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Speaker 1: Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Bandol. Here at the volume,
Speaker 1: I'm Jason Tip. Happy Saturday, everybody. I hope you all
Speaker 1: had a great week. Happy NBA Playoffs day. It is
Speaker 1: finally here. This next two month stretch is literally my
Speaker 1: favorite time year. There's nothing like the relentless on slot
Speaker 1: of quality basketball that we're all about to experience. You know.
Speaker 1: Jamond Green went on the Point Forward podcast, which is
Speaker 1: a new podcast that I just learned about with andre
Speaker 1: A Guadala and Evan Turner, and they were talking about
Speaker 1: the NBA media and in it, Draymond Green basically one
Speaker 1: on a long die tribe that I won't get too
Speaker 1: far into because it's something I've talked about a lot
Speaker 1: on the show. In the last couple of days. But
Speaker 1: he was talking about how the media has a responsibility
Speaker 1: to cover the beautiful game of basketball and not the
Speaker 1: drama and all of the stuff that you see, especially
Speaker 1: you know, on some of the bigger media networks, the
Speaker 1: Talking Heads shows, you'll see all of these, all of
Speaker 1: the focus on seemingly nothing but the basketball, which can
Speaker 1: be frustrating. And agree with Draymond, And that's exactly why
Speaker 1: I love this time year because for the next two months,
Speaker 1: these teams that are here, it's not about drama anymore.
Speaker 1: It's about basketball, and we can really really get into
Speaker 1: the weeds. We don't have to worry about the day
Speaker 1: and day out grind to the regular season and guys,
Speaker 1: you know, not being focused on the right things, or
Speaker 1: guys taking load management, or maybe it's a night in
Speaker 1: Los Los Angeles where they went out on the town.
Speaker 1: Though none of that's happening anymore. This is dead serious basketball.
Speaker 1: It's what always stands out to me right away from
Speaker 1: the very beginning, is just how hard it is to
Speaker 1: score in these games. Everyone talks so much about the
Speaker 1: way playoff basketball changes compared to the regular season. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's more of a slow burn to like
Speaker 1: some of the officiating stuff takes till later rounds for
Speaker 1: the revs to really decide to swallow the whistle and
Speaker 1: a lot of the pace. And these teams they gear
Speaker 1: up into the playoffs, and by the teams that are
Speaker 1: still around by the third and fourth round, they're so
Speaker 1: dialed into and they know exactly who they are. There's
Speaker 1: just no such thing as easy baskets anymore. And that's
Speaker 1: what makes the game so incredibly interesting. You see this moment,
Speaker 1: it's almost like an O ship moment where the teams
Speaker 1: get stuck in the half court as soon as they
Speaker 1: face a set defense or you just realize everyone kind
Speaker 1: of looks at each other, like what do we do?
Speaker 1: We gotta figure out a way to score here. This
Speaker 1: is gonna be hard. It's my favorite. It's my favorite
Speaker 1: part about NBA playoff basketball. We have three really interesting
Speaker 1: games today, the Nuggets Warriors game. We're going to lump
Speaker 1: in with tomorrow's show. Starting tomorrow night, we'll get back
Speaker 1: into the tradition a groove of the live YouTube shows
Speaker 1: that we do and where we have Carson come on
Speaker 1: and we do a bunch of other stuff as well.
Speaker 1: Today we're gonna be breaking down that Raptors Sixers game,
Speaker 1: and then the Grizzlies Wolves Wolves game, as well as
Speaker 1: the Jazz and the Mavericks. But we're gonna start with
Speaker 1: that Raptor Sixers game, which was super interesting on a
Speaker 1: bunch of different levels. Uh, you know, looking from the
Speaker 1: not thirty foot view of this series, I talked about
Speaker 1: how the Sixers were the better team and they had
Speaker 1: more talent, they should win the series. But there are
Speaker 1: some advantages with Toronto, specifically with their coaching staff and
Speaker 1: the fact that Philly has some very specific weaknesses that
Speaker 1: over the course of the series. Nick Nurse should be
Speaker 1: able to exploit. The Raptors while being a team that's
Speaker 1: at a massive talent disadvantage, are not at they're They're
Speaker 1: not out of advantages entirely. They have advantages over this
Speaker 1: Philly roster overall athleticism, overall foot speed, and then like
Speaker 1: I said at the head coach and so as this
Speaker 1: series progresses, Toronto I believe will be able to be
Speaker 1: better with the adjustments. It remains to be seen whether
Speaker 1: or not that will be enough to overcome the talent
Speaker 1: or not. I thought the story of this game from
Speaker 1: the beginning, which was something we expected I talked to
Speaker 1: you guys a lot this year about how the Raptors
Speaker 1: are a team that are super aggressive on defense. They're
Speaker 1: not a very like discipline, kind of stay home type
Speaker 1: of defense. They're a gimmicky aggressive defense, which is by design.
Speaker 1: Nick Nurse is empowered to do it that way. We
Speaker 1: all remember the boxing one he used on the Warriors.
Speaker 1: Nick Nurse is not afraid to try things. And from
Speaker 1: the very beginning of this series, when they would run
Speaker 1: the Joel Embi James James Harden pick and roll, there
Speaker 1: was a third defender coming over in the middle of
Speaker 1: the action. They decided, we're playing three on two with this,
Speaker 1: and guess what, it's a lot easier to slow down
Speaker 1: the Harden and b pick and roll when you have
Speaker 1: three defensive players involved. That's that goes without saying. But
Speaker 1: what's the obvious downfall? It's rion two for the Sixers
Speaker 1: on the back end, and to their credit, James Harden
Speaker 1: and Joel Embi did not force that action. We talked
Speaker 1: a lot about how James Harden doesn't seem to have
Speaker 1: the burst to beat guys off the dribble. He wasn't
Speaker 1: really showing that tonight. It's not like he was flashing
Speaker 1: around a ton of athleticism. James Harden won this game
Speaker 1: with his brain, and that's the best thing he can
Speaker 1: bring to this table. I don't expect James Harden to
Speaker 1: suddenly unlock two thousand eighteen James Harden in this series.
Speaker 1: I released a video the other day that I showed
Speaker 1: you guys where it went over some numbers. James Harden's
Speaker 1: finishing at the basket about half as often as he
Speaker 1: did in his two thousand eighteen season. His pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooting is down eight percent from where it was
Speaker 1: in two thousand eighteen. He's relying on free throws for
Speaker 1: like almost of his offense. Since he went to Philly,
Speaker 1: James Harden has some significant decline in his game, but
Speaker 1: there's one area where he will never experience decline, and
Speaker 1: it's probably at a higher level than it's ever been,
Speaker 1: and that's his playmaking, his ability to read what's happening
Speaker 1: on the floor and make the right decisions. I've been
Speaker 1: critic cool of him at times in Philly of forcing
Speaker 1: the action and trying to play old fashioned James Harden ball,
Speaker 1: running into bodies and throwing up junk, trying to get
Speaker 1: foul calls and it not working instead of making the
Speaker 1: easy reads that are there. Those of you who have
Speaker 1: listened to the show over the course of the last
Speaker 1: couple of months have heard me talk about that. Well tonight,
Speaker 1: that's not what James Harden did. He made the right
Speaker 1: play consistently into the credit of the guys on the Sixers.
Speaker 1: They stepped up and knocked down shots to Bias Harris
Speaker 1: knockdown shots, Tyris Maxie knocked down shots. They all stepped
Speaker 1: up in big ways on the back side in order
Speaker 1: to make that coverage that Toronto was using not work.
Speaker 1: And then we talked a lot over the course of
Speaker 1: the preview that I did that Toronto's biggest advantage was transition.
Speaker 1: This has been a story with the Sixers all season.
Speaker 1: Part of it's because Joel Embiid is somewhat slow footed.
Speaker 1: Part of it is because James Harden can be lazy
Speaker 1: at times, and they run these actions and they get
Speaker 1: into the paint with them, beat in James Harden and
Speaker 1: they usually throw stuff up and they usually complain to
Speaker 1: the refs And if you run the other way, you
Speaker 1: can get easy baskets in transition. Well, Toronto could never
Speaker 1: really get ahold of that pace side of the game.
Speaker 1: I always talk about like the cascading effect of getting
Speaker 1: defensive stops. So if you have a foot speed advantage
Speaker 1: and you're the Raptors, the way for you to utilize
Speaker 1: that against the Sixers is by getting stops. You can't
Speaker 1: get out in transition unless you get stops that extra
Speaker 1: couple of second you can to be cool, you can
Speaker 1: get out in transition after they've made shots, it's just
Speaker 1: a lot, it's a lot harder. So the easiest way
Speaker 1: to get out in transition is to get stops. And
Speaker 1: if you're taking the ball out of the net every time,
Speaker 1: that buys Philly and extra second or two for their
Speaker 1: guys to get back. And as you saw tonight, when
Speaker 1: they got their defense set, it was a lot harder
Speaker 1: for Toronto to score. And then one of the weirdest
Speaker 1: things about today's game is the Sixers were getting out
Speaker 1: in transition going the other way. And the disappointing thing
Speaker 1: there if you're a Raptors fan, is that just shouldn't happen.
Speaker 1: The overall foot speed of these lineups that Toronto is
Speaker 1: throwing out there is too fat to get to lose
Speaker 1: a foot race to this Philadelphia team that just can't happen.
Speaker 1: That's attention to detail stuff. That's a little bit of
Speaker 1: effort stuff. And you know, I'm not surprised. The Sixers
Speaker 1: have probably heard all week, including from myself, that they're
Speaker 1: gonna lose this series, and they're probably like, screw that, man, Like,
Speaker 1: we're the better team. And so if you're Toronto, you
Speaker 1: can't lose those battles. You can't lose the battle that's
Speaker 1: supposed to be your advantage. You can't get beat in
Speaker 1: transition when you are the faster team. Those are little
Speaker 1: details that they're gonna have to work out. A couple
Speaker 1: of silver linings for the Raptors. I thought their offense
Speaker 1: looked pretty good overall. It didn't. They didn't again, I
Speaker 1: couldn't keep up with Philly in this particular game. But
Speaker 1: they they have. They scored enough, and they scored easily
Speaker 1: enough that if they can figure out some of these
Speaker 1: things on defense, particularly in transition and particularly with guarding
Speaker 1: the James Harden Joel and be pick and roll, that
Speaker 1: should like they should be able to score frequently enough.
Speaker 1: This is something that I talked about. Everyone was concerned
Speaker 1: about the Raptors half offense, but a lot of their
Speaker 1: talent was wearing suits all year. You saw you know, uh,
Speaker 1: we saw h O, g An and Nobi missed a
Speaker 1: huge chunk of the season with injuries. We saw Fred
Speaker 1: van Vleet deal with knee problems as the season was progressing.
Speaker 1: Guys were in and out of the line up a lot.
Speaker 1: Pascal Sia was dealing with some injuries early on in
Speaker 1: the season. So having them all together now there actually
Speaker 1: is a decent amount of defensive offensive talent on the floor.
Speaker 1: I thought Scotty Barnes even had some moments where he
Speaker 1: flashed some offensive creation off the dribble from the top
Speaker 1: of the key and finding cutters and things along those lines.
Speaker 1: Toronto is gonna be able to score. It looks like
Speaker 1: that's a good news, but they have to figure out
Speaker 1: how to stop Philly. I thought the story of the
Speaker 1: game tonight was what you saw was that third defender
Speaker 1: wasn't enough to stop that action because they were making
Speaker 1: them pay on the backside. So you have two options
Speaker 1: from there. You can either sharpen up the backside rotations
Speaker 1: so that you don't give up open threes there. But
Speaker 1: it's gonna put a lot of stress on your athletes
Speaker 1: to fly around the floor, or you have to go
Speaker 1: to onto with the Harden and Beat pick and roll.
Speaker 1: There's some little things you can do there. For instance,
Speaker 1: have that third defender ready to go after and Beat
Speaker 1: catches the ball. That's what I would do. I'd switch
Speaker 1: that screen and roll and basically forced James Harden to
Speaker 1: pull the ball out and either isolate whoever the big guy,
Speaker 1: whether it's Precious to Cheo or somebody like that. Whoever
Speaker 1: it is, pull the ball out, either isolate on the
Speaker 1: center or have to work it back to the post
Speaker 1: two and beat. I thought the Raptors actually did a
Speaker 1: pretty good job on em Beat post ups of crowding
Speaker 1: him and taking that stuff away. It was the screen
Speaker 1: and roll where they were getting killed. So if you
Speaker 1: can switch that action and force them to make a
Speaker 1: post entry, I like our chances better there. If I'm
Speaker 1: Toronto that third defender coming over too soon. They were
Speaker 1: getting way too easy shots on the back end. So
Speaker 1: figure out how to play two on two within the
Speaker 1: with the Embat, Harden pick and roll if you can.
Speaker 1: They gotta figure out what went wrong in transition, figure
Speaker 1: out those details you can't get beat up and down,
Speaker 1: up and down the floor by the slower team in Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: and last but not least, you can't if you're gonna
Speaker 1: slow down. You successfully slowed down Joel Embid and you
Speaker 1: successfully slowed down James Harden for the most part, especially
Speaker 1: as putting the ball in the basket goes. But you
Speaker 1: got killed by Tyres Maxie and by guys on the weekends,
Speaker 1: the week side of the floor. So you've gotta figure
Speaker 1: out how to guard James Harden and Joel Embid without
Speaker 1: letting the other guys get going really quickly on Tyrees
Speaker 1: Maxie before we get Before we move on to the
Speaker 1: other series from today, this is a This is a
Speaker 1: classic example of how slotting can be advantageous for a
Speaker 1: team when you bring in somebody like James Harden as
Speaker 1: a talent. We're gonna talk about this a lot with
Speaker 1: the Dalax Dallas Mavericks here in just a minute, because
Speaker 1: they're experiencing the negative side of this slotting with what
Speaker 1: happened with Luka don Chich. But everything about the game
Speaker 1: plan for Toronto is geared around stopping the Harden Ebid
Speaker 1: pick and roll right, stopping Harden h uh embiid post
Speaker 1: ups and hardened in that screen and roll action. So
Speaker 1: as a result, the amount of defensive attention that's devoted
Speaker 1: to Tyrese Maxie is not very much at all. And
Speaker 1: a couple of things a lot of what Tyrese Maxi
Speaker 1: was doing in transition that can be tightened up by
Speaker 1: everything we were just talking about with the details for Toronto.
Speaker 1: But this is what happens when you devote that kind
Speaker 1: of defensive attention to James Harden and Joel Embid. You
Speaker 1: have a very talented young guard in Tyres Maxie who's
Speaker 1: getting off right now because he's getting easy opportunities. That's
Speaker 1: the downside of doing that. That's part of why I
Speaker 1: think it's so important to get that James hard and
Speaker 1: Joel and be pick and roll down to a two
Speaker 1: on two coverage so that you don't you're not giving
Speaker 1: like incredibly easy opportunities for incredible players like Tyres Maxie.
Speaker 1: Shout out to him. Made a lot of big plays today,
Speaker 1: took over that game in the third quarter. Incredible performance,
Speaker 1: a lot of series left. Nick Nurse is the biggest
Speaker 1: advantage for Toronto. His brain, he's the best coat, one
Speaker 1: of the best coaches in the NBA. Definitely a better
Speaker 1: coach than Doc Rivers in my opinion, he's their advantage.
Speaker 1: His him figuring this out as the series progresses is
Speaker 1: Toronto's best bet. I don't think this is anywhere near
Speaker 1: over yet. Ound one goes to the Sixers. All right,
Speaker 1: let's move on to this Dallas Mavericks home loss to
Speaker 1: the Utah Jazz. So Game one goes to the Jazz,
Speaker 1: which is not the least bit surprising. I was talking
Speaker 1: yesterday about how Steph Curry and Draymond Greener two of
Speaker 1: the most irreplaceable players in the league with respect to
Speaker 1: what they bring to the table for their specific team,
Speaker 1: and how difficult it would be to find somebody else
Speaker 1: to do that, and Lucas in that conversation as well,
Speaker 1: and you know, there's there's a lot to the system
Speaker 1: that Dallas brings to the table that still functions when
Speaker 1: Lucas not there. I thought Dallas competed like crazy on
Speaker 1: defense tonight. Credit to them. If they defend like that
Speaker 1: and Luca comes back, I like their chances in this series.
Speaker 1: That's a huge plus on the On the offensive end,
Speaker 1: it's more or less the same type of action that
Speaker 1: you're seeing with Luca, it's just with lesser, lesser players
Speaker 1: running it. This is where that staggering thing comes into
Speaker 1: the equation that I was talking about. When when you're
Speaker 1: looking at Tyree s Maxie in the types of defensive
Speaker 1: attention and defensive coverage that he's seeing, he is so
Speaker 1: talented that he can have a certain amount of success
Speaker 1: in that environment. Right. Similar thing has happened with Spencer
Speaker 1: didn what he and Jalen Brunson this year. Everything is
Speaker 1: devoted towards Luca done in the way that they uh
Speaker 1: and at the way the teams have to cover him.
Speaker 1: There's also a fatigue element. Luca don Che with his
Speaker 1: usage rate, is going to take a certain number of
Speaker 1: pick and roll possessions or just just we'll call it
Speaker 1: commanding offensive possessions. He's going to command a certain number
Speaker 1: of possessions over the course of that game. So the
Speaker 1: ask that's on Spencer didn what he and the ascots
Speaker 1: on Jalen Brunson is significantly lower. Fatigue becomes less of
Speaker 1: an issue. There's less repetition. Repetition is a huge thing
Speaker 1: that I talked about and playoff basketball. It's one of
Speaker 1: the big reasons why James Harden struggles as series goes along,
Speaker 1: he kind of comes at you the same way over
Speaker 1: and over and over again, and defenses kind of figure
Speaker 1: it out. So versatility becomes one of the biggest, you know,
Speaker 1: indicators of success, and Luka Don has a ton of
Speaker 1: versatility to the way he attacks. Guys like Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: and guys like Spencer didn't what he are a little
Speaker 1: more one dimensional in their offensive coach, So in larger
Speaker 1: doses and with more actions on their plate, with more
Speaker 1: with fatigue playing a bigger role, and with more repetition,
Speaker 1: those guys are gonna look less effective. And what you
Speaker 1: saw tonight was Jalen Brunson and Spencer did what he's
Speaker 1: struggling to replicate what Dallas usually does on offense. And
Speaker 1: switching over to Utah for a second, because I think
Speaker 1: this is a related, very important and kind of understanding
Speaker 1: why that is. As I've talked about a lot Utah,
Speaker 1: I called Utah jazz frauds, and it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of a fun word, right It's it's just, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of just a buzzword in the sports talking
Speaker 1: head world when we're talking about teams like this that
Speaker 1: struggle in the postseason. But there's a very specific reason
Speaker 1: why I say that. I say that because there is
Speaker 1: a universe where the Utah Jazz are a very good
Speaker 1: defensive team, but we see them in certain environments become
Speaker 1: a very bad defensive team. Right like last year, they
Speaker 1: were I think third in the entire NBA and defensive
Speaker 1: writing if I remember correctly, certainly in one of the
Speaker 1: top few teams in the league. Then they run into
Speaker 1: the Clippers without Paul George and or without Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: excuse me, and just get lit on fire and they
Speaker 1: get I think they had a defensive writing in that series,
Speaker 1: which is a horrible number. So they're actually a bad
Speaker 1: defense in certain environments. But there are great defense in
Speaker 1: other environments. And what is that environment. That environment is
Speaker 1: the ability of Rudy Gobert to stay in the paint.
Speaker 1: You guys probably heard Jeff Van Gundy today say during
Speaker 1: the broadcast, he specifically came out and said, Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: has controlled this game without making a field goal. And
Speaker 1: he's right because in this specific game, with Luca out,
Speaker 1: the Dallas offense was incapable of getting Rudy Gobert out
Speaker 1: of the paint, and as a result, he was camping
Speaker 1: down there all night long, and every time they ran
Speaker 1: screen and roll and hit a guy with the pocket pass,
Speaker 1: they had to try to finish over Rudy and they couldn't.
Speaker 1: Anytime somebody beat one of the bad Utah Jazz defensive
Speaker 1: guards to the basket, Rudy Gobert was just waiting there
Speaker 1: and so nothing was open there was. One of the
Speaker 1: things that's consistently happened with Utah with Dallas this year
Speaker 1: is they've had to play non shooters in the front court,
Speaker 1: right Dwight Powell not a great shooter, but he's so
Speaker 1: important to their screening role game he has to be
Speaker 1: out there. Well. Luca does a better job of navigating
Speaker 1: that in finding ways to get around Gobert. Dinwoodie and
Speaker 1: Brunson really struggled with that. Rudy Gobert sat under the
Speaker 1: basket all night long and it caused a lot of problems.
Speaker 1: You saw another classic case of playoff defense with with
Speaker 1: Josh Green Love. Josh Green came to Tucson and played
Speaker 1: for the University of Arizona. He's not making his corner
Speaker 1: threes right now, so Utah's leaving him wide open. That's
Speaker 1: even more congestion in the paint. Dallas's offense completely and
Speaker 1: utterly broke down without Luca, and that's kind of the
Speaker 1: story of this series, right, like, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: They've tried to go to Burton's for more offense and
Speaker 1: just relentlessly Donovan Mitchell and Boyan Bogdanovitch just kept attacking
Speaker 1: Burton's every time down the floor. I thought that's what
Speaker 1: killed them, particularly in the third quarter. I do want
Speaker 1: to give some credit to the Jazz. They're not a
Speaker 1: great defensive team on the perimeter, but they did compete today. Again,
Speaker 1: it's easier to do when you're dealing with Jalen Brunson
Speaker 1: and Spencer Dinwoodie, but the Jazz did compete. But there's
Speaker 1: really nothing really worth talking about here if they can't
Speaker 1: get Luca back. Luca is the only thing that matters
Speaker 1: for Dallas in this series, because if he's not there,
Speaker 1: Dnwoodie and Brunson aren't up to the task. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to get Gobert out of the paint,
Speaker 1: and they're just simply not going to be able to
Speaker 1: score enough even with as good as they are defensively,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be able to score enough to win
Speaker 1: this series. So all that matters at this point is
Speaker 1: they absolutely have to get Luca back. I don't even
Speaker 1: really see much else to dig into here unless that's
Speaker 1: the case, because Dallas simply cannot keep up in this
Speaker 1: series without him. All Right, last, before we get out
Speaker 1: of here today, we're gonna look at what I thought
Speaker 1: was an incredibly entertaining game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and
Speaker 1: the Memphis Grizzlies. So Game one went to the Timberwolves.
Speaker 1: I saw this series being one that Memphis would have
Speaker 1: control and win, probably in five or six games, but
Speaker 1: I didn't I think that all the games would be competitive.
Speaker 1: For those of you who listened to the preview, these
Speaker 1: are two teams that share a lot of similarities. They
Speaker 1: both played in extremely high pace. Minnesota plays the fastest
Speaker 1: pace in the league. Grizzlies play the fourth fastest pace
Speaker 1: in the league. They both have a ton of long
Speaker 1: and athletic wings, and they both play extremely hard. That's
Speaker 1: been one of the interesting dynamics surrounding the Grizzlies all season.
Speaker 1: They're very good, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to undercut them. They're one of the most talented teams
Speaker 1: in the NBA. Every time John Murray sits out, it's like,
Speaker 1: here comes another young athletic guard. Whether it's Zaire Williams
Speaker 1: or Danthony Melton or whoever it might be. There's always
Speaker 1: just another guy that they have on the roster who's
Speaker 1: young and athletic and super talented. That team has a
Speaker 1: super super bright future. But this season, they played harder
Speaker 1: most of the time. They were a young team and
Speaker 1: uh an athletic team. They played well at home. They
Speaker 1: talked a lot of trash. They had like this youthful
Speaker 1: exuberance to them, which I liked a lot. But it
Speaker 1: led to an advantage in the effort and energy parts
Speaker 1: of the game on most nights, which worked great, especially
Speaker 1: when they play veteran basketball teams. Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Minnesota does the same exact thing. That team also plays
Speaker 1: extremely hard, and they came into this game one and
Speaker 1: they punched Memphis in the mouth and the effort and
Speaker 1: energy parts of the game. They had eleven offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: I've been amazed by Minnesota's perimeter defense. I talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot. In the series preview, they are sixth
Speaker 1: in the number of drives that they allow per game,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that they play the fastest pace in
Speaker 1: the entire NBA. NBA dot Com doesn't let you filter
Speaker 1: for things like per one possessions in their tracking data,
Speaker 1: but if you could, they probably be either leading the
Speaker 1: league or very close to leading the league and preventing
Speaker 1: drives from the perimeter because they sit down in the
Speaker 1: defensive stance and they make things extremely difficult for you.
Speaker 1: I thought they did an outstanding job defending the dribble
Speaker 1: drive all game long with Memphis. They stayed in front
Speaker 1: of Jaren Jackson and made him shoot over the top.
Speaker 1: I've been telling you guys NonStop. Jaren Jackson Jr. Super
Speaker 1: bright future, incredible defensive player. He's a bowl in a
Speaker 1: China shop offensively, and I thought he would struggle in
Speaker 1: a playoff environment with a team that consistently built a
Speaker 1: wall in front of him and slid their feet and
Speaker 1: made him shoot over the top. They did, and he struggled.
Speaker 1: Desmond Baine, I thought struggled generating quality shots. He's not
Speaker 1: a great shot creator. That this kind of all broke
Speaker 1: down exactly how I expected from Memphis. It came down
Speaker 1: to John Moran in his ability to create shots, and
Speaker 1: just like James Harden made the right reads. I thought
Speaker 1: John Moray forced a lot of actions in the paint
Speaker 1: instead of making the right reads. Crowds of bodies would
Speaker 1: come in when he would beat people off the dribble.
Speaker 1: Even with as good as Minnesota is with their perimeter defense,
Speaker 1: they are not fast enough to stay in front of
Speaker 1: John Moray. He was getting into the paint. But you
Speaker 1: have two options when you're there. You can either throw
Speaker 1: yourself into the throng of bodies in hopes of drawing
Speaker 1: a foul or making a layup, or you can make
Speaker 1: the easy reads to guys on the week side and
Speaker 1: hope that guys will knock down shots. That's not what
Speaker 1: John Morey did. He just threw his He just repeatedly
Speaker 1: threw himself into traffic. He did get a lot of
Speaker 1: calls until late in the game. Then those calls went away,
Speaker 1: those opportunities went away, and their offense kind of fell dead.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be the biggest adjustment that Memphis has to
Speaker 1: make as this this series progresses. You know, the Wolves
Speaker 1: are happy to make those plays when they get into
Speaker 1: the lane, they're constantly kicking out the shooters. The Wolves
Speaker 1: are number one in the league this year and three
Speaker 1: pointers attempted in number one in the league this year
Speaker 1: and three pointers made. So it's not a big shock
Speaker 1: that they took forty one of them today and they
Speaker 1: made sixteen of them for thirty nine percent. That's the
Speaker 1: way their offense is designed to function. That's the kind
Speaker 1: of shot they're gonna get. The Grizzlies are not great
Speaker 1: in that department. There twenty three this year and three
Speaker 1: pointers attempted there twenty three this year and three pointers made,
Speaker 1: and I believe they're seventeen in percentage. So they're not
Speaker 1: a great three point shooting team. So part of this
Speaker 1: particular matchup is the Grizzlies have to to understand the
Speaker 1: way this chess matches unfolding. The Grizzlies are the Timberwolves
Speaker 1: are sliding their feet on the perimeter and are taking
Speaker 1: away a lot of your easy driving opportunities. And when
Speaker 1: you get into the paint, they're packing the paint and
Speaker 1: they're giving up shots. On the week side, you have
Speaker 1: to make those reads when they're they're just like James
Speaker 1: Harden and Joyl and b did tonight. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: the story of the game. They with seven for seven
Speaker 1: from three tonight. Only that's nowhere near enough attempts for
Speaker 1: how often Minnesota was overplaying the paint. You have to
Speaker 1: be taking high thirties, low forties threes in this particular
Speaker 1: matchup as this kind of goes along. That's gonna be
Speaker 1: their biggest area of opportunity is finding those three point
Speaker 1: shots on the week side of the floor. Another adjustment
Speaker 1: that I think the Grizzlies absolutely have to make. They
Speaker 1: gotta get Steven Adams out of the lineup. I will
Speaker 1: never understand the obsession that coaches have with slow plotting.
Speaker 1: Bigs A dealt with it with Frank Vogel this year
Speaker 1: and DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard in large doses. You know,
Speaker 1: Sixers fans of dealt with it. Was going to h
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordan coming off the bench for them. There Steven
Speaker 1: Adams in Memphis, it's the exact same problem. Jaren Jackson Jr.
Speaker 1: Is every bit capable of playing the five for you
Speaker 1: all the time, Okay, And you can go to Brandon
Speaker 1: Clark or play small in the minutes that he's not
Speaker 1: on the floor, you're so athletic around him, and you're
Speaker 1: so strong around him. Desmond Baine is big and strong.
Speaker 1: Jaren Jackson is big and strong. Dylan Brooks is as
Speaker 1: big and physical perimeter player that we have in this league.
Speaker 1: You do not need Steven Adams on the floor. When
Speaker 1: he's on the floor, they're going to run you up
Speaker 1: and down, and they did tonight. I'll have to pull
Speaker 1: up the box score, but they were big minus when
Speaker 1: Steven Adams was on the floor. That's an easy adjustment
Speaker 1: to make moving forward. Get out of your traditional lineups.
Speaker 1: This is the postseason. You don't need to manufacture stops
Speaker 1: against the weak opponents in the eighty two game schedule.
Speaker 1: This is winning time. You can't afford to lose another game.
Speaker 1: You have to get uh, Steven Adams out of the
Speaker 1: lineup and then don't get out worked anymore. You have
Speaker 1: to find a way to make sure that, especially when
Speaker 1: you're at home, you win the effort and energy parts
Speaker 1: of the game. You get more offensive rebounds than Minnesota gets,
Speaker 1: you play better in transition. Those are the areas of
Speaker 1: the game that they have to control. Special shout out
Speaker 1: to all the role players from Minnesota who made a
Speaker 1: ton of big shots tonight. Patrick Beverley made a huge
Speaker 1: side step three. Jada McDaniels made a huge three out
Speaker 1: of the corner. That kind of I sed it. Tore
Speaker 1: and Prince made some big shots. Uh, Mike uh. Malik Beasley,
Speaker 1: what an amazing performance from him. He is, you know,
Speaker 1: he's kind of like a depends on when you watch
Speaker 1: him kind of guy, inconsistent. Not entirely uncommon for players
Speaker 1: like that with that type of that archetype of kind
Speaker 1: of volatile offensive shooting guard. But man, he played really
Speaker 1: really well as well. This is gonna be a very
Speaker 1: competitive series. I think that the Grizzlies have easy adjustments
Speaker 1: that they can make, and they are the more talented team,
Speaker 1: they should be able to swing things. But great first
Speaker 1: step from Minnesota. Last a note on Minnesota before we
Speaker 1: get out of here for the day. Really impressed to
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns on the way he bounced back. He
Speaker 1: had a really unfortunate game against the Clippers. I thought
Speaker 1: you let the foul trouble get into his head. The
Speaker 1: way the Clippers swarmed him clearly bothered him in a
Speaker 1: bunch of different ways. It'd be really easy to shrink
Speaker 1: mentally from that and under and just feel like it's
Speaker 1: just not it's just not your night or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: Cat rebounded and he played extremely well tonight. He was
Speaker 1: dominant on the offensive glass. Huge part of their offense
Speaker 1: tonight was the ability to give Karl Anthony Towns the
Speaker 1: ball at the top of the key in space out
Speaker 1: around him where he could easily beat guys off the
Speaker 1: dribble with his face up game. It's where he got
Speaker 1: his incredible dunk. It was on a gamble on a
Speaker 1: on an entry there to the high post, and he
Speaker 1: was beating guys off the dribble there. He's so strong
Speaker 1: and his ability to draw contact and finished through contact
Speaker 1: at the rim out of that position was a huge
Speaker 1: part of their offense. So what's interesting there is, with
Speaker 1: exception of Jaren Jackson Jr. I don't think anybody on
Speaker 1: Memphis can guard him on that spot of the floor.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be a really interesting chess piece for
Speaker 1: minute Soda as this series progresses. How frequently can they
Speaker 1: get the ball to Cat there without Jaren Jackson Jr.
Speaker 1: There Because even when Jaren Jackson Jr. Comes over to help,
Speaker 1: when Cat has a head of steam. It just doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Like you saw with that ridiculous dunk, super entertaining first
Speaker 1: day of games. Like I said, we're gonna get to
Speaker 1: the Warriors Nuggets game in tomorrow's show back to normal.
Speaker 1: Right after the last game of the day, we'll be
Speaker 1: going live on YouTube and on Twitter Spaces will have
Speaker 1: Carson in the whole shebang going on there. As always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate your guys support. I'm really excited that we're
Speaker 1: getting this playoff journey off and started. I will see
Speaker 1: you guys tomorrow. The volume