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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by Fandel here at the volume. I am Jason timp
Speaker 1: Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope you all had a great weekend.
Speaker 1: What an incredible first weekend of NBA Playoff basketball. Somewhat
Speaker 1: chalk in a lot of different ways. Home team is
Speaker 1: gonna end up winning, assuming that the Phoenix Suns closed
Speaker 1: the deal here, which I obviously expect them to do.
Speaker 1: The home team won six out of the eight games,
Speaker 1: um the favorite on seven out of the eight games
Speaker 1: because the Jazz were expected to beat the Mavericks without
Speaker 1: Luca Donte. But at the same time, we had a
Speaker 1: handful of really exciting games. The series clearly appeared to
Speaker 1: be more competitive than we thought on on a bunch
Speaker 1: of fronts, and we learn a lot. The devil's in
Speaker 1: the details in these NBA playoff series is they're like
Speaker 1: chess matches. It's more about what you can learn from
Speaker 1: game one than it is about the outcomes. The outcomes
Speaker 1: do matter, but as a series progresses, as you've seen
Speaker 1: so many times over the years, a lot can change
Speaker 1: over the course of the last few games. If a
Speaker 1: team figures out something and the other team can't match that,
Speaker 1: we're gonna break down. It's some capacity every single series
Speaker 1: that played out this weekend. We are going to start
Speaker 1: with the Celtics and Nets, and then after that we're
Speaker 1: gonna bring my guy Carson on. We're gonna play some games,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about some playoff adjustments, and then we're
Speaker 1: also going to get into a little bit of drama
Speaker 1: with this Kyrie Irving thing having to do with fans,
Speaker 1: which is something that's been a very common refrain from
Speaker 1: NBA players over the course of the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: and I kind of disagree with their approach there. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give my two cents on that, But let's
Speaker 1: start with the Celtics and the Nets. Obviously the most
Speaker 1: exciting game of the weekend, easily the most interesting series
Speaker 1: of the first round. I had this one going seven
Speaker 1: to the Brooklyn Nets. I looked at this as on
Speaker 1: the when the Nets were on offense, this is one
Speaker 1: of the best offenses in the league versus one of
Speaker 1: the best defenses in the leagu And then on the
Speaker 1: defensive end of the floor, I saw it as a
Speaker 1: pretty average, too good offense with for the for the
Speaker 1: Celtics against an average too good defense for the Nets.
Speaker 1: And so I saw it is very evenly matched, and
Speaker 1: I thought it would come down to the stars, and
Speaker 1: that's why I was going to give the edge to
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant. Round one was super interesting on a bunch
Speaker 1: of different levels. Kevin Durant had a really rough night.
Speaker 1: I want to start with the end of the game
Speaker 1: because that was obviously the most exciting part. So Kyrie
Speaker 1: has this incredible flurry, vintage Kyrie like he like he's
Speaker 1: with the Calves in two thousand seventeen or in two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen, where he just starts making impossible shot after
Speaker 1: impossible shot, the Nets get a little bit of a lead.
Speaker 1: The Celtics battle it back to tie it at one eleven.
Speaker 1: Think Kyrie makes another massive step back three over Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart and then the Celtics stole the game. On the
Speaker 1: last two possessions of the game, Jalen Brown beats Bruce
Speaker 1: Brown to the basket for a really nice lay up.
Speaker 1: They go down the other end double team. Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: on the wing works around Kevin Durant. He takes an
Speaker 1: impossible turnaround fade away three. That obviously, with Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: you're always just holding your breath thinking it might go in.
Speaker 1: It doesn't. Eight seconds left, no time out. Here comes
Speaker 1: this kind of chaotic possession. Bruce Brown and Nick Claxton
Speaker 1: both jump out of their shoes and Marcus Smart on
Speaker 1: the three point line, which I thought was a really
Speaker 1: confusing decision. Those last possessions are always really chaotic. Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart patiently hit I think he had already attempted nine
Speaker 1: threes in the game, instead of jacking up a silly shot,
Speaker 1: put the ball on the floor, made a read. He
Speaker 1: saw Tatum kind of cut right to that left block.
Speaker 1: On the cut, Kyrie reached, and as a post player,
Speaker 1: you're trained when you whenever you work on post moves,
Speaker 1: you feel where the defender is on one of your shoulders.
Speaker 1: If he's on your left shoulder, you want to spin
Speaker 1: to the right. If he's on your right shoulder, you
Speaker 1: want to spin to the left. Tatum felt that Kyrie
Speaker 1: was there immediately pirouetted on the catch and laid it
Speaker 1: in at the buzzer. Just incredibly savvy play on a
Speaker 1: bunch of different fronts. Jalen Brown attacking and transition, they're
Speaker 1: not forcing the action and kicking it out to the
Speaker 1: wide open Marcus Smart, Marcus Smart not forcing the shot,
Speaker 1: and then Jayson Tatum making that incredible play pirouetting around
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving, literally stealing victory from the jaws of defeat.
Speaker 1: Because that was an unbelievable performance from Brooklyn. They played
Speaker 1: well enough to win that game. Just a handful of
Speaker 1: plays at the end swing it. I always talk about
Speaker 1: how playoff series are a lot closer than people realize.
Speaker 1: Even when you look at series totals right like you
Speaker 1: look at a a four one series, you might call
Speaker 1: it a gentleman sweet, but usually you point to two
Speaker 1: or three games that are really really close. I talked
Speaker 1: about this with the Bucks in the Sun's last year.
Speaker 1: The Bucks won four straight games to win that series, right,
Speaker 1: so you think, oh, Bucks dominant six game victory, they've
Speaker 1: solved the Suns, and they did on a lot of
Speaker 1: different levels. But there were two plays in two games
Speaker 1: in that series that it. There was the play where
Speaker 1: Devin Brooker. Booker was working on p J. Tucker into
Speaker 1: the middle of the lane and didn't see Drew Holiday coming.
Speaker 1: Drew Holiday took the ball away from him and threw
Speaker 1: the lob to Jhannice for the dunk. That was a
Speaker 1: bang bang play that swung that game. And then later
Speaker 1: in the series there was an infamous player where Devin
Speaker 1: Booker's running the pick and roll with DeAndre Ayton and
Speaker 1: Janice kind of stunts up at Booker and Booker throws
Speaker 1: the lab pass and Janice turns around and makes one
Speaker 1: of the all time great defensive plays to snuff that out.
Speaker 1: Those are two plays that may or may not have
Speaker 1: swung the games that may or may not have swung
Speaker 1: the series. In a seven game series, the best team
Speaker 1: usually wins, and you are going to give a team
Speaker 1: a certain amount of margin for error to make mistakes
Speaker 1: when you have seven games, but there are always a
Speaker 1: handful of moments that can swing this series one way
Speaker 1: or another. I'm still leaning towards Brooklyn. I'll explain why
Speaker 1: as we get a little bit more into the details here.
Speaker 1: But if Boston ends up winning this series in you know,
Speaker 1: a tough game five at home or a tough game
Speaker 1: six on the road in Brooklyn, You're gonna think back
Speaker 1: to this one because this is a game that you
Speaker 1: very well could have one you controlled on a bunch
Speaker 1: of different levels, and you botched with just a handful
Speaker 1: of defensive breakdowns at the end of the game and
Speaker 1: some really good defense from Boston, and so those are
Speaker 1: always the little moments that you hope you can overcome.
Speaker 1: But man, this was a game Brooklyn should have won.
Speaker 1: So I want to look at it on a couple
Speaker 1: of different levels. Let's start with the nets on offense.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people were pessimistic about Brooklyn's offense
Speaker 1: coming into this because some of the big numbers coming
Speaker 1: into this looking at the regular season were flawed. Because
Speaker 1: you've got Kevin Durant out for a really long time.
Speaker 1: James Harden straight up like shaving points because he was
Speaker 1: trying to get traded. Yea. Kyrie not playing in home games,
Speaker 1: So a bunch of the metrics were really off. A
Speaker 1: lot of people were concerned about the way they run
Speaker 1: their offense. They don't run a ton of actions. They
Speaker 1: do some off ball stuff with Kevin Durant to get
Speaker 1: him catching on the move, but it's a lot of isolations,
Speaker 1: a lot of your turn, my turn, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of high pick and roll, it's a lot of it's
Speaker 1: kind of like the Lakers. It's more of a brute
Speaker 1: force offense of our talent as opposed to a very
Speaker 1: scheme oriented offense. So between the metrics and that, you
Speaker 1: had a lot of people saying, I don't know if
Speaker 1: Brooklyn can score against Boston. But you have to look
Speaker 1: past that. You have to look at the specifics of
Speaker 1: the way the Boston or the Brooklyn offense has worked
Speaker 1: this year. With Kyrie and Kevin Durant on the floor
Speaker 1: this season, they've scored almost a hundred and twenty three
Speaker 1: points per one hundred possessions. They were one of the
Speaker 1: best offenses in the league with the two of them
Speaker 1: on the floor. And yes, they don't run a traditional offense,
Speaker 1: but they don't need to because Kevin Durant and Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving are comfortable being uncomfortable. They averaged tonight. If you
Speaker 1: look at their offensive ratings, specifically against Boston in this game,
Speaker 1: they scored a hundred and seventeen point five points per
Speaker 1: one hund possessions. That's an awesome number. That's an incredible
Speaker 1: number against a very, very very good Boston Celtics defense,
Speaker 1: one of the best defenses we've seen at home. They
Speaker 1: were able to score. That's a very encouraging sign for
Speaker 1: the Nets, especially since Katie It and play particularly well.
Speaker 1: But I want to start with Kyrie because he played amazing.
Speaker 1: So if you guys remember yesterday, I opened the show
Speaker 1: with a little bit of a rant talking about just
Speaker 1: how difficult playoff basketball is. We talk a lot about
Speaker 1: how the NBA regular season and the NBA playoffs are
Speaker 1: so different, and why I think that needs to be
Speaker 1: remembered when we're having conversations about players, because they are
Speaker 1: so different, and a certain type of player can have
Speaker 1: a certain amount of success in a regular season environment
Speaker 1: and then struggle in a postseason environment. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about this later in the show about DeMar Dea rozen.
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, he struggles getting to the same looks
Speaker 1: that he gets in the regular season when he gets
Speaker 1: to the playoffs. When he gets the playoffs, it's been
Speaker 1: an issue through his entire career. For whatever reason, he
Speaker 1: struggles in that setting. And it's because the defensive intensity
Speaker 1: obviously steps up. There's a there's a there's there's way
Speaker 1: higher stakes that's gonna bring out more defensive effort. But
Speaker 1: it goes even further than that. It's the scheming, it's
Speaker 1: the extensive game plan. It's every coaching staff is sitting
Speaker 1: down saying, Okay, we're playing this team. We want to
Speaker 1: make sure they do what they don't want to do
Speaker 1: on offense. And so when guys go into a series
Speaker 1: and try to play the way they always play, they're
Speaker 1: always kind of hit in the mouth. I mean, you
Speaker 1: even saw it a little bit with Kevin Durant tonight.
Speaker 1: Although Kevin Durant, this is the random exception to the rule,
Speaker 1: he is probably gonna bounce back because he always does.
Speaker 1: But there are certain players that never can kind of
Speaker 1: get over that that lump. The defensive intensity, if the
Speaker 1: amount of physicality that the refs allow in the amount
Speaker 1: of scouting that that takes place makes scoring the basketball
Speaker 1: extremely difficult. So there are two kinds of players that
Speaker 1: succeed in these environments. Absolute brute force monsters think Lebron
Speaker 1: and Janice. Okay, guys where it's like, oh, we're having
Speaker 1: a fist fight here. Okay, Well I'm just gonna run
Speaker 1: you over and I'm gonna thrive in this environment. If
Speaker 1: we want to have a fist fight for seven games,
Speaker 1: I'm winning that. Okay. Those kind of guys are gonna
Speaker 1: thrive in that environment. And then guys who thrive making
Speaker 1: tough shots. If within all this scouting and with all
Speaker 1: this defensive intensity, all this length and athleticism, all of
Speaker 1: this physicality, if all that exists for you on the
Speaker 1: floor is tough shots, who are the guys that are
Speaker 1: going to thrive in that environment? Guys who thrive making
Speaker 1: tough shots. And you saw that with Kyrie tonight, unbelievable
Speaker 1: vintage shot making performance. It's funny because I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer in building isolation, moves off of the mirror images
Speaker 1: of each other, so that you're always a threat going
Speaker 1: both ways. On the big shot he made for one fourteen,
Speaker 1: He's got the ball in his right hand, and you're
Speaker 1: thinking two thousand sixteen NBA Finals harden and out dribble,
Speaker 1: step back to his right, pull up, you're thinking that
Speaker 1: shot right. Nope, comes back to the left, in and
Speaker 1: out with his left hand. It steps back to the left.
Speaker 1: Marcus Smart was sitting on that right handed step back
Speaker 1: for Kyrie because that's his go to move in those situations.
Speaker 1: But too bad, Kyrie's got the mirror image down to
Speaker 1: got separation on Marcus Smart and knocked down the shot.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are gonna be discouraged about the
Speaker 1: way that Kyrie Irving played because it was wasted right,
Speaker 1: And I kind of go the other way on that,
Speaker 1: because Kevin Durrett really struggled, and I tend to think
Speaker 1: that he's probably not going to struggle as this series progresses.
Speaker 1: It reminded me a lot of the early like kind
Speaker 1: of the like Game three in Game four area of
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks series last year, where Kevin Durrett was
Speaker 1: struggling with getting mauled off the ball. So we were
Speaker 1: talking earlier about the two different guys that succeed in
Speaker 1: playoff environments, guys who thrive in physicality. So Lebron and
Speaker 1: Honice or guys who are incredibly high skilled, difficult shot makers. Right.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that the Nets did tonight
Speaker 1: that I disagreed with, and it's gonna be one of
Speaker 1: my biggest adjustments for the Nets as they move forward
Speaker 1: in this series is they used Kevin Durant a lot
Speaker 1: off the ball, which is something he's done a lot
Speaker 1: this year. I did a whole video about it. How
Speaker 1: that's Kevin. That's one of the secret to the way
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant generates offense. He works hard for easy shots.
Speaker 1: So instead of just getting into his dribble combinations and
Speaker 1: making stuff stuff happen in isolation, he'll kind of work
Speaker 1: you into the middle and wait for a pin down
Speaker 1: screen and he'll push you into the screen. He'll come
Speaker 1: flying off and he'll make a catch and shoot seventeen footer.
Speaker 1: He buffer. That's how he gets so efficient. All of
Speaker 1: the difficult shot making and top isolation situations is buffered
Speaker 1: by these easy shots that he works for off the ball.
Speaker 1: But Boston, and this is special credit to Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: and Grant Williams. They were the two guys that I
Speaker 1: thought did the best job in this specific area. Every
Speaker 1: time k D had the ball or didn't have the
Speaker 1: ball and was off the ball, they're hugging him, they're
Speaker 1: grabbing him, they're holding him. Kind of reminded me of
Speaker 1: what the Calves and the Thunder did to Steph Curry
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and sixteen, like, Hey, when this
Speaker 1: guy gets the ball, there's nothing we can do with him,
Speaker 1: but we can rough him up and hope to wear
Speaker 1: him out. And I thought even when Kevin Durant got
Speaker 1: to the shots that he wants, typically he struggled to
Speaker 1: knock them down because fatigue is all always going to
Speaker 1: play a role in those types of situations. Everyone always
Speaker 1: talks about like oh, we're just not making our shots tonight,
Speaker 1: or oh look at us, we're shooting really well tonight.
Speaker 1: Usually those two outcomes are tied to the defense. When
Speaker 1: a defense wears you out with physicality and takes away
Speaker 1: all your easy opportunities, even the ones you do get
Speaker 1: usually come when you're fatigued and you're like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I can't believe I'm open. Guess I'll raise up and
Speaker 1: shoot here. But you're uncomfortable, you're out of rhythm because
Speaker 1: you haven't gotten a lot of easy shots in the
Speaker 1: game and you miss them. And so in that situation,
Speaker 1: like having Kevin Durant play off ball so often where
Speaker 1: he can be grabbed and held and roughed up. Think
Speaker 1: about how many times you saw Kevin Durant get knocked
Speaker 1: to the floor tonight, even on his dribble drives. They
Speaker 1: were just physically beating the ship out of Kevin Durant tonight.
Speaker 1: You've got to find a way to get him out
Speaker 1: of those situations, even if it's not for the sake
Speaker 1: of the action you're running, just to save him the
Speaker 1: wear and tear. And so one of my biggest adjustments
Speaker 1: for the Nets moving forward is more Durant bringing the
Speaker 1: ball up the floor so that he avoid some of
Speaker 1: that off ball contact. The rests are always going to
Speaker 1: let a lot more go off the ball as guys
Speaker 1: are jockeying for position than they are on the ball.
Speaker 1: That's where you're gonna get the tiki tack, hand checks
Speaker 1: and shoves and things along those lines. And so more
Speaker 1: Durant off the ball take advantage of the over aggressive defense,
Speaker 1: like if Grant Williams or Jayson Tatum's picking up Katie
Speaker 1: and half court pass it to somebody at the high
Speaker 1: post like Nick Lackson and cut off of him. Just
Speaker 1: classic give and go, anything to take advantage of the
Speaker 1: over aggressive nature of the Celtics defense. So Kyrie wasted
Speaker 1: a good performance. That sucks, I get it, But you've
Speaker 1: got Kevin Durant. He shot had more shots than he
Speaker 1: had points tonight, which is almost never happens. This is
Speaker 1: one of the most efficient scores in the history of
Speaker 1: the NBA. Kevin Durant is gonna figure out how to
Speaker 1: have a big offensive impact on this series. And even
Speaker 1: with Kevin Durant having that nightmare performance, the Nets scored
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventeen point five points per one Hunter
Speaker 1: possessions in this game. So they've shown that they can
Speaker 1: score on Boss in his defense and that is a
Speaker 1: huge indicator moving forward in the series, because I think
Speaker 1: things are going to get easier and easier for them
Speaker 1: on that front as Kevin Durant gets going. Moving over
Speaker 1: to the Celtics on offense, Tatum obviously was great. I
Speaker 1: don't want to dwell on him too long because I
Speaker 1: have a specific star of the game for the Celtics
Speaker 1: that I want to hit on. But I thought Tatum
Speaker 1: played a really, really well rounded, superstar type of game.
Speaker 1: He was phenomenal on defense. We just talked about how
Speaker 1: he was working hard to be physical with Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: off the ball, using his length to bother him on
Speaker 1: the ball. They did a great job. He he did
Speaker 1: a great job defensively. On offense, he wasn't forcing things.
Speaker 1: He had a good, efficient game. He was absorbing the
Speaker 1: double teams when they came and was making easy reads.
Speaker 1: Really really well played game from Jayson Tatum. My one
Speaker 1: concern with him, and this is something that's been kind
Speaker 1: of flaring up over the course of the last couple
Speaker 1: of months. The Nets did what every team has been
Speaker 1: doing with Tatum, hard denial every time he's off the ball,
Speaker 1: meaning the defender is literally not allowing him to catch
Speaker 1: and in on every action in isolation. They're double teaming him.
Speaker 1: So they've got to find some ways to work around that.
Speaker 1: This is kind of opposite of the Kevin Durant thing.
Speaker 1: Have somebody else bring the ball up the floor, try
Speaker 1: to get Jayson Tatum the ball in specific spots where
Speaker 1: it's hard to double team, like the elbow, and where
Speaker 1: he can catch and go quickly before the double team
Speaker 1: gets there, have run the action so that the side
Speaker 1: is clear so he can catch and rip through, or
Speaker 1: get him in a switch on to one of the
Speaker 1: smaller players like Seth Curry where he can catch and
Speaker 1: just quick catch and turn and face and maybe jab
Speaker 1: step jump shots, something along those lines. Find a way
Speaker 1: to get Tatum involved in the offense in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Moving on to Jalen Brown. I thought he was the
Speaker 1: star of this fourth quarter. He had nine points in
Speaker 1: the last seven minutes. When everything was collapsing for Boston,
Speaker 1: when the nets were going on that run and when
Speaker 1: nothing was working, there was one thing that was working,
Speaker 1: and it was Jalen Brown putting his head down and
Speaker 1: going to the rim. Just like I was talking about earlier,
Speaker 1: you either have to thrive in the physicality or you
Speaker 1: have to be so incredibly skilled that you can make
Speaker 1: incredibly difficult jump shots. Jalen Brown is not your incredibly
Speaker 1: difficult jump shot guy. But what he is is he's big,
Speaker 1: and he's strong, and he has an incredible first step,
Speaker 1: and even a good athlete like Bruce Brown, who was
Speaker 1: on him a lot there at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: he can beat him to the basket. And there were
Speaker 1: a handful of pivotal possessions or Jalen Brown just beat
Speaker 1: Nets players to the basket. The Nets played really good
Speaker 1: defense in this game for the most part, but they're
Speaker 1: sloppy and some of the details they were bad at
Speaker 1: helping on Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown is not a great passer.
Speaker 1: The Nets have to do a better job of making
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown passed out of those drives. Huge possession of
Speaker 1: the game. Kyrie Irving makes a step back three to
Speaker 1: make it one four teen, one eleven. Jalen Brown went
Speaker 1: right down and scored at the rim. Take any take
Speaker 1: any jump shot out of the equation, take any maker
Speaker 1: miss out of the equation. Put your head down and
Speaker 1: go to the rim and make a play. Huge play
Speaker 1: from Jalen Brown. He didn't make a single jump shot
Speaker 1: all game until late fourth and he made a huge
Speaker 1: three on the right wing that got them back in
Speaker 1: the game. I thought Jalen Brown was the unsung hero
Speaker 1: this game. He also did a great job and help
Speaker 1: defense get a key block on Kevin Durant late in
Speaker 1: the game. He was flying around. Awesome game from Jalen Brown.
Speaker 1: One other note on the Celtics offense. I talked a
Speaker 1: lot about how because of the way the Nets play,
Speaker 1: they're they're gonna trap and double a lot outside, so
Speaker 1: you're gonna have guys making plays out of the short roll,
Speaker 1: Guys like Bruce Brown or even uh Nick Clackson from
Speaker 1: time to time just kind of rolling to that short
Speaker 1: roll right around the free throw line. But the Nets
Speaker 1: always collapse there because they have great rim protectors and
Speaker 1: there's all these wide open corner three's available, and when
Speaker 1: they got him, I I the NBA hasn't updated the
Speaker 1: tracking yet it yet, so this isn't accurate. But per
Speaker 1: the track, per the shot chart, the Celtics went one
Speaker 1: for nine on corner three's. That's something they've got to
Speaker 1: They've got to shoot more of them, and they have
Speaker 1: to be proficient on them, because that's the only way
Speaker 1: that you can make the Nets pay for sending two
Speaker 1: bodies at Tatum and collapsing at the guys that are
Speaker 1: rolling to the bass. Get off of those actions. So
Speaker 1: those are little adjustments for both teams. The Celtics can
Speaker 1: play better, particularly at the three point line. They've got
Speaker 1: to figure out how to get Tatum the ball in better.
Speaker 1: Spots on the floor where he can't be get doubled.
Speaker 1: For the Nets, you gotta get Durant out of these
Speaker 1: off ball situations where he's getting roughed up, figure out
Speaker 1: a way to save the wear and tear. And then,
Speaker 1: last but not least, for the Nets, they gave up
Speaker 1: fourteen offensive rebounds tonight. Those are just little details. You
Speaker 1: gotta box your man out. We're gonna talk about this
Speaker 1: a lot for a bunch of the teams. Those are
Speaker 1: little effort and focus things that you can improve on
Speaker 1: as the series goes along. Really really excited about this
Speaker 1: series as it progresses. I thought this was a blown
Speaker 1: opportunity for the Nets, but they're still very much in it.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for that silver lining, the Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: defense is the best defense in the NBA, and you
Speaker 1: had no problem scoring on them even in the crunch
Speaker 1: time moments of the game. I am still bullish on
Speaker 1: the Nets to win this series in seven games. Hey, hoops, fans,
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Speaker 1: We're gonna hit on the other three games of the
Speaker 1: day by checking in with our very own coach Jason.
Speaker 1: So can I ask you about some adjustments that you
Speaker 1: would make in each of these games? Given how Game
Speaker 1: one went. We're gonna start with Hawks heat, which Miami
Speaker 1: just dominated one fifteen nine. So given that result, what
Speaker 1: would coach Jason tell the Hawks to switch up and
Speaker 1: fix going forward? They gotta play a little bit of defense, man,
Speaker 1: I mean I there are two different kinds of playing
Speaker 1: teams that I've seen over the course of the last
Speaker 1: couple of years since this tournament has been incepted. You
Speaker 1: have teams like the Lakers and the Hawks, like very
Speaker 1: talented teams that for whatever reason are un serious all
Speaker 1: regular season and end up falling down there and have
Speaker 1: to fight their way out. And then you get the young,
Speaker 1: try hard team that's kind of out kicking their coverage
Speaker 1: and their talent to you know, a team that should
Speaker 1: be in the lottery, that just plays so incredibly hard
Speaker 1: every night and they just scratch and claw their way there.
Speaker 1: That's like a team like the Pelicans, right. Well, the
Speaker 1: Hawks spent all season long b s ing around on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor, even though the defense
Speaker 1: is what carried them in the postseason last year. Everyone
Speaker 1: thinks about Trey Young. Don't get me wrong. Trey Young
Speaker 1: is a great player who made a lot of great
Speaker 1: plays in big moments in last year's playoff run. But
Speaker 1: it was their commitment to the defensive end. I know
Speaker 1: Clint Capella wasn't there tonight, but just of all the
Speaker 1: teams I watched this weekend, they were by far the
Speaker 1: sloppy ist in their defensive rotations. You're gonna give up drives.
Speaker 1: Every team gives up drives. Yes, the Hawks are gonna
Speaker 1: give up more drives because Trey Young is not a
Speaker 1: great defender, Bogdanovich is not a great defender, Gallinari is
Speaker 1: not a great defender. You're gonna give up more drives.
Speaker 1: But they looked like a like a pickup basketball team
Speaker 1: or a men's league team rotating around on the black
Speaker 1: back end. They looked sloppy. They just looked like an
Speaker 1: un serious team. And guess what's gonna happen when you're
Speaker 1: an un serious team running into that Miami Heat squad
Speaker 1: that's out for blood, who struggled a little bit over
Speaker 1: the course of the last month and is trying to
Speaker 1: reinstill a bunch of those habits. Well, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: your butt kicked. And that's what happened. So they've got
Speaker 1: to get they they've got to get some semblance of
Speaker 1: a functional defensive scheme working, or they're gonna get absolutely
Speaker 1: railroaded in this series. So from the Heat perspective, obviously
Speaker 1: they did a phenomenal job on Trey Young, and he
Speaker 1: had really just a brutal night and he was obviously
Speaker 1: a major focal point for them. So what did you
Speaker 1: think of how they approach that matchup and going forward?
Speaker 1: Do you think that they stick with how they approached
Speaker 1: game one? Do you think they have to mix up
Speaker 1: at all how they cover trade? Just what's your perspective
Speaker 1: for the heat on that matchup. I loved their approach.
Speaker 1: I like Trey Young is the head of the snake
Speaker 1: you gotta cut the head of the snake off. You're
Speaker 1: seeing really quickly in this playoff run, just in this
Speaker 1: first weekend, and you're gonna continue to see it. There
Speaker 1: are players that are kind of made for this, and
Speaker 1: there are players that aren't. And Trey Young is one
Speaker 1: of the guys who's made for this. But like you're seeing,
Speaker 1: Danilo Gallinari struggled to create shots in this tough, physical
Speaker 1: playoff environment against Miami's defense. Bogoto, it is a guy
Speaker 1: who's had a lot of success in regular seasons over
Speaker 1: the years as a as a secondary shot creator, a
Speaker 1: guy who can run bench lineups and run primary pick
Speaker 1: and roll side actions, you know, to start possessions for
Speaker 1: bad teams in the dregs of the regular season, or
Speaker 1: helping the Hawks and the dregs of the regular season,
Speaker 1: but it's harder at this level. And you're seeing what
Speaker 1: the Heat are doing is they're sending all their defensive
Speaker 1: attention towards Trey Young and giving him a nightmare night.
Speaker 1: And they'll be there looking at a boy on Bogdanovich
Speaker 1: and they're looking at Gallo and they're like, hey, beat us,
Speaker 1: let me see if you can, uh, let me see
Speaker 1: if you can create a shot for yourself off the dribble,
Speaker 1: and they just can't. Bogdanovich had a nightmare game. I
Speaker 1: think he was over eight, So really smart strategy from Miami.
Speaker 1: I would keep pounding Trey Young as much as you can.
Speaker 1: If he has a disaster series, this thing is gonna
Speaker 1: be over in four games. All right. Let's move on
Speaker 1: to Sons Pelicans, where the Suns ended up winning one.
Speaker 1: They were suffocating defensively in the first half, up big,
Speaker 1: and then the Pelicans had a bit of a mini comeback.
Speaker 1: But obviously New Orleans a bit outmatched here in terms
Speaker 1: of record and probably personnel on paper. But after game one,
Speaker 1: what would coach Jason have them adjust for the rest
Speaker 1: of the series. So, especially early in the game, I
Speaker 1: thought the Pelicans really struggled with the interior shot blocking
Speaker 1: presences of The Sun's Dedre Ayton and JaVale McGee both
Speaker 1: an amazing job. Jail McGee was awesome. That dude is
Speaker 1: like that dude. It was such a clutz for the
Speaker 1: first half of his career and was the butt of
Speaker 1: every joke. And he went to Golden State, learned how
Speaker 1: to become a winning contributor, did it again for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: He was actually a really good backup center for the Nuggets,
Speaker 1: and now he's doing it for the Sons. I love
Speaker 1: that dude. I love his game. He was awesome the Pelicans.
Speaker 1: You know, you have two approaches there. You can continue
Speaker 1: trying to shoot over the really tall guy that's gonna
Speaker 1: block all your shots or make you throw up jankie
Speaker 1: stuff that you're not gonna make, or you can try
Speaker 1: to make them pay for overhelping in the easiest way.
Speaker 1: It's like like we're gonna talk about the Bulls and
Speaker 1: the Bucks. Here is shortly. You know, Nicolayusevitch took ten
Speaker 1: threes today. That's what you gotta do. If they're gonna
Speaker 1: have Brook Lopez sit under the damn basket all game long.
Speaker 1: You gotta take those shots. Did he miss him? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I hope he's gonna have to find a way
Speaker 1: to make them. But you gotta do the same thing
Speaker 1: with Jonas Valancunas. You gotta do more pick and pop.
Speaker 1: The pick and pop is the perfect counter to a
Speaker 1: drop average because in a drop coverage, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a guy like DeAndre and or JaVale McGee who's going
Speaker 1: to put himself between the ball handler and the rim,
Speaker 1: and then you have the guard chasing over the top
Speaker 1: of the screen, so you have basically two players staying
Speaker 1: with the ball handler. It just happens to work when
Speaker 1: there's a guy rolling to the rim because usually the
Speaker 1: bigger athletic bigs can kind of split the difference between
Speaker 1: those two. But if you're a screener pops to the
Speaker 1: three point line, he's wide open every single time. And
Speaker 1: the Bowls, to their credit, did that with Nikolavuseovitch. The
Speaker 1: Pelicans have to do more of that with Valenciona. I
Speaker 1: know he has a really slow release, I know he
Speaker 1: doesn't like to take a ton of threes, but you're
Speaker 1: either gonna sit there and try to finish over shop
Speaker 1: blocking all night long, or you can give Jonas valanciinas
Speaker 1: wide open threes, and I like that a little bit better.
Speaker 1: At the very least, you might be able to soften
Speaker 1: up that interior defense and get some easier shots. All right,
Speaker 1: from the Sun's perspective, obviously a whole lot went right,
Speaker 1: but it did seem like kind of the one area
Speaker 1: that they were outmatched was on the glass. They were
Speaker 1: minus seven on the offensive boards, minus eleven overall, and
Speaker 1: the Pelicans were really just a great rebounding team this
Speaker 1: whole year. So is that like the biggest point of
Speaker 1: concern for you in this matchup, if anything? And how
Speaker 1: do the Sun's go about, you know, trying to negate
Speaker 1: that advantage? Yeah, I mean, if I'm if I'm Monty Williams,
Speaker 1: I'm going in there and I'm ripping them a new
Speaker 1: one for not boxing out they. I think, Jonas, what
Speaker 1: I last that check? Jonas Callan, you just had nine
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds. I'm not sure how many he finished with,
Speaker 1: but that's just a completely insane number. You think after
Speaker 1: like four, there'd be a time out or you're screaming
Speaker 1: at your guys, And maybe that did happen, But to
Speaker 1: be clear, this is all just for fun. Like the
Speaker 1: Suns are in absolute control of this series, Montie Williams
Speaker 1: is not sweating the slightest bit. They have too much talent.
Speaker 1: This is a bad matchup for the Pelicans as well
Speaker 1: in terms of the way they like to play. It's
Speaker 1: it's not the Pelicans have no chance. But if I'm
Speaker 1: Monty Williams and I'm looking for something to try to
Speaker 1: keep my guys engaged, I'm I'm just just dialing in
Speaker 1: on the box outs. That's gotta be the biggest adjustment
Speaker 1: moving forward. All Right, Bulls Bucks last game of the
Speaker 1: day here for us was a pretty tight one down
Speaker 1: to the finish after the Bucks were up a little
Speaker 1: bit more convincingly early, ends up being six Milwaukee win.
Speaker 1: So what would coach Jason point out to the Bulls
Speaker 1: and say, this is what you guys need to adjust
Speaker 1: and fix going forward. So the same concept as we
Speaker 1: were talking about with the Pelicans. The Bucks did what
Speaker 1: they've been doing all season overplaying the paint. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: Joan is kind of helping out of the week side
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez hanging out around the basket as much as
Speaker 1: he possibly can. The and I complained coming into this
Speaker 1: series that I was worried about the Bulls because they
Speaker 1: don't shoot enough threes. They attempt to ride around like
Speaker 1: threes per game in the regular season, which was dead
Speaker 1: last in the NBA, and the Bucks give up the
Speaker 1: most threes in the NBA wide open threes. That is,
Speaker 1: they give up over twenty wide open threes every single
Speaker 1: game in the regular season, which was by far the
Speaker 1: most in the league. So I was concerned that the
Speaker 1: Bulls wouldn't be able to make the Bucks pay the
Speaker 1: way that they would need to. The weird part is
Speaker 1: is they took thirty seven threes tonight. To their credit,
Speaker 1: they took some really good ones in that pick and
Speaker 1: pop type of scenario with Nikolavuseovitch. Not just in pick
Speaker 1: and pop, but also they had Voussovich when he was
Speaker 1: not involved in the accident action spot up at the
Speaker 1: three point line. Same idea like, at least make Milwaukee
Speaker 1: pay by giving up a wide open shot if they're
Speaker 1: going to overplay the paint. The problem was, of those
Speaker 1: thirty seven threes, they took way too many of them
Speaker 1: were pull up threes. And this is on both Levine
Speaker 1: and Davar Dmarda Rosen. I thought both of them struggled
Speaker 1: with kind of understanding how to put their imprint on
Speaker 1: the game offensively, want to be aggressive as scores and
Speaker 1: went to be more willing to play make If you're
Speaker 1: gonna beat the Bucks, you have to have a boatload
Speaker 1: more catch and shoot threes on the week side. And
Speaker 1: I'm not just talking about the stuff with Nikolavuseovich, Damarta
Speaker 1: rosen And and Zach Levine. Have to be more willing
Speaker 1: to kick out two guys in the corner. I'm really
Speaker 1: curious to look at this one a little bit more
Speaker 1: in the tape because is again, they took thirty seven,
Speaker 1: but from what I could tell, a lot of the
Speaker 1: ones they were taking were difficult, contested threes, not the
Speaker 1: kind of threes that you need in order to make
Speaker 1: this Bucks defense pay. So my my biggest takeaway moving
Speaker 1: forward if I'm uh, if I'm the Bulls, is try
Speaker 1: to find a way to declutter the paint by just
Speaker 1: spamming pick and pop with Nicola Vusevitch and if you
Speaker 1: get into the lane and there's help, make the kick
Speaker 1: out every time. Trust your shot quality, Trust the fact
Speaker 1: that over the course of the series, even if you
Speaker 1: miss them in one game, you'll make these really good shots.
Speaker 1: Don't do what Demarda Rosen and Zach Levine did and
Speaker 1: just keep trying to slam your head into the brick
Speaker 1: wall taking impossible shots, because all you're gonna do is
Speaker 1: keep missing, and now your confidence is gonna waiver. You
Speaker 1: like that that that's gonna be the If they make
Speaker 1: those reads, you'll soften the defense to the point where
Speaker 1: now you can get higher quality shots and then you
Speaker 1: can get going. If that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely, And
Speaker 1: I think that you make a great point just about
Speaker 1: the bulls willingness to shoot threes because you're watching the
Speaker 1: Bucks drop pick and roll every time and de Rosen's
Speaker 1: just long, too long too. And obviously you can't hate
Speaker 1: on the guy because he does make the shots about
Speaker 1: as efficiently as anybody in basketball, but they just were
Speaker 1: not falling today, obviously, So he's earned himself a reputation
Speaker 1: as a guy who just doesn't live up to expectations
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Do you think if there's anything to
Speaker 1: that with him? There is? I mean, playoff basketball is
Speaker 1: just really hard, man, Like, look at what happened to
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant tonight, Like if it can happen to Kevin
Speaker 1: freaking Durant. Then like all these guys are dealing with similar,
Speaker 1: similar coverages, like when you're game planning for the Bulls,
Speaker 1: De Marta Rosen's one a on your on your scouting report,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And so you know, there's
Speaker 1: there's a type of shot that you can get regularly
Speaker 1: in the NBA regular season that you can't get in
Speaker 1: the in the playoffs. We were talking about like you know,
Speaker 1: de Rosan getting to those pull up twos against drop
Speaker 1: coverage during isolations like post up turn rounds. They're just
Speaker 1: a little tougher. Now, I wouldn't even say that they're
Speaker 1: a lot tougher. You know, there's this weird culture around
Speaker 1: the NBA. People pretend like they don't play defense in
Speaker 1: the regular season. They do, but like there's a difference
Speaker 1: between like good effort in the regular season and like
Speaker 1: okay to sloppy effort in the regular season. In the playoffs,
Speaker 1: it's like any mix of really good effort to like
Speaker 1: crazy desperate, psychotic, like fighting for our lives efforts. So
Speaker 1: like every possession just has this extra level of intensity.
Speaker 1: I thought that in particular, the Bucks did a really
Speaker 1: nice job of disrupting DeMar De Rozen's bass, kind of
Speaker 1: making him feel like he was crowded, and you could
Speaker 1: almost see I don't know if you noticed this, Carson,
Speaker 1: but like there was a lack of smoothness to DeMar's
Speaker 1: pull ups. He looked like he was pressing, a little bit,
Speaker 1: a little bit stressed, a little bit rushed, and a
Speaker 1: lot more like flailing like he that he just looked uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: And so the thing is is, like, I don't know
Speaker 1: that DeMar de Rozen because of his size. He's a
Speaker 1: decent sized guy, but he's not a huge wing, right,
Speaker 1: He's six ft six, decently strong. He's not the kind
Speaker 1: of guy that's going to be routinely able to get
Speaker 1: great shots. Okay, so it's gonna come down to whether
Speaker 1: or not he can make tough shots, and even though
Speaker 1: he's very good at that, over the course of his career,
Speaker 1: he just for whatever reason, hasn't been able to make
Speaker 1: him in the postseason. So for the Bucks, obviously they
Speaker 1: pick up a win here, but it really did come
Speaker 1: down to it, and it came down to it on
Speaker 1: a day where de Rozan six of five, vouch is
Speaker 1: nine seven, Levine is six of nineteen like, none of
Speaker 1: the Bulls Big three shoot better than thirty three. So
Speaker 1: just given that, is there anything from this game that
Speaker 1: concerns you for Milwaukee given the closeness and the fact
Speaker 1: that the Bulls best guys really did struggle. I'm not
Speaker 1: concerned as it pertains to the Buck's ability to win
Speaker 1: the series. But I thought that Chicago demonstrated something that
Speaker 1: was an interesting conundrum for the Bucks today. So, like,
Speaker 1: you know, traditionally, the way teams do help defense is
Speaker 1: they'll like it's let's say Janice is isolating on the
Speaker 1: left wing and there's a guy a shooter in the
Speaker 1: strong side corner. Usually the guy guarding the shooter in
Speaker 1: the strong side corner stays glued to them because you
Speaker 1: never most defensive schemes never want to give up a
Speaker 1: strong side corner three. So usually the help just comes
Speaker 1: from the baseline, from the weak side corner, and so
Speaker 1: a guy will beat someone off the dribble and they
Speaker 1: usually just have to deal with the help defender at
Speaker 1: the rim. Well, what Chicago did that I thought was
Speaker 1: really interesting is wherever Janice caught the ball, even if
Speaker 1: it was one pass away, guys were sitting in his
Speaker 1: driving lanes and so but they were kind of like
Speaker 1: splitting the difference. It's kind of like dare you to
Speaker 1: do to make a decision kind of thing, Like you'd
Speaker 1: have Patrick Williams guarding you, Honice staring in right in
Speaker 1: the face, and Janice has his rhythm and he's kind
Speaker 1: of trying to figure out whether he's attacking. But there's
Speaker 1: Alex Crusoe sitting right in the driving lane to the left,
Speaker 1: and you know, there's Derek Jones Jr. Sitting right in
Speaker 1: the driving lane to the right. And it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: even if I beat Patrick Williams, I'm just running right
Speaker 1: into another defender. But at the same time, Alex cruisos
Speaker 1: not doubling. So like if I throw this pass to
Speaker 1: the strong side corner, like it's a three, but it's
Speaker 1: gonna be a slightly contested three, like Alex is gonna
Speaker 1: close out. And so it kind of flustered the Bucks offense. Now,
Speaker 1: Bucks fans will probably tell you it's rust, it's we
Speaker 1: haven't played in a week, it's you know, game one, jitters,
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. I looked at it more
Speaker 1: as a really really smart scheme from Chicago to dare
Speaker 1: Milwaukee to make easy single pass reads to one pass
Speaker 1: away shooters to take lightly contested threes, and I can't
Speaker 1: remember the exact number, but the buckshot in the low
Speaker 1: from three today. That whole, that whole dynamic kind of
Speaker 1: psyched him out. The obvious adjustment there is you gotta
Speaker 1: make sure Chris Middleton's one of those guys that one
Speaker 1: that's one pass away. Maybe Pat Connaton is the other.
Speaker 1: And then you gotta look at Chris and you gotta
Speaker 1: be like, look, man, when they do this, I'm hitting you.
Speaker 1: You've got to shoot it. You've got to find a way,
Speaker 1: just like we were talking about with the Pelicans and
Speaker 1: with the Bulls earlier, you gotta find a way to
Speaker 1: loosen that defense. And the only way to do it
Speaker 1: is to demonstrate that you are willing to make them
Speaker 1: pay for it. And way too frequently in this game
Speaker 1: they would drive into that traffic and cause problems. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, credit to the Bulls. They defended like crazy.
Speaker 1: That was a really, really impressive performance. But the Bucks
Speaker 1: are gonna have to figure out how to make the
Speaker 1: Bulls pay for just digging into the honest's driving lanes
Speaker 1: all night long. All right, Well, That's all I got
Speaker 1: for now, Jason. I'll be back in a sec. We'll
Speaker 1: look forward to the other four playoff series. But great
Speaker 1: insight from coach Jason there. Love that. All right, man,
Speaker 1: We will see you soon, all right. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about this Kyrie Irving quote for just a
Speaker 1: minute because this is again like there's kind of like
Speaker 1: a I don't know if rebellions the right word, like
Speaker 1: a movement among NBA players on a couple of different fronts,
Speaker 1: kind of anti media and kind of anti fans, and
Speaker 1: as is always the case, like everything the sentiment agree with.
Speaker 1: I actually really really love what my colleague Draymond Green
Speaker 1: has been doing talking about NBA media and their obsession
Speaker 1: with drama and the way that there they aren't held accountable.
Speaker 1: I'm like a pent in agreement there, like he was.
Speaker 1: I thought Draymond Green said such a cool thing when
Speaker 1: he went on that podcast with Evan Turner, Evan Turner
Speaker 1: and Andre Gudala the other days, like the game of
Speaker 1: basketball is beautiful, Like let's talk about this beautiful game
Speaker 1: of basketball, and percent agree with him there. Well, one
Speaker 1: of the other movements that these players have been getting
Speaker 1: behind is this anti fan movement, and I this problem
Speaker 1: has been around forever. Fans have been heckling forever, and
Speaker 1: they heckle at every level of every sport of all time.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget playing an n ai A basketball and
Speaker 1: standing to throw an inbounds pass and having uh I
Speaker 1: could I played at a school in Utah, I was
Speaker 1: not Mormon, played at a school in Utah, and I
Speaker 1: had all the fans right behind my ear, screaming like
Speaker 1: anti Mormon jokes, like horrible, horrible things right into my ear.
Speaker 1: I had that happened to me dozens of times, areas
Speaker 1: different capacities when I was playing in college. It happens
Speaker 1: at every level of sport. Even the players say horrible
Speaker 1: things to each other at times. It's kind of just
Speaker 1: like the weird nature of of competitiveness, right, and you know,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, like it doesn't make it
Speaker 1: right that people behave that way, but players are bothered
Speaker 1: by it. So before we go any further, I want
Speaker 1: to read the Kyrie quote. So after the game, and
Speaker 1: you guys saw it looked like in the video it
Speaker 1: looked like some fans were heckling him from behind where
Speaker 1: he was inbounding, and it looked like he may or
Speaker 1: may not have flipped him off behind his head. At
Speaker 1: least I thought that might have been what happened. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if anybody actually solidified that or not. But
Speaker 1: the quote from Kyrie, he says, quote, when people start
Speaker 1: yelling pussy and bitch and fuck you, there's only so
Speaker 1: much you can take as a competitor. Nah funk that
Speaker 1: that's the playoffs. It is what it is. I know
Speaker 1: what to expect in here, and I'm ready to give
Speaker 1: the same energy back to them. And quote and I
Speaker 1: get that. I like, I've just like anybody else who's
Speaker 1: ever dealt with heckling or any any time, anybody, all
Speaker 1: of you, just in your day to day life, anytime
Speaker 1: you're ever in a setting where someone says something rude
Speaker 1: to you, whether it's like a weird dude in a
Speaker 1: retail setting who like is in customer service who treats
Speaker 1: you poorly, or you're at a bar and you're having
Speaker 1: a drink and some guy bumps into you and doesn't
Speaker 1: say I'm sorry, or whatever. It is like you're gonna
Speaker 1: run into inconsiderate and people that that are rude and
Speaker 1: and and mean and offensive all the time in your life.
Speaker 1: But you not doing that is what separates you from
Speaker 1: those people. Like, the reality is if we allow twenty
Speaker 1: thou people into an arena, we're probably gonna get some
Speaker 1: scumbags in there. You know, Like there's gonna be some
Speaker 1: trash human beings in there that don't have it filter,
Speaker 1: that are awful, that are you know, bigots, that are
Speaker 1: that are insensitive, that or whatever it is. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get horrible human beings that are going to interact with
Speaker 1: you in every phase of life, but especially in a
Speaker 1: competitive environment and on a basketball court. And my thing
Speaker 1: is like I'm not saying it's easy to deal with.
Speaker 1: I sympathize with the sentiment, but Kyrie, you're not saying
Speaker 1: shipped back to them, You're not flipping them off. That's
Speaker 1: what separates you from them. And like, and I understand
Speaker 1: where in this like there's kind of like this new
Speaker 1: ideology that goes around where it's like we always have
Speaker 1: to support what everybody you know, like wants to to
Speaker 1: say or do. But it's like at the same time,
Speaker 1: like there's gotta be a line somewhere, And like, to me,
Speaker 1: the line is like if somebody's rude to me, I
Speaker 1: don't have to be rude back to them. I can
Speaker 1: be above that, and then guess what happens. Everyone's gonna
Speaker 1: remember all the things that the horrible things that the
Speaker 1: fans said to you, and they're gonna have your back
Speaker 1: anyway after the fact. It this makes you the story
Speaker 1: in a wrong way, and and I just disagree with
Speaker 1: with the approach. And like I get like, as far
Speaker 1: as there's been this other kind of dynamic here where
Speaker 1: NBA players in particular, I want to, uh make it
Speaker 1: seem like their job has all these massive downsides, Like
Speaker 1: you get heckled, you have to deal with media criticism,
Speaker 1: they're traveling is tough, you have to be away from
Speaker 1: your family for a long time. I get all of that,
Speaker 1: But every single job has pros and cons for various reasons.
Speaker 1: I worked in real estate for a half decade before this,
Speaker 1: and like, there was great things. I was my own boss,
Speaker 1: I got to set my own schedule. It was freed
Speaker 1: me up to be able to do things like make
Speaker 1: a podcast and and coach high school basketball and do
Speaker 1: all these things. It was great, but they were also downsides,
Speaker 1: Like I would sometimes be at dinner with my wife
Speaker 1: and a phone call would come in that I absolutely
Speaker 1: had to take. Because in real estate, you're on seven
Speaker 1: if you're if the deal that you're working has some
Speaker 1: urgent need that you have to cater to. You've got
Speaker 1: to hop in and you've got to do something, and
Speaker 1: so and and and again. Like there are some amazing
Speaker 1: perks for NBA players, one of the downsides is is
Speaker 1: you have to play basketball in for the twenty thou people,
Speaker 1: and sometimes there's scumbags and those twenty people they say
Speaker 1: horrible things to you, and you might have to turn
Speaker 1: the other cheek. You might have to look the other way.
Speaker 1: That's that's just the that's the reality of it. So
Speaker 1: my thing is, like I sympathize with Kyrie, but like, man,
Speaker 1: it's a bad look for you to stoop to their level.
Speaker 1: Show me, show us, show all of us why you're different,
Speaker 1: why you're better than the scumbag behind you who called
Speaker 1: you a bit in the second row. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like that, that's the kind of an ideology
Speaker 1: that I don't understand. And and and it seems to
Speaker 1: be kind of like boiling over from NBA players right now,
Speaker 1: And I've I'd be really curious to hear from older
Speaker 1: players in previous generations, because I would imagine it might
Speaker 1: have been even worse back then, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I just I they've gotta you got this is
Speaker 1: the part of the deal man, and you've just gotta
Speaker 1: you just gotta take it in stride. I think it's
Speaker 1: It doesn't make it easy. I understand we've all been
Speaker 1: there where someone saying something to you and you'd like
Speaker 1: to lash out physically, or you'd like to to turn
Speaker 1: around and custom out, or you'd like but what did
Speaker 1: you guys all do in those situations? For the most part,
Speaker 1: we've all cracked before. I've cracked before. But what do
Speaker 1: you usually do, usually privately to yourself. You gotta screw
Speaker 1: that guy, and then you just walk away. You know that,
Speaker 1: because because you're better than him, that you're not the
Speaker 1: kind of person who behaves that way, and so you're
Speaker 1: above that fray and you separate yourself from it as
Speaker 1: much as you can. That's all I had on that front.
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring Carson back on. We're gonna play
Speaker 1: a game about some of my predictions from playoff series. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just real quick before we get into that Jason, how
Speaker 1: do you think the fact that this happened in Boston
Speaker 1: were obviously Kyrie played and there was the whole kind
Speaker 1: of ugly break up. Their factors in all of this,
Speaker 1: and his reaction Obviously, obviously it exacerbates the the heckling.
Speaker 1: It obviously makes it harder. But like this is where
Speaker 1: it's like, it's it's like a bad breakup, like you
Speaker 1: you lashing out in return, makes it seem that you
Speaker 1: have unresolved feelings about it, you know, like here's the
Speaker 1: reality of what happened with Kyrie and Boston. He made
Speaker 1: a promise that he was coming back, literally got on
Speaker 1: the microphone and said he was gonna sign a correct
Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong in this car someon. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure he grabbed the microphone at one point in front
Speaker 1: of the entire stadium. It was like, I'm signing the
Speaker 1: extension this summer, Like like the dude, he didn't he
Speaker 1: didn't keep it. He made a He made a he
Speaker 1: made a commercial for Nike about his dad playing for
Speaker 1: the Celtics at one point, of trying out for the
Speaker 1: Celtics at one point, and how he wants his raft
Speaker 1: his jersey to hang in the Rafters. So like, yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: you backed out of a commitment, which is fine, Like
Speaker 1: I get it, and I don't blame him for leaving Boston,
Speaker 1: but like, all you're doing by playing into this back
Speaker 1: and forth with the fans is making it seem like
Speaker 1: you have your own regrets about this whole situation. Like
Speaker 1: play it cool, man, Like play it cool. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: with you there, We're playing it cool. That's not really
Speaker 1: Kyrie's brand and that's not exactly what he does. But
Speaker 1: all right, like you said, we are going to play
Speaker 1: a game. It's called hold or Bail. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: look back on some of your predictions for the remaining
Speaker 1: four series that we haven't touched on today. You're gonna
Speaker 1: tell me if you're sticking with your original prediction or
Speaker 1: if maybe you want to jump ship and change something up.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna start with Raptors sixers. You took Toronto
Speaker 1: in six to win the series. They lost game won
Speaker 1: by twenty Are you holding or are you biling here?
Speaker 1: I'm holding um. I feel like the Raptors have to
Speaker 1: win one of these first two games, and Game one
Speaker 1: didn't look good. But I did a deep dive into
Speaker 1: the film this morning, and I bet you Nick Nurse
Speaker 1: had a full blown connection fit when he went back
Speaker 1: and watched the film. There was this weird dynamic in
Speaker 1: that game where the Sixers were playing like the underdog.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if it was all of the
Speaker 1: people picking the Raptors. I don't know if it's James
Speaker 1: Harden sick of getting slandered. I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was just Raptors laziness or them buying into their own
Speaker 1: hype a little bit. But the Raptors had embarrassing effort
Speaker 1: in that first quarter, the amount of the amount of
Speaker 1: uh time that they just got simply beat down the
Speaker 1: floor and transition because they weren't sprinting back, the sloppiness
Speaker 1: on the defensive end with their with their switches and
Speaker 1: their rotations, and and uh just just in general, it
Speaker 1: felt to me like the Raptors played one of their
Speaker 1: worst potential basketball games. We talk a lot about like
Speaker 1: a punch that the team brings to the table their
Speaker 1: best punch and their worst punch. And the Sixers came
Speaker 1: out and they were like, this is Game one. Everyone
Speaker 1: thinks the Raptors are gonna win. We're throwing our best
Speaker 1: punch and the Raptors were just sloppy. They missed a
Speaker 1: ton of box outs, they didn't rebound well. It was
Speaker 1: just an utterly and utterly disastrous performance from Toronto. And
Speaker 1: when you are the less talented team, when you are
Speaker 1: the team that is vying for an upset, you can't
Speaker 1: be the team that loses the effort and focus areas
Speaker 1: of the game you have. You have to be the
Speaker 1: team that dominates those areas and it's the other team's
Speaker 1: talent that keeps them close. Now, this in all of
Speaker 1: these situations is where the coaches the advantage, where the
Speaker 1: brain is the advantage, kind of like when you used
Speaker 1: to watch Lebron series is like as the series progresses,
Speaker 1: the smarter teams have the advantage. I do think Toronto
Speaker 1: is the smarter team. I think their biggest and best
Speaker 1: moments in this series will come later in the series.
Speaker 1: But man like, for a team that's vying for an upset,
Speaker 1: for them to come out in Game one that flat
Speaker 1: was really disappointing. And if they do lose Game two,
Speaker 1: I'm off the ship. But for right now I'm holding
Speaker 1: I expect a much better effort from the Raptors in
Speaker 1: game two, and I hope that that's the one that
Speaker 1: they steal to get their upset bid on the right track.
Speaker 1: So obviously you mentioned them losing the effort battle. There
Speaker 1: is there any part of you just watching the offensive
Speaker 1: firepower on the shot creation from Philly's top four guys
Speaker 1: who combined for a hundred and five points in this
Speaker 1: game compared to Toronto, where sometimes offense doesn't come quite
Speaker 1: as easily. Do you worry at all about them just
Speaker 1: making up that deficit in terms of just like that
Speaker 1: pure lead shot creation and shot making ability. If they
Speaker 1: guard the way they did in this game, then then
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be able to overcome it. Um and
Speaker 1: what I'm not just talking about the effort stuff, like
Speaker 1: there was some strategy things that I totally disagree with.
Speaker 1: Like if you guys remember we did a video on
Speaker 1: Harden and Bed after their first three games, after the
Speaker 1: hard and trade, and what was my big takeaway at
Speaker 1: the end, make hardened beat you, Like, there's way too
Speaker 1: much obsession with these coaches and Nick Nurse is the
Speaker 1: latest where it's like we're paranoid about James Harden and
Speaker 1: where when he has the ball, we're doing all of
Speaker 1: this overhelping and all of the sending a third defender
Speaker 1: into the action and and doing all this stuff, and
Speaker 1: it's like make hard and beat you. I I railed
Speaker 1: out some stats, uh last or earlier this this past week,
Speaker 1: where I showed you guys like, uh, James Harden is
Speaker 1: finishing at the rim half as often as he did
Speaker 1: in eighteen. He's making pull up jump shots eight percent
Speaker 1: less often as he did, uhstent this year. He's what
Speaker 1: he's present in his MVP season, So he's not shooting
Speaker 1: well pull ups. He is relying on free throws for
Speaker 1: almost of his offense. He's just nowhere near as good
Speaker 1: as he was when he was at his peak. And
Speaker 1: like I would double like absolute crazy on every embat action.
Speaker 1: There's nothing they can do with the guy. You cannot
Speaker 1: let that guy be in single coverage. I'm on Nick
Speaker 1: Nurse's aggression in that specific setting. But when James Harden
Speaker 1: has the ball, they kept sending this third defender over,
Speaker 1: and James Harden is so damned smart. He's just working
Speaker 1: his way slowly, methodically into the lane and making easy
Speaker 1: kickouts to really good players on the back end. And
Speaker 1: so the way that I would do that if I
Speaker 1: was them, and they did it a handful of times
Speaker 1: in this game, and when they did it usually worked.
Speaker 1: Just keep it too on two in the Harden and
Speaker 1: Beat pick and roll switch it even if you're putting
Speaker 1: Fred van Vleet on embiid because em Beat then has
Speaker 1: to roll back to the post in order to fight
Speaker 1: for position, and in that time you can set up
Speaker 1: your post up double Harden. We'll have to pull the
Speaker 1: ball out to make his post entry, or maybe he'll
Speaker 1: do something stupid and isolate against the big man that
Speaker 1: he gets switched on too. But my main takeaway is
Speaker 1: when Harden has the ball single coverage on Hardened, when
Speaker 1: em Beat has the ball, throw the kitchen sink. Make
Speaker 1: this series about James Harden trying to do what he
Speaker 1: did in two thousand eighteen, even though he's not physically
Speaker 1: capable of doing it anymore. That would be my entire
Speaker 1: approach if I was Toronto. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1: I think that Harden has made it very clear that
Speaker 1: he's more comfortable facilitating first at this point, and like
Speaker 1: he does still have that control of the game, but
Speaker 1: like you said, the shot making just isn't there. I
Speaker 1: think his last nine games, he's around eighteen a night
Speaker 1: on like thirty five percent from the field. Like he's
Speaker 1: just struggling to create those quality looks and he's struggling
Speaker 1: to hit the looks that he does get. So I
Speaker 1: think that you are right on the money there, all right.
Speaker 1: You took the MAVs over the Jazz in seven. The
Speaker 1: MAVs lost game one by six. There was no Luca.
Speaker 1: It's now looking like Luke is unlikely to play in
Speaker 1: game two. Are you holding or bailing on this one, Jason,
Speaker 1: I'm getting nervous. Um. I was hoping because I picked
Speaker 1: Mavericks in seven because I was hoping that Luca would
Speaker 1: come back by game three. Just seemed like it would
Speaker 1: make the most sense. Usually I haven't looked at the schedule,
Speaker 1: but usually in the first round, because they have so
Speaker 1: many games, they will space out an extra day between
Speaker 1: games two and game three, or between game one and
Speaker 1: game two. But I was sitting there thinking, like, if
Speaker 1: you give the Jazz, like if if Luca is healthy,
Speaker 1: I would have picked the Jazz to win or the
Speaker 1: Mavericks to win the series in five games. I have
Speaker 1: a huge believer in Dallas. I think they're specifically equipped
Speaker 1: to shut Utah down on a bunch of different fronts.
Speaker 1: They were one of my dark horse teams to win
Speaker 1: the title. I was so high on them. I was
Speaker 1: so bummed out by that stupid Luka don calf injury,
Speaker 1: and this kind of throws a wrench into all of that.
Speaker 1: What scares me is I think Dallas played one of
Speaker 1: their best defensive games that they've ever played this season
Speaker 1: in Game one, just stifling competitively on the defense, on
Speaker 1: on the perimeter, sitting in a defensive stance, taking away
Speaker 1: easy driving lanes. The only success Utah was really having
Speaker 1: was attacked attacking Davis Barton's with either Donovan Mitchell or
Speaker 1: with boy On Bogdanovich. They were not getting and they
Speaker 1: were not getting easy shots against the Mavericks, but they
Speaker 1: just couldn't score. And I've been so high on doubt
Speaker 1: on on Spencer Dinwoody as a third creator and Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson is a backup creator. But with the slotting, when
Speaker 1: those two guys get slot get slotted up into the
Speaker 1: first and second creation roles, they're just not as good
Speaker 1: and they can't create enough shots. And so I'm definitely
Speaker 1: wavering on this one. Yeah, I would say that I
Speaker 1: would I would switch my pick to the Jazz if
Speaker 1: Luca wasn't back in Game three, But for right now
Speaker 1: through Game one, I'm gonna hold for now, all right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is such a bummer with Luca obviously, just entirely
Speaker 1: change of the dynamics of the series in every way.
Speaker 1: All right, Warriors, you took in five over the Nuggets,
Speaker 1: and they were very convincing in Game one, even bringing
Speaker 1: Steph off the bench with a minute's rest restriction. Thing
Speaker 1: are bailing here, I'm holding um. I do think the
Speaker 1: Nuggets will get one at home. They have enough advantages,
Speaker 1: and this is an older core for the Warriors, so
Speaker 1: they're susceptible to things like mailing in a defensive effort
Speaker 1: on the road or something like that. Overall, though, the Warriors,
Speaker 1: they're gonna run away with this thing. What an awesome,
Speaker 1: perfect first round series for them. You Steph Curry, just
Speaker 1: because he's an incredible leader. I've said many times he's
Speaker 1: the best leader in the NBA, decides to come off
Speaker 1: the bench because Jordan Poole has been killing everybody for
Speaker 1: like a couple of months, and Steph Curry is like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to disrupt Jordan Pool's rhythm, and I
Speaker 1: don't want to send Clay Thompson to the bench. All
Speaker 1: sit sit on the bench. And Jordan Pool, of course,
Speaker 1: is incredible. Again that kid, I'll tell you I always
Speaker 1: wonder if if kids that play alongside stars will absorb
Speaker 1: their greatness in some capacity, and Jordan Poole appears to
Speaker 1: have been that guy with Steph because he's one of
Speaker 1: the few guys in the league now that coming off
Speaker 1: of ball screens, you almost have to devote similar amounts
Speaker 1: of attention to him. And I've been super impressed with him.
Speaker 1: But what a perfect first round series for the Warriors
Speaker 1: to just get their feet wet. And I told you
Speaker 1: guys earlier, I don't expect Draymond Green to really fully
Speaker 1: regain regain his his athletic form until the second round.
Speaker 1: This is a nice, low stress series for him to
Speaker 1: work his way back into shape. Steph Curry to slowly
Speaker 1: work his way through his minutes restriction and eventually work
Speaker 1: his way back into the starting lineup. This could this
Speaker 1: could not have broken better for the Warriors than it did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it does feel like there's just a personnel mismatch
Speaker 1: like I think the Warriors clearly have five of the
Speaker 1: top seven guys in the series and can only do
Speaker 1: so much. Like the Words are just fundamentally a much
Speaker 1: better basketball team. All Right. You took the Grizzlies to
Speaker 1: beat the t Wolves in six. Minnesota came in and
Speaker 1: stole Game one. Are you holding or bailing here? Jason? So?
Speaker 1: I specifically picked the Grizzlies in six because I thought
Speaker 1: this series would be a lot more competitive than people realized.
Speaker 1: We talked earlier about how the Sixers played like the
Speaker 1: underdog and one in a lot of the effort and
Speaker 1: focus areas of the game. Well, the same thing happened
Speaker 1: to Memphis tonight. They came in confident, We're the favorite.
Speaker 1: We've been whipping everybody's ass all year. Nobody can beat
Speaker 1: us at home. We beat you, and we talked about it.
Speaker 1: And meanwhile, here comes Minnesota and they're like their heart
Speaker 1: and soul is Patrick Beverley, who is literally Mr Like
Speaker 1: like Patrick Beverley is the kind of guy who will
Speaker 1: walk into that arena and be like, we are the
Speaker 1: favorite to win this series. We are that, we are
Speaker 1: supposed to be here, We're supposed to win this and
Speaker 1: and so I wasn't surprised at all that Minnesota came
Speaker 1: in and punched him in the mouth. And as I've
Speaker 1: said on many different occasions, they have real advantages here. Okay,
Speaker 1: one of Memphis big advantages is they're big and athletic
Speaker 1: on the wings. Well, guess who else has big athletic
Speaker 1: wings Minnesota? Does you know? Obviously Minnesota, Memphis has a
Speaker 1: huge mismatch problem. Nobody can guard John Moran at the
Speaker 1: point of attack. They can't keep him from getting to
Speaker 1: the paint at least well, guess what Nobody on Memphis
Speaker 1: can guard Carl Anthony Towns. And the Steven Adams thing
Speaker 1: is an utter disaster. As is always the case, coaches
Speaker 1: stick with their traditional scheme to start series is before
Speaker 1: they adapt. Adams was an absolute disaster. He got killed
Speaker 1: in transition. He couldn't guard Carl Anthony Towns in in
Speaker 1: isolation situations. He was getting beat off the dribble a lot.
Speaker 1: Every time Anthony Edwards had the ball and was coming
Speaker 1: off those Carl Town's ball screen, Adams was in a
Speaker 1: drop coverage right, you know, down by the free throw line.
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards made eight pull up jump shots in that game,
Speaker 1: A huge part of that was Steven Adams and drop coverage.
Speaker 1: I love Steven Adams, one of my favorite players in
Speaker 1: the NBA. I've been preaching about how these plotting bigs,
Speaker 1: these slow, traditional bigs, are becoming useless in the modern NBA.
Speaker 1: He was useless last night, and what you're gonna see
Speaker 1: is eventually they're gonna send him to the bench. And
Speaker 1: when they do, I think that's when things kind of
Speaker 1: take off for Memphis in the series. Jaren Jackson Jr.
Speaker 1: Can absolutely play the five. He's the only guy that
Speaker 1: has a decent chance of staying in front of Carl
Speaker 1: Towns on the perimeter. That's when I think this series
Speaker 1: will turn back in memphis favor. They did not play
Speaker 1: hard enough in Game one. I still think this is
Speaker 1: gonna be very competitive throughout, but I think Memphis is
Speaker 1: gonna end up stealing it and finishing him off in six.
Speaker 1: So holding on all four series is Carson. But I
Speaker 1: will say like after game well, I've never missed her
Speaker 1: overreact to Game one, So if we play the same
Speaker 1: game later on, I think there's a much better chance
Speaker 1: that I would waiver on one of my picks. You know,
Speaker 1: I think that's the right tendency. People are generally over reactionary,
Speaker 1: and I do think it's better to stick with your gut.
Speaker 1: Just real quick. Is there a world with aunt where
Speaker 1: like if that pull up jumper just keeps falling through
Speaker 1: this series, that he is like the best guy on
Speaker 1: the floor. That's a good question. Um. John Morae had
Speaker 1: a really bad game one and uh, he got to
Speaker 1: the free throw line of ton early. Didn't get as
Speaker 1: many calls later in the game. He in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter especially, I thought he forced a lot in the
Speaker 1: paint and kind of like we've been talking about with
Speaker 1: all these other series, take the easy shot quality that
Speaker 1: is there, make the kickouts to the wide open shooters
Speaker 1: on the on the wing. Memphis was twenty three and
Speaker 1: three pointers attempted and twenty three and three pointers made
Speaker 1: this year in the entire NBA. It's because their team
Speaker 1: that when they get into the paint and help comes
Speaker 1: over at the rim, John Morae and Dylan Brooks and
Speaker 1: all these guys Ties Jones, they go to the floater,
Speaker 1: they shoot out of the mid range, and what you're
Speaker 1: seeing is there's more congestion in there than ever. Even
Speaker 1: the floaters and mid range shots aren't really all that open.
Speaker 1: You gotta make the kickouts. There were many many occasions
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter where John Moran got into the
Speaker 1: paint and had an opportunity to make a kick out,
Speaker 1: but instead just was doing what he did all game,
Speaker 1: which was jumped into the throng of bodies and flail
Speaker 1: around and throw something up and hope for the best.
Speaker 1: And it worked for him early in the game because
Speaker 1: he got twenty free throws, but he wasn't able to
Speaker 1: make those easier reads and as a result didn't get
Speaker 1: the calls late in the game and and went south
Speaker 1: on him. So it's interesting because Anthony Edwards, he was
Speaker 1: he made eight pull up jump shots last night. He
Speaker 1: made four pull up jump shots in the playing game
Speaker 1: over fifty both nights. There were sixty players in the
Speaker 1: NBA this year that attempted at least five pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots per game this year, and Anthony Edwards was
Speaker 1: dead last. And field goal percentage, Now, some of that
Speaker 1: was he takes he takes a lot of threes with
Speaker 1: his pull up shots, but he was dead last. Had
Speaker 1: a sixty players who attempted at least fifty and field
Speaker 1: goal percentage, so a huge part of this is like
Speaker 1: he's shooting well right now. So do I think that
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards could be the best player in this series?
Speaker 1: Probably not, because this is the outlier. My guess is
Speaker 1: there will be a few games in this series where
Speaker 1: Aunt is gunning for with his pull up jump shot
Speaker 1: and the shots don't go in, So it could go
Speaker 1: the other way on him. But also sometimes guys take
Speaker 1: leaps and suddenly they start making shots and then they
Speaker 1: never stopped making shots. So if this is what Aunt
Speaker 1: is and he's rounding out into a good pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooter, then then yeah, absolutely he has that capability.
Speaker 1: He I did this whole rant about him last night.
Speaker 1: He's a site to behold driving to the basket. He's
Speaker 1: like the definition of the modern power to guard, just
Speaker 1: built like a linebacker. When he gets a straight line drive,
Speaker 1: guys just bounce off of him. Really really impressed by him.
Speaker 1: But I do think Jaw is the best player in
Speaker 1: the series. I think I'll show it as things go on,
Speaker 1: and I think Memphis wind up closing out in six.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight.
Speaker 1: As always, I appreciate your support. We will be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow night, right, after the last game of the night
Speaker 1: to break down all of Day three of this NBA
Speaker 1: Playoff run. As always, I appreciate your support and we'll
Speaker 1: see you tomorrow. The volume