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Speaker 1: gambler dot net in West Virginia. Lots of lots of
Speaker 1: interesting basketball to talk about today. I know two of
Speaker 1: the games are blowouts, but I found both of them
Speaker 1: to be interesting blowouts. And then we had the back
Speaker 1: Burner game, the NBA TV game, the Utah Jazz at
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks, an unbelievable, exciting performance. Lots of interesting
Speaker 1: stuff to get into there. We're gonna get into all
Speaker 1: of it. We're also gonna do hold or bail. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you guys whether or not I'm sticking with
Speaker 1: my series picks from the matchups from yesterday. We are
Speaker 1: going to bring Carson on as well. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a great show, but let's start with Golden State in Denver.
Speaker 1: So Denver obviously has a boatload of issues. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get to that later. Um, the game wasn't even close,
Speaker 1: like that's there, wasn't remotely competitive. The series is over.
Speaker 1: You can go ahead and uh start making the tombstone
Speaker 1: for the Denver Nuggets. And yet I found this game
Speaker 1: remarkably interesting. Why because it felt like stepping into a
Speaker 1: time machine and coming out in two thousand fifteen in
Speaker 1: Oracle Arena during the Rise of the Warriors. And I
Speaker 1: picked specifically two thousand fifteen because it was kind of
Speaker 1: before it became a more Steph centric show. Obviously, Steph
Speaker 1: was the m v P in two thousand fifteen. He
Speaker 1: damn sure should have one Finals MVP that year, and
Speaker 1: he was clearly a top three four player in the league.
Speaker 1: But there was another leap that he took as an
Speaker 1: aggressive scorer the following year, bumped up from twenty three
Speaker 1: points per game to thirty points per game. The two
Speaker 1: thousand fifteen season was much more of like this new
Speaker 1: brand of basketball we were seeing, and it was catching
Speaker 1: everybody off guard. Teams didn't know how to guard it.
Speaker 1: It was super likable basketball. It drew in all these
Speaker 1: fans for good reason. Like I've said many times on
Speaker 1: the show, good Basketball, I'm always going to support because
Speaker 1: that's the kind of thing that helps with the health
Speaker 1: of the league. But there was a very unique nature
Speaker 1: to the way that group played basketball, and they accepted
Speaker 1: this concept of the death lineup, which was kind of
Speaker 1: a modern iteration of small ball, right. And if you
Speaker 1: guys remember that lineup, it was Harrison Barnes and andreke
Speaker 1: Guadala with Draymond Gray and Clay Thompson and Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: and teams didn't really have any idea how to handle
Speaker 1: that group. So many teams around the league were still
Speaker 1: playing two bigs. They were too slow to keep up
Speaker 1: with that line up. There was a ton of speed,
Speaker 1: but there were some very unique reasons why that lineup worked.
Speaker 1: And you saw that again in this game. In this series,
Speaker 1: the same lineup that pulled away in Game one, the
Speaker 1: same lineup that came back in Game two and then
Speaker 1: put the game away was a similar construct. Steph Clay
Speaker 1: and Draymond with a three and d wing in Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins kind of filling in for that Harrison Barnes role.
Speaker 1: The only differences you're going with Jordan Pool instead of
Speaker 1: Andrea Godala, and once again, the Denver Nuggets couldn't do
Speaker 1: anything with them. And the reason why is because on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor, there is a a
Speaker 1: very special brand of basketball that the Warriors play. It's selfless.
Speaker 1: Everyone is hunting for shots for each other there and
Speaker 1: this has been a this has been a persistent theme
Speaker 1: throughout the Golden State era. If you guys remember, there
Speaker 1: was a famous play in the towards the end of
Speaker 1: the Kevin Durant run where one of the young players
Speaker 1: on the Warriors drove into the lane and Clay Thompson
Speaker 1: was on on the wing, Kevin Durant was on the wing,
Speaker 1: and Steph Curry was on the wing and all three
Speaker 1: of them were wide open, and if you guys remember,
Speaker 1: there's a famous photo, all of them were pointing at
Speaker 1: each other trying to get them to pass to the
Speaker 1: other guy. Because there was this contagious culture in the team.
Speaker 1: It was make that extra drive and kick, make sure
Speaker 1: extra make that extra pass, make that extra play for
Speaker 1: your teammate, and as a result, it led to this
Speaker 1: infectious style of basketball that caused major problems for everyone
Speaker 1: around the league, not just in their skill on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: but also the overall speed of the line up. Draymond
Speaker 1: Green is such a mobile big and when you put
Speaker 1: four really fast, really skilled players alongside him, they leave
Speaker 1: these slower, traditional teams in the dust and there's nothing
Speaker 1: they can do about it. The style plays not for everybody.
Speaker 1: There are certain guys that go into that program and
Speaker 1: it doesn't work out super well. I remember Kelly Ubre.
Speaker 1: This is a big issue. I've talked about this a
Speaker 1: lot on the show. For for whatever reason, in Golden
Speaker 1: State it didn't work out for him. But before that
Speaker 1: and then this year when he was in Charlotte, he
Speaker 1: kind of recaptured that solid role player, you know, archetype
Speaker 1: that he had in the rest of his career. But
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, in Golden State it didn't work because
Speaker 1: it requires that high basketball like you. Everyone's very very smart.
Speaker 1: Kelly Bray is a good basketball player. Basketball like que
Speaker 1: is not a strong point. It requires unselfishness and a
Speaker 1: willingness to make plays for your teammates. There are players
Speaker 1: that have not had not done well in that particular environment.
Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, the guys that go in there
Speaker 1: and fit it makes the whole thing work. And Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool just adds this whole other element to it. It
Speaker 1: makes it less heliocentric, not in the traditional way like
Speaker 1: guy up at the top of the key dribbling the ball,
Speaker 1: but they're less reliant on Steph. Now, and the most
Speaker 1: important thing, and the only reason this lineup functions at
Speaker 1: all whatsoever, is they defend. And I want to give
Speaker 1: Obviously a lot of people deserve credit for that. Steve
Speaker 1: Kurt deserves credit for that. Each individual player deserves credit
Speaker 1: for that. But there are two guys that I want
Speaker 1: to specifically shout out about that, and that's Steph Curry
Speaker 1: and Draymond Green. Steph Curry is six ft three, it's
Speaker 1: pretty strong, but he's a below average athlete and doesn't
Speaker 1: have the physical tools, the length, and athleticism to be
Speaker 1: a dominant defensive player. And he could have very well
Speaker 1: turned into the next name Lillard if he wanted to,
Speaker 1: if he didn't care, if he wanted to save his
Speaker 1: legs for offense. But he was like, screw that, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be the best possible defender that I can possibly
Speaker 1: be given the tools that I have, and as a result,
Speaker 1: it has led to this culture that has trickled down
Speaker 1: the roster. If you're a perimeter player, you're not off
Speaker 1: the hook on defense, and that's why it works with
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole in that group. Obviously, Jordan Pool has some
Speaker 1: limitations and so does Steph, and you can't have too
Speaker 1: many of those guys on the floor. And there are
Speaker 1: obviously good defensive players in Clay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: and Draymond Green that help make the whole thing work.
Speaker 1: But it's a huge credit to to Steph Curry in
Speaker 1: the tone that he sets and the way that that
Speaker 1: trickles down the roster. It's something I've been critical about
Speaker 1: with Lebron at some points in his career. And Lebron
Speaker 1: has been my favorite player in the league for a
Speaker 1: long time. I think he's a better basketball player than Steph,
Speaker 1: and I think he always has been. But one of
Speaker 1: the things I've been critical about him with is, for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, he kind of seems like on a lot
Speaker 1: of nights, it's like, it's not my job to play defense.
Speaker 1: You guys figure that out. I have all this other
Speaker 1: work to do, and I'll defend when I absolutely have to.
Speaker 1: And it's not a big surprise that there are guys
Speaker 1: that have come onto Lebron teams and have not defended
Speaker 1: well because they kind of just get wrapped up into
Speaker 1: his mentor like his old approach to the game. Steph's
Speaker 1: not like that. Steph sets a tone and everyone else
Speaker 1: follows suits. It's it's one of my favorite things about him,
Speaker 1: and it's I think he's the best leader in this
Speaker 1: era of NBA basketball. But the lynchpin of it all
Speaker 1: is Draymond Green. He is the quarterback of that defense. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't want to got dive too much into the
Speaker 1: details specifically surrounding quarterbacking a defense, because we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about that in more detail later on in the
Speaker 1: show when we talk about Marcus Smart being the defensive
Speaker 1: player of the Year, But he does that for this
Speaker 1: specific defense. And then the most important thing that he
Speaker 1: does as a back line defender is he is a
Speaker 1: master of understanding position and disrupting a player's base. How
Speaker 1: is it that at six ft six that he can
Speaker 1: be so disruptive to these massive post players. I have
Speaker 1: seen him in the last couple of years completely and
Speaker 1: utterly fluster Anthony Davis in a single game playoff situation
Speaker 1: last year in the playing game, and then you saw
Speaker 1: what he did to Nicola Yokich tonight, literally frustrating him
Speaker 1: to the point where he lost his school and got
Speaker 1: himself ejected from the damn game in The reason why
Speaker 1: is because Draymond Green is the kryptonite to position post players.
Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about last night. We talked
Speaker 1: about Jayson Tatum and the pivotal play that he made
Speaker 1: rotating around Kyrie Irving. Because in when you're in back
Speaker 1: to the basket situations, it's all about feeling where you're
Speaker 1: defender is. Is Is he on my left shoulder? Is here
Speaker 1: on my right shoulder. I'm gonna spend the other way
Speaker 1: because that's where my advantage is with physicality. Guys like
Speaker 1: Nicola Yokits who aren't super fast, Guys like Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: that don't have a super quick first step, they rely
Speaker 1: a lot on body positioning in the post. Yokis way
Speaker 1: more than Anthony Davis even and so he's trying to
Speaker 1: figure out where Draymond green On is on his back.
Speaker 1: But Draymond green is always one step ahead of Yokich on.
Speaker 1: All those little pivots and turns, and he's pushing Yokich
Speaker 1: off of his bass and making every shot that he
Speaker 1: takes around the baskets so incredibly difficult. Draymond is what
Speaker 1: makes that entire defense work. There are very specific details
Speaker 1: that I want to get further into with Draymond, but
Speaker 1: I am gonna save that for later in the show.
Speaker 1: I wanted to move on to Jordan's pool because his rise,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, unquestionably changes the way that we have
Speaker 1: to evaluate this Golden State Warriors team. Ceiling he I've
Speaker 1: always wondered, you know, when you've got guys like Lebron
Speaker 1: and Stephane the League, guys like Kevin Durant, the impact
Speaker 1: they have on young players that come into contact with them.
Speaker 1: You know, why is it that you know, you'll see
Speaker 1: a guy play with Lebron for so long and for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, he doesn't adopt the same work ethic that
Speaker 1: he does, or the same thing goes with Steph And
Speaker 1: I was wondering why that doesn't happen more often, Why
Speaker 1: a player wouldn't get around a star and kind of
Speaker 1: absorb in and and take on the same approach to
Speaker 1: the game that he does, and I'm not saying Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool necessarily did this because of Steph, but for whatever
Speaker 1: reason Steph has there's a there is a Steph like
Speaker 1: nature to the way Jordan's Pool plays that has allowed
Speaker 1: him to become a player that fits so perfectly in
Speaker 1: this system. You know, Stephans struggled a little bit this
Speaker 1: year as the as the year has progressed. We've talked
Speaker 1: about it a lot on this show. His shooting percentages
Speaker 1: towards the last half of the season, we're about half
Speaker 1: what they were at the same time last season. He
Speaker 1: wasn't getting the same separation on his dribble moves, wasn't
Speaker 1: able to make those crazy Steph Curry shots the way
Speaker 1: he used to, And there's a lot of reasons for that.
Speaker 1: A lot of it was Draymond Green being out of
Speaker 1: the game, but a huge part of it is not
Speaker 1: having other guys on the floor that dictate defensive attention
Speaker 1: and the way that that frees things up for You
Speaker 1: talked about this a lot with the Mavericks and how
Speaker 1: Luca don Chech being out has been a nightmare for
Speaker 1: guys like Spencer din what he Jalen Brunson had a
Speaker 1: big game tonight, but Spencer didn't what He's having a
Speaker 1: nightmare series in the bigger role with more defensive attention
Speaker 1: devoted to him. Obviously, Clay Thompson coming back helps a
Speaker 1: lot with Steph Curry, but Jordan's Pool brings that same
Speaker 1: type of defensive attention. When Jordan Pool is flying around
Speaker 1: off the ball, guy's panic chase him. You know who
Speaker 1: else they do that with Steph. When Jordan Pool comes
Speaker 1: off of a high screen and roll with Draymond Green,
Speaker 1: two guys go with Jordan Pool. You know who else
Speaker 1: they do that with Steph, And as a result, it's
Speaker 1: freeing up both guys for easier opportunities. This is the
Speaker 1: best step has looked in this last half of the season.
Speaker 1: Obviously in small dosage, obviously in a minute's restriction, but
Speaker 1: Steph looks great and that's a huge part of what
Speaker 1: Jordan Pool is bringing to this table. Now. The one
Speaker 1: thing that gets tricky with Jordan Pool is his his
Speaker 1: defensive the defensive potential of these key lineups because of
Speaker 1: his lack of size. I had a lot of people
Speaker 1: ask me today do you think the Warriors can beat
Speaker 1: the huge team? And there will be issues in those matchups.
Speaker 1: Think about a team like Phoenix. Okay, it's not just
Speaker 1: about DeAndre Ayton. I have no worries about Draymond Green
Speaker 1: being able to handle DeAndre Ayton. But what if your
Speaker 1: lineup has you know, Andrew Wiggins and Clay Thompson and
Speaker 1: Steph Curry and and uh George and Pool. But the
Speaker 1: lineup you're going up against is Mikhail Bridges at six
Speaker 1: ft nine or six ft eight and Cam Cam Johnson
Speaker 1: at six ft eight and Jay Crowder at six ft
Speaker 1: six and super strong, you know, and and when when
Speaker 1: when the Suns go with more wings, are there gonna
Speaker 1: be issues in those lineups? And that will be the
Speaker 1: interesting conundrum because Jordan Pool plugged into that Andrea Guadala
Speaker 1: roule role. While it makes them infinitely better offensively, it
Speaker 1: also takes away a lot of what they did defensively
Speaker 1: at the peak of the death lineup in the two
Speaker 1: thousand fifteen sixteen season. Now they're still defending really well
Speaker 1: with that group, but it's kind of dependent on matchups.
Speaker 1: The Denver Nuggets this we're gonna talk about them a
Speaker 1: little bit more just a second. The Denver Nuggets have
Speaker 1: master ross of massive roster shortcomings. They don't have the
Speaker 1: personnel to keep up with a team like Golden States,
Speaker 1: so there are gonna be matchups further further down the
Speaker 1: line that can cause them problems, particularly with size. However,
Speaker 1: the size battle goes both ways, and a lot of
Speaker 1: it has to do with trolling the pace and flow
Speaker 1: of the game, which is something I talked about. A lot.
Speaker 1: Styles make fights, but each style has advantages and more
Speaker 1: often than not, it's not about which style is better,
Speaker 1: it's about which style plays better. And so the advantages
Speaker 1: of the smaller Golden State lineup with Steph Clay, Jordan Pool,
Speaker 1: Wiggins and Draymond is they are incredibly fast, They can
Speaker 1: thrive in transition, they can do a ton of switching.
Speaker 1: They have unbelievable dribble drive creation. So when they get
Speaker 1: you on a string in a five out scenario, pass past, past, drive, drive, drive, kick,
Speaker 1: kick kick, they get great shots every time. But if
Speaker 1: they get stuck in the half court a lot and
Speaker 1: a team is able to inflict their size upon them,
Speaker 1: they could have some issues. And so when people ask me,
Speaker 1: can this Golden State Warriors team beat a team that
Speaker 1: has significant interior presence, it's not a question of can they.
Speaker 1: It's a question of will they. Will that group play
Speaker 1: well enough in the details and control the pay so
Speaker 1: the game so that the big team is caught and
Speaker 1: to track me, because if they do, they're gonna win.
Speaker 1: But if they struggle in those details and they get
Speaker 1: stuck in the half court and it's Chris Paul slowly
Speaker 1: and methodically executing on offense and the half court, that's
Speaker 1: when Golden State could have some issues. But it felt
Speaker 1: like stepping in the time machine. As a basketball fan,
Speaker 1: you had to have loved that. There had to have
Speaker 1: been some moments for you tonight watching that game where
Speaker 1: it just felt vintage, felt like vintage Warriors basketball. I
Speaker 1: love their brand of basketball. They're They've got some of
Speaker 1: my favorite players in the league, and I love rooting
Speaker 1: for them. They're the team that I will be rooting
Speaker 1: for in the West, even though I don't I still
Speaker 1: think Phoenix is gonna be the team that ends up winning.
Speaker 1: But it's good to have them back. And and Jordan's
Speaker 1: pool changes everything about the franchise changes, their current ceiling, changes,
Speaker 1: their trajectory, changes your five year plan. It's a bridge
Speaker 1: to hopefully Jonathan cominga and James Wiseman becoming better players.
Speaker 1: If you're a Warriors fan, you've got to be on
Speaker 1: cloud nine right now, even if you don't think you
Speaker 1: can win the title this year. I don't want to
Speaker 1: spend too much on Denver. They're dealing with a lot
Speaker 1: of injuries right now. Uh, there's some internal among the
Speaker 1: fan base. They're kind of sick of Mike Malone. I've
Speaker 1: got to do some research on that. I don't know
Speaker 1: well enough what kind of issues they've had with him
Speaker 1: over the course of the year. But I would say,
Speaker 1: don't overreact to personnel shortcomings. This wasn't like a Lakers
Speaker 1: team where they had personnel shortcomings and the basketball was
Speaker 1: just hot garbage. This is a team that is vastly
Speaker 1: outperformed their talent all season long. So I wouldn't overreact.
Speaker 1: But there's one specific thing I want to talk about
Speaker 1: with this group, and it's your ki. We have a
Speaker 1: habit as basketball fans of wanting to jump ahead of
Speaker 1: player development, and I kind of go the exact opposite
Speaker 1: direction on that kind of thing. You guys know me,
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Lebron fan. I don't think Lebron was
Speaker 1: the best player of the league until two thousand and twelve,
Speaker 1: because even though he had this, his ceiling was as
Speaker 1: high as all the best players in the league at
Speaker 1: various points from two thousand seven to two thousand twelve,
Speaker 1: he wasn't a savant in in the dregs of postseason basketball.
Speaker 1: The way he became as his career progressed progressed. I
Speaker 1: thought Kobe was better than him from two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight to two thousand eleven, And for that's just my
Speaker 1: approach to it. I when everyone's saying steps better than
Speaker 1: Lebron back in two thousand fifteen and two thousand and sixteen,
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, cool it, guys, He's doing great. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of basketball left to be played in his
Speaker 1: career and just within these seasons, and we're doing it.
Speaker 1: We did it with the honest when he won his
Speaker 1: first two m vps, this is the best player in
Speaker 1: the league. And then you saw him in half court
Speaker 1: sets against Miami like basically neutered in his ability to
Speaker 1: impact the game offensively. And he's made leaps since then
Speaker 1: and now he's very much in the conversation for best
Speaker 1: player in the league. But now we're doing it again
Speaker 1: with Yokich. There were a lot of really smart people
Speaker 1: that said Yoki was the best player in the league
Speaker 1: this year, the best player in the league, the best
Speaker 1: player in the league, that has Kevin Durant in it,
Speaker 1: that has Stephen Curry in it, that has Janis Antenna
Speaker 1: Coupo in it, that has Lebron James in it. It's
Speaker 1: a ridiculous take in my opinion. And the main reason
Speaker 1: why is I look, and I know people get we
Speaker 1: love to, you know, praise people for succeeding in spite
Speaker 1: of a limitation. Right, It's like we do it with
Speaker 1: Steph and the fact that he's smaller. We you know,
Speaker 1: do it with Luca even though he's kind of like
Speaker 1: an out of shape, you know, white guy, and Yokich
Speaker 1: is the same thing. He's very slow, right, very methodical,
Speaker 1: and so we we kind of romanticize that like it's
Speaker 1: a good thing. And don't get me wrong, like I
Speaker 1: too am incredibly impressed by his ability to impact basketball
Speaker 1: games as a slow man. But it is a real
Speaker 1: limitation on both ends of the floor. Really, Let's start
Speaker 1: on offense, where where is his strength. Really really fast
Speaker 1: teams that rotate really really well can disrupt him. You've
Speaker 1: seen the Warriors do that several times this year. I
Speaker 1: this entire last half of the season, when he would
Speaker 1: go up against really long athletic teams YO kids would
Speaker 1: struggle compared to his nor moal effectiveness. He relies a
Speaker 1: ton on defensive or post positioning, and so defenders like Draymond,
Speaker 1: who are masters of post position defense, throw him off
Speaker 1: of his game. That's that's a limitation on his size.
Speaker 1: He what Anthony Davis when he has success against Draymond,
Speaker 1: what do you see him? Do you see him do
Speaker 1: these like really quick moves through the lane and big
Speaker 1: high hooks, and he's kind of tries to use his
Speaker 1: speed because that's the one single advantage he has against
Speaker 1: Draymond in that environment. But Yoki doesn't have that speed advantage.
Speaker 1: Then we go over to the defensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: I've praised him all year long. He's turned himself into
Speaker 1: a decent drop coverage big. That's great. It makes him
Speaker 1: a much more functional regular season defensive player. But the
Speaker 1: reality of the situation is when you run him off
Speaker 1: the floor in transition, he can't keep up. The Warriors
Speaker 1: did it again tonight. They've done a bunch of teams
Speaker 1: have done that took over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: And then, as we've seen so many times, just like
Speaker 1: would you Go Bear, which we're gonna talk about later,
Speaker 1: in five out basketball, when teams really get to driving
Speaker 1: and kicking you to cover a lot of ground, and
Speaker 1: maybe you're not the maybe you're maybe you don't get
Speaker 1: to be the guy that helps at the basket every time.
Speaker 1: Maybe you get rotated out to the perimeter now you're
Speaker 1: guarding a dribble drive, or maybe one of your smaller
Speaker 1: guards is suddenly in the backside help position. In five
Speaker 1: out basketball, that's slow foot speed that Yokich has becomes
Speaker 1: a huge problem. And so, yes, Yokich is incredible. Yoki's
Speaker 1: best is every bit as good as the best players
Speaker 1: in the league, but he doesn't get to his best
Speaker 1: as often because of his weakness to specific matchups, because
Speaker 1: he has very specific weaknesses in his game. And for
Speaker 1: the love of God, can we please stop racing to
Speaker 1: be the first guy to say so and so is
Speaker 1: the best player in the league? Like I like I, I
Speaker 1: I don't know what that desire is, but for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: we're in a rush to crown the next guy. When
Speaker 1: there's like Kevin Freakin Durant at the top of the league,
Speaker 1: and Lebron James and Janis Antenna Kompo and Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: Even the climbed versions of Lebron and Steph I think
Speaker 1: are better than Yokis right now. So we need to
Speaker 1: We just need to cool it on that stuff. That's
Speaker 1: all I had for that game. I want to move
Speaker 1: on to Toronto and Philly. So I talked a lot
Speaker 1: in the in last night's show about how you don't
Speaker 1: Nick Nurse had a very specific game plan, and I
Speaker 1: disagreed with some elements of the game plan, but they
Speaker 1: also just didn't play hard. For whatever reason, the Sixers
Speaker 1: played like the underdog, and a lot of that has
Speaker 1: to do with guys like me and everyone else out
Speaker 1: there who picked the Raptors. I think they drank a
Speaker 1: little too much of their own kool aid, and they
Speaker 1: went into Game one with a lack of daisical effort
Speaker 1: and it was a problem. And you know, I had
Speaker 1: a similar thought often this year with Frank Vogel. You
Speaker 1: can't evaluate a scheme fairly or a game plan fairly
Speaker 1: if the guys don't play hard, because no scheme functionally
Speaker 1: works if guys don't a hard and so we got
Speaker 1: a better look at the Toronto scheme tonight with their
Speaker 1: first quarter effort that came out guns blazing. I think
Speaker 1: they held the six or the seven points in the
Speaker 1: first five and a half minutes of the game, much
Speaker 1: much better defensive effort. But then everything fell apart as
Speaker 1: well as the game went along, and a huge part
Speaker 1: of that is because of that same coverage that I
Speaker 1: criticized in game one. This needs to be a series
Speaker 1: for the Raptors where they throw the kitchen sink at
Speaker 1: Joel Embide every time he catches the ball, but when
Speaker 1: James Harden has the ball, they need to try to
Speaker 1: keep him in one on one situations as much as
Speaker 1: possible because he's not the same player he was in
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen. Won't get into the numbers again, but
Speaker 1: all you have to do is look at the basic
Speaker 1: tracking metrics. He's a significantly declined offensive player in isolation
Speaker 1: situations compared to the way he was in two thousand eighteen.
Speaker 1: He is most comfortable being a facilitator. He's wanted to
Speaker 1: do that the last two years. He's always been at
Speaker 1: his best when he doesn't have to do the scoring,
Speaker 1: and he can just kind of sit around on the
Speaker 1: perimeter and get defenses to lean one way or the
Speaker 1: other so that he can make a pass and compromise
Speaker 1: you and Nick Nurses walking headlong into that problem, and
Speaker 1: they're just getting fantastic stuff on all of these overhelp scenarios.
Speaker 1: I'm really curious to see if Nurse makes an adjustment
Speaker 1: as the series goes along. I've been very critical this
Speaker 1: year of Frank Vogel in his stubbornness. I tell you
Speaker 1: guys all the time, like a coach can't come into
Speaker 1: a situation with a philosophy. He can have some core philosophies, right,
Speaker 1: Like we try hard on defense. You know, we are
Speaker 1: on time every day, We work really hard. You know
Speaker 1: we box out every time. You know we Those are
Speaker 1: core philosophies. But you can't come into a situation with
Speaker 1: a a scheme that you employed no matter what, regardless
Speaker 1: of personnel or regardless of situation, because not all situations
Speaker 1: call for the same scheme, and not all personnel call
Speaker 1: for the same scheme. Nurse is a super aggressive defensive coach,
Speaker 1: like outrageously aggressive. And there are things that I like
Speaker 1: about that, you know, his willingness to try crazy things
Speaker 1: like the boxing one that he used on Steph Currying
Speaker 1: the two thousand nineteen finals. I'm a fan of his,
Speaker 1: you know, innovative approach to defense, but this is one
Speaker 1: situation where his aggressiveness is hurting him and hurting the raptors.
Speaker 1: This series needs to become a James Harden isolation contest
Speaker 1: at all costs because Tyrese Maxie is killing you right now.
Speaker 1: Joel Embid is killing you right now. And a lot
Speaker 1: of it doesn't have to do with Joel Embid and
Speaker 1: isolation situations, not a not a lot of it has
Speaker 1: to do with tyres Maxi and isolation situations. It's all
Speaker 1: working out of initial compromising of the defense. Because of
Speaker 1: James Harden, They're starting to get easy stuff just out
Speaker 1: of having tires Maxie set the screen when that should
Speaker 1: just be a really, really quick and easy switch. But
Speaker 1: way too often they're sending two guys with James Harden
Speaker 1: and they're getting amazing stuff on the back end. I'm
Speaker 1: really really curious to see if Nick Nurse is gonna adjust.
Speaker 1: We're gonna learn a lot, like I said, Like I said,
Speaker 1: a very critical of Frank Vogel for being stubborn. I
Speaker 1: thought it was the reason he got beat or the
Speaker 1: reason why he got fired. So now we're gonna find
Speaker 1: out if Nick Nurse is willing to make that type
Speaker 1: of adjustment. I thought the game really got out of
Speaker 1: hand for the Raptors in that second quarter, and a
Speaker 1: huge part of it was the way that Fred van
Speaker 1: Vleet and Pascal Siakam just completely fell apart offensively. You know,
Speaker 1: the Raptors need this game to be in transition. They
Speaker 1: absolutely need the game to be in transition. And the
Speaker 1: only way that we're and I mean for them, they
Speaker 1: need to be out in transition. They need to be
Speaker 1: playing with their set defense. And too often it's been
Speaker 1: the exact reverse of that. It's been fully running up
Speaker 1: and down the floor in Toronto, trapped in the half court.
Speaker 1: And a huge part of that is they have to score,
Speaker 1: because when they score, they can set their defense. When
Speaker 1: they set their defense, they have a better chance of
Speaker 1: getting stops. When they get stops, they can run. When
Speaker 1: they run, they get better scoring up tratunities, which allows
Speaker 1: them to then set their defense. It's a very it's
Speaker 1: a very like cascading effect and if one of those things,
Speaker 1: one of those links in that chain breaks, suddenly you're
Speaker 1: not scoring. Suddenly they're running, Suddenly they're getting better shots.
Speaker 1: Now they're setting their defense, and now you're having an
Speaker 1: even harder time scoring. And so when Fred van Vleet
Speaker 1: in Pascal Seacom cooled off to such a dramatic extent
Speaker 1: there in that second quarter, the wheels came off and
Speaker 1: suddenly Philly got going in transition, you know, Fred van Vleet,
Speaker 1: it was weird. There was a sequence there in the
Speaker 1: second quarter where he got like five or six wide
Speaker 1: open jump shots in a row, and he didn't even
Speaker 1: hit the rim on his first like four or five
Speaker 1: jump shots in the first quarter. Something happened there. I
Speaker 1: have no idea, completely lost. His rhythm is really weird,
Speaker 1: Like he had this weird hitching his shot. It looked
Speaker 1: like he wasn't following through all the way. He had
Speaker 1: like back to back completely wide open threes on the
Speaker 1: right wing, one that he shot to the ceiling like
Speaker 1: just unknown surely shot it really high in the air
Speaker 1: and then got offensive rebound ended back in his hand
Speaker 1: and he shot it like wide left, like a kick
Speaker 1: or shanking a field goal. And like you could just
Speaker 1: tell like he got the yips all of a sudden
Speaker 1: in the same shots that he had been making all
Speaker 1: first quarter in all season just completely left his repertoire
Speaker 1: and it was disastrous for Toronto's offense. Pascal Ziaka missed
Speaker 1: three easy layups right around the rim to start the
Speaker 1: second quarter. He completely lost confidence in his jump shot.
Speaker 1: There was a play where he did a pick and
Speaker 1: pop with Fred van Vleet and popped to the three
Speaker 1: point line, caught the ball at the top of the key.
Speaker 1: Joel Embiide was sitting at the charge circle just completely
Speaker 1: ignoring him, and he didn't even take the shot because
Speaker 1: he completely lost confidence in his jump shot. Those two
Speaker 1: guys falling apart offensively completely disrupted the Toronto offense, made
Speaker 1: it so that they couldn't score, made it so that
Speaker 1: Philly was attacking and transition and it was disastrous for them.
Speaker 1: A huge part of that was Tyres Maxie had another quick,
Speaker 1: really quick shout out to him. He's kind of like
Speaker 1: a one man transition attack. He's one of the fastest
Speaker 1: guards that we have in this league, and every time
Speaker 1: Toronto missed, he was just pushing the pace and was
Speaker 1: getting amazing stuff on that front. Before we move on
Speaker 1: from this series, I do want to complain. I do
Speaker 1: want to complain for just a minute about Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: and the way that he's officiated and but before we
Speaker 1: get into that specifically, I wanted to show you guys
Speaker 1: a clip from Joel Embiad's postgame presser because he kind
Speaker 1: of got into it a little bit with Nick Nurse
Speaker 1: on the sideline, and this was what Joel Embiad had
Speaker 1: to say after the game. Oh man, he's he's a
Speaker 1: great coach obviously. Uh I got a you know what
Speaker 1: he's been able to accomplish. And you know, I always
Speaker 1: been a big fan. But you know, I told him,
Speaker 1: you know, respectfully and told him to stop bitching about
Speaker 1: calls because I saw what he said. And Joel Embiad
Speaker 1: has been so like, I don't even know what the
Speaker 1: will word is for this. I'd I'd say insecure. You
Speaker 1: can tell he's been a little bit insecure about this
Speaker 1: because he went on the JJ Reddick podcast the other
Speaker 1: day and was talking about how it was his intelligence
Speaker 1: and how smart he was that allowed him to be
Speaker 1: able to do these things to generate free throws and
Speaker 1: I think it's just a massive problem with the way
Speaker 1: that he's officiated. And for the record, I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: blame him. I don't like his attitude about it, his
Speaker 1: whole obstinate like, you know, this isn't my problem, this
Speaker 1: is your problem. You guys are hacking me. This is
Speaker 1: all your fault. That thing is something that I vehemently dislike,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure most of you guys do as well,
Speaker 1: unless you're Philadelphia seventy six er fan. But it's not
Speaker 1: his fault. It's the league's fault. There is like it
Speaker 1: or not. Officiating is about making judgment calls. Nothing is
Speaker 1: cut and dry. There's contact on every single play. One
Speaker 1: of the biggest things that pisces me off when people
Speaker 1: start talking about NBA history is when they say things like, oh,
Speaker 1: there was no hand checking before. You wouldn't get fouled
Speaker 1: called for a foul for hand checking before two thousand four,
Speaker 1: Yes you would. Hand checking was put into the NBA
Speaker 1: rule book in the seventies. There was a rule in
Speaker 1: like nineteen seventy eight that said you weren't allowed to
Speaker 1: impede progress with your hands. But throughout NBA history from
Speaker 1: seventy eight or whatever all the way to now. There's
Speaker 1: always been an ebb and flow with that judgment call.
Speaker 1: When a guy puts his hand on you, the ref
Speaker 1: decides whether or not he's gonna call it. It's not
Speaker 1: called every single time. At various points in NBA history,
Speaker 1: the game gets more physical or it gets less physical.
Speaker 1: It's never been one specific era where it was crazy.
Speaker 1: Everyone talks about the Michael Jordan's era and how crazy
Speaker 1: physical the game was. It was from like to you know,
Speaker 1: two thousand three, But for the first eleven twelve years
Speaker 1: of MJ's career is pretty wide open. Not a lot
Speaker 1: of defense was being played. That that I've officiating has
Speaker 1: always been about the judgment call. And what bothers me
Speaker 1: is Joel Embiid and Nie She ates a lot of
Speaker 1: contact on every single possession, and if we're going by
Speaker 1: the book, those are offensive fouls, and I don't want
Speaker 1: them to be called offensive fouls. All I'm asking is
Speaker 1: for the contact that comes in return the aggression matching
Speaker 1: the aggression. I don't want that to be called. You know,
Speaker 1: Lebron fans incessantly complained about him not getting foul calls.
Speaker 1: I have always thought Lebron was officiated fairly. Why because
Speaker 1: the dudes a bull in a china shop. Lebron James
Speaker 1: is beating the hell out of you on his way
Speaker 1: to the rim. He's whipping you with his with his
Speaker 1: off arm, he's caving in your chest with his shoulder,
Speaker 1: and I don't want that stuff called offensive foul, But
Speaker 1: I just don't care that people hit him back. To me,
Speaker 1: that's the given the take, that's the judgment call. And
Speaker 1: to to Lebron's credit, he doesn't flop nearly as much
Speaker 1: as those guys. I know, he has a reputation for
Speaker 1: some super dramatic flops in his past, plenty of them
Speaker 1: have made viral videos. But for the most part, when
Speaker 1: Lebron drives into the lane, he's not as you know,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you know, he's not crazy with the histrionics.
Speaker 1: Joel Embiide literally on every layup around the rim, kicks
Speaker 1: both of his legs up like his heels almost touches.
Speaker 1: But when he's shooting a layup underneath the rim, because
Speaker 1: he's flailing and screaming and trying to draw fouls. There
Speaker 1: was a play in that game where uh, Joel Embieve
Speaker 1: was posting up precious a Chua literally caves in his
Speaker 1: chest with a hard elbow right to the rib cage
Speaker 1: and goes up with a hook shot, misses it, but
Speaker 1: it's off the short part of the rim and lands
Speaker 1: right back in his hands and presses. Chua gets turned
Speaker 1: around and press She was just standing there with his
Speaker 1: arms up, and Joel Lemie goes up and lightly bumps
Speaker 1: into Precious his arm and gets an hand one. No
Speaker 1: call at all for the massive elbow to the chest,
Speaker 1: But we're gonna call Precious for the slight little bump
Speaker 1: under the basket. And again I'm not saying call the
Speaker 1: foul and the chicken wing. I'm not saying that. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: let some give a little take a lip. If you're
Speaker 1: gonna let Joel Embiad initiate a ton of contact around
Speaker 1: the basket, you have to let people hit him back.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna start calling Tiki tach fouls on every
Speaker 1: single time a player touches him around the basket, then
Speaker 1: you have to start calling Joel Embiad every time he
Speaker 1: does a drop step. And I know you don't want
Speaker 1: to do that, And most importantly, it's bad for the
Speaker 1: flow of the game of basketball. This is a take
Speaker 1: I've had for a long time, and Philly fans get
Speaker 1: super upset about it, But this is the reality. It
Speaker 1: is important for the health of the game of basketball
Speaker 1: for Philly to lose if it's not in this round
Speaker 1: and needs to happen in the next round. Why. Because
Speaker 1: this kind of basketball is a terrible television product. The
Speaker 1: pace of the game gets strangled. You're constantly watching Joel
Speaker 1: Embiad and and James Harden go to the free throw line.
Speaker 1: No fan of any basketball in the entire world likes
Speaker 1: watching Joel Embiid, the biggest most athletic freak at the
Speaker 1: center position we've had in ages, kick his legs literally
Speaker 1: like he's a flailing jump shooter when he's shooting layups
Speaker 1: underneath the basket. It's bad for the game. I love
Speaker 1: Joel Embiad's game. I just want to see him play basketball.
Speaker 1: I love James Harden's game. I just want to see
Speaker 1: him play basketball. I don't want to see this foul drifting.
Speaker 1: It's It is absolutely bad for the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: All Right, I'm off my soapbox. We're gonna bring my
Speaker 1: guy Carson on and we're gonna play some games. How
Speaker 1: are you doing, Jason. I'm good, buddy, how are you?
Speaker 1: I'm fantastic love to hear you on your soapbox. I
Speaker 1: think you know, I think you're in the right there.
Speaker 1: All right, So we are going to play a game.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty simple one called good call, bad call.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna present a decision to you. You tell me
Speaker 1: if it's a good call or a bad call. We're
Speaker 1: gonna get right into it with the heavy stuff here,
Speaker 1: the hard hitting question good call or bad call? To
Speaker 1: name your dog after yourself, as the great Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: did with his dog Anthony Edwards Jr. He named his
Speaker 1: dog Anthony Edwards Jr. Oh yeah, he did. Twitter sensation
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards Jr. Okay, I I I only have one
Speaker 1: rule with dog nay names, and it's it can't be
Speaker 1: a person name. Like it has to be at all,
Speaker 1: Like it has to be like at the very least
Speaker 1: in the gray area of what might be considered a
Speaker 1: person name. But like when you're getting into it, like
Speaker 1: you can't name a dog Anthony, Okay, Like come on,
Speaker 1: that's that's completely ridiculous, all right, Anthony Everards just lost
Speaker 1: some points in my book. I gotta say, really, I
Speaker 1: feel like there are human names that could be dog names.
Speaker 1: I can name my dog Bruce. You know, I named
Speaker 1: one of my dog Hudson. But I have to disagree
Speaker 1: with you here. I support everything that Ann Edwards does.
Speaker 1: He's my favorite NBA personality. He's got it all. He's
Speaker 1: a dog, he's hilarious, he's honest. So all right, I
Speaker 1: think it's a good call. All right. I'm gonna admit
Speaker 1: that I'm a hypocrite here because I've got a I've
Speaker 1: got a female dog in her name is Casey, so
Speaker 1: I think that's uh. I have now been caught with
Speaker 1: my foot in my metal. I'm a hypocrite. People names
Speaker 1: are okay. I'm just not okay with Anthony. Okay, fair
Speaker 1: at least showed up to it there, all right, good
Speaker 1: call or bad called Jason for the Nets to bring
Speaker 1: back Ben Simmons as early as Monday, which is now
Speaker 1: a possibility. I'm gonna go with good call. I watched
Speaker 1: a lot of film on the Celtics and the Nets
Speaker 1: today and there was a considerable amount of defensive breakdowns
Speaker 1: on the back end. Huge problem that the Nets had,
Speaker 1: and we'll get into this a little bit deeper later
Speaker 1: in the show, is Kevin Durant wants to guard Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: and I disagree with that from a strategy standpoint, But
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant is a very important part of their defense
Speaker 1: with his ability to disrupt shots around the rim. And
Speaker 1: if he keeps getting dragged out to the perimeter on
Speaker 1: these double teams of Tatum and on these you know,
Speaker 1: Tatum bringing the ball up the floor as a point
Speaker 1: guard while guys like Jalen Brown are driving to the
Speaker 1: rim with no help, it's going to be a problem.
Speaker 1: So you have one of two things that you can do.
Speaker 1: You you can put Kevin Durant on someone else so
Speaker 1: that he can be more of a helper around the basket,
Speaker 1: But then you need someone on Tatum. And so getting
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons is just a guy who can do what
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant does defensively on the perimeter. So that Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant can do what Kevin Durant does defensively around the basket,
Speaker 1: it would change the dynamic of the Nets defense in
Speaker 1: this series. And so I think if if Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: is ready to go and the medical staff doesn't think
Speaker 1: that him playing, could further compromise his ability to play
Speaker 1: next year. You gotta bring him back. How much does
Speaker 1: that raise the nets defensive ceiling and just make their
Speaker 1: job easier winning the series because obviously stopping you know,
Speaker 1: those high level scoring wings is so important. And then
Speaker 1: you got a pretty darn good defensive wing Tanem with
Speaker 1: Simmons and Katie out there. Absolutely it It is a huge,
Speaker 1: huge ceiling razor. You know, Brooklyn had no trouble scoring
Speaker 1: against Boston in the half court. I've heard a lot
Speaker 1: of people say things like, oh, they wasted a good
Speaker 1: Kyrie game, And my thing is, like, have you watched
Speaker 1: Kyrie's playoff career? Are you expecting him to go out
Speaker 1: and lay an egg in Game two? I mean, he might,
Speaker 1: It's not like it's it's not like it's out of
Speaker 1: the realm of possibility. But like Kyrie has like multiple
Speaker 1: three four game stretches in his playoff career where he
Speaker 1: just doesn't miss shots. So like, there's the Kyrie absolutely
Speaker 1: is still going to be a factor in the series
Speaker 1: as it goes along. And Kevin Durant again, We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about this a little more later. Kevin Durant had
Speaker 1: a disastrous game, like utterly disastrous. He was fumbling the
Speaker 1: ball all over the court, making so many mistakes. He
Speaker 1: had a bad defensive game as well. Kevin Durant is
Speaker 1: gonna be so much better. But I talked a lot
Speaker 1: about four of the series. I said that the Brooklyn
Speaker 1: offense was one of the best offenses in the league,
Speaker 1: and the Boston defense was one of the best defenses
Speaker 1: in the league. And then on the other end of
Speaker 1: the floor, Boston is a slightly above average half court
Speaker 1: offense and the Brooklyn Nets are slightly above average half
Speaker 1: court defense. So if I could turn Brooklyn's half court
Speaker 1: defense into a good the half court defense, that could
Speaker 1: be a huge swing in this series. So I think
Speaker 1: the Ben's I've I think the Ben Simmons thing would
Speaker 1: be a massive change for this series. Alright, So as
Speaker 1: we talk about this series and specifically some of the
Speaker 1: defense of Dynamics, Marcus Smart was given deploy today. They
Speaker 1: had a whole thing with Kerry Payton coming and did
Speaker 1: it on the TNT broadcast. So, Jason, is that a
Speaker 1: good call or bad call? I feel bad saying bad
Speaker 1: call because Marcus Smart played the best possible defensive season
Speaker 1: that a guard could play. Yeah, so I hope let
Speaker 1: me just I'll just I'll just say it, Marcus Smart,
Speaker 1: unbelievable season. One of the best guard defensive seasons I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. Kudos, man, you deserve an award. But the
Speaker 1: you know who really put me onto this was Joel Embiid.
Speaker 1: And this is what frustrates me so much about his
Speaker 1: foul drifting because I like so much about him as
Speaker 1: a basketball player. And he was talking with J. J.
Speaker 1: Reddick about how big man should win Defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year, and he made a case that swayed me
Speaker 1: and I agree with him, and his case was our
Speaker 1: job as the big man on the back line of
Speaker 1: the defense is two quarterback the defense to call out coverages.
Speaker 1: We're supposed to memorize the plays that the other team
Speaker 1: runs so that we can call them out so that
Speaker 1: the other guys on the floor know what's coming. The
Speaker 1: defensive role of the big man under the basket is
Speaker 1: so remarkably important and carries additional responsibilities over what the
Speaker 1: guards do. You know, It's like football, like you could
Speaker 1: have Oh, b J come out and just have the
Speaker 1: best season of receiver could possibly have, but I wouldn't
Speaker 1: give him offensive m V P because the the the
Speaker 1: role of the quarterback in navigating the game, the flow
Speaker 1: of the game, his role making pre snap decisions and
Speaker 1: trying to determine where the blitz is coming from, and
Speaker 1: trying to just determine whether or not they're going zone
Speaker 1: coverage or man coverage, or whether or not they're trying
Speaker 1: to disguise that coverage. There's so many important responsibilities that
Speaker 1: fall on the lap of the quarterback that it's to me,
Speaker 1: it's kind of impossible for a quarterback not to be
Speaker 1: the m v P of the league. They have to
Speaker 1: be in my opinion. And so it's the same concept here.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'll give you an example. So like,
Speaker 1: for instance, when I was in college, we would run
Speaker 1: a specific uh a pick and roll coverage on the
Speaker 1: left side of the floor and on the right side
Speaker 1: of the floor, and then when we were in the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor, we'd run a completely different coverage.
Speaker 1: We had to. We literally would spend the entire week
Speaker 1: before the game memorizing the other team's plays because when
Speaker 1: you don't know where screens are coming from, they catch
Speaker 1: you off guard. It is extremely difficult to navigate screens
Speaker 1: when you do know where they're coming from. Especially for
Speaker 1: a guy like me it was six ft six, I
Speaker 1: had a hard time navigating over screens. It's really hard
Speaker 1: for bigger guys. So you it helps to know where
Speaker 1: they're coming from, and the job of the big man
Speaker 1: behind the play, because when you're picking up the point guards,
Speaker 1: the point guards coming up the floor. So Marcus Smart's
Speaker 1: guarding Kyrie Irving tomorrow, Kyrie Irving's bringing the ball to
Speaker 1: the floor, He's picking him up a half court. It's
Speaker 1: he doesn't know what's happening behind him. He doesn't know
Speaker 1: what kind of coverage or what kind of screen action
Speaker 1: Kevin Durants using to get open on the week side.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know if they're setting up some kind of
Speaker 1: backdoor lob. It is the job of Al Horford, whoever
Speaker 1: it is in that position for the Celtics on any
Speaker 1: given possession, to call out what coverages are being used,
Speaker 1: to call out the play that's being used. So I
Speaker 1: I tend to agree with Joel Embi that it has
Speaker 1: to be a big man, and so because of that,
Speaker 1: I would have gone with somebody like a a like
Speaker 1: a Rudy Gobert, or or like a bam At a
Speaker 1: Bio or even Jaren Jackson before I go to someone
Speaker 1: like Marcus Smart. And the last thing I'll say about
Speaker 1: it is like, I know, as the league moves into
Speaker 1: this five out era, perimeter defense becomes remarkably important. But
Speaker 1: it's not like the old days where you'd put Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown or Bruce Bowen excuse me, on the other team's
Speaker 1: best player and have him guard him the entire game,
Speaker 1: or put you know, metal world piece ron our Test
Speaker 1: on the other team's best player he guards him the
Speaker 1: whole game. Teams are so smart now that like it's
Speaker 1: pretty rare for you to attack the other team's best
Speaker 1: player with your best player. They're gonna find some way
Speaker 1: to get him off of you. And so unfortunately that
Speaker 1: perimeter defense player, even though they are still extremely valuable,
Speaker 1: they're just not as valuable as that back line guy.
Speaker 1: And I'm always going to go that way. So I
Speaker 1: would have given the Defense Player of the Year to
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert this year. So you're not just talking about
Speaker 1: pure guards. They're like if there's a wing like Pete Kauai,
Speaker 1: who obviously won back to back depois same So you know,
Speaker 1: I used to advocate all the time for Lebron to
Speaker 1: get Defensive Player of the Year. And I was wrong
Speaker 1: about that, like just to just to come straight out
Speaker 1: because I didn't understand that yet. And two kudos to
Speaker 1: Joe l Embiid for breaking it down in a way
Speaker 1: that I thought was so important. And it's funny because
Speaker 1: I had all those pieces of information. I had access
Speaker 1: to those pieces of information the whole time, but I
Speaker 1: just didn't put two and two together. Like I literally
Speaker 1: played college basketball in that setting. My center was a
Speaker 1: guy named a Tais Olivierira. He called out every coverage
Speaker 1: and I just didn't put that together. And and and
Speaker 1: so I was wrong to advocate for Lebron in those years.
Speaker 1: Kauai should not have won it in those years. The
Speaker 1: quarter and you know, unless, and this is the difference,
Speaker 1: unless within the Spurs system, Kauai's job was to be
Speaker 1: the quarterback of the defense. I just don't think that
Speaker 1: was the case because it's very difficult for a wing
Speaker 1: to be in the correct spots on the floor to
Speaker 1: be able to call out coverages and so and just listen,
Speaker 1: like you listen to the big guys on the floor,
Speaker 1: even even when they're not miked up. You can hear
Speaker 1: them yell ice, ice ice, So you can hear them
Speaker 1: yell drop drop drop, you can hear them yell their
Speaker 1: coverage out. I loved how they miked up Joe LMB tonight.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a perfect little uh set up for
Speaker 1: this conversation. So you can kind of see the way
Speaker 1: Joe l m B navigates that over the course of
Speaker 1: the game screaming out you did there were there was
Speaker 1: a sequence where he was like yelling out double double double.
Speaker 1: He's literally telling where the screens are coming from, where
Speaker 1: you know how many screens there are. His job is
Speaker 1: so incredibly important, and and that that that just has
Speaker 1: to be factored in in this kind thing. I think. So,
Speaker 1: who would you have given deepoint to you this year?
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert? Bam, bam. You know we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk more about Rudy Gobert in the Utah Jazz here
Speaker 1: in just a minute, because I know when everybody when
Speaker 1: I say that, I know all of you are immediately
Speaker 1: going to, hey, this is horseshit, The the jazz suck.
Speaker 1: How can you give it to Rudy Gobert. But Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert is not the reason why the Utah Jazz defense sucks.
Speaker 1: Will get into that in a minute. The only reason
Speaker 1: I'm not getting into guys like bam at a bios
Speaker 1: he didn't play enough games. Jaren Jackson Jr. Was amazing
Speaker 1: defensively for parts of the season, but also he played
Speaker 1: a lot of his minutes with Steven Adams, and I
Speaker 1: think Steven Adams was more of the quarterback for them.
Speaker 1: I think Jaren Jackson Jr. Could be a Defense Player
Speaker 1: of the Year in the future. To me, like it's
Speaker 1: kind of an imperfect field of candidates, kind of similar
Speaker 1: to the m VP debate. You're picking a flawed candidate.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna pick the flawed candidate that I know
Speaker 1: is one of the best defense players in the league,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be Rudy Gobert. How do you stay healthy?
Speaker 1: Would have gone to dreamlond H. So what we're sort
Speaker 1: of your thoughts on that MAVs Jazz game today then,
Speaker 1: so you know, there there's a persistent need among basketball
Speaker 1: fans around the world, especially on Twitter, to make fun
Speaker 1: of the Jazz at Rudy Gobert's expense. He's he's the
Speaker 1: punching bag and I fell into this too a little
Speaker 1: bit before I started covering the league more closely, back
Speaker 1: when I would only see Rudy Gobert and small doses
Speaker 1: and special credit to a guy named Ben Dao said,
Speaker 1: who covers the Jazz and you guys got to check
Speaker 1: him out if you're not already following him. But he
Speaker 1: sent me a ton of film and broke it down
Speaker 1: for me in detail, the specific flaws that the Utah
Speaker 1: Jazz defense has. But the gist of it is they
Speaker 1: are a terrible defensive team around Rudy Gobert, and as
Speaker 1: a result, very simple actions utterly compromise the Jazz defense.
Speaker 1: And as a result, you see these guys scoring at will,
Speaker 1: and you see Rudy Gobert kind of seeming hapless and ineffective,
Speaker 1: and it's easy to just immediately go that route, like, oh,
Speaker 1: look at Rudy Gobert, his man scoring every single time.
Speaker 1: But like at the end of that game, they just
Speaker 1: took Dwight Powell off the floor. They put Maxine Cleber
Speaker 1: in the corner, and they had four guys that could
Speaker 1: shoot around him, Spencer Dinwoodie, Jalen Bronson, Reggie Bullock and
Speaker 1: Dorry and Phinney Smith, and then what they would do
Speaker 1: is have the ball on one of the wings, usually
Speaker 1: the left wing, and they put Maxine Cleber in the
Speaker 1: right corner. So at that point, Rudy Gobert is in
Speaker 1: a tough position because he's the help side defender, so
Speaker 1: he's got to be there to cover for the drives.
Speaker 1: But Maxine Cleiber is in the corner and he's made
Speaker 1: a bunch of threes already tonight. But Spencer Dinwood, he's
Speaker 1: going right around his man to the basket. Jalen Brunson's
Speaker 1: going right around his man to the basket. So if
Speaker 1: Rudy gober Are guards Maxine Cleber in the corner and
Speaker 1: Spencer din what he gets six wide open layups? Are
Speaker 1: you guys gonna suddenly decide to not slander Rudy Gobert.
Speaker 1: Rudy's doing his job. There's no defense in the league
Speaker 1: that should allow one drive and kick to get wide
Speaker 1: open three after wide open three. In the NBA playoffs,
Speaker 1: no defense worth their salt should do that. There were
Speaker 1: a bunch of plays where Boyan Bogdanovich is literally ten
Speaker 1: ft away from Maxine Cleiber in that corner and doesn't
Speaker 1: bother to rotate over and guard the shooter. They're like,
Speaker 1: that's just embarrassing effort defensively around Rudy Gobert, their tissue
Speaker 1: paper at the point of attack, giving up straight line
Speaker 1: drive after straight line drive. To you know, Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: is a great player. We're gonna talk about him here
Speaker 1: in a minute. Spencer Dinwood, he's having a rough series,
Speaker 1: but he's you know, he's he's Those two guys are
Speaker 1: not high level perimeter guys. They're not Kyrie Irving, they're
Speaker 1: not Donovan Mitchell, they're not Morand and they're just getting
Speaker 1: to the paint every time they want, and Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: has to step over and help. And it's an easy
Speaker 1: kickout for a three point shot every single time. And
Speaker 1: like I talked about all the time, your defense should
Speaker 1: be able to give up a straight line drive, but
Speaker 1: you have to rotate on the back end at the
Speaker 1: very least make them pass it around three or four
Speaker 1: times before they get a wide open three. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, Luca, Luca dont needs to go buy all
Speaker 1: these guys a steak dinner. Because I said on the
Speaker 1: show the other day that I didn't know that they
Speaker 1: could win a game without Luca, and I thought their
Speaker 1: only chance was Luca coming back in Game three and
Speaker 1: pulling this series out in seven games. And the Jazz
Speaker 1: might have just nuked even that because they had no
Speaker 1: business losing this basketball game. But this is it, you know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's Quinn Snyder's fault that their
Speaker 1: weak side rotations are so bad, or if it's just
Speaker 1: a lack of commitment, or if it's a personnel issue.
Speaker 1: I mean, it could very well be a personnel to shoo.
Speaker 1: Mike Connolly is a small guard that doesn't cover a
Speaker 1: lot of ground. Jordan Clarkson is a good scoring guard.
Speaker 1: He was killing them tonight with that little short step
Speaker 1: back in the lane, a little eight foot step back,
Speaker 1: but he's not a great defensive player. Boyan Bogdanovitch is
Speaker 1: actually okay in isolation defense against bigger wings, but he's
Speaker 1: not good covering a lot of ground on the back end.
Speaker 1: It's really Rudy Gobert covering for his teammates, and in
Speaker 1: the dregs of the regular season, when they can run
Speaker 1: drop coverage all night long, and when Rudy Gobert because
Speaker 1: teams aren't scheming appropriately for it. He can sit around
Speaker 1: in the paint, they're gonna have success. Guys like Dwight
Speaker 1: Powell played the vast majority of of minutes at the
Speaker 1: five for this team over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: So for a lot of like the day in, day
Speaker 1: out regular season stuff, that's Dwight Powell, that's Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: sitting under the basket and they're shutting him down. Game
Speaker 1: one of the series, they played, uh two shifts of
Speaker 1: Dwight powet at the start of the quarter. Then they
Speaker 1: tried to bring him in for offensive defensive swaps. But
Speaker 1: Dwight Powell was on the floor for a lot of
Speaker 1: offensive possessions in that fourth quarter and it caused him problems.
Speaker 1: But you know what you do in the playoffs, You
Speaker 1: make adjustments. They made a simple adjustment. They went away
Speaker 1: from Dwight Powell. They went smaller with four scoring of
Speaker 1: guys that can shoot in max and clear but big
Speaker 1: who can shoot. And that was all it took to
Speaker 1: completely and utterly compromise Utah Jazz defense with a pretty
Speaker 1: average group of offensive players. And so I I have
Speaker 1: to I have to come to the defense of Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert here. He is still, in my opinion, in that
Speaker 1: top tier of defensive players in the league. I think
Speaker 1: it's him and Draymond, two very different guys in a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways. I think Rudy obviously has the
Speaker 1: better set of tools. Draymond I think has the bigger
Speaker 1: defensive basketball brain. But those two guys are the best
Speaker 1: defensive players in league. Rudy Gobert is still every bit
Speaker 1: in that conversation. He just has a garbage defensive team,
Speaker 1: and every time they stuck on defense, he's the one
Speaker 1: who gets blamed. Last shot that I wanted to to
Speaker 1: have on this particular game was Jalen Brunson. Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: average eight points a game in the Clippers series last year.
Speaker 1: He was utterly shut down by Nick Patum. Could not
Speaker 1: create his own shot, and you know it'd be easy
Speaker 1: to get discouraged there, and he had a pretty rough
Speaker 1: game one. I talked a lot after that game about
Speaker 1: how much more difficult it is to be a primary
Speaker 1: offensive option than a secondary offensive option, or a secondary
Speaker 1: offensive option then the third defense or offensive option. Look
Speaker 1: at how bet Spencer didn't what he is it has
Speaker 1: been in this series and he's just stepping into a
Speaker 1: secondary role. But Jalen Brunson was awesome tonight. And this
Speaker 1: is the other part of the Utah Jazz defensive scheme
Speaker 1: to drop coverage. A lot of what Jalen Brunson was
Speaker 1: getting was just here comes Max and clear, but to
Speaker 1: set a screen and you know, or Dwight Powell to
Speaker 1: set a screen. And there's Rudy Gobert dropping into the
Speaker 1: paint and here's Jalen Brunson shooting a wide open jump
Speaker 1: shot at top of the key and he's knocking it
Speaker 1: down and it was just unbelievable from him. You know.
Speaker 1: I was things were getting bleak for for Dallas and
Speaker 1: they needed something to just inject a little bit of
Speaker 1: life into them to get them to the light at
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel that is Luca don coming back.
Speaker 1: And they came out again tonight with just an unbelievable
Speaker 1: defensive performance and then maxin Kliba and and and Jalen
Speaker 1: Bronson just took the game home and Spencer didn't what
Speaker 1: He also had a huge spinning hook shot in the lane.
Speaker 1: For having a rough night, he made a huge play
Speaker 1: at the end of that game. One last really really
Speaker 1: quick note on that game. You guys always hear me
Speaker 1: talk about the value of rim pressuring forwards. You know,
Speaker 1: when little guards struggled to create their own shot in
Speaker 1: playoff series, it's always these six eight, six nine guys
Speaker 1: that could turn their back to the basket that end
Speaker 1: up having success. And I didn't think it was a
Speaker 1: coincidence that when the Utah Jazz offense was faltering late,
Speaker 1: they were able to throw it to Bogdanovich and he
Speaker 1: was just taking turnaround jump shots over smaller defenders and
Speaker 1: he was making them. That's a huge value piece in
Speaker 1: these types of matchups. It's a it's actually a huge
Speaker 1: thing that's missing from the Warriors offense. They don't have
Speaker 1: that big wing that they can dump the ball too
Speaker 1: in the post and he can create shots for himself.
Speaker 1: That's a a weakness on a lot of teams around
Speaker 1: the league, but it is a strength of this particular
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz team. It's not gonna be enough, but he's
Speaker 1: a guy that if you could poach him from Utah,
Speaker 1: he's a guy that I'd love to have on a
Speaker 1: roster as just an option to attack mismatches in these
Speaker 1: late playoff series. Alright, guys, before we head out of
Speaker 1: here for the night, we're gonna bring my guy Carson
Speaker 1: back on for holder bail. Yeah. So, like you said, Jason,
Speaker 1: we're playing holder bail. We played this yesterday. We're checking
Speaker 1: in on your pre series predictions and seeing if you
Speaker 1: want to hold or bail on any of these. We're
Speaker 1: gonna start with Heat Hawks. You took the heat and
Speaker 1: five before the series started. They dominated Game one. Are
Speaker 1: you holding or bailing on that? Absolutely? Holding? Um. They
Speaker 1: might even sweep him. We'll see. Atlanta seems to be coming.
Speaker 1: A part of it seems a little bit a little
Speaker 1: shout out to p J. Tucker. Watching the film from
Speaker 1: that game, I couldn't help but be reminded of the
Speaker 1: way he physically caused problems for Kevin Durant in last
Speaker 1: year's playoff run. I think one of the most common
Speaker 1: things that happens with championship teams. We see this with
Speaker 1: the Lakers in the last couple of years, and you've
Speaker 1: seen it a little bit with the Bucks this year,
Speaker 1: and you saw it with the Dallas Mavericks in two
Speaker 1: thousand eleven after they won with Dirk. They undervalue what
Speaker 1: their role players bring to the table and how it
Speaker 1: helps them win, and you know, I think it was.
Speaker 1: P J. Tucker was a great get for Miami. He's
Speaker 1: a very very effective playoff player and it's been cool
Speaker 1: seeing him have success again in another environment. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: speaking of p J. Tucker and obviously what he meant
Speaker 1: to the Bucks last year, you took the Bucks in
Speaker 1: four to sweep the Bulls. They did squeak out Game one,
Speaker 1: probably a little too close for comfort. Are you holding
Speaker 1: or bailing with that prediction? So I'm holding with the
Speaker 1: Bucks winning the series, but I am bailing in the
Speaker 1: sense that I do think Chicago is going to get
Speaker 1: a game. I think they figured out some stuff defensively
Speaker 1: in Game one that they can that they can ride forward.
Speaker 1: And you could not have gotten a more disastrous offensive
Speaker 1: game from all three of their stars. We talked a
Speaker 1: lot about the zach Lavine and and and uh um
Speaker 1: and to Maarda Rose enforcing shots off the dribble rather
Speaker 1: than making reads to their teammates. And then Vivussovitch was
Speaker 1: getting wide open threes all night long and he went
Speaker 1: to for ten. So there, there's there's some issues there
Speaker 1: that I think they've they'll be able to overcome one
Speaker 1: last note on this series. You know, Chris Middleton had
Speaker 1: a rough Game one, and Drew Holiday was really inconsistent
Speaker 1: last year's playoff run. If you guys remember, he was
Speaker 1: pretty bad offensively throughout the entire series there throughout the
Speaker 1: entire run, and then he had some good defensive moments
Speaker 1: in the finals. You know, I talked a lot about
Speaker 1: how the Bucks run this year was gonna be harder,
Speaker 1: and it will. They're gonna they're they have an easy
Speaker 1: first round series, but they're gonna have to go through
Speaker 1: Boston after this, and then after that they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to go through either Philly or Miami, and then after
Speaker 1: that they're gonna have to go through a much better
Speaker 1: version of the Phoenix team that they that almost beat
Speaker 1: them last year. And so the inconsistency from Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: and Drew Holiday is not gonna fly. Those guys are
Speaker 1: gonna have to figure out a way to bring their
Speaker 1: best more freak only or I think this Bucks team
Speaker 1: is gonna get beat at some point down the line. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it did feel like that was a huge question
Speaker 1: kind of throughout the early goings of the playoff run.
Speaker 1: Is last year was what the Bucks get that consistent
Speaker 1: production those two and obviously they got it when they
Speaker 1: needed it most. But definitely agree with you there. All right,
Speaker 1: Well you mentioned the Suns. You took them to sweep
Speaker 1: the Pelicans before the series. They were pretty convincing throughout
Speaker 1: Game one and a win. Are you holding or bailing
Speaker 1: with that prediction they're gonna sweep him? Um. I wanted
Speaker 1: to give a special shout out to CP three here
Speaker 1: while we were recording the show, because we came on
Speaker 1: last night before that game ended. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you saw that video, Carson, but CP three one on
Speaker 1: a run. We're like about six or seven possessions in
Speaker 1: a row. He just ran high pick and roll with
Speaker 1: JaVale McGee and DeAndre and it scored every single time,
Speaker 1: like every single time against the against the good uh
Speaker 1: Pelicans defense. And you know, I can say all the
Speaker 1: usual stuff like I can't believe he's thirty seven years
Speaker 1: old and he's still doing this. Oh you know, he's
Speaker 1: the point god, all the blah blah blah. The thing
Speaker 1: that I want to say is like, you know, basketball
Speaker 1: in so many ways gets over complicated, but there are
Speaker 1: in and it is a very complex game on a
Speaker 1: bunch of different levels, but there are simple things to it,
Speaker 1: and like Chris Paul is such a savant at understanding
Speaker 1: what works and what doesn't in the high pick and
Speaker 1: roll is such a simple action, and teams have a
Speaker 1: certain number of options that they can go to guarding it.
Speaker 1: It usually involves either overplaying the roleman or over playing
Speaker 1: the ball handler. And when you're playing the ball handler,
Speaker 1: either either involves taking away the drive or taking away
Speaker 1: the dump shot. And that in that sequence, it was
Speaker 1: like every time they went under the screen, he just
Speaker 1: pulled a three and he made him every time they
Speaker 1: went over the screen, he just kind of methodically worked
Speaker 1: his way through the lane, and uh, he made a
Speaker 1: couple of layups. He had like a crazy little fade
Speaker 1: away along the right along the right block, and then
Speaker 1: there was a play where like he kind of stunted
Speaker 1: at the screen and then old back and both guys
Speaker 1: came to him and just easy little bounce pass to
Speaker 1: JaVale McGhee. Now he's dunking, and like it's just he
Speaker 1: made it look so easy, and it's because like even
Speaker 1: though he's not the fastest guy, even though he's not
Speaker 1: the biggest guy in the world, even though he's not
Speaker 1: even necessarily like like his three point shot can be
Speaker 1: inconsistent from time to time. The dude is just a is.
Speaker 1: He's one of the smartest guys in the league. You know,
Speaker 1: the guy that I compare in the most to his Lebron.
Speaker 1: He's point guard Lebron, you know what I mean. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I shout a special shout out to Chris Paul. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you said, it's just like the making it easy.
Speaker 1: It's to control the poise out of the pick and
Speaker 1: roll and just the fact that you know, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll average thirteen a game in the regular season or whatever,
Speaker 1: but he can easily kick that up to twenty at will,
Speaker 1: because it's just he gets a good look out of
Speaker 1: the pick and roll every single time, and you trust
Speaker 1: his shot making so much. All right, now we've arrived
Speaker 1: at the grand daddy of them all, Nets Celtics. You
Speaker 1: took the nets and seven before the series, Jason, are
Speaker 1: you holding or bailing on that? I'm holding. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: still go with Nets and seven. Um. I have a
Speaker 1: bunch of thoughts on this this particular series, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna get into this in more detail after Game two,
Speaker 1: I wanna I want to just hit on one thing
Speaker 1: with with Kevin Durant, because he has to find a
Speaker 1: way to be better defensively, and some of that was
Speaker 1: his effort and focus. He was just I think he
Speaker 1: was a little shell shocked in Game one, not in like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm nervous kind of way. I think he just I
Speaker 1: think he just kind of tried to ease his way
Speaker 1: into the series and got kind of punched in the
Speaker 1: mouth a little bit. But he has to find a
Speaker 1: way to be more impactful defensively, and with how often
Speaker 1: the Nets are double teaming Tatum, which is on almost
Speaker 1: every possession, I don't see the point of putting Kevin
Speaker 1: duran on Tatum because it's hurting them in the sense
Speaker 1: that he's not available to help on the back line.
Speaker 1: And you can't even though Tatums, even though Durant's your
Speaker 1: best option to throw at Tatum, if you're gonna double
Speaker 1: team in any way, you can get away with a
Speaker 1: lesser option on the I talked a lot about how
Speaker 1: they made a handful of really big mistakes at the
Speaker 1: end of that game, and I looked back at the
Speaker 1: film again. Boston's offense utterly fell apart in that fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that was on Tatum and I'll
Speaker 1: get into that more tomorrow, but you know, but because
Speaker 1: of tatum struggles, they were struggling to score, and there
Speaker 1: were a handful of plays where Jalen Brown killed them
Speaker 1: and it was just sloppy defensive mistakes. There was a
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown had a bad clothes out on Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: where he drove by for a dunk. There was a
Speaker 1: play they literally missed a free throw. Nick Claxton was
Speaker 1: shooting a free throw, so your defense should be set
Speaker 1: and on the play, Kevin Durant and Nick and Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant his job is to get back to the paint.
Speaker 1: He was above the key, Claxton was above the key,
Speaker 1: and on a free throw, Jalen Brown drove right by
Speaker 1: everybody and went to the basket and got an easy
Speaker 1: layup with no nets on the back line. That's like
Speaker 1: just stupid, sloppy laziness. But it's also that bad scheme
Speaker 1: of having Kevin Durant away from the basket for too long.
Speaker 1: And then on the second to last play when it
Speaker 1: was one one eleven, right after Kyrie makes the step
Speaker 1: back literally really, Jaylen Brown is facing up on Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown on the right wing and Kevin Durants guarding Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum all the way on the right side of the basket.
Speaker 1: They have al Horford run up off the ball instead
Speaker 1: a screen four Tatum away from the play literally on
Speaker 1: the left wing, thirty five ft from the basket, and
Speaker 1: it's a Horford Tatum little off ball screen. Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: Nick Claxton both run all the way out thirty five
Speaker 1: ft away and there now we're playing three on three
Speaker 1: and there's tons of space, there's nobody at the basket,
Speaker 1: and Jalen Brown just literally takes an easy move to
Speaker 1: the basket. I think it ended up being Gore on
Speaker 1: Drag who was in help and he stood no chance
Speaker 1: at stopping Jalen Brown. So there was there were some
Speaker 1: huge defensive breakdowns at the end of that game that
Speaker 1: I thought were just a product of really poor strategy
Speaker 1: on the part of the Nets. I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to clean that stuff up, So I still
Speaker 1: I still lean the Nets, even though they tricked off
Speaker 1: game one. I still think the Nets are gonna come
Speaker 1: back and win this series in seven games. All right, guys.
Speaker 1: That is all we have for tonight. As always, I
Speaker 1: appreciate your guys support. We will be back right after
Speaker 1: the final game tomorrow night. I will see you guys.
Speaker 1: Then the volume