1: he has to get better at in the long run,
Speaker 1: but he's already so good in some specific areas. And
Speaker 1: again we talk about this all the time on the show,
Speaker 1: but like high motor athletes, high motor athletes alongside stars
Speaker 1: are so incredibly valuable because they don't need to be
Speaker 1: great at all of these really intricate skill things. They're
Speaker 1: just human wrecking balls. And that's what Peyton Watson was
Speaker 1: in this game. He was a human wrecking ball. He
Speaker 1: did a really good job on the ball on Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum and individual defense, flying around and help blocking shots,
Speaker 1: hit timely jumpers. Just a monster performance from Peyton Watson,
Speaker 1: and he just flat out does look like a guy
Speaker 1: that is gonna be a foundational piece of this roster
Speaker 1: in the long run. And then Jamal Murray, you know,
Speaker 1: this was actually, in my opinion, an interesting example of
Speaker 1: the type of ebb and flow that you can experience
Speaker 1: from a Jamal Murray against a really good defensive team
Speaker 1: like Boston. But I still thought he played a good game. Again,
Speaker 1: some struggles right, took some bad shots late, had some
Speaker 1: bad turnovers. Then he had five turnovers in the game.
Speaker 1: Only shot seven for eighteen, but most of those seven
Speaker 1: shots were timely, some big ones during the stretches when
Speaker 1: Nikole Jokic was off the floor, some big ones to
Speaker 1: stop runs into bolster leads. Had eight assists in this game.
Speaker 1: To me, if that's Jamal Murray's floor in this type
Speaker 1: of series, Like, here's the thing. Jamal Murray flat out
Speaker 1: out played Jason Tatum tonight and this was a bad
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray game. That's a super encouraging thing for Denver
Speaker 1: in the big picture. Awesome, awesome performance from Denver again.
Speaker 1: Even in that Phoenix game, they ran into a red
Speaker 1: hot Kevin Durant in the down the stretch after he
Speaker 1: made that shot to tie it at one twelve. But
Speaker 1: they looked magnificent in that game from the middle of
Speaker 1: the third quarter on as they just methodically worked their
Speaker 1: way back in, had this beautiful twelve zero run late
Speaker 1: that should have won the game. Just Kevin Durant' Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant and Kevin Durant. Kevin duranted them, and they ended
Speaker 1: up losing as they went into ot right on the
Speaker 1: Boston side of things, a couple of things. You know,
Speaker 1: like a lot of times in matchups like this, you
Speaker 1: find out things that work and find out things that
Speaker 1: don't right, Like defensively, they're just completely you know, screwed
Speaker 1: on the Yokich thing, which we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: here in a minute. But like there's some stuff that
Speaker 1: did pop in a really positive way. Like Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: just barbecued Aaron Gordon at the start of the game.
Speaker 1: This is one of my favorite Jalen Brown games that
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. He came out with a physical aggression
Speaker 1: in this game that set a tone and was the
Speaker 1: only reason this game was close after they got such
Speaker 1: a like another you know, kind of ineffective Jason Tatum performance.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum five for thirteen in this game. He was
Speaker 1: nine for twenty four the first time they played. He
Speaker 1: had five turnovers in this game, including some really bad
Speaker 1: ones that led to pick sixes going the other way.
Speaker 1: Like Tatum's got some issues and watching the physical aggression juxtaposition,
Speaker 1: like Jalen Brown was going through Aaron Gordon to the rim,
Speaker 1: like through him, and Aaron Gordon is a big dude,
Speaker 1: but he was just beating him with lower angles, like
Speaker 1: getting lower to the ground, getting his shoulder down, getting
Speaker 1: around him. Even in opportunities where Aaron Gordon did actually
Speaker 1: chest him up, he was bringing the force and going
Speaker 1: through him to the basket. He was super active on
Speaker 1: the glass, specifically on the offensive glass. Like you know,
Speaker 1: there's this thing that happens with young basketball players. Now,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown's much further along in his process, but obviously
Speaker 1: I coach in high school and I spend a lot
Speaker 1: of time working with basketball players here in town, and
Speaker 1: there's always this moment with a young player in his
Speaker 1: development where he finds out what his superpower is, like
Speaker 1: the thing that he does better than most people, whether
Speaker 1: it's shooting, whether it's passing, whether it's ball handling, whether
Speaker 1: it's athleticism, whether it's strength, whether it's what like defense.
Speaker 1: There's a kid that was on my varsity team last year,
Speaker 1: a kid that worked really hard on skill development but
Speaker 1: couldn't really get to that level, but he was just
Speaker 1: an outstanding on ball defender and he just leaned into
Speaker 1: that and it was his way of kind of staying
Speaker 1: involved within the team, right And like that is that
Speaker 1: is to me, such an important part of a basketball
Speaker 1: player's development. And like, Jalen Brown has demonstrated a ton
Speaker 1: of skill over his time in the league. He's been
Speaker 1: like the best fadeaway jump shooter in the league this year.
Speaker 1: He's a guy that can get red hot from the
Speaker 1: three point line as well. He's got great footwork, He's
Speaker 1: got all of these really cool things that he can
Speaker 1: do from his skill perspective. But his superpower is he's
Speaker 1: one of the best athletes in the league. He's one
Speaker 1: of the best athletes in the league, and dudes can't
Speaker 1: hang with him when he really engages himself in that area.
Speaker 1: And this is, by the way, for people who haven't
Speaker 1: been watching Boston very closely, Jalen Brown's been playing at
Speaker 1: this level. Maybe not forty whatever points that he had,
Speaker 1: but he's been playing at one of the highest levels
Speaker 1: of his career now for about a month even longer. Like,
Speaker 1: he's been incredible at the point of attack defensively. That
Speaker 1: last possession that he did to Jamal Murray where he
Speaker 1: ripped him and went the other way. He's been doing
Speaker 1: that to people for weeks now, like the downhill aggression
Speaker 1: towards He's kind of developed this little left handed hook
Speaker 1: in the lane that he goes to. He hit two
Speaker 1: of them again tonight. That's something he's been going to
Speaker 1: for a few weeks now. He's not fading as much
Speaker 1: in the post. He's going aggressively towards the basket. Like
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot about how Boston needs to generate
Speaker 1: more points in the pain, Jalen Brown is the pathway
Speaker 1: there in so many different ways, and I just thought
Speaker 1: he was unbelievably good in this game. And then the
Speaker 1: other major positive for Boston, something that translates to a series,
Speaker 1: was Chris hops Porzingis. He was killing him with above
Speaker 1: the break. I didn't even think he shot as well
Speaker 1: as he could have, but he made I think it
Speaker 1: was three for ten from three, but he made some
Speaker 1: big threes from above the break and then beating switches.
Speaker 1: Whenever Denver did end up with KCP or Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: on him, he was able to turn and face and
Speaker 1: hit some shots there in the mid range to do
Speaker 1: some damage like that is something that that is something
Speaker 1: that I think can translate as an advantage to a
Speaker 1: Boston Denver series. The question is, how do you combine
Speaker 1: that with getting Jason Tatum going and again, like, this
Speaker 1: is the thing. Jalen Brown had possessions where Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: was in front of him and there were guys digging
Speaker 1: down and he just was like, screw it, I'm going
Speaker 1: through all these guys. And he's so damn good athletically
Speaker 1: he was able to get there. Tatum is that kind
Speaker 1: of athlete. He is, and like Tatum has this tendency
Speaker 1: when he sees the defenders squared up with him and
Speaker 1: he sees guys kind of digging down into driving lanes,
Speaker 1: He's like, ah, man, it's not there. Gonna take a
Speaker 1: pull up jump shot right or gonna pass the basketball,
Speaker 1: not look to be aggressive. That's the kind of thing
Speaker 1: I'd like to see from Tatum. I want to see
Speaker 1: Tatum be like I am going through everybody here. It's
Speaker 1: gonna get ugly. You don't think Jalen Brown has some
Speaker 1: bad turnovers. Jalen Brown gets roasted for turnovers all the time.
Speaker 1: He gets roasted for not being able to dribble with
Speaker 1: his left hand. He gets all this shit but guess what,
Speaker 1: Like he'll have games like this where he just goes
Speaker 1: through everybody. That's the thing for Jason Tatum, like it
Speaker 1: has to be for him a willingness to barrel into
Speaker 1: traffic and make some mistakes sometimes. And the thing is
Speaker 1: is more often than not, there's more good than bad
Speaker 1: that comes from that. You barrel into the lane and
Speaker 1: you throw up some bs layup that misses, but you
Speaker 1: draw three defenders in. There's people there to clean up
Speaker 1: the mess, especially if Jalen Brown is doing that. If
Speaker 1: they can get both of those two, Jalen Brown and
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum to play with the level of physical aggression
Speaker 1: that Jalen Brown played with tonight. No one's beating these
Speaker 1: guys because they're so damn talented. Like like Denver, Denver's
Speaker 1: gap over this team is an execution in Jokic. Boston
Speaker 1: is more talented. They are capable of winning this matchup.
Speaker 1: But I, unlike stan Van Gundy, I don't think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be because they just shoot threes really well for
Speaker 1: an entire series. I think it's gonna be because they
Speaker 1: meet force with force with Denver, and they have all
Speaker 1: sorts of advantages on the floor in this series, and
Speaker 1: so I want to see them capitalize that more. And
Speaker 1: I think I think Tata I don't. I don't think
Speaker 1: it was a decision making problem for Tatum tonight. I
Speaker 1: thought it was a passivity problem. It was a physical
Speaker 1: passivity problem. Now, one last thing I wanted to hit
Speaker 1: on Boston before we get out of here. The problem
Speaker 1: with Nicole Jokic in the post so porzingis can't guardim,
Speaker 1: Horford can't guard him, none of their guards can guard him.
Speaker 1: Single coverage is it's just over Like Jokic is scoring
Speaker 1: every single time. You cannot bring baseline help while not
Speaker 1: occupying Aaron Gordon. If you do that, you're gonna run
Speaker 1: into issues with Aaron Gordon dunking every single thing around
Speaker 1: the rim. This is where I would like to see
Speaker 1: Boston play into variants for Denver the same way that
Speaker 1: Denver plays into variants for Boston. So, for instance, like
Speaker 1: you know, Jason Tatum got a wide open and right
Speaker 1: corner three at the end of this game and just
Speaker 1: missed it, which, by the way, even if you're one
Speaker 1: of the best corner three point shooters in the world,
Speaker 1: you're gonna miss bout half of them. Right, Like, there's
Speaker 1: real variance on that shot, and that's the thing is
Speaker 1: like play into that variance with Denver when you I
Speaker 1: would double Yokich and make sure it's KCP or MPJ
Speaker 1: that's being left open. Yes, those guys are gonna make
Speaker 1: shots sometimes it's a suicide mission. That's why Denver's the
Speaker 1: best team in the world. But wouldn't you rather have
Speaker 1: a shot that they might miss half the time than
Speaker 1: a shot that they're going to make every single time
Speaker 1: Like that, That to me is the trade off, Like
Speaker 1: you gotta take away the bully ball stuff and force
Speaker 1: them to make jump shots and hope that they'll be tired. Like,
Speaker 1: guess what, KCP missed a wide open corner three at
Speaker 1: the end of this game. It was great offense if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly. It was a all screen Yolkic caught
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor, drew the extra defender
Speaker 1: and kicked the bad It was beautiful Denver offense. But
Speaker 1: there is variance on that shot. He might miss it,
Speaker 1: and he did. Just like Boston can go go cold,
Speaker 1: Denver can go cold, and so again, Like from a
Speaker 1: strategy standpoint, I think that was the biggest mistake they made.
Speaker 1: Down the stretch of the game, they let Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: into Coole Yokic take all the shots. That's where they've
Speaker 1: got to get them out of that rhythm. They've got
Speaker 1: a double team Jokic either do a windshield wipe or
Speaker 1: rotation where they get inside position on Gordon from the
Speaker 1: corner to seal him out so that whoever that baseline
Speaker 1: guy is can help Jokic but force a skip pass,
Speaker 1: or they need to bring the double team from the
Speaker 1: front side and like like from whoever it is that's
Speaker 1: on the wing or whatever it is on the weekside,
Speaker 1: bring that double team from the front side, so that
Speaker 1: just something to make it into a jump shot. They've
Speaker 1: got to force Denver to make jump shots at the
Speaker 1: end of the game because they will make everything around
Speaker 1: the rim. That that would be the one big tactical
Speaker 1: adjustment I looked at from the defensive possessions down the
Speaker 1: stretch against uh that post up and pick and roll
Speaker 1: attack from Denver. All right, so we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: call it a night for right now. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow. We're gonna break down Denver, my excuse me,
Speaker 1: Dallas Miami and a couple of other games, and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna do mailbags. Make sure you guys drop some
Speaker 1: mail back questions. But that's it for tonight. As always,
Speaker 1: as sincerely appreciate you guys, I will see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The volume