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Speaker 2: All right, welcome to Hoops to Night. You're at the
Speaker 2: volume heavy money everybody. If all of you guys are
Speaker 2: having a great start to your week. We have a
Speaker 2: film session coming out later today where I'll go into
Speaker 2: more detail on the Warriors Rockets game in particular and
Speaker 2: a couple other things that I noticed from the film
Speaker 2: on Sunday, But today I wanted to just give you
Speaker 2: guys my initial impressions on the four game ones from Sunday.
Speaker 2: We have the Warriors getting a one zero lead on
Speaker 2: the road in Houston against the Rockets, the Cleveland Cavaliers
Speaker 2: struggling a little bit with Miami but closing the deal,
Speaker 2: the Celtics struggling a little bit with Orlando but closing
Speaker 2: the deal, and then an absolute annihilation of the Memphis
Speaker 2: Grizzlies by the Oklahoma City Thunder. I'll just give my
Speaker 2: initial impressions on the games from the perspective of both teams.
Speaker 2: Like I said, more film coming later today, So keep
Speaker 2: an eye on the feeds. You guys have the drip
Speaker 2: before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and I
Speaker 2: YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 2: Follow me on Twitter, underscore Jason Lts you guys, don't
Speaker 2: miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast few wherever
Speaker 2: you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super
Speaker 2: helpful if you leave your rating and a review on
Speaker 2: that front. Jackson's doing great work on our news media.
Speaker 2: If heeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook making content throughout
Speaker 2: the season. Make sure you guys follow us there, and
Speaker 2: last not least, keepdropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments.
Speaker 2: We can keep getting to him throughout the remainder of
Speaker 2: the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So with
Speaker 2: Warriors Rockets, I can't start anywhere other than Steph Curry.
Speaker 2: I talked a lot about the different dynamics between the
Speaker 2: two defenses trying to slow each other down, but I
Speaker 2: thought that was one of the better playoff games I've
Speaker 2: seen Steph Curry play. When you factor in just how
Speaker 2: great this Houston defense is, the specific ways they defend him,
Speaker 2: the fact that in a game like this where there
Speaker 2: wasn't consistent offense from really anybody else aside from a
Speaker 2: few key plays made from a few key Warriors late,
Speaker 2: it just was a steady diet of really difficult shot
Speaker 2: making from Steph Curry in this game, and over and
Speaker 2: over and over again, he came through to hit a
Speaker 2: big shot when his team needed him too. There was
Speaker 2: a couple easy things he was able to find in
Speaker 2: terms of like sustainability throughout the series. You know, we
Speaker 2: talked before the series about how the Rockets put Alpurn
Speaker 2: Shangun on Moses Moody and how that kind of disrupts
Speaker 2: the normal screen game for the Warriors because they want
Speaker 2: to use Draymond as a screener for Steph Curry, but
Speaker 2: they're going to try to switch those actions as much
Speaker 2: as possible, Right, So where would Curry go to be
Speaker 2: able to find the separation that he needs to get
Speaker 2: more comfortable? Well, Jalen Green ended up being the target
Speaker 2: through early screens and the possessions to get Jalen switched
Speaker 2: on to Steph. Jalen was having a hard time staying
Speaker 2: attached to Steph. He was having a hard time fighting
Speaker 2: over screens. He was more likely to batch switches. There
Speaker 2: were so many different things that once Steph got Jalen
Speaker 2: on him, he had an easier time getting free, and
Speaker 2: then he had a couple of other things right. He
Speaker 2: was able to batcut him and Thompson a couple times.
Speaker 2: He was able to get free and transition a few times.
Speaker 2: There was a play where on a made basket, he
Speaker 2: pushed the ball at the floor so fast that he
Speaker 2: engaged Steven Adams in a transition crossmatch and was able
Speaker 2: to be Steven Adams off the dribble for a layup.
Speaker 2: There was another one where Fred van Vliet gambled on
Speaker 2: him out at half court.
Speaker 1: He's able to avoid that and get a quick, easy transition. Three.
Speaker 2: He found a few easy ones in there, and those
Speaker 2: will be ones that are more sustainable throughout the series.
Speaker 2: But it was like unbelievable difficult shot making over and
Speaker 2: over and over again. The rainbow over Jalen Green at
Speaker 2: the shot clock buzzer as he's falling out of bounds.
Speaker 2: He had a ridiculously tough step back two over Dylan Brooks,
Speaker 2: a ridiculously tough step back to his right over a
Speaker 2: Men Thompson. The movement thirty footer that he hit just
Speaker 2: like running to his right way above the break off
Speaker 2: the right side extended.
Speaker 1: That was a ridiculous shot.
Speaker 2: He had this like leaner on Fred van Vliet where
Speaker 2: he pump faked and then stepped through and hit this
Speaker 2: crazy leaner. He had like reverse layups through traffic. Steph
Speaker 2: just put on a unbelievable display of difficult shot making.
Speaker 2: It was almost like you got to see in the
Speaker 2: last two Houston Rockets game, like the two furthest edges
Speaker 2: of the Steph Curry experience, the like, can't make shots,
Speaker 2: but I'm still creating shots for my team, and then like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, it doesn't matter what you do or
Speaker 2: where I'm at on the floor, get ready to take
Speaker 2: that shit out of the net, because it's going in.
Speaker 2: It was just an unbelievable Steph Curry game. I told
Speaker 2: you guys before the Jimmy Butler trade that what I
Speaker 2: was most excited for and one of the main reasons
Speaker 2: why I wanted the deal. I obviously saw upside. I
Speaker 2: believed in the Warriors roster. I thought they just needed
Speaker 2: secondary shot creation. But I also, as a basketball fan,
Speaker 2: just wanted more opportunities to see Steph Curry playing high
Speaker 2: leverage basketball games. And we got to see that tonight,
Speaker 2: and he put on just another incredible show and I
Speaker 2: just really really enjoyed watching it. Warriors defense Steve Curry
Speaker 2: in a timeout in the first half said, quote unquote,
Speaker 2: they cannot score against us unless we turn it over.
Speaker 2: That really is the theory for this entire series for
Speaker 2: the Warriors. I talked about it beforehand, like there's a
Speaker 2: lot of ways that Houston can make gold In State uncomfortable,
Speaker 2: and I have no doubt that throughout the series they
Speaker 2: will make Golden State uncomfortable. They made Golden State uncomfortable
Speaker 2: for extended stretches tonight, but none of that can compare
Speaker 2: to the damage that Golden State can do to Houston's offense.
Speaker 1: On the other end of the floor, they.
Speaker 2: Struggled a little bit with Shangoon, but credit to Shanguon.
Speaker 2: Shangun's a really good player. I've said this many times
Speaker 2: on the show. He was the player this season that
Speaker 2: in my daily film sessions I most often would find
Speaker 2: myself saying, Wow, he's really kicking that dude's ass, Like Wow,
Speaker 2: they're really struggling with Shanguon, Like wow, they really can't
Speaker 2: guard Shangun. That happened all the time when I was
Speaker 2: watching them. He's just a really damn good player. We
Speaker 2: need to give Shangun some credit. But they completely neutralized
Speaker 2: Jalen Green, played up on him with physicality. I thought
Speaker 2: Moses Moody did an amazing job on him all night,
Speaker 2: rushed him into bad drives. Fred Van Vliet was the
Speaker 2: one Houston perimeter guy that I thought got some decent
Speaker 2: looks at, some drop covered shots and some catch and
Speaker 2: shoot threes. But he just couldn't hit anything. And by
Speaker 2: the way, Fred's not a great jump shooter. Fred van
Speaker 2: vliet jump shot all season long has been worth less
Speaker 2: than a point. That's a thing that could happen multiple
Speaker 2: times in this series. Fred just not being able to
Speaker 2: hit shots, and that really is the thing. If you
Speaker 2: can cut Jalen Green and Fred Van Vliet out, there's
Speaker 2: not enough firepower on this Rockets offense consistently. I've talked
Speaker 2: about this year, the Rockets when they get scoring pop,
Speaker 2: particularly from Jalen Green, they can beat anybody. They were
Speaker 2: thirteen and one this year, which Jalen Green had over
Speaker 2: thirty points, and a lot of really good teams were
Speaker 2: victims of those types of performances. But if you can
Speaker 2: cut the head off the snake, if you can take
Speaker 2: out Fred van Vliet and Jalen Green, they do not
Speaker 2: have the firepower to keep up with really anybody, and
Speaker 2: they completely neutralize those guys their zone defense. That talked
Speaker 2: before the series about how any comments about the zone
Speaker 2: defense and it bothering the Warriors was insignificant compared to
Speaker 2: the Rockets being able to score against the zone and
Speaker 2: the major run early in the game when the Warriors
Speaker 2: really started to take their first commanding lead came against
Speaker 2: came with the Rockets struggling to score against the Warriors zone. Look,
Speaker 2: it's just they just don't have the offensive fire power
Speaker 2: to score consistently in the half court against a good defense.
Speaker 2: And again I've said this a couple of times. The
Speaker 2: Warriors were quite literally the number one defense in the
Speaker 2: NBA after the All Star Break. They've been playing at
Speaker 2: that level consistently since they've identified that they have a
Speaker 2: real opportunity to win the title. Here, we did see
Speaker 2: a late Houston Rockets run, fueled by their competitiveness and
Speaker 2: their rebounding some transition pushes shanng guns shot making. The
Speaker 2: Warriors will have to be careful throughout this series with
Speaker 2: their discipline. They can lose control of these games fast
Speaker 2: if they don't stay disciplined in their game plan, discipline,
Speaker 2: take care of the basketball, smart shot selection, avoiding those
Speaker 2: transition opportunities as much as possible. I thought the closing
Speaker 2: group played fantastic after Houston made it close, just defending
Speaker 2: Houston into their worst tendency, but on the other end
Speaker 2: of the floor, getting really consistent contributions from the entire group.
Speaker 2: Moses Moody, who's been really struggling to hit jump shots
Speaker 2: as of late, hit two massive jump shots, a rescue
Speaker 2: shot at the end of the shot clock, a little
Speaker 2: movement catch and shoot jump shot out by like seventeen
Speaker 2: feet from the basket that he knocked down, and then
Speaker 2: he hit a huge corner three off of that text
Speaker 2: textbook steph Curry pocket pass sequence that was a massive
Speaker 2: shot to counter three that Houston had hit. I talked
Speaker 2: about his individual defense on Jalen Green. Brandon Pajemski in
Speaker 2: this game really smart reaid and reacts sequences. He had
Speaker 2: a great one late in the game where he caught
Speaker 2: Jabari Smith on his backside driving a closeout and just
Speaker 2: baited Steven Adams into stepping up a little bit and
Speaker 2: threw a perfect bounce past to Gary Payton on the baseline,
Speaker 2: who got to finish. Gary Payton had another transition run
Speaker 2: out for a bucket, so Gary Payton was scoring. Draymond
Speaker 2: Green had an offensive rebound put back on another player.
Speaker 2: Brandon Pajemski came flying in and tapped at the rebound. This,
Speaker 2: in addition to Jimmy being able to go to his
Speaker 2: step back jump shot to the right and knock it
Speaker 2: down to rescue some of those possessions. I was on
Speaker 2: with Colin Cowhard last night or technically tonight because that's
Speaker 2: when I'm recording it. But when I was on with Colin,
Speaker 2: I talked about how Jimmy Butler has this go to
Speaker 2: move that he really started to build out towards the
Speaker 2: end in Minnesota and showed it quite a bit in Philly,
Speaker 2: and then a lot here in the last few years
Speaker 2: in Miami, and obviously here in Golden State. He can
Speaker 2: like hit that hard pound dribble in and out with
Speaker 2: his right hand and cover some ground going to the
Speaker 2: right and just elevate and square up in mid air.
Speaker 2: And that's a good look for Jimmy. He's going to
Speaker 2: hit that look at a decent percentage, and he was
Speaker 2: able to knock that down. Lots of support for Steph
Speaker 2: Curry down the stretch after he had carried them throughout
Speaker 2: the game. Really really impressive stuff. We did get a
Speaker 2: DMP from Jonathan Kaminga. I think there was probably a
Speaker 2: game plan there that had things gone worse, like had
Speaker 2: Houston taken a ten point lead in the second quarter,
Speaker 2: I think we probably see Jonathan Kaminga but I thought
Speaker 2: Steve Kerr played the right cards tonight, sticking with guys
Speaker 2: that were gonna make fewer mistakes so they can stay
Speaker 2: out of transition. And for the most part I understood
Speaker 2: him sticking with that for now. But to be clear,
Speaker 2: f it's Game two and Houston's up, you know, thirty
Speaker 2: seven to twenty four in the early second quarter, I
Speaker 2: think Steve Kerr's gotta pull that card out of the
Speaker 2: deck and at least try it. He's got to at
Speaker 2: least give Johnan kaminga a little bit of a runway
Speaker 2: just to see if he can, I don't know, rebound,
Speaker 2: do something to help the team if they start struggling
Speaker 2: in that matchup a little bit with the Houston again,
Speaker 2: it just even as they were knocking on the door,
Speaker 2: they just couldn't They just couldn't finish it with proper execution.
Speaker 2: They cut the lead down to four and then like
Speaker 2: Jalen Green tries to drive and shoot a layup through
Speaker 2: like five dudes, and he misses it. They go down
Speaker 2: to the other end. That was when pods hit Gary
Speaker 2: Payton on the baseline, then to Men Thompson on the
Speaker 2: next possession, drives into traffic and throws a layup literally
Speaker 2: into the bottom of the rim, leads to a runout
Speaker 2: there where Gary Payton gets a dunk. Like they just
Speaker 2: couldn't string together the execution in the half court necessary
Speaker 2: to score. And that really is the issue now, if
Speaker 2: you're looking for upside, if you're Houston, something to be like,
Speaker 2: this is a reason why we feel like we have
Speaker 2: a chance to still win this series. I thought Steph
Speaker 2: was literally amazing, like one of the better playoff games
Speaker 2: I've seen him play. Golden State really struggled to score
Speaker 2: without him making shots. Jalen Green and Fred Van Vliet
Speaker 2: could not have been worse than they were. And Houston's
Speaker 2: athleticism will travel. It'll travel on the road. They're gonna
Speaker 2: play hard and be a pain in the ass defensively
Speaker 2: on the glass every single night. Golden State's not going
Speaker 2: to just get this team to quit eventually because they
Speaker 2: don't believe they can win. It's gonna be a pain
Speaker 2: throughout and so again there's a way for them to
Speaker 2: drag this series out and try to wear on Golden
Speaker 2: State physically. The series is certainly not over. It's always
Speaker 2: bad to lose game one at home, trust me. I
Speaker 2: know as a Lakers fan, but there is an opportunity
Speaker 2: for them there if they play good defense, to try
Speaker 2: to play Steph into a lower van game and then
Speaker 2: to get more out of Jalen and Fred to try
Speaker 2: to win on the other end of the floor.
Speaker 1: I just can't.
Speaker 2: Predict or expect any example of a situation where the
Speaker 2: Houston Rockets would out execute the Warriors four times in
Speaker 2: two weeks.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't seem likely to me.
Speaker 2: He Cavs tijerome I talked a lot this year about
Speaker 2: how he was the best backup guard that I saw
Speaker 2: in the NBA.
Speaker 1: He brought this.
Speaker 2: Combination of like truly highly efficient scoring. He was sixty
Speaker 2: four percent tr shooting this year, scored at high volume
Speaker 2: two about twenty three points per thirty six minutes, and
Speaker 2: also brought the playmaking piece, the ability to make the
Speaker 2: reads that he made down the stretch tonight, like that
Speaker 2: pick and roll kick out to Sam Merrill or the
Speaker 2: pocket pass feed to Jared Allen for a layup. He
Speaker 2: just can be surgical in a way that no other
Speaker 2: backup guard in the NBA can be. And he went
Speaker 2: on a wild run down the stretch of this game
Speaker 2: came in a bunch of different ways too.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 2: He started the run in the fourth quarter by hitting
Speaker 2: a three to beat his own look like he was
Speaker 2: the inbounder, made a pass, stepped in beat his own look,
Speaker 2: knocking down a three. He then just started attacking Tyler
Speaker 2: Harrow in a late clock switch, like seven seconds on
Speaker 2: the shot clock. Instead of panicking and attacking a good defender.
Speaker 2: He waves over Max Truce to get Tyler Harrow into
Speaker 2: the action, gets Tyler Harrow, drives on him and draws
Speaker 2: a foul on him. Then he started putting Tyler Harrow
Speaker 2: in ball screens and that was when he really started
Speaker 2: to victimize him because Tyler Harrow was not playing physical
Speaker 2: on the ball. He was not pressuring. He was just
Speaker 2: kind of running behind ty Jerome as he was coming
Speaker 2: off the screens, and so ty was able to just
Speaker 2: make simple decisions. Came off the screen, brought in the
Speaker 2: low man Davion Mitchell stepped over too far, rifle passed
Speaker 2: the same Mary in the right corner. He knocks it down.
Speaker 2: He hit a floater against Strop. He brought Bam up
Speaker 2: and then threw a perfect packet pass the Jared Allen,
Speaker 2: who knocked down a layup, He had a left shoulder
Speaker 2: fade over him in an ISO. He just was cooking
Speaker 2: him over and over again. Eventually, Tyler tried to go
Speaker 2: underneath a ball screen to try to keep ty Jerome
Speaker 2: in front, and ty just stepped into like a thirty
Speaker 2: footer off the dribble and he knocked it down. Then
Speaker 2: finally the Miami, he just said screw it and they
Speaker 2: started double teaming and it was just over from there.
Speaker 2: They were never able to recover. Even Darius Garland came
Speaker 2: in and ended up hitting a shot against Tyler Harrow
Speaker 2: in a switch. For the record, Tyler Harrow's problems on
Speaker 2: defense started right from the opening tip. This was not
Speaker 2: an issue that was just a crunch time issue. He
Speaker 2: immediately gave up a easy driving dunk out of the
Speaker 2: right corner to Donovan Mitchell early in the game, gave
Speaker 2: up an easy close out to Max Struce for a
Speaker 2: drop off for a dunk for Jared Allen. He got
Speaker 2: back cut by Darius Garland for a floater. He got
Speaker 2: blown by Darius Garland multiple times. Darius Garland made a
Speaker 2: layup and missed a layup on easy blowbyes of Tyler Harrow.
Speaker 2: They were even giving up drop coverage buckets with Tyler
Speaker 2: Harrow to Ti Jerome in the first half before we
Speaker 2: even got to the stuff that we saw in the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter. So, like, you know, the Heat defense caused
Speaker 2: issues for the Calves and short bursts with their abilities
Speaker 2: to switch with their bigs, And I thought Davion Mitchell
Speaker 2: did a really nice job on Donovan Mitchell, just pressuring
Speaker 2: him and making him work really hard. And the Heat
Speaker 2: are never going to be a team that goes down easy.
Speaker 2: They are a super smart team and they've got some
Speaker 2: high level defensive players, and Tyler Harrow is a guy that,
Speaker 2: as you saw at stretches, can knock down shots and
Speaker 2: drop coverage and if you leave them open behind the
Speaker 2: three three point line, he can knock down shots. They
Speaker 2: have pathways, but they just simply don't have the firepower
Speaker 2: to keep up with Cleveland. It's a lot of Davion
Speaker 2: Mitchell running ball screens and like literally initiating offense. It's
Speaker 2: a lot of like bam at a bio taking tough
Speaker 2: jump shots. It was just really tough, and you know,
Speaker 2: the Calves just found solutions. We talked about Harrow, Donovan
Speaker 2: Mitchell finally stopped trying to go at Davy. It almost
Speaker 2: was like Donovan was taking it personally with Davion and like,
Speaker 2: you're wearing my number in my last name, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: try to beat you. It's kind of weird. And then
Speaker 2: as soon as you stop going at Davion, it started
Speaker 2: going at others. He started to have more success. Evan
Speaker 2: Mobley did a really nice job of beating switches by
Speaker 2: inside seal attacks. He had a dunk on one of
Speaker 2: those in the first half. You scored out of the
Speaker 2: post against a switch. Like, they just have a lot
Speaker 2: of answers because they've got a lot of guys that
Speaker 2: can play at a really really high level, super super impressive.
Speaker 2: Game one victory for the Cleveland Cavaliers Celtics Magic. This
Speaker 2: game went basically exactly as I expected it to. The
Speaker 2: Magic are the second best defense in basketball behind the Thunder,
Speaker 2: and they have a lot of guys who can switch
Speaker 2: and guard multiple positions, and so they can switch, contain,
Speaker 2: stay home, take away, some of the catch and shoot
Speaker 2: looks play Tatum and Brown into really high difficulty ISO basketball.
Speaker 1: They don't have.
Speaker 2: The offense to be able to hang in this series,
Speaker 2: and we'll talk about that a little bit, but they
Speaker 2: have the defense too. If they can improve over the
Speaker 2: next couple of years and Jalen Suggs can get healthy
Speaker 2: and get back on the floor, that's a team that
Speaker 2: could present problems for Boston in the big picture if
Speaker 2: they can polish up things on off. But they're just
Speaker 2: not close to that yet. They held Tatum and Brown
Speaker 2: to thirty three points on thirty six shots. That's great,
Speaker 2: But outside of a second quarter stretch where Palo got
Speaker 2: really hot from three, a couple other guys hit some threes,
Speaker 2: the Magic failed to score twenty points in three of
Speaker 2: the four quarters, and that was really the difference. I
Speaker 2: thought Drew Holliday was the defensive hero of the game
Speaker 2: coming out of the half. So Orlando goes on their
Speaker 2: big run right before the half. Then there's a couple
Speaker 2: of mistakes that paloll has a turnover that leads to
Speaker 2: a foul. They cut it to one, but Orlando goes
Speaker 2: into the half up one. They've got the momentum. Their
Speaker 2: bench is all excited. Drew Holliday came out to start
Speaker 2: the second half and just started ball pressuring the hell
Speaker 2: out of Franz Wagner and Palo Bancaro and just was
Speaker 2: messing those dudes up, forcing turnovers, forcing mishots, running out
Speaker 2: the other way, and hitting transition threes. You talk about
Speaker 2: it feeling like a shotgun blast to the chest. Imagine
Speaker 2: being on the other side of that. You're attacking a
Speaker 2: small and a mismatch. Next thing you know, that dude
Speaker 2: taking the ball away and going the other way and
Speaker 2: hitting a three. It just unbelievable plays from Drew Holliday
Speaker 2: and again Drew in terms of just in terms of
Speaker 2: just fundamental skill is one of the best like rhythm
Speaker 2: or base attackers that have ever seen from a perimeter defender.
Speaker 2: This is what makes him so good at guarding bigger players.
Speaker 2: I've talked about this all the time. Bigger players, especially
Speaker 2: shot makers, they don't see that. They don't see the
Speaker 2: hand in the face. They've practiced hitting shots with hands
Speaker 2: in their face their entire lives. What you can do, though,
Speaker 2: is you can bother their rhythm. There's an energy transfer
Speaker 2: if you can, if you calculate it, It's like if
Speaker 2: you try to chain it all together. I should say,
Speaker 2: the handle connects to the footwork, and then when you
Speaker 2: get into the shot, that connects upwards in your energy
Speaker 2: transfer from the ground as you're jumping up through the release,
Speaker 2: and you chain all of that together through reps. You
Speaker 2: go in the gym and you just do all these
Speaker 2: reps ball handling and shooting out of all these different
Speaker 2: bits of footwork. These post players they're looking at, oh,
Speaker 2: you're attacking as small and trying to bump you and
Speaker 2: get to my left shoulder hook or my right shoulder
Speaker 2: fade or whatever it is that they're trying to get
Speaker 2: through or a step through move something along those lines.
Speaker 2: And they practice those moves, and they practice those moves,
Speaker 2: and they practice those moves, and if you let them
Speaker 2: get to their footwork, they're gonna make it. But if
Speaker 2: you can disrupt them, if you can stab at the
Speaker 2: basketball and disrupt the ball handling a little bit, you
Speaker 2: can bump their base and disrupt the footwork a little
Speaker 2: bit as they're jumping, If you lean on them a
Speaker 2: little bit so that they're losing a little bit of
Speaker 2: that balance as they go up into the shot on
Speaker 2: their gather. If you swipe down and you deflect the
Speaker 2: ball a tiny bit, if you disrupt something along that chain,
Speaker 2: it will have a far greater effect on the end
Speaker 2: result than you just standing there and putting your hand
Speaker 2: up at the end after not disrupting anything else. And
Speaker 2: Drew's just really really good at that, stabbing at the ball,
Speaker 2: disrupting the base, being physical, jumping one side, then jumping
Speaker 2: all the way to the other side and try to
Speaker 2: catch a guy off guard. He did that a few
Speaker 2: times Apollo in Franz today, like he just is an
Speaker 2: unbelievable size mismatched, and that was a huge weapon for
Speaker 2: Boston in the second half of this game. Derek White
Speaker 2: brought the volume scoring for the Celtics today and it
Speaker 2: came in the form of shot making. He had seven threes,
Speaker 2: but most of them were high degree of difficulty threes,
Speaker 2: like an extra step behind the line or against a
Speaker 2: great contest. And again, when you're playing against great defenses
Speaker 2: like the Orlando Magic, in a high leverage situation like this,
Speaker 2: on many of your possessions, the best shot you can
Speaker 2: get is a mildly contested, slightly deeper three. And like
Speaker 2: Derek White provided that scoring pop today in a game
Speaker 2: where again, when you're playing games like that, games like
Speaker 2: the Rockets Warriors series, threes are like touchdowns, So they're
Speaker 2: literally like touchdowns because no one can score and and
Speaker 2: Derek White just brought that today. I think this series
Speaker 2: is actually a great tune up series for the Celtics.
Speaker 2: They're not in any real danger. I mean I saw
Speaker 2: enough today to feel like Orlando can steal a game.
Speaker 2: Like I wouldn't be surprised if Orlando won a game,
Speaker 2: you know, ninety three to eighty seven down into Orlando
Speaker 2: in Game three or Game four. But they don't have
Speaker 2: the firepower to win the series. But the Magic present
Speaker 2: real problems for the Celtics offense, and that will help
Speaker 2: them prepare for an OKC matchup should they meet in
Speaker 2: the finals. It's just great preparation for them. They just
Speaker 2: need to hope that Tatum's wrist is okay. But I
Speaker 2: think he's fine. But after the hard foul from Kcpu
Speaker 2: was just something to keep an eye on, and it
Speaker 2: was a shooting risk, which can always be a little
Speaker 2: tricky when you need Tatum to be.
Speaker 1: A shot maker for you.
Speaker 2: All right, before we get out of here again, I'll
Speaker 2: be back later today with some more film. But let's
Speaker 2: talk some Grizzlies thunder. I didn't have a chance to
Speaker 2: do serious previews for my two P one eight matchups.
Speaker 2: I would have picked the Thunder to beat the Grizzlies
Speaker 2: in a sweep, and I would have picked the Calves
Speaker 2: to beat the Heat in five games either way, but
Speaker 2: it didn't really matter. This Grizzlies team has been bad
Speaker 2: for a while. They were just thirteen and eighteen over
Speaker 2: the last twenty one games to end the season. They
Speaker 2: were sixteenth in offense in that span of nineteenth in defense.
Speaker 2: They're not good at anything. None of their stars is
Speaker 2: playing particularly well. They were the one team in that
Speaker 2: cluster of teams, the eight teams that made the Western
Speaker 2: Conference playoffs. They were the one team that stuck out
Speaker 2: like a sore thumb, and boy did they look like
Speaker 2: look like it today. I want to shout out the
Speaker 2: Okac Thunder first for the level of intensity that they
Speaker 2: brought right out of the gates today. I was talking
Speaker 2: in my film session this morning about the intensity of
Speaker 2: the playoffs. I lamented that last night, teams like the
Speaker 2: Bucks and Lakers were just not ready for playoff intensity.
Speaker 2: Before I even watched the Thunder game. Today, I was
Speaker 2: recording the film session and when we were done, we
Speaker 2: were just waiting for a filed upload, and Jackson and
Speaker 2: I were just talking and hanging out and Jackson goes like, hey, man, like,
Speaker 2: how are you feeling about the Lakers after watching that game?
Speaker 1: You know? I said, like, there's obviously some things.
Speaker 2: That are that they can improve in terms of execution,
Speaker 2: in terms of just meeting the playoff intensity and all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. But what I said to Jackson
Speaker 2: was was like I'd be lying to if I wasn't
Speaker 2: super concerned that they didn't come out with that intensity,
Speaker 2: Like like I said in the show last night, like
Speaker 2: they're not going to give you the Larry of Ryan
Speaker 2: Trophy without putting in the work. You're not gonna coast
Speaker 2: to Larry O'Brian trophy. You're not gonna finesse your way
Speaker 2: to Larry O'Brian trophy. It is one through, super intense,
Speaker 2: hyper competitive basketball from day one of the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 2: And so I said in that moment to Jackson, like
Speaker 2: I am discouraged that a team that I believe in,
Speaker 2: that I believe has a real chance to win the
Speaker 2: title came out for their first playoff game and just
Speaker 2: looks completely unprepared for the intensity. That was before I
Speaker 2: watched the Thunder game, I walked out of the conversation
Speaker 2: with Jackson, sat down on my outdoor couch. It was
Speaker 2: beautiful day here in Tucson, and I'm sitting down and
Speaker 2: I just watched Okac come out and they said, we
Speaker 2: are treating this like like the Okase has talent to
Speaker 2: coast against Memphis, they could ease their way into the
Speaker 2: second round. Fuck that, They're like, We're going to embarrass
Speaker 2: the Memphis Grizzlies today. They brought that level of intensity.
Speaker 2: They seem abundantly clear on what is expected of them
Speaker 2: to be able to win four playoff rounds, and I
Speaker 2: just thought that was a valuable check mark in this process.
Speaker 2: They did not ease their way in. They didn't even
Speaker 2: show some of the just level of general discomfort that
Speaker 2: they showed against the Pelicans in Game one last year.
Speaker 2: They they look like a team that knows exactly what
Speaker 2: they're trying to accomplish and how great they will have
Speaker 2: to be to get there. I even thought the Celtics
Speaker 2: came out with a little bit of like a let's
Speaker 2: beat the magic, but not over extend ourselves doing it
Speaker 2: type of energy. The Thunder did not. They met the
Speaker 2: moment and they embarrassed the Grizzlies. The run really took
Speaker 2: off with the bench group led by Kaison Wallace.
Speaker 1: And Jalen Williams.
Speaker 2: They repeatedly made plays on defense that led to runouts.
Speaker 2: Kaison was amazing. Yeah, Scottie Pippen junior in Hell. He
Speaker 2: had a ridiculous transition dunk. I've always known Kayson's a
Speaker 2: good athlete that can dunked the basketball, but he had
Speaker 2: won in traffic in transition.
Speaker 1: That was ridiculous.
Speaker 2: He's hanging on the rim after defense to transition was
Speaker 2: the primary storyline of this game.
Speaker 1: The thunder force twenty four turnovers. They generated twenty four
Speaker 1: points off of those turnovers. They won the transition points advantage.
Speaker 1: They won the transition points battle perc Energy thirty one
Speaker 1: to eight. Out of Okasees one hundred and twenty possessions
Speaker 1: they logged in the game, forty eight of them were
Speaker 1: on transition pushes. As I've talked about, generally, it's like
Speaker 1: around you know, twenty percent of your offense that's gonna
Speaker 1: end up being in transition. In the NBA, okay See
Speaker 1: just played forty percent of their game in transition. But
Speaker 1: the thunder were also surgical in their half court playmaking.
Speaker 1: Memphis has always been an overhelp team. This is something
Speaker 1: I've been complaining about with them for years. They consistently
Speaker 1: are aggressive in their nail help, meaning like if the
Speaker 1: guys driving off the left wing, the defender guarding the
Speaker 1: guy in the right wing will be sitting like damn
Speaker 1: near at the elbow, like on the strong side elbow,
Speaker 1: or like at the foul line, like just sitting there
Speaker 1: in like a soft double team. They'll hard low man helps,
Speaker 1: so like the guy guarding the guy in the weakside
Speaker 1: corner will be all the way over. If you move
Speaker 1: the ball against the Grizzlies, you will get open threes.
Speaker 1: The Grizzlies allowed sixteen point four unguarded catch and shoot
Speaker 1: jump shots per game this year, which was the third
Speaker 1: most in the entire NBA, and the Thunder just made
Speaker 1: him pay for it. They consistently made simple reads in
Speaker 1: traffic generated a ton of great looks. They generated sixteen
Speaker 1: unguarded catch and shoot jump shots compared to just five
Speaker 1: for Memphis. They shot him at a super high clip.
Speaker 1: They got one point six y nine points per jump
Speaker 1: shot on those unguarded catch and shoots. They had thirty
Speaker 1: seven assists on fifty made field goals, the Thunder were
Speaker 1: bottom five and assist percentage this year.
Speaker 2: It's a big part of why. Like I've actually talked about,
Speaker 2: I've been worried about the Thunder against teams that packed
Speaker 2: the paint, especially teams that can protect the rim, just
Speaker 2: playing right into the teeth of the defense and not
Speaker 2: making those reads. I thought today was a very, very
Speaker 2: important There will be harder to tests then what Okac
Speaker 2: faced today. That's not exactly rocket science. Memphis has been
Speaker 2: a mediocre to bad basketball team for a while, but
Speaker 2: today was a test for their decision making, and they
Speaker 2: aced that test, and they did it with Shay going
Speaker 2: four for thirteen from the field. I just thought it
Speaker 2: was a statement about how ready this Thunder team is
Speaker 2: for this playoff run. On the Memphis front, I've been
Speaker 2: talking for a while about how their shot creators just
Speaker 2: aren't good enough. Jaw hasn't made a single tangible improvement
Speaker 2: to his game in three years. Bain really struggles to
Speaker 2: create quality shots against elite defense, and Jared Jackson a
Speaker 2: complete no show today. Joh was able in his first
Speaker 2: shift to create some advantages, but he still just has
Speaker 2: that one athletic superpower and Okase was eventually able to
Speaker 2: contain him because he can't shoot. He's one for six
Speaker 2: from three and then as soon as Joah went to
Speaker 2: the bench, it was a steady died of that Scottie
Speaker 2: Pippen junior in Desmond Bain unit. They couldn't even score
Speaker 2: and they got blitzed. If Memphis gets swept, which I
Speaker 2: think they will, they will have finished the season four
Speaker 2: teen and twenty three in their last thirty seven games.
Speaker 2: You have to think they'll be contemplating some massive changes
Speaker 2: to the roster if that happens, which.
Speaker 1: I believe it will.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, this's all I have for tonight slash
Speaker 2: this morning for you guys, I am waking up first
Speaker 2: thing in the morning and I'm recording a film session
Speaker 2: that should be uploaded around like ten thirty eleven Pacific time,
Speaker 2: so keep an eye on that as well. Our coverage
Speaker 2: continues tomorrow night. Game two of the Pistons Knicks game series,
Speaker 2: as well as the Clippers Nuggets series, will be live
Speaker 2: on YouTube after the final buzzer of that as well.
Speaker 2: Two days down. I'm a little tired, but this is
Speaker 2: it gets a little bit easier with each passing day.
Speaker 2: I was talking with Colin and the guys tonight. Like
Speaker 2: the first two days, that first Saturday Sunday is by
Speaker 2: far the hardest stretch of this season or of this
Speaker 2: playoff run, because it's eight games, every one of the matters,
Speaker 2: every series is zero zero. It's your first impressions. You
Speaker 2: get to second weekend, one to eighths are not any
Speaker 2: good anymore, right Usually, like I expect Cleveland to be
Speaker 2: up three to oho, I expect the Thunder to be
Speaker 2: up three to oh. And it gets a little easier
Speaker 2: you get to the following weekend. You're getting into the
Speaker 2: second round. Now it's like there's only two games a night.
Speaker 2: You get into the conference finals. It gets a little
Speaker 2: bit easier as we go along. But man, that first
Speaker 2: weekend is always tough. But we've made it through and
Speaker 2: we are ready to continue our process as we go
Speaker 2: through the week. I'm very, very excited to continue to
Speaker 2: get into this with you guys. I appreciate you guys
Speaker 2: for rocking with us. We're about to pass one hundred
Speaker 2: thousand subs. That's pretty fucking cool. I'm super excited about that.
Speaker 2: I have you guys to thank for that, and I
Speaker 2: can't tell you how much I guys. I appreciate you
Speaker 2: guys for supporting the show, Weekend one of the books.
Speaker 2: I'll see you tomorrow morning for some film What so guys.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 2: Oops tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 2: if you guys would take a second.
Speaker 1: And leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
Speaker 2: you could take a minute to do that, I really
Speaker 2: appreciate it. The volume