Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight Here at
Speaker 1: the Volume, Happy Tuesday, everybody, Round two coverage of the
Speaker 1: NBA Playoffs. Here, Hoops Tonight is brought to you by
Speaker 1: Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? Well, the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia seventy six Ers go on the road to beat
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics resoundingly to take a three to two lead.
Speaker 1: A ton of thoughts I want to get into. We
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Speaker 1: Under Hoops Tonight all right, So if you guys remember
Speaker 1: I was I predicted a big run by the Sixers
Speaker 1: early in the year, as they were getting healthy, as
Speaker 1: Tyree smack See and James Harden were coming back. I
Speaker 1: liked a lot of things specifically that I was seeing
Speaker 1: with that roster makeup, And in January they really started
Speaker 1: to take off. And then they ran into a bunch
Speaker 1: of really tough games, as every team does and as
Speaker 1: stacked the league is in that February March April time
Speaker 1: of the year, and those of you guys who followed
Speaker 1: the show at that point, you might remember me frequently
Speaker 1: talking about how much I appreciated the fight that James
Speaker 1: Harden and Joel Embiid showed. There was a specific game
Speaker 1: that they lost, and I think it was at home
Speaker 1: actually to Boston where Jason Tatum hit that pullback game
Speaker 1: winning three at the top of the key, where they
Speaker 1: were up against it late in that game, and rather
Speaker 1: than letting go of the rope or just saying, hey,
Speaker 1: it's regular season, who cares, Let's just let it go,
Speaker 1: both James Harden and Joel Embiid made a bunch of
Speaker 1: big plays down the stretch of that game, and they
Speaker 1: actually tied it late, I believe, on a foul post
Speaker 1: up Joel Embiid on Jaylen Brown where he made a
Speaker 1: couple of free throws and they made it a game,
Speaker 1: and then Jason Tatum ended up just winning it at
Speaker 1: the buzzer, but they had a bunch of other really
Speaker 1: impressive performances down the stretch of that season. I thought
Speaker 1: it was a big part of Joel Embid's MVP case,
Speaker 1: which was essentially just he won all these big head
Speaker 1: to head matchups. He was a much better defensive player
Speaker 1: than Nikola jokicch That was kind of the narrative surrounding
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid's MVP, right, and I wasn't very optimistic about
Speaker 1: them in this series. But in my series preview, if
Speaker 1: you guys remember, I said I would have given the
Speaker 1: Sixers a very good chance to beat the Celtics if
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid was healthy. There was just such a big
Speaker 1: question mark surrounding his knee, and specifically I talked about
Speaker 1: his rhythm and the fact that at the foul line,
Speaker 1: which has become such an important part of Joel Embiid's
Speaker 1: success in UH and I shouldn't even say success, but
Speaker 1: taking that next leap from like guy who's just another
Speaker 1: one of the stars at the top of the league
Speaker 1: to a guy who's perennially in the MVP conversation, the
Speaker 1: guy that can succeed and stay efficient in the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 1: Was that success around the free throw line, but so
Speaker 1: much of it relies on his jump shooting, and I
Speaker 1: was worried about his rhythm getting disrupted. Well, I was
Speaker 1: flat out wrong, because Joel Embiid has been incredible. He
Speaker 1: completely shook off whatever that little rough stretch was that
Speaker 1: he had against Al Horford down the stretch of Game four,
Speaker 1: and he absolutely torched the Celtics tonight. James Harden after
Speaker 1: a couple of rough games in Game two, in Game three,
Speaker 1: I kind of broke down. If you guys remember the
Speaker 1: dynamic in James Harden's playoff history of succeeding in game
Speaker 1: ones and then struggling as the series progresses, Well, he's
Speaker 1: thoroughly shook out off too, as he has been getting
Speaker 1: stronger and stronger down the stretch of this series. Not
Speaker 1: as much of a scoring performance in this game tonight,
Speaker 1: but I thought he absolutely dominated the flow of the game.
Speaker 1: He was the guy that repeatedly was setting up Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid it with that pocket pass to the high post
Speaker 1: there right around the elbow where he's so successful. He
Speaker 1: just there was a an action that Philly could run
Speaker 1: theoretically every time down the floor. Now they don't actually
Speaker 1: do it every time down the floor. It's not how
Speaker 1: basketball works. But anytime they got into his stet half
Speaker 1: court environment, they were able to run a pick and
Speaker 1: roll with James Harden and draw Rob Williams or allur
Speaker 1: Ford or whoever into kind of like a loose drop
Speaker 1: coverage around the foul line but extended out to where
Speaker 1: James Harden was dribbling, and then he could just throw
Speaker 1: that pocket pass with Joel Embiid, and Embiide could either
Speaker 1: make a shot from the foul line, make a kickout
Speaker 1: pass to the weak side if he drew a helper,
Speaker 1: or just ripped through the basket and try to draw foul.
Speaker 1: That was their like go to play. Whereas for Boston,
Speaker 1: they are yet to really uncover anything in this series
Speaker 1: that is kind of a tendible, Like we can, you know,
Speaker 1: run this Jason Tatum post up from the left block
Speaker 1: and he's just gonna score every single time, or get
Speaker 1: a great shot every single time, or oh, here's this
Speaker 1: pick and roll that we run with you know, Derek
Speaker 1: White and Al Horford that you know, or pick and
Speaker 1: pop that just leads to a wide open three, and
Speaker 1: he can make it every single time. They haven't really
Speaker 1: established anything, and that specific pick and roll dynamic with
Speaker 1: James Harden and Joel Embiid more like a short role
Speaker 1: to that foul line has been the ultimate trump card
Speaker 1: in this series. And as we've made it to Game five,
Speaker 1: as everyone else is kind of settled into the series
Speaker 1: and all the Sixers guys are comfortable in their matchups, right,
Speaker 1: like PJ. Tucker kind of has an idea of how
Speaker 1: he wants to guard Jaylen Brown, right, Joel Embiid is
Speaker 1: very much ignoring Al Horford and Al Horford had a
Speaker 1: nightmare game trying to shoot the three tonight. But as
Speaker 1: this series has progressed, James Harden and Joel Embid have
Speaker 1: elevated and become the best players in the series. Now
Speaker 1: series is not over a lot of basketball left. This
Speaker 1: Boston team has a lot of talent and I'm sure
Speaker 1: all you Sixers fans know Game six is not going
Speaker 1: to be easy, But credits to James Harden and Joel Embiid,
Speaker 1: because as we came into this postseason run, the biggest
Speaker 1: fear surrounding them was will they be able to shake
Speaker 1: off their reputation as being players who crater in efficiency
Speaker 1: when they get to the postseason, And instead both of
Speaker 1: them have gotten stronger and stronger as the series has progressed.
Speaker 1: So shout out to those two guys. I think it's
Speaker 1: been such a fascinating season from the standpoint of competitive
Speaker 1: spirit for those two because it did. It wasn't pretty
Speaker 1: last year. The vitam heat kind of punked you, and
Speaker 1: you came back stronger, and you've made the improvements in
Speaker 1: the areas of your game that you needed to and
Speaker 1: now you're reaping those benefits here as you're one went
Speaker 1: away from the Eastern Conference Finals. I also wanted to
Speaker 1: shout out the defensive effort. If you guys remember in
Speaker 1: game one that the James, the first of two James
Speaker 1: Harden game winners. There was this focus on Boston's offensive execute,
Speaker 1: you know, like, yo, Marcus Smart post up on the
Speaker 1: final play, What the heck are they doing? Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: As I went back and watched the film in that game,
Speaker 1: I thought Boston's offensive process was fine. I mean for
Speaker 1: what Boston was doing, Philly was just defending their asses off.
Speaker 1: They're doing a bunch of really basic, like defensive kind
Speaker 1: of baseline principles that a lot of teams around the
Speaker 1: league use, especially in the playoffs, and they're just executing
Speaker 1: really well. So they're defending on the perimeter, well, they're
Speaker 1: sliding their feet and they're flattening out drives. That's step one.
Speaker 1: They're digging down into driving lanes. Right, So like if
Speaker 1: a guy is on the left wing and I'm guarding
Speaker 1: a and there's a ball handler on the right wing,
Speaker 1: that dude who's guarding the guy in the left wing
Speaker 1: is down at the nail, just prepared for that drive
Speaker 1: to the right, and if they make that pass, it's
Speaker 1: a hard closeout. And Boston, it's interesting. They have a
Speaker 1: ton of guys that can shoot, and a ton of
Speaker 1: guys that can pass, and a ton of guys that
Speaker 1: can dribble. But what they don't have are just like
Speaker 1: dead eye you cannot give this guy any space type
Speaker 1: of shooters. And so as a result, like a good
Speaker 1: hard close out go a long way to turning a
Speaker 1: deadly shot into a shot that they can live with.
Speaker 1: Right on the back line. The rotations like if anybody
Speaker 1: gets beat off the dribble, you're seeing out, you're seeing
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid step into help, and then the guy guarding
Speaker 1: the ball handler just sprints out to Al Horford, or
Speaker 1: the next guy on the way will go to Alofford,
Speaker 1: and he'll sprint to the next guy. Their rotations are
Speaker 1: incredibly sharp, and that's been from game one on in
Speaker 1: this series. They just needed to get the offensive production
Speaker 1: to make it work. It's funny. I'm gonna butcher this
Speaker 1: because I can't remember who exactly conceptualized this idea, but
Speaker 1: there's this two to one one theory in the NBA playoffs. Essentially,
Speaker 1: you need your best player to win you two games,
Speaker 1: you need your second best player to win you one game,
Speaker 1: and then you need your role players to win you
Speaker 1: a game. And that's typically like the not typically, but
Speaker 1: there's that's a very common path that you'll see a
Speaker 1: team win an NBA playoff series with and James Harden,
Speaker 1: your second best player, got you two games in this series,
Speaker 1: Game one by himself without Joel Embiid, and then in
Speaker 1: Game four, as Joel Embiid was struggling with the Al
Speaker 1: Horford matchup, James Harden carried you home, including hitting yet
Speaker 1: another game winner, but that you needed to get a
Speaker 1: game out of Joel Embiid where he dominates. And that's
Speaker 1: what Joel Embiid did in this particular game, dominating at
Speaker 1: the rim, defensively drawing a ton of fouls, torturing them
Speaker 1: in the short row at the foul line. But that
Speaker 1: was the offensive lift they needed to carry them to
Speaker 1: their third win with a defense that has been mostly
Speaker 1: phenomenal throughout this entire playoff runt, a couple of specific
Speaker 1: things they're doing, so Horford missing that allowed Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: to stay at the rim. That's an important part of it.
Speaker 1: He was blocking and bothering a bunch of shots around
Speaker 1: the rim, chasing them off the three point line. This
Speaker 1: is the problem of being a one dimensional team. If
Speaker 1: you really look at this Boston Celtics team, Jalen Brown's
Speaker 1: the only guy who's really comfortable working out of the
Speaker 1: mid range right and is kind of more of a
Speaker 1: like a creative shot maker inside the three point line right.
Speaker 1: And he only took sixteen shots in this game, which
Speaker 1: we'll get to in a minute. So like with that
Speaker 1: limitation you've turned your perimeter defenders. You've turned their task
Speaker 1: into something that's much more achievable. Chase the guy off
Speaker 1: the three point line. If he beats you off the dribble,
Speaker 1: just try to flatten out out his drive as best
Speaker 1: as you can get. If you get beat just rotate
Speaker 1: to the next shooter. You've got help behind you. The
Speaker 1: helper doesn't need to come up to the mid range.
Speaker 1: The helper just can meet you at the basket and
Speaker 1: either take a charge or or embat if he's there,
Speaker 1: is gonna be able to deter shots at the rim,
Speaker 1: and you rotate around by by chasing them off the
Speaker 1: three point line. And this team not feeling comfortable doing
Speaker 1: anything but taking layups and threes, has turned the defensive
Speaker 1: job for Philly into one that's much more achievable. And
Speaker 1: that praise on Boston's weaknesses. They don't have a guy
Speaker 1: who could score in the mid range. Look at the
Speaker 1: points in the paint in this game. Go to look
Speaker 1: at the team stats I checked before. We're going right
Speaker 1: after the final buzzer, So I missed some of garbage time,
Speaker 1: but it was literally thirty four to thirty four in
Speaker 1: the late fourth quarter, and points in the paint. So
Speaker 1: like Philly's not getting any points in the paint either,
Speaker 1: but they don't care because they thrive in the mid range.
Speaker 1: James Harden has been thriving in the mid range in
Speaker 1: this series. Joel Embiid has been thriving in the mid
Speaker 1: range in this series. So they can live with that.
Speaker 1: But on the Boston front, when they're not getting points
Speaker 1: in the paint, they damn well better be hitting all
Speaker 1: their threes than they weren't tonight, and so it's made
Speaker 1: them a little bit one dimensional and it's put them
Speaker 1: in some problems. So shout out to Philly. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of their their roster constructs that make them
Speaker 1: a successful playoff team have come to the surface. And
Speaker 1: big shout out to Joel embian and James Harden, who
Speaker 1: have guys who have I've been I personally have been
Speaker 1: very critical of in their playoffs playoff careers, have overcome
Speaker 1: a lot of that in this playoff run really quickly
Speaker 1: on Boston. I'm really confused by the fact that Joel
Speaker 1: Missoula and I've been talking about this entire series, as
Speaker 1: we've been talking about James Harden, ISO's and pick and
Speaker 1: roll coverage and things along those lines. He just hasn't
Speaker 1: done anything gimmicky or tried anything to try to throw
Speaker 1: them off of rhythm. Right, we're covering this Lakers series,
Speaker 1: and it's like every game there's a monumental chess move, like, Oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna put Jared Vanderbilt on Draymond Green. Oh, we're
Speaker 1: gonna start Jamichael Green so that we can put Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis in the screen and roll. Oh we're gonna start
Speaker 1: Gary Payton the second. Oh we're gonna put Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: on Andrew Wiggins. Now it's like both coaches are like,
Speaker 1: as soon as they start getting burned by something, they're
Speaker 1: always thinking about how they can adjust. Whereas like we're
Speaker 1: in game four and I'm watching James Harden work in
Speaker 1: isolation while PJ. Tucker's on the floor. How does that happen?
Speaker 1: He's not a little bit at the end of this game.
Speaker 1: But they started to putting Marcus Smart on Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: in fronting and then having Al Horford ignore PJ. Tucker
Speaker 1: behind the back. That should have been the entire damn series.
Speaker 1: That should have been an adjustment they figured out in
Speaker 1: game two and tried to force Philly to do something different,
Speaker 1: so like being again, like you cannot be mister Oh.
Speaker 1: All we gotta do is execute better. Yes, execution matters,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, when you are
Speaker 1: facing warping offensive person like Joel Embiid and James Harden,
Speaker 1: you have to be willing to try different things. One
Speaker 1: other thing is there's a clear hierarchy with Philadelphia. It's
Speaker 1: like James Harden high pick and roll with Joel Embid,
Speaker 1: or post ups with Joel Embiid, ISOs with James Harden, right,
Speaker 1: and like every once in a while, when those guys
Speaker 1: are tired, they'll toss the ball to Tyrese Maxi and
Speaker 1: have him run a pick and roll, or they'll toss
Speaker 1: the ball down to Tobias Harrison the post. But it's
Speaker 1: the stars that decide, like, hey, we're taking a break
Speaker 1: on this possession. It's very clear hierarchy. With Boston. There's
Speaker 1: just so many guys that are used to having the
Speaker 1: ball in their hands. Jaylen Brown used to have in
Speaker 1: the ball in his hands, Marcus Smart, Jason Tatum, Malcolm Brogden,
Speaker 1: Derek White, all of these guys are used to having
Speaker 1: the ball in their hands and making decisions, and so
Speaker 1: the hierarchy gets a little tricky in this game. Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum in particular, was just full tunnel vision, empty the clip,
Speaker 1: and I admired it from a competitive standpoint, but like
Speaker 1: he was just driving into traffic and he was making
Speaker 1: some shots and getting to the foul line, but like
Speaker 1: it just ruins the flow of the offense and everyone
Speaker 1: else is just kind of standing around, doesn't know what
Speaker 1: to do. Jaylen Brown only takes six shots. The guards
Speaker 1: are Malcolm Brogden and Derek Whider are co opting possessions.
Speaker 1: It'd be a lot easier if you had spot up
Speaker 1: shooters around them, and it's like Jason and Jalen are
Speaker 1: the only two guys going. It just gets a lot
Speaker 1: more simple. From a rhythm standpoint. We're seeing this in
Speaker 1: the Denver Phoenix series. We got Devin Booker and Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant just deciding every single possession now that Chris Paul's
Speaker 1: out and their offense looks better. So like, sometimes less
Speaker 1: is more when it comes to primary ball handling, And
Speaker 1: I understand the predicament. Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum art
Speaker 1: traditional point guards, so you need guys that can ball handle.
Speaker 1: But this is the catch twenty two. When your two
Speaker 1: best players are not great playmakers, you end up in
Speaker 1: a situation where you have to supply them with playmaking,
Speaker 1: and now you just have a bunch of guys who
Speaker 1: know how to dribble, and their offense can get really,
Speaker 1: really stagnant. Look at Philly, you've got guys that are
Speaker 1: just role player specialists. PJ. Tucker role player specialist, Daniel
Speaker 1: House role player specialist, d'An Anthony Melton role player specialists.
Speaker 1: Even the other two primary guys like Tobias Harrison, Tyres Maxi,
Speaker 1: they can go six minutes at a time without touching
Speaker 1: the basketball and they don't care because there's a clear
Speaker 1: hierarchy there, and I think that's been an advantage towards Philly.
Speaker 1: This is not over. Boston. I believe still has more
Speaker 1: talent down the roster. They're very capable of going in
Speaker 1: and beating Philly in game six. I mean they beat
Speaker 1: them in Game three, and they were up big late
Speaker 1: in game four, so they certainly are capable. But they're
Speaker 1: in a tough spot here and I expect a raucous,
Speaker 1: desperate Philly environment as they try to end this series.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that is all I have for right now.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be back later tonight on YouTube to break
Speaker 1: down Game five of Nuggets Suns The Volume