Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: The NBA eighty two game grind is done, and now
Speaker 2: the real fun begins. The NBA Playoffs aren't here, and
Speaker 2: it's time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments,
Speaker 2: and jaw dropping plays.
Speaker 3: I can't wait.
Speaker 2: If you're looking to make the playoffs even more exciting,
Speaker 2: DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting
Speaker 2: partner of the NBA from the playing games all the
Speaker 2: way through to the finals. Now's the time to back
Speaker 2: your favorite players and teams as they chase glory. All
Speaker 2: season long. DraftKings has been the go to spot for
Speaker 2: NBA player props and that does not stop. Now. Want
Speaker 2: to make your playoff experience even more intense, Try placing
Speaker 2: a bet on your favorite player's performance. Well they drop
Speaker 2: thirty points, forty or more, it's your call. Ready to
Speaker 2: place your first bet? Download the DraftKings Sportsbook gap Now
Speaker 2: lock in your bets. Let's make this playoff run unforgettable.
Speaker 2: Here's something special for first timers. New DraftKings customers. Bet
Speaker 2: five dollars to get two hundred dollars in bonus bets.
Speaker 2: Instantly make it a playoff run to remember with DraftKings.
Speaker 2: Download the Draft Kings sportsbook gap and use code hoops
Speaker 2: that's h oops. That's code hoops for new customers to
Speaker 2: get two hundred dollars in bonus bets when you bet
Speaker 2: just five bucks only on DraftKings.
Speaker 3: The Crown is yours.
Speaker 2: Gambling problem called Wayne hundred gambler in New York call
Speaker 2: eight seven seven eight Hope and y or text hope
Speaker 2: and why to four six seven three sixty nine and
Speaker 2: Connecticut help us available for problem gambling Call eight eight
Speaker 2: eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or.
Speaker 3: Visit CCPG dot org.
Speaker 2: Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
Speaker 2: in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction.
Speaker 2: Void in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire one
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms
Speaker 2: and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co.
Speaker 3: Slash audio. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight.
Speaker 2: You're at the volume heavy Monday, everybody, Oh balt, you
Speaker 2: guys are having a great start to your week. We're
Speaker 2: hitting the two games from tonight's slate as the Los
Speaker 2: Angeles Clippers and the Detroit Pistons. On the Road even
Speaker 2: up their series to tie things at one and then
Speaker 2: at the tail end of the show, like we will
Speaker 2: be doing for the most part in the weekday shows.
Speaker 2: During the playoffs, we're gonna do ten to fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: of questions from the chat, So make sure you subscribe
Speaker 2: to the channel and hit that. Once you hit that
Speaker 2: subscribe button, you can drop your questions in the chat
Speaker 2: and then we'll bring Jackson on at the end for
Speaker 2: ten to fifteen minutes of questions. You guys know the
Speaker 2: joke before we started. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. We
Speaker 2: are just about to cross one hundred thousand subs. I'm
Speaker 2: super excited about it. Talk a little bit about that
Speaker 2: at the tail end of the show, as I'm just
Speaker 2: extremely thankful for you guys for helping us build this
Speaker 2: channel from the ground up. Don't forget about our podcast
Speaker 2: feed wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight
Speaker 2: it's also super helpf We leave a rating and a
Speaker 2: review on that front. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 2: JCNLT for show announcements. We also have social media feeds
Speaker 2: on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook under the Hoops Tonight title,
Speaker 2: where we're releasing content throughout the year. Make sure you
Speaker 2: guys follow us there, and then keep dropping mailbag questions
Speaker 2: in our YouTube comments so we can hit him in
Speaker 2: our mail bags throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
Speaker 2: let's talk some basketball. So I say out a tweet
Speaker 2: in the middle of the third quarter reemphasizing a point
Speaker 2: that I made after Game one of this series, which
Speaker 2: was that I thought that Denver's chance to win this
Speaker 2: series was to keep things close. The Clippers are not
Speaker 2: a super high quality playmaking team relative to Denver. I
Speaker 2: think Denver in general is a little bit smarter as
Speaker 2: a team, and so in theory, if they can get
Speaker 2: into close games with two three minutes left, four or
Speaker 2: five minutes left and it's a two or three point game,
Speaker 2: I like Denver's chances in those situations. And boy did
Speaker 2: I jinx the hell out of the Denver Nuggets because
Speaker 2: they end up getting into that situation. It looks like
Speaker 2: the Clippers were gonna build a little bit of margin
Speaker 2: there in the late third quarter, right, we got a
Speaker 2: huge Nick Matoom three. There was a James Harden three
Speaker 2: in there. They get a couple of buckets, they push
Speaker 2: it up to seven, but Denver battles back and we
Speaker 2: end up in another crunch time battle, but ironically it
Speaker 2: was the Denver Nuggets who were the undisciplined team in
Speaker 2: crunch time. Aaron Gordon, with a wide open dunk, smokes
Speaker 2: it off the back of the rim. Michael Porter Junior,
Speaker 2: who honestly played a much better game than he did
Speaker 2: in Game one, earned his right to close the game.
Speaker 2: Made a couple of huge plays, an offensive rebound where
Speaker 2: he drew a foul, a huge three, and a chaotic
Speaker 2: sequence on the right wing, and then he gets a
Speaker 2: defensive rebound on a critical possession, looks to throw a
Speaker 2: kick ahead pass, but hesitates at the last second, and
Speaker 2: right when he pulls back on that kick ahead pass,
Speaker 2: the ball just slips out of his fingers goes right
Speaker 2: to the other team, leading to a wide open three
Speaker 2: for Norman Pale, who really couldn't buy a bucket most
Speaker 2: of the night but hit several big ones late. It
Speaker 2: hit that three along the wing that was a huge swing.
Speaker 2: Instead of getting a Denver offense possession, which this season
Speaker 2: has been worth like around one point two to five points,
Speaker 2: especially with Nikole Yocic on the floor, you end up
Speaker 2: giving up three to the Clippers instead, So between he's
Speaker 2: at and the dunk, we're talking about like almost six
Speaker 2: and a half point swing back towards the Clippers. And
Speaker 2: then on that critical Jokic turnover late in the game,
Speaker 2: he gets double teamed, and this basketball one oh one.
Speaker 2: When you're double team it's about spacing and making yourself available.
Speaker 2: Both Christian Brown and Russell Westbrook stand in the exact
Speaker 2: same spot up on the right wing, making themselves easy
Speaker 2: to guard. Jokic has no place to go with the ball,
Speaker 2: he tries lobbing it in that direction. Kawhi Leonard gets
Speaker 2: a big steal. That was what was so unusual about
Speaker 2: what happened down the stretch. The Denver Nuggets so are
Speaker 2: typically so surgical about getting to the best possible shot
Speaker 2: and not making mistakes down the stretch, made three massive
Speaker 2: mistakes in crunch time that swung this game back towards
Speaker 2: the Clippers. And meanwhile, on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 2: Kawhi was just absolutely surgical with his shot making. He
Speaker 2: was amazing all night. Had just a classic Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 2: I'm not going to miss a single pull up jump
Speaker 2: shot type of game, but I thought the two he
Speaker 2: hit at the end might have been the toughest ones
Speaker 2: he hit all night. That right shoulder fade over Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 2: Aaron Gordon defended that perfectly. On Kawhi's followed through here,
Speaker 2: he damn near high five to Aaron Gordon, but he
Speaker 2: got the separation that he needed to at least get
Speaker 2: the clean look off or at least to get into
Speaker 2: his rhythm, and he knocked it down. And then the
Speaker 2: second one coming off the right wing, he sold it
Speaker 2: with this really nice aggressive driving move. Really got his
Speaker 2: momentum going down towards the basket before he hit that
Speaker 2: in and out dribble and elevated. That got Aaron Gordon
Speaker 2: on his heels so he could get good separation on
Speaker 2: the move and he knocked it down. I thought he
Speaker 2: did a much better job of handling double teams in
Speaker 2: this game. I want to credit the coaching staff here
Speaker 2: because they made it really simple for him. They had
Speaker 2: him attack on the right side of the floor. Denver
Speaker 2: was strong side zoning, usually with Jokic, meaning they were
Speaker 2: bringing Jokic over to basically outside the block and allowing
Speaker 2: Aaron Gordon to whoever was guarding Kawhi in a switch
Speaker 2: to basically force him towards the baseline where he's going
Speaker 2: to go right into additional help. And what the Clippers
Speaker 2: did there is they just sent a flasher right to
Speaker 2: the high posts, right at the semi circle below the
Speaker 2: free throw line. That's where he saw Norman Powell run
Speaker 2: in and get that little floater. That's where he saw
Speaker 2: Avita Zubats come in and get that little kind of
Speaker 2: hooking floater that he takes in that spot in the floor.
Speaker 2: They created an easier read for Kuhi to make, and
Speaker 2: it was interesting because in those situations he was making
Speaker 2: the reads. It was on the other ones when he
Speaker 2: was dribbling out above the break when Denver brought the
Speaker 2: double teams that Kawhi did a lot of what he
Speaker 2: did in Game one, where he kind of struggled to
Speaker 2: identify where the opening was or miss some of the
Speaker 2: easier reads. But when they got him into the right
Speaker 2: side of the floor, they had a plan. They had
Speaker 2: a plan for how to handle that double team, and
Speaker 2: he had five assists in one turnover tonight to go
Speaker 2: with the thirty nine points on nineteen shots. Just a
Speaker 2: unbelievable game from Kawhi Leonard. One of the things we
Speaker 2: talked about all year, dating back to training camp. I
Speaker 2: had my optimism surrounding the Clippers. I predicted them to
Speaker 2: finish above the play and thought they'd be good, base
Speaker 2: on my beliefs, my core basketball beliefs surrounding their perimeter athleticism,
Speaker 2: James Harden as a floor raizer on offense in the
Speaker 2: regular season, What if Eata Zubats can do as a
Speaker 2: pick and roll partner with it Harden and all the
Speaker 2: other stuff he showed. But one of the things I
Speaker 2: talked about at the beginning of the season was there's
Speaker 2: always this potential outcome, which is we joke about Kawhi
Speaker 2: and the Clippers struggling in twenty twenty. We talk about
Speaker 2: Kawhi being consistently unavailable from a health perspective in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, in twenty twenty two, in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four. But none of that matters if,
Speaker 2: for whatever reason, he makes it to April this year
Speaker 2: ready to go, and here we are it's April twenty.
Speaker 3: First, he just.
Speaker 2: Played a playoff game that only a top tier superstar
Speaker 2: in this league is capable of playing. And it's because
Speaker 2: when Kawhi is late when Kawhi is healthy, he is
Speaker 2: capable of reaching that level. And so yeah, there can
Speaker 2: be some wishful thinking if you're an opponent of why
Speaker 2: that maybe he won't be able to hold up over
Speaker 2: the course of the series. But he's here now and
Speaker 2: he's busting everybody's ass. I thought the Clippers handled the
Speaker 2: tic tac toe sequences better. What I'm referring to there
Speaker 2: is just like the ballscreen attack. When they get two
Speaker 2: to the ball, there's an opening there in the pocket
Speaker 2: or on a skip, and there's these simple read and
Speaker 2: react sequences that have to take place, and there were
Speaker 2: just a couple of examples where it worked better. There's
Speaker 2: a big one out of the right corner late in
Speaker 2: the game. Harden came off lefty hook pass over the
Speaker 2: top to Zoo, and Zoo you could see it coming
Speaker 2: a mile away. They loaded up the low man and
Speaker 2: they came across to rotate and Nick Patum was wide
Speaker 2: open in the left corner and Zoo just threw a
Speaker 2: beautiful over the top pass that landed in Batomb's hands
Speaker 2: with plenty of time for him to knock down that shot.
Speaker 2: They still botched a couple ones in their baseline cuts.
Speaker 2: Chris Dunn missed a reverse layup, credit to Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 2: He had a nice last second contest. But they're still
Speaker 2: batching some of those like baseline cut finishes that they
Speaker 2: I can get in those sequences. I thought that there
Speaker 2: were a lot of close out attacks from Norman Powell
Speaker 2: that didn't get converted. There's still a lot of meat
Speaker 2: on the bone there, so to speak for the Clippers
Speaker 2: to try to clean it up and get even more
Speaker 2: out of it. But I thought they handled everything just
Speaker 2: a little bit better today. Really nice bounce back when
Speaker 2: James Harden obviously not the most statistically impressive game with
Speaker 2: the four turnovers in eighteen points and seventeen shots, but
Speaker 2: I thought he hit some big ones, some big momentum
Speaker 2: shots throughout the game. I thought that big three hit
Speaker 2: in the late third quarter to push the lead up
Speaker 2: to seven was an example of a shot that carried
Speaker 2: more in terms of the momentum of the game. Defensively,
Speaker 2: I thought they got they've they've forced. I want to
Speaker 2: credit them for forcing them into some of those mistakes,
Speaker 2: specifically transition defense and getting back and sprinting and communicating.
Speaker 2: That's what closes up the opening that causes Michael Porter
Speaker 2: Junior to hesitate and go to throw the ball and
Speaker 2: then cough it up. The ball pressure from bog Don
Speaker 2: Bogdanovich on Russell Westbrook as he's driving up the left
Speaker 2: sideline versus the turnover that leads to the Derek Jones Junior.
Speaker 2: Don't there was a turnover that zubats or that Joki
Speaker 2: chad against a post up where Chris Dunn. We've seen
Speaker 2: Jokic burn teams a million times with this. He'll post up,
Speaker 2: He'll spin over one of his shoulders. Aaron Gordon will
Speaker 2: cut along the baseline and find a little opening as
Speaker 2: his man steps up to help on Jokic's spin, Chris
Speaker 2: Dunn came flying in and intercepted that pass to Aaron
Speaker 2: Gordon along the baseline. They they just made a few
Speaker 2: more plays in this game, and it ended up being
Speaker 2: the difference for Denver. A lot of positive Michael Porter
Speaker 2: Junior reintegrated himself with his rebounding by just being active
Speaker 2: on the offensive glass. I thought it was a you know,
Speaker 2: like it's one of those things where it's annoying that
Speaker 2: you have to sit down with Michael and be like, hey,
Speaker 2: this is what you're great at let's get you to
Speaker 2: do this in this big game. Like at a certain
Speaker 2: point you kind of hope that he would just bring
Speaker 2: up that bring out that level of intensity in game one.
Speaker 2: But he did bring that intensity, drew a key foul
Speaker 2: late in the game, although he did miss a big
Speaker 2: free throw, ended up hitting a huge three on that
Speaker 2: right wing. But he just made that one critical mistake
Speaker 2: late that ended up undercutting a lot of his success
Speaker 2: in the night. But Jamal Murray looked great all night.
Speaker 2: Russell Westbrook, aside from the handful of mistakes here and there,
Speaker 2: is still finding ways to space the floor as a
Speaker 2: cutter and as a shooter. Russ literally got chased off
Speaker 2: the three point line. I can't even remember the last
Speaker 2: time I saw that where Russell Westbrook has a dude
Speaker 2: literally come flying at him and forced him off the
Speaker 2: three point line. Russ panicked so much at the close
Speaker 2: out that he literally immediately traveled and stepped out of bounds.
Speaker 2: It just ended up not getting called as he was
Speaker 2: to the basket and drew a foul. There was a
Speaker 2: lot of upside from Denver tonight. They just undercut all
Speaker 2: of that upside with mistakes twenty turnovers. Twenty one points
Speaker 2: off of those turnovers, lots of them were picked sixes
Speaker 2: and key sequences late. The MPGA turnover directly leads to
Speaker 2: a three for Norman Powell. The Russell Westbrook turnover directly
Speaker 2: leads for leads to a dunk for Derek Jones. The
Speaker 2: miss free throws from Yo Kitchen Michael Porter Junior changing
Speaker 2: the shots that you can take at the end of
Speaker 2: the game. This has to be the Denver Nuggets in
Speaker 2: crunch time, the Denver Nuggets from the last few years
Speaker 2: that weren't mistake prone. This is their pathway. They've got
Speaker 2: to keep things close so that they can out execute
Speaker 2: them late in games. I was talking with Jackson before
Speaker 2: we came on the air, and Jackson made an interesting
Speaker 2: point just about how each game in this series is
Speaker 2: basically swung on mistakes. Clippers' mistakes in Game one, Denver
Speaker 2: mistakes in Game two. These teams feel very evenly matched,
Speaker 2: and this is going to be a series that pretty
Speaker 2: much comes down to the decision making, the playmaking, and
Speaker 2: the mistake making or lack thereof, from either of these
Speaker 2: teams as they move forward in the series, as we
Speaker 2: always do, come back to the channel on Tuesday morning
Speaker 2: Tomorrow morning, and we will have a film session that
Speaker 2: will go over some of the specific details that I
Speaker 2: noticed in this game. All right, let's move on to
Speaker 2: Pistons Nicks. Kind of similar to the first game, where
Speaker 2: the Pistons just controlled things throughout, but the Knicks came
Speaker 2: on strong late. Just this time, the Knicks came on
Speaker 2: strong at the very end of the game instead of
Speaker 2: the early fourth quarter. Jalen Brunson did some surgical shot making,
Speaker 2: and some surgical playmaking got the game tied, and the
Speaker 2: game came down to a pretty open Dennis Schroeder pull
Speaker 2: up three against Jalen Brunson and then a Mkale bridges
Speaker 2: pretty open catch and shoot three. Although it was moving,
Speaker 2: it was wide open, but it was a little bit
Speaker 2: higher difficulty because he was kind of moving aggressively towards
Speaker 2: his left. But Dennis made his, McHale missed his, and
Speaker 2: that was the difference in the game. The Pistons tie
Speaker 2: the series. Cade Cunningham has his first huge playoff game
Speaker 2: of his young career. I thought the story of his
Speaker 2: original rhythm that he built in the early part of
Speaker 2: the game was his transition pushes. He has this ability
Speaker 2: to finish while going full speed with either hand. A
Speaker 2: lot of guys have to slow down and they'll go
Speaker 2: to eurosteps so or they'll jump up to try to
Speaker 2: elevate goes through you in transition. It's a straight line,
Speaker 2: it's bump with the shoulder. It kind of gets to
Speaker 2: that left hand on the left side of the right
Speaker 2: hand of the right side.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: He actually kind of reminds me of as a finisher,
Speaker 2: speaking strictly of as a finisher as Desmond Bane in
Speaker 2: the sense that like it's all straight line power and
Speaker 2: really good touch while going full speed on either side
Speaker 2: of the basket. But he got a lot of work
Speaker 2: early in the game in transition, a steady diet of
Speaker 2: ball screens attacking. Jalen Brunson I thought that was an
Speaker 2: interesting approach in this game. It was less, you know,
Speaker 2: one to five pick and roll and a lot more
Speaker 2: of those pick and rolls with Tim Hardaway Junior trying
Speaker 2: to attack. Jalen Brunson I thought Tim Hardaway Junior set
Speaker 2: awesome screens. This is like such an important part of
Speaker 2: playoff intensity. You can get away with a lot more,
Speaker 2: especially if your feed are set, like if your feed
Speaker 2: are set. They'll let you lean, they'll let you bring
Speaker 2: those forearms in, they'll let you chuck somebody pretty good.
Speaker 2: As long as you're in position, as long as you're
Speaker 2: not moving around or like standing in a four foot
Speaker 2: wide stance or something like that, you can get away
Speaker 2: with a lot of contact on your screens. And Tim
Speaker 2: was just setting great screens for OG and then the
Speaker 2: scheme there that the Knicks are going to run and
Speaker 2: that most teams run when teams try to attack a
Speaker 2: small guard as a classic hedge and recover right. So
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson is throwing his body out as a hedge,
Speaker 2: and the next step in beating that coverage is as
Speaker 2: Tim Hardaway's setting a good solid screen on OG, uh
Speaker 2: Caid's got to get over the top of that hedge
Speaker 2: because if he does, he can turn the corner and
Speaker 2: there's an opening there before Og can recover from the
Speaker 2: screen for little min range jump shots for him to
Speaker 2: get downhill and to get into the teeth of the defense.
Speaker 2: A lot of success attacking Jalen Brunson in ball screens,
Speaker 2: beating his hedges with some quality screens from Tim Hardaway Junior.
Speaker 2: A lot of semi transition attacks. This is where Caid
Speaker 2: was getting his one on one success against Og when
Speaker 2: he had the semi and again semi transition. All that is,
Speaker 2: to me is a typical transition possession is you know,
Speaker 2: two on one, three on two, everyone's sprinting full speed.
Speaker 2: Semi transition is like are kind of back, but they're
Speaker 2: not really set. The defense is still a little bit
Speaker 2: on their heels, but it's usually more of like a
Speaker 2: five on five or a five on four just before
Speaker 2: the defense is completely set. And in those situations, Ojan
Speaker 2: Andobi's got his weight more backwards. He's a little bit
Speaker 2: more on his heels, which you know, neutralizes some of
Speaker 2: his physicality, and so that's where Caid can kind of
Speaker 2: stare him down as he's on his heels, hit him
Speaker 2: with a quick, quick crossover dribble. Now he's able to
Speaker 2: beat him to the spot and initiate the contact allowed
Speaker 2: to allows it allowing him to leverage his strength a
Speaker 2: little bit more to get easier finishes around the basket.
Speaker 2: That big late lob to Jalen Jurned, I thought this
Speaker 2: was a really fan of a fan of I thought
Speaker 2: this was a really fascinating play. Sorry, it's been a
Speaker 2: long couple of days. So obviously at the end of
Speaker 2: the game, Kid looks tired. Quite a bit of action
Speaker 2: being run for Dennis Schroeder down the stretch, which we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about in a minute, but there's a
Speaker 2: huge play late in the game where Caid generates a
Speaker 2: wide open lob dunk for Jalen Durnan, and I thought
Speaker 2: it was just a really smart example, a really good example,
Speaker 2: I should say, of why it's so important to take
Speaker 2: the time to set your spacing up properly before you
Speaker 2: run action. So in this case, they have Kid coming
Speaker 2: off of the ball screen towards his right hand, so
Speaker 2: that Duran is rolling to the left, but they have
Speaker 2: an occupied corner in this case Malik Beasley in the
Speaker 2: left corner. McHale Bridges is the guy who typically would
Speaker 2: be the low man there, and what they did is
Speaker 2: right as Caid was coming off the action, they had
Speaker 2: Malik relocate from the left corner up to the wing
Speaker 2: aggressively as though he was gonna shoot. So what that
Speaker 2: did is it put McHale Bridges in a really tough
Speaker 2: spot in terms of his decision making. All game long,
Speaker 2: the Knicks were putting two on the ball in those
Speaker 2: kid ball screens when they could, especially with the five
Speaker 2: man was involved, right. They were doing it as well
Speaker 2: with Brunson, but with that five man. As Caid comes
Speaker 2: off and he has two on the ball, that means
Speaker 2: the roller gets behind right. Jalen Duran gets behind the
Speaker 2: ball screen defender right. In that situation, SUA, the lob
Speaker 2: is open unless you tag the roller from the lowman.
Speaker 2: The lowman in that situation since kid is dribbling towards
Speaker 2: his right, towards the right corner, towards the right wing area.
Speaker 2: In that situation, technically the lowman is Mikale Bridges. It's
Speaker 2: his job to come over and step in front of
Speaker 2: Jalen Durrett. But because it's Malik Beasley over there, such
Speaker 2: a great shooter, and because they relocate him out of
Speaker 2: the corner up to the left wing, McHale Bridge's natural
Speaker 2: instinct is to follow the shooter as he's relocating, and
Speaker 2: so that basically neutralizer removed the lowman from the equation.
Speaker 2: What happens when there's no lowman and there's two on
Speaker 2: the ball with Kate, he doesn't need to make some
Speaker 2: tough shot, he doesn't need to beat someone off the dribble.
Speaker 2: He just got to go like this and just throw
Speaker 2: an easy lob pass up in the air for a
Speaker 2: dunk for Jalen durt Really really smart action at the
Speaker 2: end of the play or at the end of the game,
Speaker 2: and just a great example of why it's so important
Speaker 2: to set your spacing up properly. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: margin in basketball games. If you can get up the
Speaker 2: ball quickly, get up the floor quickly, get guys into
Speaker 2: their spacing properly, get to a matchup early enough in
Speaker 2: a possession you have quality spacing and time on the
Speaker 2: clock for guys to extend advantage. By driving closeouts and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, you can dramatically improve your offensive efficiency.
Speaker 2: That stuff really does matter. If that ends up being,
Speaker 2: you know, Dennis Schroeder in the left wing instead of
Speaker 2: Malik Beasley, it's the easiest low man rotation of all time.
Speaker 2: You're going to concede a catch and shoot three to
Speaker 2: Dennis Schroeder, especially when he's a guy that you can
Speaker 2: close out hard at and he's a guy that's a
Speaker 2: little hesitant to take that type of shot. You know,
Speaker 2: all the stuff that Kaid was succeeding with today, is
Speaker 2: the same kind of stuff that allowed Kaid to be
Speaker 2: successful versus the Knicks throughout the entire regular season. This
Speaker 2: is a big part of why even though I picked
Speaker 2: the Knicks and I still do believe the Knicks will
Speaker 2: win the series, I did believe this would be a
Speaker 2: long series because the Knicks have their advantages, and specifically,
Speaker 2: Kay Cunningham has found opportunities in ways for him to
Speaker 2: be successful against this team, regardless of the type of
Speaker 2: matchup that he's dealing with. Again, the really smart attacks
Speaker 2: like those guard screens with Tim Hardaway Junior, that was
Speaker 2: an excellent way to neutralize some of og Anonobi's physicality
Speaker 2: on Kade Dennis Schroeder. I ended up talking a lot
Speaker 2: about Dennis this year because he got traded to two
Speaker 2: playoff teams. He has his limitations. His jumper is inconsistent.
Speaker 2: He's small, so he's somewhat matchup dependent in terms of
Speaker 2: who he can guard effectively. Famously, in the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: three Conference Finals, he was basically useless first Jamal Murray
Speaker 2: because he was too big and strong, so he could
Speaker 2: just get to his spots and shoot over the top
Speaker 2: of him. He's not as fast as he used to
Speaker 2: be back like when he was in Atlanta and he
Speaker 2: could just toast everybody off the dribble all the time.
Speaker 2: But he's one of the best competitors in the game.
Speaker 2: And what I mean by that is that he despises
Speaker 2: losing so much that you can count on him to care.
Speaker 2: I talk about this all the time. I think a
Speaker 2: basketball player, I think a player in the NBA that
Speaker 2: hates losing is actually more valuable than a player in
Speaker 2: the NBA that loves basketball, because the hatred of losing
Speaker 2: will drive you to do the dirty work. Ideally, it's both,
Speaker 2: and the best players in the NBA are both. The Steps,
Speaker 2: the Jokich's, the Lebrons, the guys that have run this
Speaker 2: league over the course of the last decade. These are
Speaker 2: guys that hate losing and love basketball. But Dennis Schroeder
Speaker 2: is a classic example of one of those dudes that
Speaker 2: despises losing. He has this competitive motor, his fight, his
Speaker 2: willingness to battle his ass off against Brunston every minute
Speaker 2: is on the floor, the ability to be confident in
Speaker 2: a big moment that all stems That all comes back
Speaker 2: to Dennis Schroeder's unrelenting competitive nature and It was a
Speaker 2: reason why I loved rooting for him when he was
Speaker 2: with the Lakers. It's why I told Warriors fans that
Speaker 2: you guys would like him. He just didn't get to
Speaker 2: say they're long enough, and he had to be trade filler.
Speaker 2: And I told Pistons fans right after the deal, like,
Speaker 2: if you need a backup guard to be or Jaden
Speaker 2: Ivy temporarily, you can't do any better than Dennis. Schroeder
Speaker 2: has an option in that spot, and like they you know, J. B.
Speaker 2: Bickerstaff closes with him instead of a sar Thompson, which
Speaker 2: I thought was smart. He's very good at making Brunson
Speaker 2: work hard for his shots, and he has a little
Speaker 2: bit higher floor as an off ball player on offense,
Speaker 2: and he's a guy who can run action late in
Speaker 2: the game. So Kaid runs out of gas late in
Speaker 2: the game and the Pistons needed a bucket, and you know,
Speaker 2: Dennis had to miss a miss on a different shot.
Speaker 2: It was like a little midrange pull up that he missed,
Speaker 2: but he went right at Brunson on that final possession
Speaker 2: and it was a ball screen. He gets to Bias
Speaker 2: Harris on him and he brings Brunson back into the
Speaker 2: screen again, and Brunson really did not want to switch
Speaker 2: back out on Dennis, and so on that second switch,
Speaker 2: Brunson was hanging just a step too far back and
Speaker 2: Dennis just confidently stepped into that shot a huge shot
Speaker 2: in a huge moment in that game, especially when Kay
Speaker 2: Conningham's on the floor and he just stuck it. It was
Speaker 2: a big time shot and it ended up literally being
Speaker 2: the difference in the game. We haven't even talked about
Speaker 2: the Pistons defense yet, and I thought their defense was
Speaker 2: fantastic all night. They were flying around in rotation closing
Speaker 2: up openings after putting two on the ball against Brunson.
Speaker 2: They did an excellent job rotating to Cat to take
Speaker 2: away his easy pick and pop and spot up opportunities.
Speaker 2: They really controlled Cat all night. He generated sixteen points
Speaker 2: on one on ones meaning post ups and ISOs.
Speaker 3: In Game one.
Speaker 2: He generated just four tonight. That's a huge difference from
Speaker 2: Game one. He didn't even log a single ISO possession
Speaker 2: after logging seven ISOs in Game one, which I thought
Speaker 2: was interesting. I want to dig a little bit into
Speaker 2: the film and try to see where those opportunities were
Speaker 2: missing from Game one. That'll be something we'll take a
Speaker 2: look at tomorrow. But yeah, they controlled Kate. They controlled
Speaker 2: Cat all night. The Pistons did get some help. Oj
Speaker 2: And and Obi and Michale Bridges missed some wide open looks,
Speaker 2: like absolutely unguarded looks, especially open like early in the game,
Speaker 2: New York generated seven completely unguarded catch and shoot jump
Speaker 2: shots from Chale, Bridges and Og and and Obi, and
Speaker 2: they made just two of them, and one of them
Speaker 2: was a two pointer. So like, if you generate seven
Speaker 2: unguarded ketch and shoot jumphots from Mkale and Og, you're
Speaker 2: hoping to get twelve points out of that, not five,
Speaker 2: and that ends up being literally the difference in the
Speaker 2: game tonight. Like most of the adjustments for New York
Speaker 2: basically just involve their guys playing better, Like Cat's gotta
Speaker 2: play better. The Calbridge has got two great looks down
Speaker 2: the stretch, one on the right wing and one at
Speaker 2: the top of the key, both of them he left
Speaker 2: way short. They need him to knock those shots down.
Speaker 2: Ojan andob Be missing wide open corner threes, not bringing
Speaker 2: the scoring pop that he brought down the tail end
Speaker 2: of the season like they need, Like there's always this
Speaker 2: desire that I've seen since I started covering the league
Speaker 2: to come up with like some magical solution. This is
Speaker 2: what we can do. This x's and o's thing that's
Speaker 2: gonna solve all of our problems. And it's like, you
Speaker 2: can try a different matchup here or there, you can
Speaker 2: try running a different action here or there. But because
Speaker 2: in the NBA playoffs everyone does so much more switching
Speaker 2: and all the actions are scouted, it really just comes
Speaker 2: down to your dudes have to play up to their capability.
Speaker 2: And right now, McHale Bridges, Ojan and Obi and Karl
Speaker 2: Anthony Towns are not meeting the moment the way that
Speaker 2: even some of these Detroit Pistons role players are, and
Speaker 2: they just got to be better. They converted spot up
Speaker 2: possessions tonight at zero point four to eight points per possession. Now,
Speaker 2: some of that is the quality of Detroit's rotations. I
Speaker 2: want to give them credit, but these are pros and
Speaker 2: not just pros. These are elite pros on the offensive
Speaker 2: end in oj In and Obi and McHale Bridges. They
Speaker 2: need to convert those, They need to convert them at
Speaker 2: a higher clip. And again, I think the Knicks are
Speaker 2: gonna win the series. Over the course of this series,
Speaker 2: the more experienced, more talented veterans will eventually find their footing.
Speaker 2: But this Detroit team's not going anywhere. They've been out
Speaker 2: rebounding them on the offensive glass, and through the first
Speaker 2: two games, Kate is obviously comfortable and getting to where
Speaker 2: he wants to on the floor. They have some physical advantages.
Speaker 2: There are some tough hurdles for the Knicks to cover
Speaker 2: in the series, and they're not going to cover it
Speaker 2: unless they're high paid, highly revered role players on the
Speaker 2: wing can meet the moment and help contribute on the
Speaker 2: offensive end of the floor. All right, let's bring Jackson
Speaker 2: in here and let's get to some of your guys' questions.
Speaker 1: Let's do it. We're gonna start with who has been
Speaker 1: the MVP of the first round so far? And we
Speaker 1: only have basically one game man from every series, but
Speaker 1: still it's a fun question.
Speaker 2: Oh man, that is a very good question. Let's see,
Speaker 2: we've only had one set of Game two so far,
Speaker 2: so I feel like it would have to be somebody
Speaker 2: from tonight's slate, right.
Speaker 3: Man, I think I think.
Speaker 2: I think Kawhi and Steph all give a mutual to
Speaker 2: a double award to Kwi and Steph just because like
Speaker 2: those two individual performances, what Kawhi did tonight as a
Speaker 2: shot maker and what Steph did last night, I got
Speaker 2: in trouble with some Warriors fans were like, I always
Speaker 2: get in trouble with Staves for not being nice enough.
Speaker 3: It's like the weirdest thing.
Speaker 2: Like I said to I said last night that Steph's
Speaker 2: performance was one of the better ones in his career,
Speaker 2: which is a pretty innocuous statement, and I just got
Speaker 2: absolutely slayed for it online because he's had so many
Speaker 2: better games, and it's like, first of all, we're gonna
Speaker 2: stop looking at box scores, Like if you watch that game,
Speaker 2: he made eleven out of twelve shots, Like he made
Speaker 2: every single shot out of it, almost every single shot
Speaker 2: out of a dozen incredibly difficult shots in a game
Speaker 2: where he was the only guy who could generate offense
Speaker 2: when the entire game plan was built around stopping him.
Speaker 2: As like, it was a remarkable Steph Curry performance. I
Speaker 2: was blown away by it. And then Kawhi every bit
Speaker 2: is impressive tonight for the Clippers. I would go with
Speaker 2: the two of those guys. What do you think, Jay, Yeah?
Speaker 1: I agree, and the chat was saying was had a
Speaker 1: lot of Kawhi, and I think it has to be
Speaker 1: between those two with the way that both those guys
Speaker 1: just rose to the moment from a playoff shot making standpoint,
Speaker 1: and also I really feel like they controlled the game
Speaker 1: beyond just the shot making. It felt like both guys
Speaker 1: completely controlled the pace, the flow. It felt like they
Speaker 1: were getting creating good offense even when it wasn't actually
Speaker 1: just pure jump shot making. So I think it's gotta
Speaker 1: be between those two.
Speaker 3: That's a great.
Speaker 1: Point between the Clippers and Denver, which matchup is more
Speaker 1: difficult for Okay.
Speaker 2: Oh Man, I would go with I would go with Denver.
Speaker 2: I think they have the specific ability to more consistently
Speaker 2: punish their lack of size with Jokic. The Clippers had
Speaker 2: some issues with the Thunder for stretches this year too.
Speaker 2: The Nuggets logged a couple of wins. It's worth mentioning
Speaker 2: their last win involved a little bit of weirdness with
Speaker 2: Jadubb going out with I think a hamstring injury, and
Speaker 2: then they just started double teaming Shay every time he
Speaker 2: crossed half court. But they did hang one forty on
Speaker 2: the thunder defense. In that game they a Denver completely
Speaker 2: blew this game down the stretch.
Speaker 3: Jackson.
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but I thought I thought
Speaker 2: Denver was about to go up two oh. And I
Speaker 2: was literally sitting there thinking watching the game. I'm like, man,
Speaker 2: like these guys here they are again. It looked like
Speaker 2: they were dead to rights like like a month ago,
Speaker 2: and now they are looking a lot closer to the
Speaker 2: team that you know, uh, contended for a championship over
Speaker 2: the last couple of years. If I was okay, see,
Speaker 2: I'd much rather play the Clippers. I think the Clippers
Speaker 2: lack of playmaking talent would be a disaster against Okayc's
Speaker 2: turnover forcing defense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the strength of the Thunder defense, I
Speaker 1: mean they got hardened times good and chet is good
Speaker 1: and switchable, But the strength of their defense is just
Speaker 1: how many wing athlete bodies they have to throw at
Speaker 1: every every other skilled offensive player. And I think that
Speaker 1: would be much more effective against a team like the
Speaker 1: Clippers that where you got so many bodies to throw
Speaker 1: at James Harden not I mean, Kawhi is pretty big,
Speaker 1: so it's probably just mostly lu Door, but you got
Speaker 1: still a lot of bodies you can throw a kwhi
Speaker 1: and a lot of swarming that we've seen Kawhi struggle
Speaker 1: with in this series.
Speaker 2: And against a worst rotation team in Denver, not just
Speaker 2: a worst, but like a flat out bad rotation team
Speaker 2: relative to the better teams that we have in the league.
Speaker 2: I want to very quickly credit though, both of them,
Speaker 2: in the sense that I do think both of those
Speaker 2: teams are capable of beating the Thunder. I'm not trying
Speaker 2: to underrate the Clippers. I just personally think Denver's a
Speaker 2: little more capable of the upset there.
Speaker 1: We got a couple of Warriors questions. Is the Warriors
Speaker 1: lack of interior size going to cost them these playoffs?
Speaker 1: Or could step in Jimmy and their defense make up
Speaker 1: for the lack of size.
Speaker 2: So there's all this talk about size with some of
Speaker 2: these specific teams in the West, Like there's a lot
Speaker 2: of talk about size with Minnesota. It's not Minnesota's size
Speaker 2: that concerns me, it's their athleticism. It's their overall length
Speaker 2: and athleticism. The Thunder or not a team that presents
Speaker 2: substantial size related issues. So there's a vert and the
Speaker 2: Lakers don't either, with exception of Lebron and and Lucas.
Speaker 2: So like, if god, let's let's let's say Golden State
Speaker 2: beats Houston, you're facing one of Minnesota or the Lakers
Speaker 2: in the second round. I think the Golden State defense
Speaker 2: is capable of doing much more damage to Minnesota's offense
Speaker 2: than the Lakers defense is capable of doing. And I
Speaker 2: don't think Minnesota's biggs are the types of bigs that
Speaker 2: would do substantial damage to the to the Warriors defense.
Speaker 2: So neither of those teams I think could be particularly damaging.
Speaker 2: You're probably looking at OKAC in the conference finals, They're
Speaker 2: not a particularly big team, and then coming out of
Speaker 2: the East, you're likely getting Boston, who's not a particularly
Speaker 2: big team. So I I don't want to sit here
Speaker 2: and pretend like it wouldn't be great if the Warriors
Speaker 2: had a little bit more size on the front line,
Speaker 2: but I don't think necessarily it will show up in
Speaker 2: a real damaging way in this West playoff run.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I think there's a lot of talk
Speaker 1: about size, and there's certain there's certain there's different ways
Speaker 1: that size can manifest. To your point about the Timberwolves
Speaker 1: attacking the offensive glass or something like that, but not
Speaker 1: the size that I think people are critical of the
Speaker 1: Warriors is interior defensive size, and the only way to
Speaker 1: punish that is what if you have someone who can
Speaker 1: actually do that, which not that many teams do anymore.
Speaker 1: The Thunder are not running a lot of post ups
Speaker 1: because they think the Warriors are small. If they played
Speaker 1: each other, right, like the Nuggets, you can say, yeah,
Speaker 1: and the Clippers, I think would be the two teams
Speaker 1: that they their centers are problems on the inside if
Speaker 1: you don't guard them with side, even Draymond, who's as
Speaker 1: good of a defender interior against both those guys Joki
Speaker 1: chan Zu, that's a much more tough challenge on the
Speaker 1: specifically about the size issue than any of the other
Speaker 1: teams and the rest of the playoffs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker 2: And your odds of actually facing Jokic r Zoo in
Speaker 2: the conference finals are pretty low because the Thunder will
Speaker 2: be favored, even though we think that those teams can
Speaker 2: beat the Thunder. I actually my main concern about Golden
Speaker 2: I'm actually curious to see if this matches up with
Speaker 2: your main concern, Jackson. My main concern with Golden State
Speaker 2: actually winning for playoff rounds is consistent offense. It's it's
Speaker 2: like Jimmy Butler hits six jump shots against the Rockets
Speaker 2: last night, Like, is he going to keep hitting six
Speaker 2: jump shots every night? Because if it's not that, they
Speaker 2: don't really have a reliable offensive player beyond Steph, and
Speaker 2: Jimmy's been great so far, but like I have my
Speaker 2: skepticism after how he finished the regular season. So like,
Speaker 2: I think it's more likely that if like Golden State
Speaker 2: gets eliminated at some point in the first three rounds.
Speaker 2: You and I are sitting here talking about how they
Speaker 2: need more shooting and more like reliable play finishing, not
Speaker 2: necessarily size on the front line.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. They they sort of feel like it's
Speaker 1: very different stylistically and even about the way that their
Speaker 1: success comes. But it feels similar to the to the
Speaker 1: Nuggets to me actually a little bit, where it's like
Speaker 1: they're so heliocentric in a different way. It's not like
Speaker 1: Steph is, you know, pounding the ball. Their offense is
Speaker 1: so predicated around actions around one player, and it's like
Speaker 1: that can be really challenging, especially when that player's off
Speaker 1: the floor. But if you're in the game at the end,
Speaker 1: you really feel confident that player is just good enough
Speaker 1: to lift you up over the top. So it's sort
Speaker 1: of a double edged swort of do you have the
Speaker 1: forty seven minutes forty six minutes of enough offense to
Speaker 1: get you there when? Because in the last two you
Speaker 1: feel real even though it didn't work out that way
Speaker 1: for the Nuggets tonight, you feel relatively confident that your
Speaker 1: singular player is going to lift you over the top.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, this is why I'm so interested in
Speaker 2: the Cam Johnson piece, because like, and I mean, who knows,
Speaker 2: he could be a pipe dream for the Warriors.
Speaker 3: We'll see.
Speaker 2: But I there's a very specific reason why Jimmy Butler
Speaker 2: fits so well in this system, and it's because he's
Speaker 2: such a great read and react player that can play
Speaker 2: off of Steph And yeah, they can have him take
Speaker 2: a random ISO possession here or there, but he's pretty
Speaker 2: efficient in those situations because of his ability to hit
Speaker 2: mid range jump shots and his ability to get to
Speaker 2: the foul line. And like, Jimmy can do it, you know,
Speaker 2: four or five times in a game, and it feel
Speaker 2: like it happens in the flow of the offense, and
Speaker 2: it's not as disruptive as it can be, like when
Speaker 2: sometimes Kamingo will hijack a possession to disrupt the flow
Speaker 2: of the offense. But a guy like Cam Johnson is
Speaker 2: the type of player that could legitimately, like score twenty
Speaker 2: points a game entirely in the flow of the Warriors offense,
Speaker 2: while also being a guy who was trusted with the
Speaker 2: primary point of attack assignment a lot for Brooklyn this
Speaker 2: year and actually showed some real defensive chops. So like
Speaker 2: as a big picture goal for the Warriors, yeah, like,
Speaker 2: I like to put it simply, and we can kick
Speaker 2: this back to you here before we get to the
Speaker 2: next question. Would you rather have a legitimate center that
Speaker 2: fits the goal of this team as a starting caliber
Speaker 2: center or would you rather have Cam Johnson?
Speaker 1: Oh? I think definitely Cam Johnson. He's in almost every
Speaker 1: way a knockoff prime Klay Thompson. It almost every way.
Speaker 1: And if you insert that guy back into this system,
Speaker 1: and then with Jimmy Butler still in the it's a
Speaker 1: much it's a very diverse set of ways you can
Speaker 1: score the basketball.
Speaker 3: All of a sudden, YEP, I totally agree.
Speaker 1: All right, I like this question. Getting back to tonight's game,
Speaker 1: do you think tonight showed David Adelman's inexperience with the
Speaker 1: way he was setting in the fourth quarter. Couldn't tell
Speaker 1: if he was overthinking or second guessing. I do think
Speaker 1: to be fair to David Adelman, it seemed like Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior did get hurt at the.
Speaker 3: End of the game.
Speaker 1: But I think the question about Adaman's inexperience feelsr relevant.
Speaker 2: I think he's done fine to this point. I think
Speaker 2: he's pushed the right buttons. I thought closing with Russ
Speaker 2: was the right move in game one. I thought closing
Speaker 2: with MPJ was the right move tonight, And when you
Speaker 2: factor in the mistake that Michael made and the injury,
Speaker 2: it made sense to go back to Russ late. I
Speaker 2: didn't necessarily have a problem with any of those moves.
Speaker 2: He had the quick hook with Russ after he had
Speaker 2: that bad turnover along the left sideline, like I think
Speaker 2: he's been managing. Like at a certain point we got
Speaker 2: to blame the players, like Aaron Gordon smoked it dunk,
Speaker 2: Michael Porter Junior coughed the ball up in crunch time,
Speaker 2: like like not putting yourselves in the same position when
Speaker 2: when a guy's getting double teamed is like basketball one
Speaker 2: oh one, Like you'll hear yelling about that shit in
Speaker 2: a pickup game or in a high school game, like
Speaker 2: you got, hey, that's spacing one oh one. Make yourself
Speaker 2: put yourself in a position where you're not easy to guard.
Speaker 2: When you start staying next to each other, you're easy
Speaker 2: to guard. Like so many of the things that happened
Speaker 2: to Denver tonight, where like legitimately self inflicted wounds.
Speaker 1: I agree, and I think the same can be said
Speaker 1: even of Yokic's turnovers, which is relevant to the next question,
Speaker 1: which is what changes does Jokic need to make to
Speaker 1: to clawback in this series? And I think specifically the
Speaker 1: question is probably about turnovers because he had I think
Speaker 1: seven tonight, and some of them like there was that
Speaker 1: one where he was sort of they were really shading
Speaker 1: the whole the whole defense of that side of the floor.
Speaker 1: Peyton Watson is in the dunker spot ready for a
Speaker 1: lob and Yogic just kind of throws out of bound.
Speaker 1: Like he he has some weird turnovers, very very uncharacteristic
Speaker 1: turnovers tonight.
Speaker 3: I was screaming at Peyton Watson on that play, like, dude,
Speaker 3: cut you're gonna get a dug.
Speaker 2: Like he was just this second late, and there was
Speaker 2: like a mile disconnect there where like Jokic threw it
Speaker 2: to where he was like right after he ended up cutting,
Speaker 2: and it's like I saw that play coming a mile away.
Speaker 2: I was like, dude, the dunk is there. Peyton Jokic
Speaker 2: wanted it, he was just was too late on the cut.
Speaker 2: But I mean, yolks will have a game like that
Speaker 2: every once in a while. He had a game with
Speaker 2: seven turnovers in the Minnesota Timberwolve series last year too,
Speaker 2: and they're like, I want to give the give the
Speaker 2: Clippers some credit. They jumped some of the typical passing
Speaker 2: reads that he makes. There's some of them that were
Speaker 2: unforced too, like the one with Peyton Watson. I really
Speaker 2: do think that that one's on Peyton for not cutting
Speaker 2: when Yokis originally saw the play. The one late in
Speaker 2: the game that Kawhi got to steal, that's on Christian
Speaker 2: Brown and Russell Westbrook for like legitimately just doing something
Speaker 2: really stupid. Yeah, but then like, yeah, the one where
Speaker 2: he spun out of the post up and dropped it
Speaker 2: off and Chris Dunn stole it. Like the actual read
Speaker 2: was to the right corner. I can't remember who it
Speaker 2: was that was shooting over there at that spot. I
Speaker 2: think it might have been Michael Porter Junior, but he
Speaker 2: he missed the tic tac toe read for in that
Speaker 2: situation where unmade the rotation and he had to make
Speaker 2: the But like yokscha make mistakes like that every once
Speaker 2: in a while, I'm not. I am infinitely more encouraged
Speaker 2: about Denver and their chances to win this series after
Speaker 2: two games than I was before the first two games.
Speaker 2: So all you Nuggets fans take that for whatever it's worth.
Speaker 2: I used to think you had a pretty small chance
Speaker 2: of winning this series, and now I think you guys
Speaker 2: have a pretty legitimate chance of winning the series.
Speaker 1: That is a perfect pivot to well, I think it's
Speaker 1: probably our last question of the night. Are you feeling
Speaker 1: worried about any of your picks? Your series picks? And
Speaker 1: if so, who are.
Speaker 3: Not even worried?
Speaker 1: Is the question? But also, if you were a couple
Speaker 1: one game in for most of the series, two for
Speaker 1: these two games, are there any series that you would
Speaker 1: change your pick at this point?
Speaker 2: So let's take a look at it. So Calves magic
Speaker 2: or Calves Heat. I ended up not doing serious previews
Speaker 2: on those ones just because we got so run down
Speaker 2: and we didn't have time. We did like what fourteen
Speaker 2: videos last week, But the Calves Heat series I called
Speaker 2: what four to one or four to zero, that obviously
Speaker 2: is going to stay the same thunder Grizzlies. That one
Speaker 2: I feel relatively certain will be a sweep. I said
Speaker 2: sweep for Celtics Magic. I feel pretty good after Game
Speaker 2: one that Orlando has a good chance to get one
Speaker 2: game just on the strength of their defense and if
Speaker 2: Palo and Fronts have really nice games down in Orlando,
Speaker 2: but that obviously could also end in a sweep. Nick
Speaker 2: Pistons is going about as exactly as I expected it
Speaker 2: to to this point. The Pistons clearly showing some ability
Speaker 2: to make the Nicks uncomfortable. But the Pistons now in
Speaker 2: both games have like kind of soiled themselves late and
Speaker 2: they just happened to pull this one out because one
Speaker 2: Denis Schroeder jump shot went in. But I think the
Speaker 2: Nicks will close that one out in six games. Pacers
Speaker 2: bucks very similar to how I felt after Lakers Timberwolves,
Speaker 2: where when I went back and watched the tape, I'm like,
Speaker 2: can someone go up to these guys and tell them
Speaker 2: that it's the playoffs? Like, what the hell are you
Speaker 2: guys doing? And so both of those series, the Pacers
Speaker 2: Bucks series, in the Thunder or in the Lakers Timberwolves series,
Speaker 2: I'll have a much better feel for after Game two,
Speaker 2: because I felt it's really hard to tell how teams
Speaker 2: stack up unless they both bring their A game, and
Speaker 2: like Minnesota and Indie brought their a games in Game one,
Speaker 2: and the Bucks and the Lakers kind of tried to
Speaker 2: ease their way into the postseason and that went about
Speaker 2: exactly as you could have expected. Denver Clippers, I will
Speaker 2: I'm not going to change my pick yet, but I
Speaker 2: went into the series thinking Clippers and six and feeling
Speaker 2: pretty strongly about that, and internally, I'm feeling closer to
Speaker 2: coin flip now. So that should give you guys a
Speaker 2: general idea of where I stand. I'm never going to
Speaker 2: overreact to the first couple games of a series, but
Speaker 2: I think you can start to learn, Like there was
Speaker 2: there was a big one for me last year. I
Speaker 2: before Luca hit the game winner over go Bear, the
Speaker 2: Timberwolves had a two point lead in the final minute
Speaker 2: with a chance to tie the series, and I tweeted
Speaker 2: out the series was over. It was just like abundantly
Speaker 2: clear to me through two games that Luca was infinitely
Speaker 2: more comfortable picking apart Minnesota's defense than Ant was on
Speaker 2: the other end of the floor. And I just didn't
Speaker 2: see anything happening that would change that trend. And what
Speaker 2: do you know, Dallas went into Minnesota in Game three
Speaker 2: and beat them or uh and uh I went up
Speaker 2: three zero, right, So like, I haven't seen anything that
Speaker 2: has changed my mind significantly, but I would say, yeah,
Speaker 2: the the Knicks or excuse me, the Nuggets Clippers one
Speaker 2: is the one that I'm closest to changing my mind
Speaker 2: because I'm feeling closer to fifty to fifty.
Speaker 1: I think that's fair. I think I think the Pistons,
Speaker 1: I don't know something about it, something.
Speaker 2: About it feeling I'm drinking drinking the.
Speaker 1: Cad kool Aid a little bit. I'm drinking the Cad
Speaker 1: kol Aid a little bit. It doesn't feel you're theig
Speaker 1: CA guy. I'm a huge kid guy. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: kid guy. It doesn't feel like I mean I was
Speaker 1: texting you about this that yes, not the Pistons almost
Speaker 1: blew that game. But if either of their two very
Speaker 1: good three point shooters, Tim Hardaware Malik Beasley hit anything
Speaker 1: in that game, they would have been up nineteen instead
Speaker 1: of hovering around ten. For the vast majority of the
Speaker 1: second half, those guys were I don't know what they
Speaker 1: finished up when I was texting you about it. At
Speaker 1: one point they were combined one for twelve. You got
Speaker 1: to assume it's a cliche, ha ha ha, the role
Speaker 1: player shoot better at home thing. If it's gonna happen
Speaker 1: for them, it's gonna because some of those guys started
Speaker 1: to hit some shots.
Speaker 2: So well, let me ask you to follow up though, because,
Speaker 2: like my feeling, that game was very much like classic
Speaker 2: Eastern Conference knockdown, drag out fight and both teams shot
Speaker 2: in the twenties from three and mkaleen Og missed a
Speaker 2: boatload of good look, so let me ask you this, like,
Speaker 2: who do you think is more likely to get it
Speaker 2: together and bring more offensive punch over the rest of
Speaker 2: the series, mkaleen Og or Malik and Tim Hardaway.
Speaker 1: I mean, mkalen o g I think is the right answer.
Speaker 1: But I feel like process wise, CAID has been more
Speaker 1: effective at generating, which I think is true largely over
Speaker 1: the course of you know, as the two players are
Speaker 1: in general, but he's been largely better at creating better
Speaker 1: looks for his teammates and than Jalen Bruns and our
Speaker 1: cat has for their teammates. The looks that Bridges and
Speaker 1: og have gotten are good enough. They should they should
Speaker 1: make more than their making. But I think the process wise,
Speaker 1: Cad is doing a good job against this against a
Speaker 1: good Knicks defense.
Speaker 2: This is a really interesting take because I'm not sure
Speaker 2: I think I agree with you through two games, Like
Speaker 2: I think Caid has done a better job, and so
Speaker 2: going back to my initial kind of ethos when it
Speaker 2: comes to the playoffs, like which team does a better
Speaker 2: job of making the other team uncomfortable? Like the Pistons
Speaker 2: are doing more to make the Nicks uncomfortable right now
Speaker 2: than the Pistons. I just think the margin is relatively small,
Speaker 2: and I just feel like the Pistons are far more
Speaker 2: likely to blow games over the course of the series,
Speaker 2: and they like to your point, the Pistons basically controlled
Speaker 2: both of those games and damn near lost both of them,
Speaker 2: which right, which is exactly why NBA history tells us
Speaker 2: that teams like the Pistons don't typically win this series.
Speaker 2: But I think I think the point you're making is
Speaker 2: extremely fair, which is through two games, Kate has been
Speaker 2: the better kind of like half court surgeon, so to speak,
Speaker 2: than anybody on the Knicks. Before we get out of
Speaker 2: here tonight, I just wanted to thank you guys. We
Speaker 2: have officially crossed over one hundred thousand subs. There was
Speaker 2: a moment back in October twenty twenty three. We were
Speaker 2: still on the Volumes feed and the Volume feed had like,
Speaker 2: you know, seven hundred thousand subscribers or whatever, and it
Speaker 2: was kind of like a scary moment. Me and by
Speaker 2: producer at the time, Ryan Brumley, still very good friend
Speaker 2: of mine, we kind of had a chat and we
Speaker 2: were like, we were like, do you want to go
Speaker 2: out and like just launch our own channel. And we
Speaker 2: were scared because we were like, if we go out
Speaker 2: on our own, we could lose some of the juice
Speaker 2: that we get from the Volumes feed in terms of exposure.
Speaker 2: And we launched that channel from scratch in October twenty three,
Speaker 2: and here we are eighteen months later at one hundred
Speaker 2: thousand subscribers, and like you guys came over immediately, like
Speaker 2: we moved most of our audience, like in the first
Speaker 2: week over from that feed. And all I can say is,
Speaker 2: you know, I've been doing this for what thirty eight
Speaker 2: months now with the volume, and I am just completely
Speaker 2: and totally mind blown at the support you guys have
Speaker 2: given the show and what we've actually managed to build
Speaker 2: here and the things that I've gotten to experience over
Speaker 2: the course of the last three years. Like I got
Speaker 2: to this summer go to like Team USA playing against
Speaker 2: Canada in Vegas. It was like one of the coolest
Speaker 2: experiences of my life. I got to see Steph throll
Speaker 2: A lob to Lebron James and transition, and like getting
Speaker 2: to be at Summer League and getting to meet the
Speaker 2: people I've gotten to meet and get to talk to
Speaker 2: the people I've gotten to talk to. I just am
Speaker 2: so lucky, and it's because of you guys and the
Speaker 2: support that you've given the show, and this just feels
Speaker 2: like a huge milestone and I'm just I'm not taking
Speaker 2: it for granted, and I'd love to just let you
Speaker 2: guys know how much I appreciate you guys for supporting
Speaker 2: me and supporting the show. That's all I have for tonight.
Speaker 2: We'll be back tomorrow morning with the film session on
Speaker 2: tonight's games, and then we'll be back tomorrow night with
Speaker 2: Game two of Lakers Timberwolves. And you guys might see
Speaker 2: you very angry and upset Jason tomorrow, we'll see, or
Speaker 2: you might see a more relaxed, confident Jason. We'll see.
Speaker 2: I'm really curious to see how the Lakers respond after
Speaker 2: the game went. But again, I appreciate you guys, and
Speaker 2: I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 3: What's up, guys.
Speaker 2: Ares always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Speaker 2: hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
Speaker 2: if you guys would take a second and leave a
Speaker 2: rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
Speaker 2: supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 2: do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: The volume