Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. Here at
Speaker 1: the Volume, Happy Sunday, everybody covers to the Eastern Conference Finals. Here,
Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited.
Speaker 1: How do you cash back? Well, the Boston Celtics let
Speaker 1: go of the rope and get their ass kicked in Miami.
Speaker 1: A bunch of stuff that I want to dive into
Speaker 1: the reality of what this means about where the Celtics
Speaker 1: are at mentally, I want to talk about some of
Speaker 1: the cops that I have for both Jimmy Butler and
Speaker 1: for this Miami Heat team. And then at the end,
Speaker 1: I just have some brief thoughts about the Celtics moving forward.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do a full obituary until they lose,
Speaker 1: but statistically speaking, the Lakers and Celtics are any position
Speaker 1: where they have to do something that no team has
Speaker 1: ever done before, which has come from down three to zero.
Speaker 1: I'll share some thoughts on that as well. Here in
Speaker 1: just a minute, you guys know the drip before we
Speaker 1: get started. Subscribe to the Volumes Tube channels you don't
Speaker 1: miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Underscore Jason lts. You guys, don't miss anyhow announcements.
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Speaker 1: over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find
Speaker 1: them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight, all right,
Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So I was talking with Ryan,
Speaker 1: our lead producer, and shout out to Ryan. He does
Speaker 1: a ton of stuff behind the scenes to make this
Speaker 1: show possible. We were talking. We kind of get together
Speaker 1: usually on Sunday and just kind of hash out with
Speaker 1: the schedule is going to be over the course of
Speaker 1: the next week or so. And obviously a couple of
Speaker 1: sweeps leads to a predicament, right in terms of days off,
Speaker 1: because the final start on June first, no matter what,
Speaker 1: which is ten days from now. It's a week from
Speaker 1: this coming Thursday, right, So we're kind of looking at it.
Speaker 1: We're like, man, what are the chances that Boston pushes
Speaker 1: this thing to six? And I texted him, I said,
Speaker 1: the case is they're too talented to not take one
Speaker 1: of these next two and then win an elimination game
Speaker 1: at home, which would in theory push a series to six.
Speaker 1: But I said the reality is they look like a
Speaker 1: team that might crumble on the very next heat run.
Speaker 1: And when we were talking about that, it was in
Speaker 1: that first quarter sequence when Kevin Love was kind of
Speaker 1: hobbling around on the court and the Celtics looked like
Speaker 1: the more physically aggressive team. And then they sub Kevin
Speaker 1: Love out at one point, it's a twenty one to
Speaker 1: twenty game, like I said, kind of a punky injury,
Speaker 1: and then he hit hit him in the mouth with
Speaker 1: a run. They go on a thirty eight to seventeen
Speaker 1: run over the next ten minutes of game clock, and
Speaker 1: from there there was just no fight. There's no fight
Speaker 1: in this team anymore. And so runs happened in basketball games.
Speaker 1: It's certainly on the road right, Like it's just it's
Speaker 1: a guarantee the Nuggets go up huge right in the
Speaker 1: first half. Last night, It's like the Laker run was inevitable.
Speaker 1: It was just a question of whether or not Denver
Speaker 1: would be able to regain control of the game through
Speaker 1: their fight, and they were able to and Boston just
Speaker 1: simply was not able to. So what do I mean
Speaker 1: when I say fight? Right to me? Like, remember when
Speaker 1: Lebron's talking after each of these series about how hard
Speaker 1: it is, right, like, Okay, we beat Memphis, but Golden
Speaker 1: State's going to be harder. Okay, we beat Golden State,
Speaker 1: but the Denver Nuggets are going to be harder. What
Speaker 1: does that mean? It means like in these basketball games,
Speaker 1: there's a desperation level that's taking place on the floor.
Speaker 1: A lot of guys are pushing themselves when they're truly exhausted,
Speaker 1: when their body is at a point where we would
Speaker 1: most of us would consider that a limit. They're putting
Speaker 1: in another effort at that point. It's extremely difficult to do.
Speaker 1: And so in order to do that, you have to
Speaker 1: have a belief in a bigger goal, like you're making
Speaker 1: that extra effort when you're completely exhausted, because there's potentially
Speaker 1: I Lari O'Brian trophy waiting at the end. And so
Speaker 1: when you actually remove a team, removed belief from a
Speaker 1: team so that they don't see that trophy anymore, it
Speaker 1: becomes extremely difficult to fight. And when they stop fighting,
Speaker 1: it can go downhill very quickly, because now we're talking
Speaker 1: about a great basketball team that is fighting because they
Speaker 1: do see the trophy against a team that is no
Speaker 1: longer making those extra efforts, no longer executing it and
Speaker 1: doing all the things they need to do to pursue
Speaker 1: that ultimate goal. And so that's where stars in particular
Speaker 1: play a large role in basketball games. You know when
Speaker 1: there's an inevitability to a guy like a Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: and the fact that you just know that he feels
Speaker 1: more confident than both of your stars, and that he's
Speaker 1: getting to his spots better than both of your stars,
Speaker 1: and that no matter what happens in the runs of
Speaker 1: the game, the oscillations of the game, he's confident. Your
Speaker 1: stars are not, and that dynamic trickles down the roster.
Speaker 1: Guys stop fighting, and then you end up predicament. We're
Speaker 1: an extremely like the Boston Celtics have more talent than
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat. That's just a fact there. There are
Speaker 1: blue chippers all over that roster, whereas you've got a
Speaker 1: bunch of undrafted guys in Miami. But the Miami Heat
Speaker 1: are a better basketball team. Why because they have more fight.
Speaker 1: Why do they have more fight because they have a star,
Speaker 1: the star that feeds them with confidence and allows them
Speaker 1: to consistently play at the top of their game. A
Speaker 1: coach that consistently puts them in position to succeed and
Speaker 1: gets them to believe in that trophy, in their ability
Speaker 1: to get to it. And once the belief is there,
Speaker 1: the fight follows. Once the fight is there, when you've
Speaker 1: got guys like bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler and dudes
Speaker 1: that are in these smaller roles because again, Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: and bam Adebayo, because of what they do on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor, they fulfill so many responsibilities on
Speaker 1: the court that the responsibilities for the other guys are
Speaker 1: relatively easy. They're not asking them to guard, you know,
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, right like Kayleb Martin is gonna do some
Speaker 1: of it. Max Us is gonna do some of it,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler's gonna do some of it. But they're they're
Speaker 1: not asking like you're not asking Kyle Lowry to defend
Speaker 1: on an island against one of those guys. Right Like,
Speaker 1: Jimmy and bam are doing the vast majority of the
Speaker 1: dirty work and doing so much for the team offensively,
Speaker 1: everything else is achievable, so undrafted level talent can OutKick
Speaker 1: their coverage, whereas if your other stars are not like
Speaker 1: that and they don't fulfill all those responsibilities. Suddenly the
Speaker 1: shortcomings of those other guys start to show up, Like
Speaker 1: in that Lakers series, Lebron James and Anthony Davis are
Speaker 1: not having a good offensive series. It's been one of
Speaker 1: the biggest issues for them in this entire season. Lebron's
Speaker 1: jump shot is a shell of what it used to be,
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis can't score on the poster isolation anymore
Speaker 1: when he used to be so now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you are hyper focused on the fact that man Dennis
Speaker 1: Schroeder is having a bad series, Man D'Angelo Russell's having
Speaker 1: a bed series, whereas if these two were dominating the
Speaker 1: game offensively and doing the things that Jimmy Butler's doing
Speaker 1: in this series, for instance, and what BAM's doing in
Speaker 1: an ancillary role to Jimmy consistently, and BAM's aggression has
Speaker 1: been amazing in this playoff run, especially physically. When that's happening,
Speaker 1: suddenly you're not focused on the other stuff, because Gabe
Speaker 1: Vincent doesn't have to take a bunch of extremely difficult
Speaker 1: shots unless he's in such a crazy rhythm like he
Speaker 1: is tonight that they're all going in right. But there's
Speaker 1: a lot less pressure on these guys, so they have
Speaker 1: more belief. And when they have more belief, they fight.
Speaker 1: You guys get the point. And and that's what I
Speaker 1: find so impressive about this, this Jimmy Butler playoff run.
Speaker 1: He sapped them of belief and and that's the thing.
Speaker 1: Like one of the things that Boston has to focus
Speaker 1: on is making the right play. But time and time
Speaker 1: again in this series, it's Jason Tatum driving down the
Speaker 1: lane in crunch time one oh three, one hundred, wide
Speaker 1: open kickout to Jaylen Brown, wide open kickout to Malcolm Brogden,
Speaker 1: runs Jimmy Butler over for a charge Jimmy Butler, Jaylen
Speaker 1: Brown offensive rebound under the basket, two open shooters on
Speaker 1: the wing, and he tries to force it in traffic
Speaker 1: and gets blocked. Meanwhile, you see a play like tonight.
Speaker 1: I wrote down this play because to me, it kind
Speaker 1: of embodied this concept. Kyle Lowry runs the kind of
Speaker 1: dribble handoff thing with with Caleb Martin on the right
Speaker 1: wing and both guys go with Lowry. Lowry floats a
Speaker 1: pass over the top to Caleb Martin. Caleb Martin could
Speaker 1: he's a great athlete could have tried Jason Tatum at
Speaker 1: the rim, had an opportunity to just one guy, not
Speaker 1: a thicket of bodies. One guy, and rather than try
Speaker 1: to force it over a better athlete in Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: he makes the extra pass. It ends up in a
Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent catch and shoot three that goes in. If
Speaker 1: Caleb Martin forces that play, maybe Jason Tatum blocks it,
Speaker 1: which sparks the Boston's Celtics fast break, which leads to
Speaker 1: an easier shot for Boston. Instead, it's take it out
Speaker 1: of the net and go against our set defense because
Speaker 1: of one decision. And that's the type of decision that
Speaker 1: Boston never stayed locked in on. And I think I
Speaker 1: think all of that, the fight, the execution, it all
Speaker 1: comes down to Jimmy Butler sapping that team of their
Speaker 1: belief that they can win. And it's crazy to me.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of comps about about Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: and about this Miami Heat team, and I've seen the
Speaker 1: MJ comp get thrown around. Those of you guys who
Speaker 1: are Heat fans. We've been listening to this show. I've
Speaker 1: been looking at more as a Lebron comp but I
Speaker 1: there are some similarities with both, Like I look at
Speaker 1: this as more of a Michael Jordan's type of defensive
Speaker 1: run with what uh with what Jimmy Butler is doing defensively,
Speaker 1: because it's more ball pressure, playing passing lanes, forcing turnovers,
Speaker 1: and starting fast breaks. Whereas Lebron defensively was always like
Speaker 1: a backline guy. He could take on ball assignments and
Speaker 1: you'd seen him guard a Derrick Rose or Jamalmer in
Speaker 1: a pivotal moment. But for the most part, it's Lebron
Speaker 1: protecting the rim, right, it's blocking Thiago Splitter at the
Speaker 1: rim like it's he's one of the all time great
Speaker 1: you know, back line guys in the NBA. Right, And
Speaker 1: uh So the defensively, I say it leans more towards
Speaker 1: m J. But on the offensive end of the floor,
Speaker 1: like MJ was a guy that worked a ton off ball,
Speaker 1: got to his spots, a ton of post ups, fadeaways
Speaker 1: over both shoulders, a lot of movement shooting like coming
Speaker 1: off of screens and curling, coming off of screens and
Speaker 1: rising up and shooting. Jimmy Butler's offensive approach in the
Speaker 1: series reminds me more of Lebron because it's live dribble
Speaker 1: thirty five feet from the basket, picking on matchups, getting
Speaker 1: the easy shots close to the rim. That reminds me
Speaker 1: a lot of Lebron James in terms of the offensive approach.
Speaker 1: But regardless, I'm comparing Jimmy Butler in this playoff run
Speaker 1: to the two greatest basketball players who have ever graced
Speaker 1: planet Earth. And that's what's crazy about this, the other
Speaker 1: reason why I keep going to Lebrons. It reminds me
Speaker 1: of the psychological advantage that Lebron had. Like, guess what
Speaker 1: in that first round series, he's going against Trey Young
Speaker 1: and Dejonte Murray. Those are two pretty well established, like
Speaker 1: great basketball players in this league. Right round two, it's
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson and Julius Randall. In round three, it's literally
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown, two guys that are I
Speaker 1: think I had in the top twelve going into the season,
Speaker 1: Like these are really well respected guys around the league,
Speaker 1: and the only one of them who really went bucket
Speaker 1: for bucket with Jimmy as a competitor was Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 1: Everybody else was a shell of themselves. And I know
Speaker 1: Tatum's put up some numbers. But in the pivotal moments
Speaker 1: of this series when they've needed him to do what
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler does, which is run your offense, spam an action,
Speaker 1: this high pick and roll, this post up, this ISO
Speaker 1: on the right wing, whatever it is, he couldn't grab
Speaker 1: the reins of the game, dominate the pace and get
Speaker 1: great shots like what Jimmy Butler was doing on the
Speaker 1: other end of the floor. And it reminds me of
Speaker 1: Lebron in that twenty eighteen playoff run because you see
Speaker 1: these results that just don't make sense the Pacers. You
Speaker 1: thought the Cavs were gonna beat the Pacers just simply
Speaker 1: because it's Lebron James and that Pacers team wasn't super established,
Speaker 1: But as soon as they started playing games, it's like,
Speaker 1: oh shit, Indiana has more talent, you know. Then you
Speaker 1: go into the Toronto Raptors series and the Raptors are
Speaker 1: significant favorites, and they're like a fifty nine win team
Speaker 1: with home court advantage, and then like Lebron beats them
Speaker 1: in game one by stealing a game in crunch time.
Speaker 1: Game two, he hits all those fadeaways and just the
Speaker 1: life gets sucked out of the arena. You can see
Speaker 1: them stop fighting, you can see them cease to believe
Speaker 1: that they can win the game. Next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a sweep. That's what's happening here. And it's a
Speaker 1: more impressive version of that from the talent differential, because
Speaker 1: brunts Jaylen Brown and Jason Taana are better than Kyle
Speaker 1: Lowry and DeMar De Rosen. But it's the same type
Speaker 1: of personality dynamic like he is. He is such a
Speaker 1: presence on the court with how confident he is and
Speaker 1: how he's got his whole team believing that, like it's
Speaker 1: sapping the other team of belief. It's truly impressive to me.
Speaker 1: I wanted to do. I wanted to do some shout
Speaker 1: outs for some other guys. Gave Vincent he had that
Speaker 1: massive late step back jump shot in game two where
Speaker 1: he kind of shucked off Jason Tatum into that step
Speaker 1: back jumper. Six threes tonight a bunch of a bunch,
Speaker 1: Like he kind of went a little cold in that
Speaker 1: last round, but throughout this entire playoffrund, he's hd a
Speaker 1: lot of timely shots. Duncan Robbinson hit three threes, made
Speaker 1: a bunch of plays off the dribble in the first
Speaker 1: half that was kind of a surprise. And then Bam
Speaker 1: Adebayo like it hasn't been like super high volume scoring
Speaker 1: or anything, but he's just two things. He's been enough
Speaker 1: of a threat that it's warped Boston's defense enough that
Speaker 1: they're not leaving him on a island all that often.
Speaker 1: And then secondly, his physical aggression is actually having a
Speaker 1: similar impact on the belief of the opponent that Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler is having. And all the two plays that I
Speaker 1: look at are the play where al Horford gives up
Speaker 1: back to back offensive rebounds where he kind of like
Speaker 1: sort of boxes out and Bam grabs it over the top.
Speaker 1: And then on the very next shot, this was in
Speaker 1: Game two, he just like throws him to the side
Speaker 1: like a defensive end and grabs the rebound and dunks it.
Speaker 1: And then tonight that spin move on Jalen Brown where
Speaker 1: it's like Jalen Brown is one of the biggest, strongest,
Speaker 1: most athletic wings in the league and Bam hits him
Speaker 1: with the spin move and just it looks like Giannis
Speaker 1: and he's dunking while Jalen Brown's looking on like sliding
Speaker 1: down the floor. That type of physical aggression is just
Speaker 1: as impactful and affecting the psychological elements of this series
Speaker 1: as Jimmy Butler. So Jimmy and Bam together have inflicted
Speaker 1: that on their opponents for three straight rounds. Then that's
Speaker 1: what makes this NBA Final series potentially which statistically is
Speaker 1: going to happen, which is Denver versus Miami. That's what
Speaker 1: makes it so interesting is the idea of kind of
Speaker 1: like an immovable object versus an unstoppable force. The unstoppable
Speaker 1: force being Jimmy Butler's massive basketball presence and the effect
Speaker 1: it has on anybody who's not a top, top, top
Speaker 1: tier veteran defending champion type of superstar versus Nikolae Jokic
Speaker 1: who's unflappable and is in the process of finishing off
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant Lebron James in consecutive rounds. So that's what
Speaker 1: makes that NBA Finals series so interesting, is who's gonna
Speaker 1: be the one that folds there? You know, I'm unbelievably
Speaker 1: impressed by Miami as a basketball fan, like again, like
Speaker 1: and I've seen a lot of talk like, oh, what
Speaker 1: about the ratings, And I'm so not worried about it.
Speaker 1: For one thing, because our show is about basketball, it's
Speaker 1: not about the narratives and stuff, and so we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a great time regardless of who's playing. And most importantly,
Speaker 1: these are the types of teams that resonate with everything
Speaker 1: that this show is about. Like, to me, I love
Speaker 1: basketball games and I'm obsessed with the process of winning
Speaker 1: basketball games. And these are two teams that are experts
Speaker 1: at that process despite not having the super team type
Speaker 1: of mold, right, And that's what makes it super fascinating
Speaker 1: to me. And we're gonna have a lot of fun
Speaker 1: for the next three weeks in the process. Boston, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna do a deep dive on it tonight because
Speaker 1: I want to spend a good amount of time this summer. Obviously,
Speaker 1: right after Boston gets eliminated will get started, but I
Speaker 1: want to take like two three days to really dive
Speaker 1: into what options are available for them out there. But
Speaker 1: I do think that something has to be done a
Speaker 1: couple of things. Joe Mizoula, I think, I think, I
Speaker 1: think for a team that has this type of championship expectations,
Speaker 1: you need a coach that has a little bit more
Speaker 1: playoff experience. I think that's just the reality. Missoula very
Speaker 1: well might be a great NBA coach one day, but
Speaker 1: he was slow with adjustments in this entire playoff run.
Speaker 1: Really didn't really understand some of the more aggressive things
Speaker 1: that you can do that you saw other teams around
Speaker 1: the league do. And most importantly, his team didn't believe
Speaker 1: and that of one of the coach's jobs is to
Speaker 1: keep a team fighting. And I know it sounds silly,
Speaker 1: but like the stuff like im Udoka just trashing his
Speaker 1: team early in the season, that sets an expectation in it.
Speaker 1: It forces the team to kind of buy into this
Speaker 1: like tough mentality that stems from the coach, right, you know,
Speaker 1: like Mike Malone, this entire Damn Lakers series has been
Speaker 1: telling lies about the reality of the series in terms
Speaker 1: of the way it's being covered in the media. When
Speaker 1: everybody's picking Denver and they've been a favorite the whole
Speaker 1: I'm one of the few people who picked the Lakers
Speaker 1: and like, but he's doing that to keep his team motivated,
Speaker 1: like he's trying to put a chip on their shoulder.
Speaker 1: That's part of the job, and in this particular group,
Speaker 1: desperately needs a great motivator. They desperately need a great motivator.
Speaker 1: But it extends to the court as well, and so
Speaker 1: I want to take a look at the court. So inevitably,
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna have to move on from Joe Mizoula,
Speaker 1: and I believe they will. What do you do with
Speaker 1: the roster though, so you know, it's funny. We knew
Speaker 1: they had a ball handling and decision making issue at
Speaker 1: the end of last season, but we thought the answer
Speaker 1: would be bringing aggregate ball handling, right, That's why all
Speaker 1: of us praised the Malcolm Brogden trade. So you bring
Speaker 1: in Malcolm Brogden and now, like there's no doubt that
Speaker 1: the team has a ton of aggregate ball handling, so
Speaker 1: much so that this team actually opted to go small
Speaker 1: a lot of the time, whereas they were bigger much
Speaker 1: of last year with Robert Williams playing center, right, I think,
Speaker 1: which is a big part of why their half court
Speaker 1: defense wasn't quite as good as it as it was
Speaker 1: last year. But it's become clear that that's not the
Speaker 1: issue because at the end of the day, you're not
Speaker 1: having Malcolm Brogden run your offense when the game is tight.
Speaker 1: It's got to be in a star's hands, a real
Speaker 1: star that can go blow for blow as a decision
Speaker 1: maker with Jimmy freakin Butler. So it's less about I
Speaker 1: think our lesson that we have to learn from this
Speaker 1: is it's less about aggregate ball handling and more about
Speaker 1: the top end ball handling, the actual star players in
Speaker 1: the game. You need a star, like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: that can spam the same action against an elite NBA
Speaker 1: defense and consistently get good looks. The theme of this
Speaker 1: Boston offense is literally random. That's what they call it.
Speaker 1: They call it random, and so as a result, it's
Speaker 1: like you've got stars masquerading as cogs in a system,
Speaker 1: and you've got cogs and a system masquerading as stars
Speaker 1: when guards just take over the offense for long stretches
Speaker 1: and they don't have that simplicity that Miami can go
Speaker 1: to in the form of picking on matchups with Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: with bam Adebayo kind of hovering around the short The
Speaker 1: semi circle is a release valve, and so when I
Speaker 1: look at that, I spent just about five minutes before
Speaker 1: the show just looking to see if there was something
Speaker 1: that was obvious up front, and I don't see that guy.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't see a guy that Boston
Speaker 1: can get this offseason. That solves that specific problem. Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant was that guy, and I don't know, We don't
Speaker 1: know the details. We don't know if Brooklyn was never interested,
Speaker 1: we don't know if Boston never pulled the trigger. But again,
Speaker 1: let's just have like a little exercise here. What if
Speaker 1: that's Kevin Durant instead of Jaylen Brown and you'd lose
Speaker 1: two solid role players, Like what is what does this
Speaker 1: look like now? If Kevin Durant is the guy that
Speaker 1: can be like, I'm the grown up in the room,
Speaker 1: I'm not scared of Jimmy Butler. Let me go blow
Speaker 1: for blow by spamming this action while Jimmy is attacking,
Speaker 1: you know, Malcolm Brogden or Grant Williams on the other
Speaker 1: end of the floor. And maybe that is the difference.
Speaker 1: The problem is that guy's not available anymore. Phoenix is
Speaker 1: not getting rid of him. The reality is is that
Speaker 1: the most realistic option to bring in that type of
Speaker 1: player is Jason Tatum. Jayson Tatum has to become that guy,
Speaker 1: but he's young, and it might be three four years
Speaker 1: until then. So how do you reconcile that with the
Speaker 1: fact that this is a championship roster right now. And
Speaker 1: when you have championship rosters, guess what happened. Guys need
Speaker 1: to get paid. When guys need to get paid, they
Speaker 1: get paid market value. And when you have a great
Speaker 1: amount of talent on your roster, less talented teams want
Speaker 1: to pay market value to poach your players. And so
Speaker 1: you could end up in a predicament where Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: becomes that guy three years from now, but you no
Speaker 1: longer have a championship ross. And so I genuinely don't
Speaker 1: know that there's an easy fix, Like the right coach
Speaker 1: might be the only option. You know, it's tough to say.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's Brad Stevens. I don't know, but I will.
Speaker 1: I will say this to Celtics fans. I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: some time after they do get eliminated. I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: some time to really kind of come up with some
Speaker 1: ideas because I think you gotta do something. The star
Speaker 1: players aren't enough, but the role players, that's so much
Speaker 1: talent and you have to find a way to capitalize
Speaker 1: on that. Just sherely from the standpoint of asset management.
Speaker 1: All Right, guys, that's all I have for tonight. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys to support. We will be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow night after the final buzzer with Colin Cowhard
Speaker 1: after Lakers Nuggets. I believe that the Lakers are going
Speaker 1: to get a win, actually really quickly. I on the
Speaker 1: whole coming down from three. In theory, it's not that complicated.
Speaker 1: Win a home game, right, then win a road game,
Speaker 1: just one. Just win one road game. Then you come
Speaker 1: back in game six, three to two at home. You'll
Speaker 1: be favored to win the game. You'll have all the momentum.
Speaker 1: Win that game. Then in a game seven, anything can happen.
Speaker 1: Right in theory, it's not that complicated. Why does it
Speaker 1: not happen? Two things, All that stuff I was saying
Speaker 1: about belief and fight. The belief and fight is gone.
Speaker 1: The other team sees a pathway to end the series.
Speaker 1: You see an impossible pathway. But secondly, usually the team
Speaker 1: that's up three to zero is a better basketball team. Like,
Speaker 1: you don't go up three to zero unless you're better.
Speaker 1: Now it might only be a little bit better, but
Speaker 1: it's hard to be the team that's a little bit
Speaker 1: better than you four times in a row. That's why
Speaker 1: it's never happened before. I do think it's possible. I
Speaker 1: think it's way more likely that the Lakers do it
Speaker 1: than the Celtics, too, because they have an elite defense,
Speaker 1: and obviously Lebron James and Anthony Davis haven't played very well.
Speaker 1: Maybe they just start playing well and that turns everything around.
Speaker 1: But even in the case of the Lakers, is just
Speaker 1: so incredibly unlikely. You know, even if they steal Game four,
Speaker 1: they go in Game five in Denver and it's like
Speaker 1: ilacious Denver crowd that does not want to go back
Speaker 1: to LA for Game six. You're gonna get their very
Speaker 1: best punch. And so it's hard to believe that you're
Speaker 1: gonna beat Denver in Game six giving their very best
Speaker 1: punch unless you're a better basketball team than them. And
Speaker 1: the only way that's happening is if Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis get better, which this is kind of the
Speaker 1: These are kind of the guys they've been this entire
Speaker 1: playoff run. Really good defensive players, both of them, just
Speaker 1: not the same type of offensive threats they were in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, so it's hard to imagine, but I again,
Speaker 1: I do think the Lakers will win Game four. I
Speaker 1: think Boston loses Game four. I think the Lakers win
Speaker 1: Game four and then Denver closes it out in five.
Speaker 1: But also I wouldn't be surprised if Denver closed it
Speaker 1: out in four as well. All right, guys, that's all
Speaker 1: I have. I will see you guys tomorrow night with
Speaker 1: Colin Coward after Game four the Western Conference Finals. The
Speaker 1: Volume