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Speaker 1: net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by FanDuel. Here at the volume, I am Jason Tamp.
Speaker 1: Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you are having
Speaker 1: a fantastic start to your week. Very very strange game there,
Speaker 1: but I did expect it to be strange for those
Speaker 1: of you guys who have been listening to the show
Speaker 1: over the course of the last couple of days. You know. Um,
Speaker 1: this specifically is a one game sample size of the
Speaker 1: way that strangeness can impact any basketball player. Talk a
Speaker 1: lot about rhythm in the way that uh no, you know,
Speaker 1: if all two shots are the same, right like, if
Speaker 1: I've a wide open shot for Steph Curry on the
Speaker 1: right wing, why does one go in and one doesn't. Well,
Speaker 1: a lot of it is like dialing things in and
Speaker 1: feeling comfortable. And this was the textbook type of wicked
Speaker 1: curveball of a basketball game. That is the kind the
Speaker 1: thing that can throw really good basketball players out of whack,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was super interesting. We're going to
Speaker 1: dive into the weeds of this game on all fronts.
Speaker 1: We are also going to get into Boston Milwaukee a
Speaker 1: little bit more, and then if you guys stick around
Speaker 1: form the end of the show, we're gonna go over
Speaker 1: some of the biggest questions going on in the NBA
Speaker 1: right now, including reaction to Nicola Yokits winning his second
Speaker 1: consecutive m v P, and a bunch of other good stuff.
Speaker 1: So we got an action pack show for you for
Speaker 1: you guys tonight, I appreciate you coming to hang out.
Speaker 1: A couple of quick housekeeping notes before we get started.
Speaker 1: Make sure you like this video and subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Volumes YouTube channel so that you don't miss any more
Speaker 1: of our videos. We will be live every day this week,
Speaker 1: so make sure you come back after every one of
Speaker 1: our games, and make sure you follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at underscore Jason lt. That's the place where I release
Speaker 1: all of the video content that backs up the things
Speaker 1: that I talked about specifically on the show. It's a
Speaker 1: great way to kind of get a visual representation of
Speaker 1: some of the concepts that I've been talking about here.
Speaker 1: But let's get started with Golden State Memphis. So you know,
Speaker 1: I talked to you guys right after the John Morant injury.
Speaker 1: I said that I said that the Grizzlies were not
Speaker 1: a better team without Jaw, but they were a different team.
Speaker 1: You know, with John Morant on the floor, it's very heliocentric,
Speaker 1: it's very him at the top of the key of
Speaker 1: making every decision, so obviously it impacts other players rhythm
Speaker 1: on the floor. And then secondly, John Morant is the
Speaker 1: worst defensive player on this roster, or at least in
Speaker 1: the rotation by a long shot. Tis Jones, who's, you know,
Speaker 1: not a fantastic defensive player, is a much better defensive
Speaker 1: player than Jaw. And so when you pump all of
Speaker 1: those job minutes out of the lineup and you replace
Speaker 1: them with a little bit more Taias Jones and a
Speaker 1: little bit more size and athleticism, you get a much
Speaker 1: better defensive team. This season, when Jah was off the floor,
Speaker 1: the Grizzlies were about five points better per one possessions
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor. They actually were
Speaker 1: better in their overall net rating with Jaw off the floor.
Speaker 1: And again it's not because Jaw is, you know, hurting
Speaker 1: the team or the team is better without him. But
Speaker 1: in the small sample sizes that they went without him
Speaker 1: actually wasn't even that small. They played twenty five games
Speaker 1: I think without him this year. But in those games
Speaker 1: they played a different brand of basketball. It was more bruising,
Speaker 1: more physical, more defensive oriented, and they ran through a
Speaker 1: lot of teams this year, a lot of good teams.
Speaker 1: We saw that Brooklyn Nets team with Katie and Kyrie
Speaker 1: walk into Memphis without Jaw and get beat towards the
Speaker 1: end of the season. They are a really, really difficult
Speaker 1: team to deal with. They were already one of the
Speaker 1: biggest and most athletic teams in the league without Job
Speaker 1: or with Jaw. Taking him out of the lineup and
Speaker 1: putting another bigger player in there was inevitably going to
Speaker 1: cause that type of curveball you know that defensive that
Speaker 1: increased defensive pressure completely through Golden State out of whack.
Speaker 1: In that first half, Jordan Pool and Steph only played
Speaker 1: thirty forty eight available minutes. You know, obviously if both
Speaker 1: players played the full half, they could have played forty
Speaker 1: eight minutes. They only played thirty. I thought that was
Speaker 1: a direct reaction from Mike Brown to the increase in
Speaker 1: size and then struggling with the physicality. They played Clay
Speaker 1: Thompson twenty one first half minutes, which I mean, again,
Speaker 1: even if you are trying to fight the size, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have done that. But again, like Mike Brown's getting
Speaker 1: tossed into the fire there. He hasn't been coaching the
Speaker 1: team all season. He's just thrown into that spot. So
Speaker 1: obviously it's it's tough to hold him super accountable for
Speaker 1: for that. But I thought that was an interesting reaction
Speaker 1: to Memphis coming with a ton of size. You saw
Speaker 1: it directly affect their shooting. We talked about how in
Speaker 1: game game two the Warriors Stars shot horrible. Step shot horrible,
Speaker 1: Clay shot horrible, Jordan Pool shot horrible, Andrew Wiggins shot horrible.
Speaker 1: Then they all got going in game three, well, this
Speaker 1: curve ball from Memphis threw them all out of whack again.
Speaker 1: In the first half. Jordan Pool, Steph Andrew Wiggins, and
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson were one for seventeen from three, one for seventeen,
Speaker 1: And there were some good looks in there, don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, but a lot of it was you could
Speaker 1: just tell they were thrown off by the whole rhythm
Speaker 1: of the game and the way that it changed. They
Speaker 1: had eleven first half turnovers, which led to nine points
Speaker 1: for the Grizzlies. That's, you know, sloppiness, and I'm struggling
Speaker 1: with some of the length and athleticism that was on
Speaker 1: the floor, you know. I I thought it was a
Speaker 1: really really interesting decision to go back to Steven Adams
Speaker 1: in the lineups line up from Taylor Jenkins. He has
Speaker 1: been completely removed from the rotation in this playoff run. Obviously.
Speaker 1: You know, we saw him play I think three minutes
Speaker 1: in Game two of the Minnesota series before he basically disappeared.
Speaker 1: He only played six minutes total in games one through three. Well,
Speaker 1: they played him twenty seven minutes tonight. Fifteen rebounds, six
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds. It was plus eleven, just a dominant performance
Speaker 1: from Steven Adams coming in off the bench and in
Speaker 1: that big guy role. You know, that's the interesting thing
Speaker 1: about what Taylor Jenkins did in this specific scenario. Do
Speaker 1: you guys remember how I was super critical of Doc
Speaker 1: Rivers for the way that he went about games one
Speaker 1: and two in that Miami Philly series. I told you, guys,
Speaker 1: I thought that they could never hope to play their
Speaker 1: same style against Miami without Joe l Embiide and when
Speaker 1: there's never a chance because at that point it's the
Speaker 1: loss of talent. So I thought it was a terrible
Speaker 1: idea to go rolling into Miami with your centers, with
Speaker 1: DeAndre Jordans on the floor, with Paul Reid on the floor,
Speaker 1: and try to play traditional conventional basketball against a team
Speaker 1: that just has more talent than you. I thought that
Speaker 1: was a really poor decision. I thought their best opportunity
Speaker 1: to win down in Miami was to go crazy and weird,
Speaker 1: because in a small sample size, weird can work. And
Speaker 1: tonight's a great example of that. You know, you when
Speaker 1: Philly went with all guards and wings, they had a
Speaker 1: ton of success down there in Miami because it was
Speaker 1: it's just weird. Eyes don't know where to stand guy's perimeter.
Speaker 1: You know, gard guards that are typically guarding you know,
Speaker 1: perimeter players suddenly are you know, dealing with a bigger
Speaker 1: wing in the post. You'll have big guys that are
Speaker 1: traditionally hanging around the basket having to chase a shooter
Speaker 1: around or having to cover a ton of ground of rotation.
Speaker 1: It throws everybody off. But instead, you know, Doc Rivers
Speaker 1: went conventional and got his butt kicked. I thought it
Speaker 1: was really interesting that Taylor Jenkins was like, no, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go weird. I'm gonna go huge. I'm gonna play
Speaker 1: Steven Adams, even though I haven't been able to play
Speaker 1: him at all in this entire playoff run. We're just
Speaker 1: going to physically mall Golden State in this game, and
Speaker 1: that's that. That was their best chance to muck things
Speaker 1: up and get that going the way that they did.
Speaker 1: To Golden State's credit, they battled back, and I a
Speaker 1: lot of that credit I give to Steph you know
Speaker 1: uh In in that game in particular, as as a
Speaker 1: result of the way that the thing's got tight, you know,
Speaker 1: sweaty palms, lots of pressure. You're down by eight to
Speaker 1: ten points in the second I think they were actually
Speaker 1: down by eleven at one point, a lot of guys
Speaker 1: start pressing. You saw that from like Clay Thompson. It
Speaker 1: was just like, you know, quick shots and transition, quick
Speaker 1: tough shots around the rim, over penetrating when you when
Speaker 1: you're attacking a close out. Jordan Pool like guys. Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool was so good in Game three as an initial
Speaker 1: dribble drive creator, getting that like first step on somebody
Speaker 1: to get into the lane. But because everyone was shooting poorly,
Speaker 1: guys were playing off of Jordan Pool like got Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool would start to kind of mix up with his
Speaker 1: rhythm dribbles as he's getting ready to attack and the
Speaker 1: defender's back pedaling, and it's hard because do you take
Speaker 1: a quick pull up three at the early in the
Speaker 1: possession when your team's not shooting particularly well, Like that's
Speaker 1: a it's a it's a It gets in your head
Speaker 1: a little bit, it becomes complicated, and you could tell
Speaker 1: that that was disrupting a lot of what they were doing.
Speaker 1: It two steps credit. He just came into that fourth
Speaker 1: quarter and was like, I need to make some plays,
Speaker 1: and he made some places, got to the rim. I
Speaker 1: thought it was really smart that he started punishing Steven Adams.
Speaker 1: Like again, like we talked a lot about how styles
Speaker 1: makes you know, it's not that you know. I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in small ball. That's why I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer in this Warriors team. But regardless of if a
Speaker 1: if a small ball team plays against a big team,
Speaker 1: the small ball team is not guaranteed to win. The
Speaker 1: small ball team has to do small ball things really well.
Speaker 1: Look at like so for instance, like I always talk
Speaker 1: about the give and take of going small. If a
Speaker 1: team goes big, you can expect that and you're small,
Speaker 1: you can expect them to get a lot offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: You can expect them to bully you in specific matchups
Speaker 1: like driving to the rim through thinner, smaller defenders or
Speaker 1: posting up thinner, smaller defenders. Like that's part of the deal, right,
Speaker 1: Like that that's gonna happen. You can expect to face
Speaker 1: stiff rim opposition, right Like you can expect you can
Speaker 1: expect when you're attacking the basket against this team and
Speaker 1: they're big, that you're gonna have to deal with a
Speaker 1: lot of big bodies around the basket. Those are all
Speaker 1: the trade offs, right. But the flip side of that is,
Speaker 1: you have a massive skill advantage, a massive foot speed advantage,
Speaker 1: and like quickness, and you have a massive straight line
Speaker 1: drive speed advantage, like sprinting up and down the floor.
Speaker 1: You have advantages on the floor. And so what it
Speaker 1: becomes is what wins. Is it the big team that's
Speaker 1: being more physically imposing and winning all those altercations and
Speaker 1: containing all of the small ball things that you do,
Speaker 1: because if that's the case, you'll lose to the big team.
Speaker 1: I personally am a big believer in that small ball style,
Speaker 1: but it has to be played well. And in that
Speaker 1: first half, especially through the first three quarters, really Go
Speaker 1: and Stay just wasn't playing well. They were losing those
Speaker 1: physical physical altercations all over the floor. They were struggling
Speaker 1: in individual matchups. Jaren Jackson Jr. Kudos to him, Like
Speaker 1: he figured out about halfway through that game that outo
Speaker 1: Porter Jr. Just could not keep him from getting to
Speaker 1: the basket, and he just started rip him through and
Speaker 1: going to the rim and he was getting whatever he wanted.
Speaker 1: And again, that's always been Jaren Jackson's game, is that
Speaker 1: bullyball game. And I don't know what took him so
Speaker 1: long to understand that that was his biggest advance image
Speaker 1: in this series. But tonight he got that figured it out.
Speaker 1: He got that figured out, and he was attacking the basket.
Speaker 1: But again Memphis was winning the style fight. There were
Speaker 1: two different styles on the floor and they were playing better.
Speaker 1: But as the game progressed, you know, and you know,
Speaker 1: Golden State. I thought Tim Leigler did a really nice
Speaker 1: job breaking this down with J. J Reddick on on
Speaker 1: their podcast that they did the other day, and they
Speaker 1: were talking about how, you know, Golden State has a
Speaker 1: tendency to get out of what makes them very good.
Speaker 1: This is what happened in the two thousand eight team playoffs,
Speaker 1: if you guys remember against Houston, and its credit to Houston,
Speaker 1: they did it by switching everything and kind of throwing
Speaker 1: off all of the split cuts and off ball actions
Speaker 1: and on ball actions that Golden State runs. But they
Speaker 1: got ice so heavy and Katie and Steph both kind
Speaker 1: of fell into it in that series and they got
Speaker 1: out of whack. Their ball movement stopped and it became
Speaker 1: a matchup attacking series and James Harden and Chris Paul
Speaker 1: were having as much success attacking matchups. Stephen KD were
Speaker 1: you know, and one of the biggest indicator. Obviously Chris
Speaker 1: Paul went out and it caused it took that kind
Speaker 1: of question out of the equation. But had Chris Paul
Speaker 1: stayed healthy, that series would have come down to could
Speaker 1: Golden State have gotten back into their style of basketball?
Speaker 1: Golden State style bass basketball is movement. It's multiple passes
Speaker 1: on every possession. It's multiple getting your defense in in
Speaker 1: a ton of rotations, you know, because as we always
Speaker 1: talked about, especially against elite defenses, they'll communicate well on
Speaker 1: the first action. They might communicate well and engage on
Speaker 1: the second action, but that third action, that fourth action,
Speaker 1: that's when you start having guys have tougher responsibilities, more
Speaker 1: difficult you know, communication type of situations, and they botch
Speaker 1: stuff and then you start to get open shots, especially
Speaker 1: against a young team like this Memphis team. But they
Speaker 1: go through these extended stretches sometimes where they forget that
Speaker 1: they did back in two thousand eighteen in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and they did it a little bit tonight, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it was like early shots, quick in
Speaker 1: the possession. All of a sudden, it was like transition
Speaker 1: pull up threes. All of a sudden. It's it's difficult
Speaker 1: shot make, and you know some of it is like
Speaker 1: like Steph, I've never seen Steph missed that many wide
Speaker 1: open shots. Like some of it you gotta. But that
Speaker 1: gets in your head then, right, and then you start
Speaker 1: forcing things even more. You start to feel like it's
Speaker 1: not your night. Especially for guys like Clay Thompson and
Speaker 1: Georgian Jordan Pool. You saw a lot of that. But
Speaker 1: to their credit, they reined it in and they got
Speaker 1: it together in that fourth quarter and they got going.
Speaker 1: It's a really really weird game. You know. I don't
Speaker 1: know how you could say it translates forward, because again
Speaker 1: it's the the small sample sizes the advantage of the
Speaker 1: weird team, right Like, obviously, if Philly played a seven
Speaker 1: game series against Miami with no bigs by game three
Speaker 1: or game four, Eric Spoelster is going to figure out
Speaker 1: ways to consistently exploit you for not having any size
Speaker 1: on the floor. Right, But in that first game or two,
Speaker 1: you have your advantage. You know, this was the game.
Speaker 1: If you were Memphis, you had to win because you
Speaker 1: made things super weird. If you win this game, maybe
Speaker 1: you can eat out one more of those in your
Speaker 1: buzz saw in front of your home crowd. But like
Speaker 1: at the longer this goes, they're gonna have a lot
Speaker 1: of time over the course of the next couple of
Speaker 1: days to dig into the film see where their areas
Speaker 1: opportunity were. There's no way in the world that Memphis
Speaker 1: should get away with having Steven Adams on the floor
Speaker 1: for more than half the game against your five out attack.
Speaker 1: It just shouldn't happen. So Golden State's got a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff that they got to figure out, but they're
Speaker 1: all readily available adjustments. And again, this is game five,
Speaker 1: they should have a much better opportunity to um to
Speaker 1: make Memphis pay for being as big and as slow
Speaker 1: as they were. A couple of quick shout outs I
Speaker 1: just talked about Jaren Jackson. I thought he had a
Speaker 1: monstrous two way performance. Just you know, that guy's young
Speaker 1: and he doesn't see the floor super well, and it's
Speaker 1: it's gonna be hard for him to be as impactful
Speaker 1: as he's capable of and consistently enough at this phase
Speaker 1: in his career. But he's gonna be really good because,
Speaker 1: like man, there was a moment there in that game
Speaker 1: where he just suddenly it dawned on him that no
Speaker 1: one could guard En, and he was just going to
Speaker 1: the room every time and just quick little rip throughs
Speaker 1: and stuff and just you know, getting the defender on
Speaker 1: his hip and then making shots off the glass, you know,
Speaker 1: extremely tough left handed layup off the glass there and
Speaker 1: crunch time. Just an unbelievable performance. And then credit to
Speaker 1: Tyas Jones, you know his I remember when ty Jones
Speaker 1: was coming out of college, he was kind of you know, uh,
Speaker 1: portrayed as the the like prototypical point guard, like the
Speaker 1: guy that is just the guy who can run a team,
Speaker 1: you know, which is not a thing that you see
Speaker 1: too often in the NBA these days, because most guards
Speaker 1: are high, pick and roll heavy, like really like mechanical
Speaker 1: decision makers. If he gets caught on the screen, I'm shooting.
Speaker 1: If he's kind of caught on the screen, it's still there.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna drive into the lane further. If I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get into my floater, I'm gonna get to my pull
Speaker 1: up shot, I'm gonna get all the way to the rim,
Speaker 1: and if someone absolutely forces me to, then I'll give
Speaker 1: the ball up. You know. That's the way most guards
Speaker 1: are wired in the NBA these days are just aren't
Speaker 1: many guys like Tyas Jones who can just execute and
Speaker 1: run a team, and he didn't really nice job of
Speaker 1: that tonight, so credit to him. But good, good, good
Speaker 1: comeback win from from a Golden State. Like I said,
Speaker 1: Steph in the fourth quarter was incredible. I thought Kevin
Speaker 1: Looney came in and gave some really important minutes. There
Speaker 1: was a monster play from Jordan's Pool after defensive stop
Speaker 1: or he whipped that behind the back dribble and actually
Speaker 1: threw it way out in front of him and like
Speaker 1: chased it down and got it and got all the
Speaker 1: way to the rim for the layup in transition. That's
Speaker 1: that freak of nature straight line speed that Jordan Pool
Speaker 1: has that was so good. Traymond Green had a monster
Speaker 1: block on Jaren Jackson Jr. On one of the final
Speaker 1: possessions where he uh where Jaren Jackson kind of forced
Speaker 1: like a pull up three off the dribble and he
Speaker 1: blocked it. Clay Thompson had a big defensive play towards
Speaker 1: the end of the game on Desmond bain So for
Speaker 1: for a team that had a lot of guys that
Speaker 1: had rough nights out of Porter Junior struggled guarding Jaren
Speaker 1: Jackson Jr. But he was the only guy making shots.
Speaker 1: You know. Andrew Wiggins had a massive block on Desmond
Speaker 1: Bay and going down the lane. So everyone had a
Speaker 1: rough night in a Golden State Jersey, but everybody came
Speaker 1: through and made the big plays. And that's what the
Speaker 1: championship teams do. And I mean again, I still my
Speaker 1: concerns the Golden State remain the same that they've been
Speaker 1: this entire playoff run. Like because they're up three one now,
Speaker 1: they're probably gonna win this series, probably gonna go to
Speaker 1: the next round. They're gonna face someone like Phoenix or Dallas, right,
Speaker 1: but consistently in this series, they've struggled a little bit
Speaker 1: with memphisis size, so that's gonna be their big flaw.
Speaker 1: But every team has flaws. Dallas is flaws after Luca,
Speaker 1: the offensive creation is super inconsistent, and they don't have
Speaker 1: great defensive personnel, although they've been guarding super well. Phoenix's
Speaker 1: biggest flies you've seen is when they play against a
Speaker 1: good dribble drive team like Dallas is all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like Chris Paul starts to struggle a little bit guys
Speaker 1: like Mchail Bridges and Cam Johnson starts to struggle a bit.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker is really the only guy who's been good
Speaker 1: on the road in Dallas. So you're seeing Phoenix is
Speaker 1: showing some limitations and shot creation against really good defensive teams,
Speaker 1: which is exactly what happened to them in the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals against Milwaukee Boston. We just we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: them here just a minute. Their offense goes through these
Speaker 1: extended stretches where they're sloppy. So all these teams have flaws.
Speaker 1: So I'm not trying to act like Golden States the
Speaker 1: only team with the flaw. It's just this is their
Speaker 1: specific flaw. When they play teams that are very big
Speaker 1: and physical, it can cause them some issues. Tonight they
Speaker 1: were able to overcome it. I thought there was a
Speaker 1: big step for them. Obviously, that will be the matchups
Speaker 1: are the things that determine these types of outcomes, and
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens when they move further along. But
Speaker 1: three one in this there is the only team in
Speaker 1: the second round that has a three one lead right
Speaker 1: now is Golden State. Before we move on to Boston Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: a couple of quick housekeeping notes like earlier, like this video,
Speaker 1: and subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: going live every day this week, so make sure you
Speaker 1: come back after every big game, and make sure you
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt. That is
Speaker 1: the best place to see any video content that breaks
Speaker 1: down the things that I talked about on the game
Speaker 1: on the show. So let's talk about Boston and Milwaukee
Speaker 1: for a minute. So super super interesting game. You guys,
Speaker 1: most of you who been following the show for a while,
Speaker 1: you know where I stand. I picked Boston originally in five,
Speaker 1: and then when Milwaukee stole Game one, I stayed on Boston.
Speaker 1: I just thought it would be a longer series. And
Speaker 1: you know, tell to Janice in particular his credit. He's
Speaker 1: done an unbelievable job dragging this series out. Boston is
Speaker 1: the better team. They from January three on they were
Speaker 1: the number one offense in the league and the number
Speaker 1: number one defense in the league. They were the number
Speaker 1: one defense by a big margin. They had a five
Speaker 1: point per one hunder possession advantage over the second best team.
Speaker 1: Boston has like literally utterly dominated that Brooklyn team. And
Speaker 1: I know everyone wants to slander Kevin Durant, and I
Speaker 1: know everyone wants a slander Steve Nash and Kyrie Irving,
Speaker 1: and they're an easy target. But Brooklyn was good when
Speaker 1: Katie and Kyrie played. So that's how it goes. And
Speaker 1: and and Boston ripped him to shreds okay. Milwaukee, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, was the twentieth ranked defense in the
Speaker 1: NBA after the All Star break. They struggle like guarding
Speaker 1: the perimeter. They've only been good at guarding the paint.
Speaker 1: That's always been their defensive identity. And so that's why
Speaker 1: I picked Boston. And the series is broken down in
Speaker 1: a really interesting manner, and your honest to me is
Speaker 1: the only reason it's as competitive as it has been.
Speaker 1: And so it's a credit to him. And like I
Speaker 1: have to say, I have I have been so unbelievably
Speaker 1: blown away and impressed by Janice in this playoff run.
Speaker 1: You know, as I've told you guys many times, I
Speaker 1: am slow to move guys to the top. It's just
Speaker 1: the way I'm wired. Big lebron fan here didn't think
Speaker 1: he was the best part in the league until two
Speaker 1: thousand and twelve. That's the manner in which that I
Speaker 1: make these decisions for me personally, I just take it slow.
Speaker 1: I give a lot of respect in leeway and margin
Speaker 1: for error, in benefit of the doubt to the guys
Speaker 1: that have done it year and year in and year
Speaker 1: out right. That's just the way I am. But Janice
Speaker 1: is making it unassailable at this point that he is
Speaker 1: by himself at the top of the league. He looks
Speaker 1: comfortable against this Boston defense, which is completely insane. I've
Speaker 1: said this on the show before and I stand by it.
Speaker 1: I think Boston is the best sensive team of this era.
Speaker 1: They've at any given moment, they always have five good
Speaker 1: defensive players on the floor. They can guard almost every position.
Speaker 1: They switch, they can do drop they they double and recover.
Speaker 1: They're active off the ball there. They can block shots
Speaker 1: at the rim, they can block shots on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: They are a frightening defensive team. They make Kevin freaking
Speaker 1: Durant look lost. And I have never seen Kevin freaking
Speaker 1: Durant look lost. Even in his bad playoff moments in
Speaker 1: the past, he never looked as bad as he did
Speaker 1: against this Boston defense. And Janice just looks completely in
Speaker 1: control when he has the ball. Now, again, basketball is
Speaker 1: a team sport. It's not always gonna manifest as a win.
Speaker 1: That's why I picked Boston. But I've been blown away
Speaker 1: by Jhannice is passing. He is now like is he
Speaker 1: is he Lebron or Yokitchener Luca or CP three with
Speaker 1: the past? No, but he's in one of the tears
Speaker 1: right below there. And that's a remarkable accomplishment for a
Speaker 1: guy who didn't grow up playing this game, who literally
Speaker 1: learned it on the fly. It's just unbelievable stuff. He's
Speaker 1: starting to break down Boston's wall a little bit too.
Speaker 1: That's Milwaukee's chance to keep this series going longer, is
Speaker 1: you know, as the series is progressed. At the start,
Speaker 1: it was Boston's guys were stonewalling on us, and then
Speaker 1: now it's like, you're honest, is starting to run them
Speaker 1: over a little bit. This game, in that second half,
Speaker 1: he's starting to go right around him, like the Boston
Speaker 1: players aren't even holding their ground anymore as they're starting
Speaker 1: to wear down. And that's the impact he had on
Speaker 1: Phoenix in the NBA Finals last year. It's an impact
Speaker 1: he had on Brooklyn in the Conference semis last year.
Speaker 1: That's what he does to you, He just slowly but
Speaker 1: surely breaks you down because he's the most physically imposing
Speaker 1: player of this era, and that's how it goes. A
Speaker 1: couple other quick notes on Boston's front al Horford playoff
Speaker 1: career high thirty points tonight just an absolute monster. He's
Speaker 1: an example of the way matchups and scheming can lead
Speaker 1: to a specific player having a ton of success. Do
Speaker 1: you guys remember in the two thousand fifteen NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: You Warriors fans will remember this vividly well, But do
Speaker 1: you remember how Andrey Guadala kept making corner threes and
Speaker 1: as a result, his scoring numbers were inflated and he
Speaker 1: was guarding Lebron as the primary defender, so he got
Speaker 1: a finals m v P. But anybody who was watching
Speaker 1: the series understood what was actually happening in that series
Speaker 1: was Steph was running high pick and roll with Dre,
Speaker 1: and Cleveland had in their scheme a trap of every
Speaker 1: staff curry pick and roll. So whoever was guarding Dre
Speaker 1: like Tristan Thompson, or and whoever was guarding Steph like
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving, those two guys would go Steph and they
Speaker 1: dumped the ball over the top. Excuse me, they dumped
Speaker 1: the ball over the top to Draymond. Draymond would roll
Speaker 1: down the lane. Lebron would come over and help and
Speaker 1: shut off Draymond on the on the short roll, and
Speaker 1: Draymond would kick to the left corner. Every single time.
Speaker 1: Always wide open was Andrea Guadala and he would make
Speaker 1: the shot. And so the points are going to Andre Gudala.
Speaker 1: But it's a scheme thing, and it's Steph that was
Speaker 1: creating that. That's why that happened, right, That's why I
Speaker 1: thought Steph got so awfully robbed of his Finals MVP
Speaker 1: that he deserves and that he has in my book. Right,
Speaker 1: But that's the way scheming can lead to a role
Speaker 1: player getting fantastic shots and it having an impact on
Speaker 1: a series. That's what happened to Al Horford in this series,
Speaker 1: and it's happened like crazy in the last couple of games.
Speaker 1: NBA drop coverage is designed to take away the paint
Speaker 1: and when you chase the guard over the top of
Speaker 1: the screen and the biggest waiting in the paint, both
Speaker 1: of those players are going with the guy who has
Speaker 1: the ball, essentially, and when you're rolling to the basket
Speaker 1: with a traditional role man like Clink Capella, You're okay
Speaker 1: because the guy who's in drop coverage, the big man
Speaker 1: who's in drop coverage, can guard both the role man
Speaker 1: and the guard as long as the other guy chases
Speaker 1: him and funnels him to the basket. Right. But if
Speaker 1: I have Al Horford set this screen and I have
Speaker 1: him popped to the three point line and the biggest
Speaker 1: still in drop around the basket and the guard is
Speaker 1: still chasing the other guard over the top of the screen,
Speaker 1: Horford is going to be open every single time. And
Speaker 1: so he's been wide open and picking pops all series long,
Speaker 1: and he's and he's been knocking him down in off
Speaker 1: ball situations. If if Brook Lopez, as part of the
Speaker 1: Milwaukee defense, wants to hawk the paint, then Al Horford
Speaker 1: just sits in the week side corner and now Jayson
Speaker 1: Tatum all he has to do is get by Wesley Matthews,
Speaker 1: apply a little bit of rim pressure so that Brooke
Speaker 1: commits easy kick pass out to Al Horford in the
Speaker 1: corner and he's making them. You know again, Like a
Speaker 1: lot of times, fans, especially fans of a losing team,
Speaker 1: will focus on shot shot value, right or shot I
Speaker 1: should say shot outcome. Oh that they made all their shots.
Speaker 1: Al Horford couldn't miss tonight. You know, I can't believe
Speaker 1: Boston's making all these threes. They're wide open. It's shot
Speaker 1: quality determined shot out for the most part, especially over
Speaker 1: a large sample size. Yes, in a weird game like
Speaker 1: Golden State Memphis tonight, you might get some weird outcomes
Speaker 1: on open shots. But for the most part, especially when
Speaker 1: you become familiar with the team, wide open shots for
Speaker 1: good shooters are probably gonna go in, and they did,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna keep going in. Boston shot wide open
Speaker 1: threes in the first round. There were wide open threes
Speaker 1: through games one through three of this series. I don't
Speaker 1: know what they shot tonight because I haven't seen the
Speaker 1: stats yet, but they've made all their open shots tonight.
Speaker 1: That's scheming. That's Andrea Guadala hitting corn quarter threes in
Speaker 1: the two thousand fifteen finals. That's how this works. So
Speaker 1: credit to Al Horford. I'm not trying to undercut him
Speaker 1: by at all, but I just think it's super interesting
Speaker 1: the way that scheming can lead to an individual performance
Speaker 1: as great as that last touch on this series Jayson Tatum,
Speaker 1: you know, awful, awful, awful Game three, and the mark
Speaker 1: of greatness is bounced back. You know, obviously consistency is
Speaker 1: the old mint mark of greatness, but not everyone's Lebron.
Speaker 1: Lebron is Lebron is great in every playoff game. But
Speaker 1: you know what, He's gonna go down as the second
Speaker 1: best basketball player of all time, maybe the first. Okay,
Speaker 1: So that's that standard, and Janice is quickly trending in
Speaker 1: that trend did that direction himself. But like Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: had a really bad game in game in Game three,
Speaker 1: and he bounced back, made a ton of big shots
Speaker 1: at the end of the game that I used to
Speaker 1: the game. A couple of I thought that the story
Speaker 1: of the game for Tatum was attacking the paint. It
Speaker 1: was played early in the game in transition where he
Speaker 1: put his head down and he dunked on Brook Lopez
Speaker 1: like you like you wouldn't believe. It was frightening, just
Speaker 1: a vicious tone setting message sending dunk. And as a result,
Speaker 1: he made seven made paint field goals in this game.
Speaker 1: So gotten to the paint, made seven shots only three
Speaker 1: in game three. So his relentlessness attacking the basket was
Speaker 1: a big part of him getting going tonight. Made an
Speaker 1: impossible lay up down the stretch of that game to
Speaker 1: ice it too. You know, and and shots a action
Speaker 1: has been the story of this entire series for Boston.
Speaker 1: When they've been able to get out of the half court,
Speaker 1: excuse me, when they've been able to keep the game
Speaker 1: in the half court and keep Milwaukee out of transition,
Speaker 1: they've dominated, but they've lost games in transition. They were
Speaker 1: twenty points down in fast breakpoints in game one, they
Speaker 1: lost even in fast breakpoints. In game two they won
Speaker 1: down ten and fast break points. In game three they lost.
Speaker 1: You know, that's that's the way that that dynamic shifts
Speaker 1: on their ability to keep control of the game. Tatum
Speaker 1: was a big part of that tonight. I thought his
Speaker 1: his shot selection was really really smart, much better job
Speaker 1: keeping his teammates involved the only in one assist in
Speaker 1: game three at five assists tonight, so credit to Jayson Dante.
Speaker 1: We did a deeper dive on this game earlier. You
Speaker 1: can find it on our YouTube stream. Did thirty minutes
Speaker 1: on this game, got into a ton of the details,
Speaker 1: So go on to our YouTube page later and you
Speaker 1: can check that out there. We're gonna bring my guy
Speaker 1: Carson on. UM. Make sure you liked this video and
Speaker 1: subscribe to our channel. Make sure that you guys hang
Speaker 1: out every night this week. We're gonna be going live
Speaker 1: after every big game, and make sure you follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at underscore Jason lt for video content. We're
Speaker 1: gonna bring my guy Carson on and we're gonna do
Speaker 1: five big questions. What's up my guy? Oh, we're good, Jason.
Speaker 1: Hope you guys enjoyed my big there where nobody could
Speaker 1: hear me. Let's go modern technology. It's amazing how this
Speaker 1: stuff works. Okay, Yeah, I am on your side here.
Speaker 1: I mean I have said, I think several times on
Speaker 1: the show that I'm a big Yokich advocate, and I
Speaker 1: just think it's incredibly difficult to hold the Nuggets relative
Speaker 1: lack of playoffs success. I mean, they won a series
Speaker 1: last year, obviously without Jamal and with a roster that
Speaker 1: didn't compare in terms of talent to the top teams
Speaker 1: out west. It was an abysmal defensive Portland team. But
Speaker 1: it's a regular season award first and foremost, his regular
Speaker 1: season production efficiency on off data, you know, just the
Speaker 1: eye tests in terms of how he empowers that offense undeniable,
Speaker 1: and even in terms of playoff performance, I mean he
Speaker 1: put up thirty one thirteen and six on fifties out
Speaker 1: and a half percent from the field. The Nuggets offense
Speaker 1: was better in the playoffs than it was in the
Speaker 1: regular season. But it's just a matter of a massive
Speaker 1: talent deficits. So I think people are very unfair at
Speaker 1: times with the Yoka stuff, and I just don't think
Speaker 1: it's a good way to evaluate a guy's merit looking
Speaker 1: at an individual playoff series in which the team is
Speaker 1: totally outclass talent wise and saying, well, that negates a
Speaker 1: regular season. That just doesn't make sense to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, the the whole like best players should win
Speaker 1: every series thing is kind of like a it's it's
Speaker 1: a skip any less line of thing thinking. I have
Speaker 1: a huge problem with it. To me, it just doesn't
Speaker 1: it's low brow. It it disrespects the game of basketball
Speaker 1: and what it actually means. Like talk to guys like
Speaker 1: Lebron and Steph two guys who are the two most
Speaker 1: successful players of this era, and they will tell you
Speaker 1: time and time again that it's their teammates that that
Speaker 1: have carried them to this point, not carried them, but
Speaker 1: that have helped them get to this point. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm curious your thoughts, Carson, what do you think of
Speaker 1: What do you think of my idea that in a
Speaker 1: field of flawed candidates you default to the guy who
Speaker 1: was the best player in the league this year I
Speaker 1: thought Janice. I do think that that's interesting, But I
Speaker 1: think kind of the key point is what you also
Speaker 1: touched on, and that the Bucks, in terms of encourt
Speaker 1: performance this year, outscored their opponents by less with Janice
Speaker 1: on the floor than the Denver Nuggets did with Yokich
Speaker 1: on the floor. And it's like, to me, once you
Speaker 1: reach that point, it's okay, you know, what more does
Speaker 1: Yokich have to do? I think that's a sound line
Speaker 1: of thinking. But I just think the overachievement in team
Speaker 1: success for the Nuggets and the relative underachievement for the Box,
Speaker 1: to me, makes up for that best player in the
Speaker 1: world kind of default factor. That's a really solid case, Carson.
Speaker 1: I can't argue with you there. My final thought on
Speaker 1: it is no problem with Yokich deserving m v P.
Speaker 1: Don't feel like it's a travesty This isn't Russell westbroke
Speaker 1: in two thousand seventeen. But it just I personally in
Speaker 1: this situation would have gone with the honest. But I
Speaker 1: don't have any problem with the case. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: will say, just to the best player in the series
Speaker 1: point that you touched on, it's like the Warriors had
Speaker 1: five of the six best players in that series. You know,
Speaker 1: Yokich is the loan exception there, so it's very tough
Speaker 1: to look at that as Okay, one guy is determinative
Speaker 1: of everything there. All right, now we're rolling Jason, everybody
Speaker 1: can hear me. We're talking about Yokis. We're feeling great.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about a couple of other superstars here, both
Speaker 1: of whom are maybe in the midst of a comeback
Speaker 1: here got their series even from down two oh to
Speaker 1: to a piece. We're talking about the Sixers and the
Speaker 1: MAVs here, led by Joel Embiad and Luca don Che. So, Jason,
Speaker 1: who do you think has the better chance of actually
Speaker 1: successfully leading that comeback all the way and beat or Luca? Okay,
Speaker 1: let me before I answer this, let me clearly differentiate
Speaker 1: between who I think is the better player and who
Speaker 1: a better playoff player and who I think actually has
Speaker 1: a better chance of leading to come back. I think
Speaker 1: Embiad has a better chance of leading to come back
Speaker 1: because I'm actually picking the sixers at this point. I
Speaker 1: did a deep dive on this. You guys can find
Speaker 1: it on our video on our YouTube channel from earlier today.
Speaker 1: Did a ton of film study on on games three
Speaker 1: and game four. The there is a dynamic taking place
Speaker 1: with Miami that they can't score with Joel Embid on
Speaker 1: the floor. So Joel Embiid as the defensive ful chrum
Speaker 1: plus everything. They figured out some really interesting stuff with
Speaker 1: with his post ups today or yesterday, Like they Miami
Speaker 1: was doing this really interesting like front backside help things.
Speaker 1: So they were switching pick and rolls with Embad and
Speaker 1: happily putting guards on Embiid and happily letting him go
Speaker 1: post them up. But they were just fronting him and
Speaker 1: then helping from the backside, so nothing was open. Well.
Speaker 1: Philly had some really interesting counters today where they use
Speaker 1: some player movement and some ball movement to capitalize on
Speaker 1: those fronts to get easy shots for Joel Embiid. I
Speaker 1: think they have more chess moves to make in this
Speaker 1: series because I think they have better players to utilize
Speaker 1: in the half court. I thought it was a damn
Speaker 1: shame that Doc Rivers went down to Miami and tricked
Speaker 1: off those first two games the way that he did,
Speaker 1: But I mean all at all, Like Embiad, I think
Speaker 1: is actually going to win the series now, Luca he
Speaker 1: has a chance to, but I think Phoenix is so
Speaker 1: much better that they'll pull it off. My thing is like,
Speaker 1: like in a vacuum, would I rather have Luca or
Speaker 1: Embiid for a playoff series? I value that half court
Speaker 1: surgery to such a high extent that I'm always going
Speaker 1: to default to a guy like Luca, Whereas, like for
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid, maybe for an eighty two game season, his
Speaker 1: defensive capabilities are more valuable, but and beads more likely
Speaker 1: to lead to come back because his team has a
Speaker 1: better chance of winning. But I still think Luca is
Speaker 1: a better playoff player, if that makes sense. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: completely agree with you every step of the way there.
Speaker 1: And even when Luca is having an offshooting night like
Speaker 1: he did in Game four, you just feel the pronounced
Speaker 1: playmaking impact. You see him just effortlessly collapsing the defensive
Speaker 1: whatnot creating so many open threes so frequently, And I
Speaker 1: mean the guy is well, maybe he's not the top
Speaker 1: playoff score ever anymore, maybe he's back down to number two,
Speaker 1: but like his playoff production is unfathomably great. But I
Speaker 1: also agree with you and that the Sixers are I
Speaker 1: think a better team facing certainly on inferior team in
Speaker 1: Miami as compared to the Suns, and they're just in
Speaker 1: much better position. It's really, I think a very tall
Speaker 1: task to ask Luca to overcome just the talent deficit
Speaker 1: that they're facing against the Sun's team that is so complete.
Speaker 1: What do you think he would have to do to
Speaker 1: actually get them to that point? Like how incredible would
Speaker 1: Luca have to be? And what would have to go
Speaker 1: right around is too he's gotta make shots. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: what's crazy is Lucas Lucas having a really good offensive
Speaker 1: series overall when you factor and everything he's bringing to
Speaker 1: the table. I mean, you have to have a really
Speaker 1: good offensive series from Luca to be too two with
Speaker 1: the team like the Suns. But he was one for
Speaker 1: ten on on his threes again against Phoenix. I think
Speaker 1: it was you do you remember that that. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the exact percentage in your TikTok that that Luca
Speaker 1: shot on playoffs step back threees? Do you remember off
Speaker 1: top of your head? I think it was forty six
Speaker 1: point three? Guys? How insane is that? Like, obviously I
Speaker 1: think it was coming into that series, are coming into
Speaker 1: game two or game three that series, But to shoot
Speaker 1: just under on step back threes in the playoffs is
Speaker 1: a ridiculous level of efficiency. And he's been shooting like
Speaker 1: ship in this series. So like my thing is, like
Speaker 1: I'm picking Phoenix to win the series. Still my guess
Speaker 1: is in seven games. But Dallas chance is basically exactly
Speaker 1: what they're doing. Jalen Brunson getting things going a little
Speaker 1: bit more, you know, Uh, Spencer Dinwoody spot impact much
Speaker 1: much better defense. Reggie Bullock and and uh and Reggie
Speaker 1: Bullock and Dorian Phinnie Smith have been unbelievable on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. They've gone away from power for a little
Speaker 1: bit more. In a little bit more, Maxi kleeb because
Speaker 1: it opens things up for them scoring in the half court.
Speaker 1: A lot of a lot of good things going on,
Speaker 1: and that's how it's too too. But you win this
Speaker 1: series with Luca going into Phoenix in game five and
Speaker 1: going seven for ten on step back three is instead
Speaker 1: of one for ten on step back three. So to me,
Speaker 1: that will be the because that's kind of like a
Speaker 1: lot of those difficult shots he takes, the step backs
Speaker 1: and the turnarounds in the posts and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Those are like the way he bails out the end
Speaker 1: of possessions when things when they've run their actions a
Speaker 1: few times and they didn't get an open three out
Speaker 1: of it, they'll go back to Luca in an io
Speaker 1: and he'll take those shots. So like they are rescue
Speaker 1: possessions and they haven't been scoring on the rescue possessions.
Speaker 1: So if Lucas starts scoring on those rescue possessions, that'll
Speaker 1: that'll be a wins it. The great example of what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about is James Harden last night. Like James
Speaker 1: Harden last night was making the step back three and
Speaker 1: as a result, he was able to rescue a bunch
Speaker 1: of possessions and next thing you know, Philly has a
Speaker 1: hundred twenty points against a really good Miney defense. Well
Speaker 1: let's get back to that series for a second here, Jason,
Speaker 1: because you mentioned obviously these sort of Doc rivers masterclass
Speaker 1: of messing things up in those first couple of games.
Speaker 1: But we are back even at two games a piece
Speaker 1: now between Philly and Miami. So do you think there's
Speaker 1: any chance that Doc is actually doing a good job now, Jason?
Speaker 1: He is? He flat out his Like, I mean, this
Speaker 1: is this kind of reminds me of the Rudy Gobert situation,
Speaker 1: where like, if you guys remember with Rudy Gobert, the
Speaker 1: narrative surrounding him kind of exploded to the point where
Speaker 1: it wasn't matching what was actually happening on the court.
Speaker 1: The theory was, oh, you can score on Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: and it was like, actually, no, no, no, you can
Speaker 1: score on the jazz. But Rudy Gobert is basically like
Speaker 1: literally like like R two D two in Star Wars
Speaker 1: trying to plug all the holes in the in the
Speaker 1: in the little electrical board, right or I guess that
Speaker 1: was B B eight, But I'm butchering Star Wars references.
Speaker 1: Star Wars reference anyway. My point is is, like Empeed
Speaker 1: is is uh, Gobert is always plugging all these holes
Speaker 1: for them, and so he ended up catching the bad
Speaker 1: rip Tatian for what was basically a roster construction issue, right,
Speaker 1: you know, And and that's kind of like I'm not
Speaker 1: under selling docs previous failures, like and I have super
Speaker 1: critical of what he did to start this series. I
Speaker 1: thought he was. I thought, and again, like, it's hard
Speaker 1: to convince the traditional basketball coach has been around for
Speaker 1: a long time to do something crazy like bench the
Speaker 1: two centers you have to play five wings all game long.
Speaker 1: But that that's just what I would have done. But
Speaker 1: that's that's Monday morning quarterbacking. So it's it's irrelevant overall,
Speaker 1: though in this playoff run, I thought he outcoached Nick
Speaker 1: Nurse that I need to really. I thought it was
Speaker 1: genius the way that he pushed the ball so much
Speaker 1: in transition early in that series. That that's always been
Speaker 1: a weakness of Phillies and he turned it into his strength.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the biggest reasons why people were
Speaker 1: picking Toronto. People like myself for picking Toronto was I
Speaker 1: thought they'd be able to win the transition battle, and
Speaker 1: Philly won the transition battle. They did. Doc did a
Speaker 1: really good job coaching up on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor that series, particularly basically just daring Toronto to shoot,
Speaker 1: and it burned them a couple of times, obviously when
Speaker 1: they were up three. Oh, but they won a big
Speaker 1: game in Game six on the road by daring Toronto
Speaker 1: to shoot and they went ice cold. And then in
Speaker 1: this series, and I've I've I've broke this down just
Speaker 1: a minute ago. I won't go too much further into it,
Speaker 1: but like his his the dynamics he's been using to
Speaker 1: counter the way that Miami has guarded and Beat has
Speaker 1: been really really smart. He's mixed in some zone you know.
Speaker 1: There there's there's a lot of there's a lot of
Speaker 1: high level chess moves going on on on behalf of
Speaker 1: Doc Rivers, and then you gotta give him some credit.
Speaker 1: Like I've always said on the show, like we have
Speaker 1: to be critical, like I I there's no universe for
Speaker 1: where Carson and I can put on a good show
Speaker 1: or we're just pandering with propaganda all day long. Like
Speaker 1: we have to be critical. But the flip side of
Speaker 1: that is we have to be fair. If if we
Speaker 1: are critical of players like James Harden or critical of
Speaker 1: coaches like Doc Rivers when they do play well or
Speaker 1: coach well, I think it's important for us to call
Speaker 1: that out as well. And I think Doc has done
Speaker 1: a really good job in this playoff run. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: agree with you in the improvement and I think obviously
Speaker 1: a lot of people keepd in on the DeAndre Jordan playing.
Speaker 1: You talked about that a lot. The most hilarious stat
Speaker 1: to me was that the Sixers were sixty three points
Speaker 1: per one possessions worse with him on the floor. Very
Speaker 1: small sample size and three playoff games. But obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: Doc actually made the move that it didn't seem like
Speaker 1: he was gonna make. And we haven't seen DJ and
Speaker 1: they've won back to back games now and there's definitely
Speaker 1: progress on that front. Let's pivot to another Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: series here, one that we already touched on a bit today.
Speaker 1: Celtics Bucks Who wins Game five? Jason, I think the
Speaker 1: Celtics are gonna win comfortably. You know, Like I told
Speaker 1: you guys in the show that we did Saturday night,
Speaker 1: I believe it was Saturday night, might meant it might
Speaker 1: have been Sunday. I said that I predicted Boston would
Speaker 1: win by ten to fifteen points in Game three. In
Speaker 1: Game four, which they had a ten point lead late,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not actually sure what the final score
Speaker 1: ended up being. UM and then I thought they'd go
Speaker 1: home and win comfortably at home, Like I think they'll
Speaker 1: feed off the home crowd and not not necessarily a blowout,
Speaker 1: but it'll be one of those games where they're stiff
Speaker 1: arming Milwaukee the whole game. And then I think Games
Speaker 1: six will be a really really close game that I
Speaker 1: think Boston will win. And the main reason why is
Speaker 1: like Boston has a clear cut pathway to victory. Keep
Speaker 1: the game in the half court, play smart offense. Do
Speaker 1: the same thing you've been doing for damn near five
Speaker 1: months now, and that's play the best defense of this era.
Speaker 1: If you do that, you're going to win. Every time
Speaker 1: that the wheels have gone off the rails for Boston
Speaker 1: in this series, it's been quick threes off the dribble
Speaker 1: early in the shot clock, quick threas in transition early
Speaker 1: in the shot clock, driving into the teeth of the
Speaker 1: defense and trying to finish over shot blocking and getting blocked.
Speaker 1: I pointed out earlier today, I think there were thirty
Speaker 1: seven for forty eight or something crazy like that on
Speaker 1: two's tonight. So the much better execution to get higher
Speaker 1: quality two point shots at the rim or near the rim.
Speaker 1: Everything for this entire series has come down to offensive
Speaker 1: execution for Boston. Can they keep their ship together long
Speaker 1: enough to get quality shots often enough to keep Milwaukee
Speaker 1: out of transition, because when they get in transition, it's
Speaker 1: Jannest dribbling the ball off the court with the head
Speaker 1: of steam and no one can do a damn thing
Speaker 1: with him. It's like, it reminds me of prime Lebron
Speaker 1: James all the all the Lebron comps continue with the
Speaker 1: honest thing. And they're very different players in a lot
Speaker 1: of different ways. But one of the ways they're very
Speaker 1: similar is Lebron was one man fast break. When he
Speaker 1: got a steel or a block or rebound or whatever,
Speaker 1: and he started running the floor. There was just nothing
Speaker 1: you can do with him. And and that's what Janice
Speaker 1: has been doing in this series. And so I think, like,
Speaker 1: is it I'm not counting out Milwaukee. You'd be stupid
Speaker 1: to do so with how good Janice is and and
Speaker 1: you also would be stupid to count out with Milwaukee
Speaker 1: with how often Boston has denigrated back into terrible offense.
Speaker 1: But I would hope at this point, they have enough
Speaker 1: evidence to show them clearly the way that they need
Speaker 1: to play, and they'll play that way and get the
Speaker 1: job done. There's I think there's a very good chance
Speaker 1: Milwaukee does win in Game six at home, but I'd
Speaker 1: still pick Boston comfortably in a Game seven. So I
Speaker 1: think I think Boston's in good shape at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm with you there. I think that I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'm ever comfortable taking either of these teams to
Speaker 1: win comfortably, largely just because of the honest factor in
Speaker 1: the level he's playing at right now. But the Celtics
Speaker 1: are just a better basketball team. There are more complete
Speaker 1: basketball team, and the half court difference that you've touched
Speaker 1: on a lot is significant, But the honest factor is frightening.
Speaker 1: I just don't think it's quite enough. With obviously the
Speaker 1: Bucks down Middleton all Right played in this series real quick.
Speaker 1: I think he has done his best in a really
Speaker 1: difficult matchup. I think that he has emphasized just like
Speaker 1: the overwhelming physical advantage he has over like I don't
Speaker 1: know every other player in the league. I think that obviously, um,
Speaker 1: it's been really high volume. I think that's been essential though,
Speaker 1: and Drew has been really high volume two. But they're
Speaker 1: just are no other creators on this roster, right, It's
Speaker 1: like everything falls on them when you don't have Middleton.
Speaker 1: There isn't that release valve. So it's okay, honest, find
Speaker 1: a way, try and get downhill and playmaking, create a
Speaker 1: shot for somebody. And he's done that. I mean, the
Speaker 1: playmaking has been there, the finishes have been tough. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the jump shooting hasn't been particularly good. The overall efficiency
Speaker 1: hasn't been good. Um, But given that, I think he's
Speaker 1: had as pronounced of an impact as he could have.
Speaker 1: And obviously there's been huge defensive moments. So I feel
Speaker 1: like this is really just a testament to his status
Speaker 1: as I think he's the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: I know that you've talked about thinking he might just
Speaker 1: be in a tear of his own. It feels to
Speaker 1: me like when a guy is at his worst in
Speaker 1: terms of, you know, just purely scoring the basketball and
Speaker 1: shot making to an extent, then you really see what
Speaker 1: the floor is in terms of impact, and it just
Speaker 1: feels like nobody has a higher floor right now. And
Speaker 1: that's kind of what he's proven. So I think it's
Speaker 1: been impressive, even if like his you know, production and
Speaker 1: efficiency won't even compare to a normal Janna series. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that he's done about as good a job
Speaker 1: as you could possibly do against this Boston defense. Like
Speaker 1: I I just again, I know, I know, I've been
Speaker 1: on this Boston defense like NonStop, and I know that
Speaker 1: that's been kind of like my little hill that I've
Speaker 1: been on, but like it's not. It's just based on
Speaker 1: what I've seen in film, and like there is nothing
Speaker 1: easy against this this defense, and he has literally he
Speaker 1: this is like it's like you're in the desert, and
Speaker 1: in the entire Sahara desert, there's this one rag that
Speaker 1: at one point, like twelve hours ago, was wet, and
Speaker 1: it's like sitting on the in Janice is just squeezing
Speaker 1: every drop of available water out of this thing. Like
Speaker 1: that he has. He has hit the absolute peak of
Speaker 1: what you could have expected from him in this series.
Speaker 1: And it's too too. And they were trailing in the
Speaker 1: final minute of Game three and Game one Boston mailed
Speaker 1: in in a lot of different ways. So like that's
Speaker 1: just how great Yanna say is. If I if I
Speaker 1: had one piece of criticism i'd send his way, like
Speaker 1: the jump shots are just turnovers, Like he's not making
Speaker 1: nearly enough of them to take them. They always lead
Speaker 1: to run outs. The other way, I get why he
Speaker 1: takes them there to save his legs. So I'm not
Speaker 1: criticizing him in that regard. My thing is like that
Speaker 1: that part of his game is still so so, so
Speaker 1: so far away from being a really reliable piece of
Speaker 1: his game. Yeah, I think that's a perfectly fair criticism.
Speaker 1: I think that's a fair criticism of Janice honestly, and
Speaker 1: almost any series or game that he's played his basketball career,
Speaker 1: like it feels like he takes them out of a
Speaker 1: feeling kind of an obligation or like you talked about
Speaker 1: conserving that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think he's two of
Speaker 1: sixteen from three now, so I mean you're right, that's
Speaker 1: those are effectively turnovers. So all right, last question for
Speaker 1: you here, Jason. The Golden State Warriors are the title
Speaker 1: favorites at this point? Should they be? Oh? Man, See,
Speaker 1: what makes this tough is like I think Boston's best
Speaker 1: punch is the best punch. I think when their defense
Speaker 1: is locked in and they're running smart offense, no one
Speaker 1: can beat them. But one of the reasons why my
Speaker 1: prediction has been so flaky in this series is they've
Speaker 1: so consistently gotten out of whack offensively, because that's what
Speaker 1: you expect from a team that doesn't really have a
Speaker 1: true point guard, right, Like they don't have they don't
Speaker 1: have a true point forward point guard guy who's used
Speaker 1: to running a team. They have Marcus Smart, who's kind
Speaker 1: of like he pretends to be, but he's not really
Speaker 1: that type of guy. And then Jaalen Brown and Jason Tatum, who,
Speaker 1: to Tatum is obviously better than Brown at passing, but
Speaker 1: he's not great. I looked down uh, the Philly the
Speaker 1: Philly Miami series. I think both of those teams are
Speaker 1: worse than both of Milwaukee and Boston going out west,
Speaker 1: Like the Phoenix matchup is really tricky with Golden State
Speaker 1: because they can they can attack some very specific weaknesses
Speaker 1: of Golden State. So like I think if I was
Speaker 1: ranking contenders at this point, i'd have Boston one, Phoenix
Speaker 1: to Golden State three. So I don't know that I
Speaker 1: call them the favorite, but I think all three of
Speaker 1: those teams are very close. Like I'm I think it's
Speaker 1: a clear one to three for me, but all of
Speaker 1: them are separated by the slightest of margins. So like,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if Boston lost to Phoenix in
Speaker 1: the finals, wouldn't be surprised if Boston lost to Golden
Speaker 1: State in the finals. Hell, guys, I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 1: if Boston lost the series to Milwaukee still just by
Speaker 1: getting out of whack offensively. So like I, I don't
Speaker 1: think there's a I don't think there's a bona fide,
Speaker 1: clear cut favorite in the field. To be honest with you,
Speaker 1: it is really interesting because it's like the Warriors are
Speaker 1: an overwhelming favorite in terms of betting odds, but at
Speaker 1: fandal you have them plus one five, which is really
Speaker 1: I don't think great value, and then Phoenix plus Boston
Speaker 1: plus four ten. It doesn't feel right to me, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think the Warriors would be number one out
Speaker 1: of that group for me. I think that you could
Speaker 1: argue maybe that they've had the most impressive performance purely
Speaker 1: in terms of the postseason, and that they haven't really
Speaker 1: had like a single let down game. There are a
Speaker 1: couple of losses, you know, still really highly contested, and
Speaker 1: obviously they only have two losses in these playoffs, but
Speaker 1: I I don't know that I would even have them
Speaker 1: one out of those three, Which of those three teams
Speaker 1: do you feel like has the most glaring weakness, like
Speaker 1: the biggest red flag or concern for you? Oh, Man,
Speaker 1: I it's a toss up between Golden State in Boston.
Speaker 1: Golden State goes through these extended stretches were they take
Speaker 1: really bad shots, so does Boston. Golden State also has
Speaker 1: a size weakness that would be something that would concern me.
Speaker 1: I mean, gosh, again, we're talking about very very tiny
Speaker 1: margins here, because even Phoenix's offense can be really stilted
Speaker 1: when Chris Paul gets thrown out of whack. So again
Speaker 1: it's a small margin. But I would say, yeah, I'd
Speaker 1: say Golden State probably is the biggest hole there because
Speaker 1: they go through extended stretches of poor shot selection which
Speaker 1: can derail their offense, and then they have a size
Speaker 1: weakness and size where they can get punished. And I thought,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is has been very clearly demonstrated tonight
Speaker 1: in this Memphis game. I think that's fair. I will
Speaker 1: always think about and You've talked about it a ton
Speaker 1: particularly in this series, the offensive decision making aspect with Boston,
Speaker 1: the lack of that traditional lead guard element like leads
Speaker 1: scoring and playmaking guard. There was a time earlier this
Speaker 1: year where I thought like that was going to be
Speaker 1: there on wing. You know that the two wings being
Speaker 1: you guys by so far wasn't gonna work, that they
Speaker 1: weren't good enough playmakers, and so I do always find
Speaker 1: myself a bit weary of those lapses in those moments,
Speaker 1: But I think they've come so far that, you know,
Speaker 1: for the most part, that is no longer an issue.
Speaker 1: But I think that those are probably the two weaknesses
Speaker 1: to identify. I don't think Phoenix can be there unless
Speaker 1: it's like what we've talked about, where if cpre book
Speaker 1: goes down, they don't creation. But other than that, they
Speaker 1: are pretty incredibly solid. Yeah, to Golden State's credit, they've
Speaker 1: always kind of like snapped back into gear. They go
Speaker 1: through these extended stretches, but they always snap back, and
Speaker 1: that's a credit to their experience, because like I've been
Speaker 1: critical of Golden State compared to Phoenix in Boston here
Speaker 1: in the last five minutes, but a lot of it
Speaker 1: is like comparing very very good teams in the big
Speaker 1: leg up that Golden State has his experience with. The
Speaker 1: big reason why Boston has gotten so out of whack
Speaker 1: is because they don't have the same amount of experience
Speaker 1: in these huge moments. They do have a lot of experience.
Speaker 1: We've talked about it here on the show. They've been
Speaker 1: to the conference finals multiple times this group, but for
Speaker 1: the most part, they're like Golden State, clear level up
Speaker 1: of experience. They've been in probably twice as many playoffs
Speaker 1: series over over this recent history. They've been to the
Speaker 1: finals five times like Golden State has has. Just they've
Speaker 1: just they're they're not going to be scared by anything
Speaker 1: like this. I don't think Steph or Draymond were scared
Speaker 1: of this game tonight. When they were down eleven and
Speaker 1: that third quarter, they knew what they were up against.
Speaker 1: And so if there's one leg up that they have
Speaker 1: on their competition, it's that experience. Yeah, that is all
Speaker 1: we have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate your support. Like
Speaker 1: we said earlier, we're gonna be live every night this
Speaker 1: week after the big games. At the end of the night,
Speaker 1: please come hang out with us. Like can subscribe to
Speaker 1: the Volumes YouTube channel, subscribe to our newsletter, and last
Speaker 1: but not least, follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason
Speaker 1: lt for video content. As always, I'm blown away and
Speaker 1: I'm so appreciative of you guys coming to hang out
Speaker 1: with us on these shows, and I will see you
Speaker 1: tomorrow night. The Volume