Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys had an incredible weekend coverage to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: Here at Hoops Tonight is brought to you by Chase
Speaker 1: Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? All right? So,
Speaker 1: for those of you guys who missed it, last night,
Speaker 1: the Great con Coward and myself went over the first
Speaker 1: two games of the NBA Finals and all the storylines.
Speaker 1: We went for about a half hour. I thought it
Speaker 1: was really good. You can find that on our YouTube feed.
Speaker 1: This morning, I had a chance to rewatch the game
Speaker 1: in its entirety and to pour over the numbers a
Speaker 1: little bit, learned a ton of stuff. So what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do today. There were three adjustments that I recommended
Speaker 1: for Miami coming after Game one, and all three of
Speaker 1: them came to fruition in Game two. So I'd like
Speaker 1: to kind of dive into that and talk about how
Speaker 1: it helped Miami steal the game. And then for our
Speaker 1: Chase three Points segment, we're gonna go over the three
Speaker 1: keys for Denver to regain control of the series as
Speaker 1: they go on the road to Miami. You guys know
Speaker 1: the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes
Speaker 1: YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you
Speaker 1: guys don't miss anyhow announcements. And if for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: you guys missed one of these videos and you can't
Speaker 1: get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You
Speaker 1: can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under hoops tonight,
Speaker 1: all right, let's tucks some basketball. So for those of
Speaker 1: you guys who listen to our film breakdown after game one,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of our cadence during the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: I'll do an instant reaction kind of just go over
Speaker 1: some of the surface level stuff, and then the next day,
Speaker 1: when I really have a chance to pour over the film,
Speaker 1: we get into the weeds. And when we got into
Speaker 1: the weeds after game one, there were three keys that
Speaker 1: I wrote down for Miami. I said they had to
Speaker 1: avoid transition cross matches because that's what killed them in
Speaker 1: the post up area of the game. For Denver, giving
Speaker 1: Yokich and Aaron Gordon way too many good matchups without
Speaker 1: even having to run action just by running up the
Speaker 1: floor and catching Miami in their transition cross matches. The
Speaker 1: second key that I pointed out is I wanted them
Speaker 1: to try Kevin Love in the starting lineup, just to
Speaker 1: give them a better chance to hang with Denver size.
Speaker 1: And then the third one was I wanted them to
Speaker 1: lean on their z own defense more because I thought
Speaker 1: that actually was their most effective defense in game one.
Speaker 1: So let's kind of go one by one through those
Speaker 1: and talk about how they helped. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: transition cross matches, they just did a much better job
Speaker 1: sprinting back getting into the right matchup. Kevin Love being
Speaker 1: out there helps too, because now you have three guys
Speaker 1: that are effectively tougher guys to target in post up
Speaker 1: situations Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love and bam Adebayo. With only
Speaker 1: having two targets versus three, it's fifty percent less opportunity
Speaker 1: even when you do get into cross matches to give
Speaker 1: somebody a matchup to attack. But they just did a
Speaker 1: better job in general. The best way you could tell
Speaker 1: is in the stats. Aaron Gordon had six post ups
Speaker 1: for ten points in game one. He had zero post
Speaker 1: ups for zero points obviously in game two, so the
Speaker 1: Heat made the adjustment, they removed that from Denver's offense. Secondly,
Speaker 1: Kevin Love, he also had a bunch of different level
Speaker 1: and it wasn't different than I expected. I expected them
Speaker 1: to put Kevin Love on Jokic and put Bam in
Speaker 1: a bio and help on Aaron Gordon. Instead, what they
Speaker 1: did is they actually put Kevin Love on Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: and kept Bam at a bio on Jokic, basically just
Speaker 1: trying to take away those Aaron Gordon post ups and
Speaker 1: help them in rebound situations because Kevin Love is such
Speaker 1: a great rebounder. It helped in a bunch of different ways.
Speaker 1: First of all, it allowed the Miami Heat to put
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler on Jamal Murray, which was a huge part
Speaker 1: of Miami guarding the Murray Yokic two man games so
Speaker 1: well two on two without having to bring help keeping
Speaker 1: the other guys at a rhythm, which we'll get into
Speaker 1: much deeper here in a little bit. It also helped
Speaker 1: on the glass. Kevin Love had ten rebounds in twenty
Speaker 1: two minutes. That's obviously a huge factor in a series
Speaker 1: like this against the team so big. We talked earlier
Speaker 1: in the transition cross match bit about how it gave
Speaker 1: the Nuggets fewer options for Aaron Gordon to attack. We
Speaker 1: called it matchup flexibility. Just more guys that can guard,
Speaker 1: more guys on the floor. Right. He also hit a
Speaker 1: couple of threes and in his twenty two minutes Kevin Love.
Speaker 1: In Kevin Love's twenty two minutes, the heat were plus
Speaker 1: eight team, So that was a really really smart adjustment
Speaker 1: from Eric Spolstra. And then lastly, if you guys remember
Speaker 1: I said when I went over the film, the times
Speaker 1: when Denver's offense looked more most stilted, even when nikol
Speaker 1: Jokicic was out there was against the zone. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, they had just six points and ten
Speaker 1: possessions against the zone with Jokic on the floor in
Speaker 1: Game one. So I was hoping that Spoilsher would use
Speaker 1: it more, and he used it a lot in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. So he only ran it three possessions total
Speaker 1: in the first three quarters, all Wala Jokic was on
Speaker 1: the bench, and then he broke it out for thirteen
Speaker 1: possessions in the fourth quarter, all wal Jokicic was on
Speaker 1: the floor. They only used it in dead ball situations
Speaker 1: and after made baskets and in the when they first
Speaker 1: started using the zone to start the fourth quarter, Denver
Speaker 1: got Miami got stops on five of their first seven
Speaker 1: possessions with the zone. During that span, they turned a
Speaker 1: two point deficit into an eleven point lead. So Spoilister
Speaker 1: leaned heavy into the zone again. It ended up being
Speaker 1: what speed You're headed the biggest run of the game
Speaker 1: for Miami. Now on tape, there were two things that
Speaker 1: I want to point out that I think really makes
Speaker 1: Miami's zone work effectively against Denver. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: they're running a zone press up the floor as they're
Speaker 1: getting into the zone, right, So the top two guys
Speaker 1: are picking up the ball handler and just making them
Speaker 1: work slowly up the floor. Why is that important that
Speaker 1: eats up shot clock? So if he dribbles up into
Speaker 1: the zone and they get into their set with nineteen
Speaker 1: eighteen on the shot clock, now they have multiple opportunities
Speaker 1: to attack the zone, multiple opportunities to get the zone
Speaker 1: to flip angle. It flips side so that maybe a
Speaker 1: guy will make a mistake, right, but with ball pressure
Speaker 1: from that zone press. Now, when they get to the
Speaker 1: point where they're ready to attack the zone, maybe there's
Speaker 1: only twelve or thirteen seconds left on the shot clock. Now,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, there's much less opportunity for Denver
Speaker 1: to start finding those entry points in the zone. It's
Speaker 1: a great way to disrupt rhythm that way. The second
Speaker 1: big thing, and I'm gonna encourage you guys to go
Speaker 1: to my Twitter feed and I shared a video you guys. No,
Speaker 1: I have trouble being able to use footage on this
Speaker 1: format just by virtue of the way the rights work,
Speaker 1: but I can use it pretty liberally on Twitter. So
Speaker 1: go on Twitter. You'll see a specific clip that I
Speaker 1: posted that kind of demonstrates this particular concept. But what
Speaker 1: they're doing is they're taking again in a two three zone.
Speaker 1: And I hate calling it a two three zone because
Speaker 1: Spolsor's two three zone is so versatile and it moves
Speaker 1: around so much. It's more like an amoeba. And like
Speaker 1: with this little tweak that they made, which I'm about
Speaker 1: to describe, it almost looks like a one to three
Speaker 1: to one at times, but it is their two three zone.
Speaker 1: Sposure just adjusts the responsibilities of the players based on
Speaker 1: the matchup, and everyone has responsibilities that extend far out
Speaker 1: of their area, and that's what makes it kind of
Speaker 1: like an amoeba rather than a traditional two three. But
Speaker 1: in a two three, you have two top guys, right,
Speaker 1: then you have two guys in the corners, and then
Speaker 1: you bam At a bio under the basket. One of
Speaker 1: the things that Miami was doing is they were having
Speaker 1: one of those top guys drop down and front Yokic
Speaker 1: in the high post area. Right. So the way that
Speaker 1: most teams like to attack the zone is they want
Speaker 1: to get the ball to the middle of the floor,
Speaker 1: which forces bam Ad to bayout to step up, which
Speaker 1: forces one of the wing defenders to drop underneath the basket,
Speaker 1: which will leave an open corner three, or if he stays,
Speaker 1: you can cut behind and get easy layups. So everything
Speaker 1: comes down to getting the ball to the high post, right.
Speaker 1: That's the most that's the easiest way to attack a
Speaker 1: zone that everyone has been talking about at every level
Speaker 1: of basketball. Right. But if you front that high post pass,
Speaker 1: then you can't make that post entry and you have
Speaker 1: to attack the zone a different way. Right. So one
Speaker 1: of the things that Miami's doing is they're dropping in
Speaker 1: the In the clip that I showed, Gabe Vincent actually
Speaker 1: fronts Jokic in the post. So he's supposed to be
Speaker 1: a guard, he's not guarding up top. He's dropping down
Speaker 1: to the foul line and sitting in front of Yokic
Speaker 1: and taking away that pass. Kyle Lowry's in the other
Speaker 1: corner and rather than staying in the corner, he's coming
Speaker 1: up to Vincent's spot to take away that easy swing
Speaker 1: pass for a three. So if the swing passes aren't
Speaker 1: open for three and the Jokic pass isn't open, what
Speaker 1: is open, Well, the wide open skip pass on the
Speaker 1: weeks out of the floor. There's a shooter in the
Speaker 1: corner of that' z open. But that's one an extremely
Speaker 1: difficult pass to make two. Miami can rotate out of it.
Speaker 1: The only way you're gonna beat Miami with that pass
Speaker 1: is if you get it on a rope to the corner.
Speaker 1: And so it's a really interesting little tweak by zone
Speaker 1: pressing to eat up shot clock and then by denying
Speaker 1: that high post entry pass he Jokics by fronting with
Speaker 1: the guard and then coming out of the corner to
Speaker 1: take away that easy swing pass, They've made it really
Speaker 1: difficult for Denver to enter against Miami's zone. That's why
Speaker 1: I said it almost looks like a one to three
Speaker 1: to one at times because one of those guards is
Speaker 1: dropping back to the middle, and so it kind of
Speaker 1: takes that shape a little bit. But that's the genius
Speaker 1: of air exposure. In my opinion, he didn't give Denver
Speaker 1: a chance to solve that zone throughout the game. He
Speaker 1: only used it three possessions in the first three quarters.
Speaker 1: He ate up all the shot clock with the press,
Speaker 1: then he took away the easiest entry points of the
Speaker 1: zone in that high post feed. That is what causes
Speaker 1: them to have the level of success against the zone
Speaker 1: that they have. So as we look back those three
Speaker 1: as we look back at those three adjustments, the transition
Speaker 1: cross matches, Kevin Love and more zone, Eric Spolser just
Speaker 1: did a really nice job after Game one of identifying
Speaker 1: the things they did well and replicating those things and
Speaker 1: identifying the areas of weakness and addressing those things. I
Speaker 1: thought that was a huge part of how Miami ended
Speaker 1: up evening up this series. So before we get to
Speaker 1: our chase three point segment, I want to talk about
Speaker 1: this Eric Spolstra press presser comment that was going around
Speaker 1: last night about making Yokic a score. So for those
Speaker 1: of you guys who missed it, I think it was
Speaker 1: Ramona Shelburn basically brings up the idea of making yokicch
Speaker 1: a score and it disrupting the rhythm, And in her
Speaker 1: question she literally brought up that it was overly simplistic.
Speaker 1: So I was kind of I didn't like Eric Spolser's
Speaker 1: reaction that much. She said, quote, first of all, I
Speaker 1: called it ridiculous, and then he said, quote, that's the
Speaker 1: untrained eye that says something like that. That's not how
Speaker 1: they play. They have so many actions that can get
Speaker 1: you compromised. So for starters, I do understand why your
Speaker 1: exposure is frustrated by that. He's like doing all these
Speaker 1: incredibly complex tactical things to Denver. Right, we just broke
Speaker 1: down some of them. The pivotal run of the game
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter was with a zone defense, right,
Speaker 1: And even the zone we talked about has all these
Speaker 1: different like wrinkles to it that make it so complicated.
Speaker 1: So the simple idea of leaving Yokic on an island
Speaker 1: one on one and making him a score, I get
Speaker 1: why that concept frustrates sposure because it's not really what's happening.
Speaker 1: But it's just an abbreviated way to describe the overall
Speaker 1: strategy that Miami is going with. And like again, like
Speaker 1: it's just a timesaver. This show is a very unique format,
Speaker 1: like I'll sit here some days. Hell, we have shows
Speaker 1: where we go forty five minutes sometimes and most of
Speaker 1: them are between twenty and thirty minutes. But even if
Speaker 1: we just look at that, I have twenty to thirty
Speaker 1: minutes to sit down with you guys and break down
Speaker 1: everything in excruciating detail, so I can go into the
Speaker 1: detailed version of making Yokica score. But most of these
Speaker 1: debate shows, and most of these articles and all these
Speaker 1: different things, it's all about being concise in the way
Speaker 1: that you make your point. And so in a lot
Speaker 1: of these formats, people don't have the luxury of being
Speaker 1: able to take five minutes to break down what it
Speaker 1: means to leave to make Yokic a score. And so,
Speaker 1: while I understand spolstrous frustration, this is just the reality
Speaker 1: of the way sports media works. Sometimes you need to
Speaker 1: come up with these colloquialisms that effectively allow you to
Speaker 1: save time on the air. Right, It's like drop coverage,
Speaker 1: I say, the phrase drop coverage a lot when I'm
Speaker 1: trying to save time. But even just within drop coverage,
Speaker 1: there's a million different ways to run a drop coverage, right,
Speaker 1: Like the guard has a half dozen different responsibilities that
Speaker 1: he can have. The big man has a half dozen
Speaker 1: different things that he can do, different spots that he
Speaker 1: can occupy. The help side defense can be different in
Speaker 1: a drop coverage from team to team. Just in this
Speaker 1: particular matchup, Denver's backside help and pick and roll is
Speaker 1: way different than Miami's backside help and pick and roll. So,
Speaker 1: like I'll say, drop coverage is save time, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's an oversimplification, you know. So, like I want to
Speaker 1: cut Ramona Shelburn and a lot of these people some
Speaker 1: slack like it. Like everything in basketball is super complicated
Speaker 1: when you dive into the minutia, but it's unrealistic to
Speaker 1: expect that kind of minusia to always be broken down
Speaker 1: in detail, especially in a lot of the modern formats
Speaker 1: of these shows. And that's what I love about the
Speaker 1: format of this show is like I can take like
Speaker 1: there's no limit here. I can take as long as
Speaker 1: I need to break these things down, and I can
Speaker 1: actually get into the weeds a little bit, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to cut those people some slack. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about what Miami is doing. So Spoilster's right, Denver's offense
Speaker 1: is a lot more complicated than just dumping the ball
Speaker 1: to Yo kitchen the post and sit hanging back and
Speaker 1: be like, okay, Yo, kitch your score now like that.
Speaker 1: That's not how it works. But when they do go
Speaker 1: to the post, they're defending him one on one, right
Speaker 1: like there was that Cody Zellert stretch where the end
Speaker 1: of the third quarter, or Yokic is just attacking him
Speaker 1: again and again and again. And what they're doing on
Speaker 1: the help side situation is in position to help, but
Speaker 1: they're staying close enough to their shooters that they can rotate.
Speaker 1: It's more to just kind of shrink the floor on him.
Speaker 1: But what they're not doing is hard doubling Jokic, That
Speaker 1: is giving up those passes that gets the defense in rotation,
Speaker 1: so guys like Michael Porter Junior and Kentavious Calbo Pope
Speaker 1: can get easy opportunities to knock down shots and attack closeouts,
Speaker 1: which is what allows them to build their rhythm and
Speaker 1: then extending further to the Jokic Murray action. Anytime they
Speaker 1: run a two man game, they're defending it two on two.
Speaker 1: They're expecting Jimmy Butler and bam Adebayo to stop that action.
Speaker 1: The other three players are hanging in a position where
Speaker 1: they can rotate to their shooters. That is a deliberate
Speaker 1: tactical approach from Eric Spolstra to try to force Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray and Nikola Jokic, either in their two man games
Speaker 1: or in their ISOs or post ups, to score over
Speaker 1: the top, rather than taking those opportunities away with double
Speaker 1: teams or defending the pick and roll three on two,
Speaker 1: allowing for easy opportunities on the backside that gets everyone
Speaker 1: else in rhythm. That's exactly what Eric Spolster is doing. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's a lot more complicated than just making Yokic a score,
Speaker 1: but that is what's happening, even in the zone. By
Speaker 1: virtue of by virtue of denying Jokic the ball up top,
Speaker 1: they are preventing those easy opportunities on the week side
Speaker 1: to stop guys from getting in rhythm. Everything about what
Speaker 1: Eric Spolsure is doing against Denver's offense is about I
Speaker 1: know I can't stop Yokich I know I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to disrupt his rhythm or make him feel uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: But Michael Porter Junior, Contavious Kalwell, Pope, those are guys
Speaker 1: like if I can rattle them a little bit, they'll
Speaker 1: start to miss to the open ones too, and that
Speaker 1: stuff works. KCP and Michael Porter Junior only generated three
Speaker 1: wide open looks from three in last night's game. They
Speaker 1: went one for three on them. You guys might remember
Speaker 1: there was a play. It was against the zone in
Speaker 1: the late fourth quarter. It was right before Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: hit a three, But there was a play where Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray like shovels a pass back to KCP at the
Speaker 1: top of the key and he just breaks the three
Speaker 1: long off the back room. And that's a play where
Speaker 1: it's like, if KCP gets some easier touches throughout the game,
Speaker 1: then he rises into that shot in rhythm and with
Speaker 1: confidence and he probably knocks it down. But instead he's
Speaker 1: been disrupted throughout the game with the way that Miami's
Speaker 1: been guarding, and so now even that wat that wide
Speaker 1: open shot that he gets doesn't go in because it's
Speaker 1: like he just didn't get that many of them and
Speaker 1: so he wasn't feeling comfortable and confident in the situations.
Speaker 1: All that stuff. Again, we can argue about the semantics
Speaker 1: of what's happening, but it's very clear that Spolster is
Speaker 1: trying to force Maria and Yo gets to score over
Speaker 1: the top, rather than allowing the defense to get in
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Speaker 1: a Ngi dot com. All right, so let's get to
Speaker 1: our chase three point segment. So last week, like I said,
Speaker 1: we focused on adjustments that Miami could make to ease
Speaker 1: even the series. In our three point segment today, they
Speaker 1: were going to focus on three adjustments or specific areas
Speaker 1: that Denver needs to be good at in order to
Speaker 1: have a chance to gain back control of the series
Speaker 1: as we head to Miami. So number one, the Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets have to find a way to get easier opportunities
Speaker 1: for KCP and Michael Porter Junior in their offense. Kind
Speaker 1: of expounding on that point that we just made so
Speaker 1: so far through through two games, MPJ and Michael MPJ
Speaker 1: and KCP are averaging sixteen points per game combined in
Speaker 1: the series. During the regular season they averaged twenty eight
Speaker 1: points combined. Michael Porter Junior is shooting twenty nine percent
Speaker 1: in the series and KCP is shooting thirty three percent
Speaker 1: in the series. So the rhythm disruption stuff from Spolstra
Speaker 1: is really working. And I'm not going to dive into
Speaker 1: the dynamic again because we just did so a couple
Speaker 1: of adjustments they can make. One they need to get
Speaker 1: out and transition more. They did have a better transition
Speaker 1: game in game two than they did in game one.
Speaker 1: They had single digit transition points in game one. They
Speaker 1: had twenty one points in transition in game two, although
Speaker 1: most of that took place in that second court to
Speaker 1: run when Yokic was off the floor. So there's always
Speaker 1: gonna those are those transition opportunities are always gonna be
Speaker 1: much easier to score than Miami set defense with how
Speaker 1: sophisticated they are in the half court. So you got
Speaker 1: to hunt those possessions every time you get an opportunity,
Speaker 1: which you have to defend in order to generate those
Speaker 1: transition opportunities. We're not gonna talk about the the Nuggets
Speaker 1: defense right now, but that was arguably the biggest thing
Speaker 1: that went wrong for them last night. We are going
Speaker 1: to get to that here in just a minute. Run
Speaker 1: more two man game with Michael Porter Junior in KCP
Speaker 1: to keep them in rhythms. So they only ran seven
Speaker 1: possessions last night where they ran dh o's or pick
Speaker 1: and rolls with MPJ or Contavious Cabbo Pope running the
Speaker 1: action with Jokic as the screener. That's not very often, right,
Speaker 1: and they'll run the vast majority of their two man
Speaker 1: game possessions with Jamal Murray with the ball in his hands.
Speaker 1: And I get that, Jamal Murray is your star. You
Speaker 1: have to do that right. But Jamal Murray's finds himself
Speaker 1: in the tougher matchup here. He's being guarded by Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: and Jimmy Butler's doing a really good job up until
Speaker 1: those last few garbage time threes that Jamal Murray hit
Speaker 1: at the late fourth quarter. Jimmy kind of locked his
Speaker 1: ass up. Right Now, that doesn't mean you stop running
Speaker 1: that action. You need to keep running that action. You
Speaker 1: need to keep Jamal Murray in rhythm as best as
Speaker 1: you can, but I would toss CACP and Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior several more of those a game just to keep
Speaker 1: the ball in their hands more to help them get
Speaker 1: into a rhythm. There's two like it helps them two ways.
Speaker 1: It helps them keep their rhythm, but also they're being
Speaker 1: guarded by lesser defenders. Case again, if you're putting Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler on Jamal Murray, that means it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent or a Max Struce that is guarding or
Speaker 1: a Caleb Martin that's guarding one of those guys. In
Speaker 1: those situations, they might be able to get a better
Speaker 1: look against them, even though they're not as talented as
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray is. And then again, when you do get
Speaker 1: those catch and shoot threes for Michael Porter Junior and
Speaker 1: CACP late in the game, when you are spamming Jamal Murray,
Speaker 1: Nikola yok jactions more likely to make them at that
Speaker 1: point because they've had more touches throughout the game. So
Speaker 1: I think that's a big way that they can help
Speaker 1: keep those guys in rhythm. Just hunt transition opportunities and
Speaker 1: run more. Two main game with KCP and Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior having the ball in their hands. Number two, Denver
Speaker 1: has to figure out a way to score against Miami's
Speaker 1: zone effectively. So we talked about the zone run earlier. Right,
Speaker 1: the Miami gets five stops and seven possessions. They turned
Speaker 1: a two point deficit into an eleven point lead. Now,
Speaker 1: they did score on four of their last six possessions
Speaker 1: against Miami's zone, which is what kind of bumped up
Speaker 1: the points per possession numbers. But I thought it was
Speaker 1: fool's goal. The first one, Nikola Jokic was screening the
Speaker 1: top guy and Jamal Murray got downhill and Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: is standing there waiting for Jamal Murray and Jimmy just
Speaker 1: let him go right by him, and Jamal Murray ended
Speaker 1: up engaging Bam dropping it off to Jokisch and Yokic
Speaker 1: made a little floater like Jimmy has a pretty good
Speaker 1: chance to contain that it was just a defensive mistake, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's not something you can replicate. The second one was
Speaker 1: an Aaron Gordon three above the break. So you know
Speaker 1: how we were talking about coming out of the corners
Speaker 1: to take away those easy swing pass threes while in
Speaker 1: this possession, KCP was in the corner, Aaron Gordon was
Speaker 1: on the wing above the break. Duncan Robinson stayed in
Speaker 1: the corner again probably part of Eric Spolstra's you know,
Speaker 1: decision making process, like I'd rather give up an above
Speaker 1: the break three to Aaron Gordon than CACP in the
Speaker 1: corner right, So Duncan Robins stayed glued. They threw the
Speaker 1: pass to Aaron Gordon, he was wide open above the
Speaker 1: break on the left wing, and he made that three again,
Speaker 1: a three that Miami's gonna live with. And then the
Speaker 1: last two buckets that they got against the zone were
Speaker 1: both off offensive rebounds, so Miami actually got stops, they
Speaker 1: just couldn't finish the possession. So again, they scored on
Speaker 1: four of their last six possessions against the zone. But
Speaker 1: there was a lot of stuff in there that wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily good execution on Denver's part. It was just guys
Speaker 1: making plays and Miami making some mistakes. So what are
Speaker 1: the adjustments that Denver can make to help score against
Speaker 1: Miami's zone. So when they're we talked about earlier, when
Speaker 1: you're leaving the weakside corner open. The problem is is
Speaker 1: that pass is really difficult to make, and you've got
Speaker 1: to make it on a rope or there's no chance
Speaker 1: that guy's gonna have enough time to take and make
Speaker 1: that shot, right, So that's a little bit unrealistic just
Speaker 1: to expect like, oh, we got to make the skip
Speaker 1: pass a bunch of times, Like that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: So a couple things they can do to create an
Speaker 1: easier passing angle to get an easy shot in that situation.
Speaker 1: First of all, bring the corner guy up to screen
Speaker 1: for the shooter on the wing right. So if the
Speaker 1: guy in the zone in the corner, the defender in
Speaker 1: the zone in the corner is coming up to take
Speaker 1: away that easy swing pass and the corner guy's open,
Speaker 1: you just bring that corner guy up to screen that
Speaker 1: guy so that you can make the swing pass to
Speaker 1: an open shooter. Now it's in much easier passing angle.
Speaker 1: It's one pass away versus a skip pass, and it's
Speaker 1: in much more difficult rotation right, Like if you make
Speaker 1: that skip pass to the corner, it's bam at a
Speaker 1: bio that's coming out from the basket to dissuade the shot.
Speaker 1: While Kyle Lowry relocates back down there and recovers and
Speaker 1: sends Bam back right. But if Kyle Lowry's getting picked
Speaker 1: and there's a shooter over there and you make the
Speaker 1: swing pass, he's above the break, So Kyle's trapped on
Speaker 1: the pick and BAM now has to rotate not to
Speaker 1: the short corner but all the way above the break,
Speaker 1: which is a rotation he literally can't make in time
Speaker 1: for that kind of shot. So using the week side
Speaker 1: corner to screen the top guy in the zone to
Speaker 1: get a swing pass for three. The other big one
Speaker 1: is just beat drive the zone, beat somebody off the dribble. Again,
Speaker 1: like in the zone defense, they're not double teaming you,
Speaker 1: they're just players are in spots on the floor right,
Speaker 1: And so yeah, you're not gonna beat your man off
Speaker 1: the dribble and just get slashing layups because BAM's waiting there.
Speaker 1: But if you beat your man off the dribble, you
Speaker 1: engage a different defender in the zone while putting your
Speaker 1: defender out of position to do anything. That's where you
Speaker 1: can get opportunities for guys cutting right. So there was
Speaker 1: a play. There's a play that I posted on Twitter
Speaker 1: that I want you guys to check out so go
Speaker 1: to my Twitter feed again. And on this play, Caleb
Speaker 1: Martin is the top guy in the zone and he's
Speaker 1: guarding Jamal Murray way up above the break on the
Speaker 1: left side of the floor, and Jamal just beats him
Speaker 1: off the dribble and when he does, Duncan Robinson has
Speaker 1: to step up out of the corner. When he does,
Speaker 1: he leaves Jeff Green open. So Jamal makes a bounce
Speaker 1: past to Jeff Green in the short corner, who catches it.
Speaker 1: When he catches that, bam Anebayo has to step over
Speaker 1: to guard Jeff Green. And on this play, Christian Brown
Speaker 1: is in the weakside corner, cuts out of the corner
Speaker 1: and is standing right under the basket and he's wide open.
Speaker 1: Jeff Green misses him, just doesn't see him. Kyle lower
Speaker 1: is laid on his rotation coming down, He's wide open.
Speaker 1: Jeff Green makes that pass. It's an easy layup. But
Speaker 1: so Denver blew that possession. But that's a great example
Speaker 1: of a way to attack the zone. Again. If you
Speaker 1: can beat your man off the dribble, you're going to
Speaker 1: engage a different defender, which is going to start a
Speaker 1: chain reaction that's gonna get you an open shot. So again,
Speaker 1: you don't have to beat the zone by passing. Obviously,
Speaker 1: ideally you want to beat the zone by passing, but
Speaker 1: with the way that Miami's guarding, one of the easiest
Speaker 1: ways for them to compromise the zone is just give
Speaker 1: the ball to somebody who can beat somebody off the
Speaker 1: dribble and just attack that man. Then you have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to generate easier shots on the backside. The other
Speaker 1: one attack the offensive glass with energy and force. So again,
Speaker 1: like I talked about it earlier, the four possessions out
Speaker 1: of six that they scored, you know, two of them
Speaker 1: were offensive rebounds. But that's something that can happen in zone.
Speaker 1: So the reason why offensive rebounding is easier against the
Speaker 1: zone is no one's matched up. So in a man
Speaker 1: of man situation, shot goes up. Everyone's got someone they're guarding,
Speaker 1: so they turn and they box out right. But against
Speaker 1: the zone, there's a lot of times where people aren't
Speaker 1: guarding anybody. They're guarding an area right, and so often
Speaker 1: there will be an area on the floor where let's
Speaker 1: just say Duncan Robinson is on the left wing and
Speaker 1: he's got two people in his zone, area, well, he
Speaker 1: can't box them both out, and so there's often a
Speaker 1: lot of opportunities for free runs to the offensive glass
Speaker 1: against the zone. And so that's another way that they
Speaker 1: can help score against the zone is just when they're
Speaker 1: in that situation, attack the offensive glas as a bunch,
Speaker 1: and then lastly defend. Miami only ran their zone and
Speaker 1: dead ball situations on and off of Maine baskets in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. If you get a stop, you get
Speaker 1: to go against their man defense. And again, the reason
Speaker 1: why they do that is because a lot of times
Speaker 1: those semi transition push pushes, it's really it takes more
Speaker 1: time to set up your zone than it does to
Speaker 1: set up a man to man. So in that specific situation,
Speaker 1: you have an opportunity to go against their man just
Speaker 1: by getting stops, which brings us to number three. Can
Speaker 1: Denver defend at a championship level three more times? Miami
Speaker 1: absolutely sliced and diced Denver in this game offensively. If
Speaker 1: I had to attribute one single factor to Denver for
Speaker 1: this loss, it would be the defensive performance of Nikola
Speaker 1: jokicch Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Junior. All three of
Speaker 1: those guys were atrocious on that end of the floor.
Speaker 1: In this game, Miami scored an astonishing one point four
Speaker 1: to seven, so almost a point and a half purpose
Speaker 1: in pick and roll in thirty six possessions like that's
Speaker 1: off the charge good, You're not winning another game in
Speaker 1: this series if you defend like that. That's how bad
Speaker 1: it was now on tape. It was extremely poor execution.
Speaker 1: There were two early pull up jumpers that gave Vincent
Speaker 1: got against Jamal Murray because Jamal Murray just didn't feel
Speaker 1: like guarding. The first one was a step back where
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray was just kind of didn't even make an
Speaker 1: attempt to contest the shot. The second one, gay Vincent
Speaker 1: was driving past him and kind of gave him a
Speaker 1: little bit of an off arm to get to the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor, and Jamal just turned around to
Speaker 1: complain at the refs about the off arm instead of
Speaker 1: guarding the shot. So Gay Vincent walks into a shot.
Speaker 1: They were really watching the Max Druce ghost screens. That's
Speaker 1: how Max Struce got going. I think he hit four
Speaker 1: of his first seven threes, so like there would be
Speaker 1: a play where gave Vincent and Max Strews gave Vincent
Speaker 1: as the ball. Max s Truce just sets of ghost
Speaker 1: screen and runs to the corner, and Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 1: and KCP just both stay with Gabe Vincent and now
Speaker 1: Max Streu's just wide open in the corner, like of
Speaker 1: course he's gonna get his rhythm that way. And then
Speaker 1: there was like another lazy Jamal Murray play where Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon is guarding Jimmy Butler. Max Druce is at the
Speaker 1: top of the key. Struce runs a ghost screen to
Speaker 1: the corner. Jamal Murray just kind of jogs over to
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon and stops and then just points over like okay,
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon, you guard Max Truce. Now it's not even
Speaker 1: a screen, and Aaron Gordon's like okay, and then like
Speaker 1: runs over, but he's too late, and the shot goes
Speaker 1: in just laziness, and then mostly just in pick and roll.
Speaker 1: The big thing that I noticed in those thirty six
Speaker 1: possessions was just giving up the pocket pass too easily.
Speaker 1: So again drop coverage, like we talked about earlier, and
Speaker 1: I talked about this a little bit last night with Colin.
Speaker 1: Like when I say, when I say, like they remind
Speaker 1: me of the Patriots with doing your job. Like every
Speaker 1: coverage works when the guys do their job. It's just
Speaker 1: coverages fall apart on execution, not based on the tactical approach.
Speaker 1: That's why, like a lot of times when we talk
Speaker 1: about stubborn coaches who won't make an adjustment, often times
Speaker 1: if you ask them, like, hey, why wouldn't you make
Speaker 1: this adjustment, They'll just tell you the coverage wasn't the problem,
Speaker 1: it was the execution. So why would I change the
Speaker 1: coverage when if they don't execute the new coverage then
Speaker 1: we're in the same situation. Now, what I would argue
Speaker 1: is you got to find a coverage that your team
Speaker 1: can execute. But like execution is what breaks down coverages.
Speaker 1: And again, and this is where Jamal Murray was. Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray in particular was the biggest week point in Denver's
Speaker 1: defense last night, and then I'd say Yokich was probably
Speaker 1: the second biggest week point. But Jamal Murray dying on
Speaker 1: screens makes it so that that ball handler is coming
Speaker 1: off of those ball screens free and clear. When he's
Speaker 1: coming off free and clear, that forces Jokic to come
Speaker 1: higher out of his drop. When Jokic comes higher out
Speaker 1: of his drop, that opens up the pocket pass. When
Speaker 1: the pocket passes open and it's that easy, one of
Speaker 1: two things is gonna happen. You're either gonna hit Bam
Speaker 1: in a bio and he's gonna go up and dunk
Speaker 1: it with two hands on Michael Porter Junior plus the foul,
Speaker 1: or the defender is going to step over to defend
Speaker 1: the action three and two, and that's you're gonna get
Speaker 1: all the openings on the weak side as the defenses
Speaker 1: in rotation, so fundamentally one piece falling apart. Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: dying on screens super easy breaks down the entire coverage.
Speaker 1: And if you guys remember before the series, I actually said,
Speaker 1: I said, one of the ways that I see Miami
Speaker 1: winning games in the series. And again, like I said,
Speaker 1: a sweep is on the table, but I picked Miami.
Speaker 1: I picked Denver in six. I picked Denver in six
Speaker 1: because Miami just does this. They just find a way
Speaker 1: to win games. They just do. And one of the
Speaker 1: ways that I thought they would win games in this series.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember I said two things. I said,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler matchup attacking and guess what he was up
Speaker 1: over a point per possession and post ups ISOs and
Speaker 1: pick and roll ball handler possessions last night and then
Speaker 1: two elite week side shot making because Denver more often
Speaker 1: than not has to defend pick and roll three on
Speaker 1: two because Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic struggle to defend
Speaker 1: ball screens, so they need help and Miami's got knockdown
Speaker 1: shooters on the way. That's like the fundamental concept of
Speaker 1: last night's game. Miami defends all the two man game
Speaker 1: actions two on two, keeps their defense out of rotation,
Speaker 1: takes away easy opportunities on the weak side. Denver constantly
Speaker 1: has to guard those actions three on two. Now, their
Speaker 1: defense is in rotation constantly and they're getting wide open
Speaker 1: shots for shooters. That's how you end up with one
Speaker 1: point four to seven points per possession in pick and
Speaker 1: roll and so again, like when that coverage falls apart,
Speaker 1: that's what keeps your defense in rotation. So simply put
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, Michael Porter Junior, they all have
Speaker 1: to defend at a much higher level. Jamal Murray has
Speaker 1: to stay attached as he's running over screens so that
Speaker 1: Jokic can drop further back. When Yokic is in his
Speaker 1: drop he has to be more active with his hands
Speaker 1: to make that pocket pass harder. He's got to defend
Speaker 1: Bam better in those situations. And then Michael Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: That guy in Game one that was flying around blocking shots,
Speaker 1: making plays that do didn't exist in game two. His
Speaker 1: defensive effort was at an entirely different lower level. And
Speaker 1: so Michael Porter Junior has to also bring that level
Speaker 1: of effort in intensity as a help defender. That will
Speaker 1: help them generate more transition opportunities right to help MPG
Speaker 1: and CACP get going. It will help them avoid Miami's
Speaker 1: zone because Miami won't set their zone unless they get
Speaker 1: a made basket. And it will prevent Mike Malone from
Speaker 1: having to do what he did at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, which is bring Bruce Brown into the game
Speaker 1: as a defensive presence, which lessens the amount of shooting
Speaker 1: that you have on the floor. So fundamentally, defense is
Speaker 1: what beat Denver last night, and that's gonna be what
Speaker 1: Michael Malone is preaching NonStop over the next two days.
Speaker 1: And that's the biggest adjustment that I expect from Miami
Speaker 1: going forward. Now, before we get move on, I do
Speaker 1: want to talk about this shooting thing for a second,
Speaker 1: because once again, and Denver's just Denver fans are just
Speaker 1: the latest group to start pleading this case. But it's,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Miami is this is just outliers shooting.
Speaker 1: I can't believe this. They're making everything. This is historically unprecedented,
Speaker 1: off the charts lucky shot making. And you guys know
Speaker 1: how I feel about that, Like, I hate, hate the
Speaker 1: way that we cover shooting in this league, Like it's
Speaker 1: just walking up to a slot machine, putting in a
Speaker 1: twenty dollars bill and hitting a button and just praying
Speaker 1: to God that you get coins at the end of
Speaker 1: the day. Like that's that's not how this works. It's
Speaker 1: a basketball game. Everything is intricately connected. In Game one,
Speaker 1: Denver was flying around defensively and played with a ton
Speaker 1: more force, so as a result, all of Miami's looks
Speaker 1: were more rushed, more fatigued. In this particular game, Denver
Speaker 1: didn't play with any force relative to what they did
Speaker 1: in Game one, So as a result, now Maxtrus is
Speaker 1: getting his rhythm in wide open catch and shoot situations
Speaker 1: on ghost screens right. In general, the lack of force
Speaker 1: that Denver played with makes it so that Miami is
Speaker 1: less fatigued, less rushed, and in better rhythm when they're
Speaker 1: taking those shots. And then guess what happens when you
Speaker 1: start getting easy looks. You feel confident, you feel comfortable,
Speaker 1: you're in rhythm. Now, guess what that catch and shoot
Speaker 1: three that's contested also goes in because you're feeling great
Speaker 1: about yourself and you're in a great rhythm. Again, contested
Speaker 1: is way different than bothered. Those are two completely different concepts.
Speaker 1: If I put my hand up on a shot and
Speaker 1: the shooter is in rhythm and he's going to his
Speaker 1: muscle memory, he doesn't even see my hand, you know how.
Speaker 1: I know I've done that a million times. Okay, when
Speaker 1: you can test a shot and you're in rhythm, it
Speaker 1: just doesn't bother you. Now, when you bother a shot,
Speaker 1: that means you've made him feel uncomfortable throughout the game.
Speaker 1: You're attached to his body, you're disrupting his base. Now
Speaker 1: that entire muscle memory gets disrupted. Now it doesn't even
Speaker 1: need to be a contest. You don't even have to
Speaker 1: bother him up top if you bother him down low.
Speaker 1: So like again, like as we go into these things,
Speaker 1: it's so easy to look at the analytics and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: as we look at the shot quality based on the
Speaker 1: nearest defender, like, Miami actually outperformed their shot quality by
Speaker 1: x per and that means Denver if they played this
Speaker 1: exact same game again, would have won. No, they play
Speaker 1: that exact same game again, Denver loses again because Miami
Speaker 1: is comfortable again, Miami makes shots again and then makes
Speaker 1: the tough shots again. It is the lamest loser mentality
Speaker 1: form of basketball analysis that I see out there, and
Speaker 1: I hope we stop it because at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, we are not slot machines. We are basketball players,
Speaker 1: and we make shots based on all of the things
Speaker 1: that take place in a basketball game. There is a
Speaker 1: tiny bit of variants, there is a tiny bit of luck,
Speaker 1: but the vast majority of it comes down to the
Speaker 1: things that are happening in the basketball game. All right,
Speaker 1: I'm off my soap bucks. My three points were brought
Speaker 1: to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited Unlimited. One point five
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Speaker 1: on all other purchase is how do you cash back?
Speaker 1: So Miami has changed the dynamic of the series a
Speaker 1: little bit. Denver seems to have lost a little bit
Speaker 1: of their confidence. A couple of their role players are
Speaker 1: out of rhythm, and Miami has two defensive looks that
Speaker 1: are causing Denver problems. Then that's Jimmy and Bam on
Speaker 1: the Murray Jokic two man game and their zone defense.
Speaker 1: So my prediction as of right now, for whatever that's worth,
Speaker 1: And you guys know, I hate making predictions. I'd much
Speaker 1: rather just react to the games. But if I had
Speaker 1: the guess right now, I think Denver wins Game three,
Speaker 1: in Miami wins Game four, and then we come back
Speaker 1: to Denver at two to two. But again, who the
Speaker 1: hell knows what's gonna happen. I share as hell don't,
Speaker 1: and I'm just excited to break it all down with
Speaker 1: you guys. So tomorrow, I believe, at two pm Pacific
Speaker 1: Standard time, I'm doing a video with Live moods our
Speaker 1: resident Nuggets fan here at the volume, So keep an
Speaker 1: eye on that in the YouTube feed. In the late afternoon,
Speaker 1: tomorrow and then I will be back as usual on
Speaker 1: Wednesday night, after the final buzzer of Game three with
Speaker 1: mister Colin Coward. The volume