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Speaker 1: welcome to tonight here at the volume heavy Tuesday. Everybody
Speaker 1: op ball. If you guys are having a great week
Speaker 1: so far, you're gonna hit two games tonight. The two
Speaker 1: home teams go up one to zero in our second round,
Speaker 1: one out West with the MAVs in the thunder and
Speaker 1: one out East with the Celtics, and the Cavs are
Speaker 1: gonna break it all down from the perspective of all
Speaker 1: four teams. You guys did the joke before we get started.
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Speaker 1: under hoops tonight and they keep dropping mail back questions
Speaker 1: in the YouTube comments, I think I'm gonna do a
Speaker 1: mail bag tomorrow morning that just kind of bounces around
Speaker 1: the playoffs. So drop mail back questions underneath this video
Speaker 1: and we'll get to those tomorrow morning. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk some basketball. So maps Thunder kind of a weird game.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that Nuggets fans were super annoyed watching it
Speaker 1: because it was officiated like it was January, tons of
Speaker 1: tiki tac calls. The game in general wasn't very physical
Speaker 1: or intense to start, Like, it's just weird watching from
Speaker 1: the opening tip, like Luca just dribble the ball easily
Speaker 1: up to court it without much ball pressure, right, Like,
Speaker 1: it wasn't as intense and physical as the game we
Speaker 1: watched last night, for sure, And the officiating was just tzars,
Speaker 1: super ticki tac, a lot of like grifty stuff that
Speaker 1: we haven't seen too much of in the postseason so far.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of a weird game, But the biggest
Speaker 1: factor by far is that Shay Jay Gibs Alexander, in
Speaker 1: his first playoff run as the best player on his
Speaker 1: team in second series in that role, just badly outplayed
Speaker 1: Luka Duncic and kind of going back to my series preview,
Speaker 1: if you guys remember, I talked about how I viewed
Speaker 1: this series as razor thin, like incredibly thin, meaning I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be the least bit surprised if either team one
Speaker 1: and I don't feel good about my pick to start
Speaker 1: to start the series, which was Dallas, right, but the
Speaker 1: reasons why I leaned towards Dallas, The three main reasons
Speaker 1: that I put if you guys remember the series preview,
Speaker 1: was Lucas better than Shay, they have a physical front
Speaker 1: line that could do damage to Oklahoma City in terms
Speaker 1: of just the blood bath underneath the rim. And then three,
Speaker 1: Hyrie is just a little bit more prepared for this
Speaker 1: moment than Jaln Williams. Even though I have a ton
Speaker 1: of optimism about ja Dubb's future, I think he is
Speaker 1: incredibly good and has the potential to even be better
Speaker 1: than Shaye one day. That's how high I am on
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams, but second year player, first time in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: That was kind of the three things that I was
Speaker 1: leaning towards Dallas for. So let's go through all three
Speaker 1: of those and talk about how they played out in
Speaker 1: this game. Shae Verus Luca Shaye just badly outplayed him
Speaker 1: in my opinion. He was a little shaky early at
Speaker 1: a couple of weird unforced turnovers where it just seemed
Speaker 1: like he was rushing things and and just a little
Speaker 1: bit out of sorts. But he got going at the line,
Speaker 1: So the whistle definitely helped him there. He got going
Speaker 1: at the line, seemed to kind of get his rhythm
Speaker 1: and get his confidence there. Really started cooking in that
Speaker 1: third quarter. Hit a couple of threes at the at
Speaker 1: the top of the key, and those threes ended up
Speaker 1: being kind of like the original, Like the MAVs got
Speaker 1: back within two, and that was kind of when Oklaho
Speaker 1: in the City started to build their final margin. He's
Speaker 1: making a nice kickout Reads finished with twenty nine nine
Speaker 1: to nine with a steal and two blocks. Luca, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, he keeps leaning on that step back
Speaker 1: jumper and he just can't make it, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of bizarre juxtaposed with the beginning of his career, because
Speaker 1: if you got remember early Luca, it was like he
Speaker 1: was a mediocre three point shooter or slash pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooter in the regular season, but then you get
Speaker 1: into these playoff series against the Clippers and the Jazz
Speaker 1: and he would just be lights out and he'd be
Speaker 1: making them like crazy, and so it was kind of
Speaker 1: a weird dynamic, right. It's kind of like similar to
Speaker 1: what Anthony Edwards is doing, right, and then this year
Speaker 1: it's the exact opposite. Luca has his best pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooting season by far, big part of his leap
Speaker 1: in this season, and he just can't make them in
Speaker 1: this playoff rum for whatever reason, keeps going to it
Speaker 1: and he's having some bad misses too. It's not like
Speaker 1: he's going in and out on every single one of them.
Speaker 1: He just can't get the rhythm on that pull up jumper.
Speaker 1: And that was kind of the difference. When the thunder
Speaker 1: pulled away in the third quarter, again, MAVs were within
Speaker 1: two Shay hits, a couple of pull up threes Luca
Speaker 1: keeps missing. That starts the delusion that it's over from
Speaker 1: there and then Luca all said five turnovers, and again
Speaker 1: against Oklahoma City, that's suicide because they're really aggressive defense
Speaker 1: that loves to run in transition off of the those turnovers.
Speaker 1: Twenty two to twelve was the points off of turnovers
Speaker 1: battle in favor of Oklahoma City. So Luca gets badly
Speaker 1: outplayed by Shay Check. That's the first thing that goes
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City's favor right. The second piece the physicality of
Speaker 1: the frontline. Now again the officiating didn't help here, but
Speaker 1: they got destroyed in the paint in this game, they
Speaker 1: got out rebounded fifty two to thirty nine. Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: wins that battle sixteen to eleven in offensive rebounds. Remember
Speaker 1: that is a battle Dallas has to win, and not
Speaker 1: just win, but win convincingly, because that's one of their
Speaker 1: biggest advantages in this series. Oklahoma City is a bad
Speaker 1: defensive rebounding team, and coming into tonight, Dallas was the
Speaker 1: third best offensive rebounding team by percentage of all the
Speaker 1: playoff teams. They had grabbed thirty two percent of their
Speaker 1: own misses. So you get badly out rebounded, you don't
Speaker 1: do anywhere near as much damage on the offensive glass
Speaker 1: as Oklahoma City. Does to you and you get outscored
Speaker 1: in the paint forty to thirty two. And this is
Speaker 1: where we got to get to chet Holmgren because he
Speaker 1: had a great offensive night. He had nineteen points. Three
Speaker 1: is big one in the corner there late, but he
Speaker 1: had the paint on lockdown all game long. Only two
Speaker 1: steals in three blocks. I say, only that's an amazing achievement,
Speaker 1: but like that doesn't do a justice to what he
Speaker 1: was doing around the rim. He forced a ton of missus,
Speaker 1: had guys second guessing themselves. I'm actually really excited to
Speaker 1: pull up the shooting numbers when they update and just
Speaker 1: kind of look at Dallas's field goal percentages close to
Speaker 1: the rim in this game, because I felt like they
Speaker 1: missed a bunch of bunnies right around the rim. But
Speaker 1: it wasn't like they were smoking easy layups. They were
Speaker 1: just kind of changing shots and shooting kind of funky,
Speaker 1: hesitant shots with Chet there. How many times did it
Speaker 1: feel like Gafford would catch on the roll and then
Speaker 1: like rise up like he's gonna dunk, and then at
Speaker 1: the last second be like, here's a little push shot
Speaker 1: because I don't actually have the advantage there, and seemed
Speaker 1: like he missed every single one of those, right, And
Speaker 1: so I can't say enough about Chet his his rim
Speaker 1: protection just completely changed the game tonight. So in short,
Speaker 1: Shay Badley out plays Luca and Oklahoma City wins like
Speaker 1: dominates the physical battle. And like, let's just put it
Speaker 1: very simply, if Oklahoma City dominates the physical battle, they're
Speaker 1: just gonna win this series. Because again we talked about it.
Speaker 1: You know, Shay and Jalen, they're much better shot creators
Speaker 1: than that hard and PG duo that they just went
Speaker 1: against and down the roster. Oklahoma City has much more
Speaker 1: offensive skill than Dallas does. These guys that are off
Speaker 1: the ball shooting for them, like Lou Dord is a
Speaker 1: much better three point shooter than that PJ. Washington, Derek Jones,
Speaker 1: Junior Josh Green kind of trio, right, Like Aaron Wiggins
Speaker 1: is a better shooter, case On Wallace is a better shooter.
Speaker 1: They're off ball, like, you know, three and d guys
Speaker 1: are really good shooters, whereas Dallas's guys are a little
Speaker 1: bit more inconsistent, right, So like that's not a battle
Speaker 1: you're gonna win over the course of the series. Like
Speaker 1: Dallas got out shot tonight, and I don't really see
Speaker 1: universe where they don't get out shot over the course
Speaker 1: of the series. That's probably going to keep happening like that.
Speaker 1: That Oklahoma City is a better jump shooting team in
Speaker 1: terms of their role players. So you have to win
Speaker 1: the physical battle. You have to do a better job
Speaker 1: defending at the point of attack without fouling, which we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to in a minute, and you have to
Speaker 1: do more damage to Oklahoma City's frontline if you're gonna
Speaker 1: win this series. The last piece of it, the JDub
Speaker 1: Kyrie matchup. Kyrie won that matchup big time through three quarters.
Speaker 1: Jadub really struggled. I think he was what two for
Speaker 1: eleven through the first three quarters. But Jadub really broke
Speaker 1: out in that fourth quarter stretch. Remember that kind of
Speaker 1: like right handed scoop shot that he kept leaving short
Speaker 1: on the rim where he'd like jump into Gaffer's body
Speaker 1: and then kind of scoop around and like take that
Speaker 1: right handed shot. He missed that a bunch of times
Speaker 1: over the course of the games, over the course of
Speaker 1: the game, and then he finally gets one to go
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, just gets it a little higher,
Speaker 1: a little softer, and instead of going into the body,
Speaker 1: he went around and used his athleticism instead of just
Speaker 1: like initiating the contact, he kind of went around and
Speaker 1: went higher and softer. Finally got one to go hit.
Speaker 1: A couple of jumpers including the three had that driving
Speaker 1: dunk past PJ. Washington on the baseline, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, he finishes the game with eighteen five
Speaker 1: and five fifteen shots. So like, really nice game for
Speaker 1: Jadab basically kept that matchup relatively even so the main
Speaker 1: three swing factors, Oklahoma City dominated two of them and
Speaker 1: held serve on the other, And so all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Dallas doesn't have many advantages in this game, and Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City wins convincingly. Right, So that kind of to me
Speaker 1: was the story of this particular game. A couple other
Speaker 1: shout outs, I want to hit really nice games from
Speaker 1: Aaron Wiggins in case on Wallace off the bench, excellent
Speaker 1: point of attack, defense, maintaining that physical ball pressure and
Speaker 1: then some scoring pop. They get twenty three points out
Speaker 1: of those two guys on the Dallas front. Have to
Speaker 1: do a better job without foul of non fouling. I
Speaker 1: should say, yes, it was a tough whistle, No doubt
Speaker 1: that played a role, but they weren't doing themselves any favors.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of them in there where it
Speaker 1: was like these are tiki tags, should not be called.
Speaker 1: But then there were others where it's like, yeah, but
Speaker 1: you're kind of playing into this situation by committing fouls
Speaker 1: that are going to get called the majority of the time,
Speaker 1: like hitting a jump shooter on the arm, Like if
Speaker 1: Shay's isoing, you just get a contest and he misses,
Speaker 1: like getting up into his space and touching him on
Speaker 1: the forearm right in front of the official, that's gonna
Speaker 1: get called every single time, right, Like jump shooting fouls
Speaker 1: like that are ones that refs are hyper sensitive too.
Speaker 1: So like that's a little bit of it. The illegal screens,
Speaker 1: and this goes both ways. Luca was having a tendency
Speaker 1: to kind of like leave early. Kyrie did it at
Speaker 1: least once as well, where it's like there's a reason
Speaker 1: what that. There's a reason why they say the ball
Speaker 1: handlers to wait for the screens. So think of it
Speaker 1: like this, If I'm the ball handler and I've got
Speaker 1: my point of attack defender on me, as soon as
Speaker 1: I start moving the point of attack. Defender is gonna
Speaker 1: follow me right like he's gonna slide with me, probably
Speaker 1: try to fight over the top of the screen. So
Speaker 1: if I wait until the screener is set and then
Speaker 1: I go, then he can kind of get away with
Speaker 1: a little bit. He can lean a little bit more,
Speaker 1: he can kind of stick that elbow out, stick the
Speaker 1: butt out a little bit. Whatever it is that they do,
Speaker 1: all the little gamesmanship tricks of the trade that you
Speaker 1: do with screening. But the one thing that's gonna get
Speaker 1: called every single time is if Luca leaves or if
Speaker 1: Kyrie leaves early in the on ball defender follows him
Speaker 1: before this, like while the screen is still running up
Speaker 1: to get set, it's gonna get called every single time.
Speaker 1: And then like when you combine that with like Gafford
Speaker 1: was doing that little lunge into it, which again, if
Speaker 1: you do that and the ball handler waits for you,
Speaker 1: has a better chance of going uncalled. Like the majority
Speaker 1: of NBA screens are illegal, you know, by the by
Speaker 1: the book. That's what's so stupid about that call getting
Speaker 1: overturned in the NIXT Pacers game is like that's just
Speaker 1: the same illegal screen that happens on just damn near
Speaker 1: every single possession. But the one thing that's gonna get
Speaker 1: called every single time is when the ball hand ball
Speaker 1: handler leaves early, because then it just looks like an
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, like instead of it being like ball handler
Speaker 1: screen go, it's like you're hitting somebody on the move.
Speaker 1: You might as well be a pulling guard. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get that called every single time. Right, better shooting a
Speaker 1: big one like Tim Hardaway Junior goes over four, had
Speaker 1: some bad misses to Derek Jones, Junior goes one for three.
Speaker 1: Josh Green, Josh Green was getting left open all game long,
Speaker 1: and he ends up going three for eight. He's gonna
Speaker 1: have to hit those shots over the course of the series.
Speaker 1: Three fright, it's not bad find any starts with the imagination,
Speaker 1: but like he's getting like left open, which means it's
Speaker 1: kind of like janking up the offense. So he needs
Speaker 1: to be really efficient on that shot. And then Luca
Speaker 1: just has to be better. Luca has to be better.
Speaker 1: That's simple. Like you can't I understand that your your
Speaker 1: knees a little bulky, you know? So is Donovan Mitchell's
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray's playing on a bad calf. You're not getting
Speaker 1: sympathy points from anybody. You have to find a way
Speaker 1: to be better. And like again, I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be like what he did with the Clippers. Stop settling
Speaker 1: for that damn pull up jump shot. Work a little
Speaker 1: bit closer to the rim, use your size and strength,
Speaker 1: get going, and then when the in moments where the
Speaker 1: game's a little more under control, like you're up seven,
Speaker 1: or you're at home and you're up fifteen, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: when you're in a situation where you can actually afford
Speaker 1: to trick off some possessions, that's when you can try
Speaker 1: to work yourself back in rhythm on the pull up
Speaker 1: three or taken when they're open, Like if you have
Speaker 1: to put one up at the end of the shot clock,
Speaker 1: that's fine. Guy ducks underneath the pick and you get
Speaker 1: a great look. That's fine. You get a guy on
Speaker 1: a switch and you do step that move move and
Speaker 1: get a ton of separation, that's fine. But he's taking
Speaker 1: it in a lot of like questionable situations right now,
Speaker 1: and it's just not going in enough to really justify
Speaker 1: that decision. One little x's and o's note. They did
Speaker 1: so they started with Gafford on Chet, but they did
Speaker 1: come out in the second half and they did what
Speaker 1: we talked about in the series preview. They ended up
Speaker 1: moving Gafford over to Giddy and they had some success there,
Speaker 1: but then Oklahoma City just bailed on Josh Giddy and
Speaker 1: started leaning into Aaron Wiggins in case on Wallace Moore
Speaker 1: and Isaiah Joe Moore, and it just it just kind
Speaker 1: of mitigated that advantage. Right. They could probably try to
Speaker 1: find an alternate version of that where they put Gafford
Speaker 1: on one of those guys, but those guys are just
Speaker 1: better shooters and they have a chance to make you pay.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so really tough game. I expect a much
Speaker 1: better Luca performance in Game two again, just as the
Speaker 1: more desperate team physically, they have to win that paint battle.
Speaker 1: My guess is Game two ends up being a much
Speaker 1: much closer game and it's gonna come down more to
Speaker 1: the Stars in the clutch time type of situation. But
Speaker 1: we will see. Moving on to Cavs Celtics, So the
Speaker 1: Celtics started with a similar coverage that they used in
Speaker 1: the regular season. We talked about it in the series previews.
Speaker 1: So in the first Cave Celtics game of the season,
Speaker 1: they went more traditional, but in crunch time they moved
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum over to Jared Allen, and then they did
Speaker 1: it again in game in the second game where they
Speaker 1: actually started with Tatum on Allen and then went to
Speaker 1: him back at the end of the game closing. They
Speaker 1: started it like that today as well, went with Tatum
Speaker 1: on Evan Mobley. Now again there's a very specific reason
Speaker 1: why you do that, because of the Allen injury, you
Speaker 1: still have another non shooter on the floor. Obviously Allen
Speaker 1: is the non shooter, or Allan and Mobley are both
Speaker 1: non shooters in their normal full starting lineup. But at
Speaker 1: korro and a Koro came out and hit a couple
Speaker 1: threes tonight and he's turned himself into a much more
Speaker 1: reliable catch and shoot guy. But he's again the big
Speaker 1: thing in the league is do they guard you. It's
Speaker 1: less about whether or not you make them and more
Speaker 1: about whether or not they guard you right. And so
Speaker 1: they put Horford on a Coro, just had him ignore
Speaker 1: him and hang out in the paint. They put Tatum
Speaker 1: on Evan Mobley, and then they switch the Mobley ball
Speaker 1: screens because again like the Calves run a ton of
Speaker 1: pick and roll. I think there were ninth and pick
Speaker 1: and roll frequency this year. It's their primary kind of
Speaker 1: method of attack on offense, right, So it's a really
Speaker 1: smart coverage for Boston to use. When you switch ball screens,
Speaker 1: you take away the baked in driving lanes right when
Speaker 1: there is a when it's when you switch. The only
Speaker 1: way you're gonna get dribble penetration is if you beat
Speaker 1: your man off the dribble, or you can do slips
Speaker 1: and posts and things like that. There are other ways
Speaker 1: to attack it, but it's much harder to get dribble
Speaker 1: penetration in a ball screen where they don't switch. As
Speaker 1: long as you get your man caught on the screen,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get downhill in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 1: And so putting Tatum on Mobley does a good job
Speaker 1: of kind of mitigating some of that dribble penetration. Now,
Speaker 1: it was funny one of the early possessions of the game.
Speaker 1: They run a ball screen I think it was Garland
Speaker 1: and Garland and Mobley and Tatum switches, and so they
Speaker 1: immediately go to Mobley against I think it was Derek
Speaker 1: White on the left block, and Mobley goes to work,
Speaker 1: and because he's just not a really experienced playmaker from
Speaker 1: the post. Boston brings like a triple team with Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum and Al Horford, and they just swat him off
Speaker 1: the glass. So it's like they attacked it the right
Speaker 1: way tactically, but it's just you're making Evan Mobley make
Speaker 1: your decisions for you, and that's just not a very
Speaker 1: good idea, right, So like that wasn't working very well.
Speaker 1: The one of the ways the Cavs counter did is
Speaker 1: they just tried bringing Horford into the screen no matter what.
Speaker 1: So a lot of times that was a coro. They
Speaker 1: just have him set the screen and Horford was running
Speaker 1: a drop there or cross matches like Horford usually would
Speaker 1: pick up Evan Mobley in any sort of transition situation,
Speaker 1: and then they would just bring Horford up and try
Speaker 1: to set the screen that way. Some guard guard stuff.
Speaker 1: They got Mitchell Downhill early in the game with just
Speaker 1: a Garland Mitchell too. Mett just have Garland set the
Speaker 1: screen again. A lot of pushing and transition, and to
Speaker 1: Cleveland's credit, they stayed connected for most of the game
Speaker 1: early one until the late third quarter that Boston really
Speaker 1: got too far away. For it to matter, Boston kind
Speaker 1: of turning to them. They went heavy through Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: early in the game. Again, this is thing they've been
Speaker 1: doing for a while, Like they just run a lot
Speaker 1: of their early offense through Jalen Brown. He got Max
Speaker 1: Strus off his feet early with a pump fake and
Speaker 1: hit a three. Had a nice close out attack where
Speaker 1: he went at Mobley's chest and got to the foul line.
Speaker 1: He went out of Coro in the post and got
Speaker 1: to the foul line. He found him on a kind
Speaker 1: of a fadeaway jumper, went at Donovan Mitchell in the
Speaker 1: post and hit a left shoulder fade. He had a
Speaker 1: layup that they There was a really nice ato that
Speaker 1: they ran. This was I want to say after Mitchell
Speaker 1: hit the three to get it to twenty three twenty one,
Speaker 1: but they that was when the Cavs took that early lead,
Speaker 1: twenty three to twenty one. Come right out of an
Speaker 1: ato and Donovan Mitchell is on Derek White and this
Speaker 1: really smart set where like all game long they were
Speaker 1: trying because they were really trying to use Mitch Mitchell
Speaker 1: and Garland's man as a screener to try to get
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum downhill. That was a big
Speaker 1: thing that that Boston was doing early in the game.
Speaker 1: And the way that this this ato, meaning after time
Speaker 1: outplay went they were in a horn set and they
Speaker 1: had they ran in action at the top kind of
Speaker 1: like if I remember correct, it was like a screen
Speaker 1: the screener thing, but it flowed into Derek White doing
Speaker 1: a dribble handoff with Jalen Brown out of the left
Speaker 1: corner and Mitchell's trailing to play pretty hard. And again
Speaker 1: what they were trying to do was hedge and recover.
Speaker 1: In those situations, they want Garland and Mitchell to hedge
Speaker 1: and then recover hedging meaning stop the drive and then
Speaker 1: recover to the shooter. But the problem is is Mitchell
Speaker 1: was so out of position from the early part of
Speaker 1: the action that Jalen Brown was able to just get
Speaker 1: downhill easily off of the dho I think Streuce was
Speaker 1: on him at that point. He just got easily pinned
Speaker 1: on the screen. Jalen Brown got right downhill, got into
Speaker 1: the lane, got a layup. It's a really nice way
Speaker 1: to come out of the time out and kind of
Speaker 1: get a quick bucket, an easy bucket to take the
Speaker 1: Cavs lead away. Jalen Brown had another transition drive at
Speaker 1: Max Strus off of a I think it was off
Speaker 1: of just a miss or a turnover. They got out
Speaker 1: in transition, got a layup. Jaler Brown had fifteen points
Speaker 1: in like the first something like seven minutes of the
Speaker 1: first quarter. He came out just guns blazing. Middle of
Speaker 1: that first quarter, they started leaning more into Derek White
Speaker 1: and Jason Tatum a two man game. Garland was on
Speaker 1: Derek White, which is a matchup I didn't like, We'll
Speaker 1: get into that in a little bit, and Struce was
Speaker 1: on Tatum, but they didn't want to switch it, so
Speaker 1: like at first, like they were in this bind because
Speaker 1: it was like they switched it once and then Tatum
Speaker 1: just went right down to the post and easily scored
Speaker 1: on Garland. He like missed a shop and easily got
Speaker 1: the offensive rebound and put it back. And then it's
Speaker 1: like then they didn't switch it, and then Derek White
Speaker 1: started breaking open because he was the ball handler, and
Speaker 1: Nexters didn't want to leave Jason Tatum. He was like
Speaker 1: kind of hugged up on Jason Tatum and Garland would
Speaker 1: get caught on the screen and Derek White was hitting threes,
Speaker 1: and Derek White is just so locked in from three
Speaker 1: point range right now. It's kind of like a death
Speaker 1: sentence in its own right, right. And so again we're
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about that in a little I'll just
Speaker 1: get into it right now. I didn't like the Garland
Speaker 1: on White decision. I understand why you do it to
Speaker 1: save Donovan Mitchell's legs, right because he's the one that's
Speaker 1: been carrying your offense for the majority of this postseason.
Speaker 1: But Derek White's on a heater right now, and Darius
Speaker 1: Garland is just too small and he cannot guard him.
Speaker 1: He cannot bother his pull up jump shot. And so
Speaker 1: even though Mitchell has a lot of offensive responsibilities, more
Speaker 1: physically equipped to do so, and again Derek White's torching you.
Speaker 1: He was the one who blew the game open late
Speaker 1: in the third quarter once again with this three point shooting. Hit,
Speaker 1: a couple catch and shoot threes, hit another one on
Speaker 1: a two man game with Jaylen Brown, where once again
Speaker 1: Darius Carlin kind of lingering in a soft hedge where
Speaker 1: he's more just kind of hanging out to help on
Speaker 1: the drive, and then he closed out and got a
Speaker 1: hand up on Derek White. But Derek White just doesn't
Speaker 1: see his hand. He's too short and so and that
Speaker 1: really was what kind of blew the game open in
Speaker 1: that late third quarter. The highlight was that step back
Speaker 1: kind of like pull back dribble that he had on
Speaker 1: Sam Merrill's So it's like he's on the left wing.
Speaker 1: They call up a ball screen. Tristan Thompson shows up,
Speaker 1: throws like a random trap at Derek White. Derek White
Speaker 1: retreats out of it. When he retreats, Tristan Thompson goes away,
Speaker 1: and there's only like four seconds on the shot clock.
Speaker 1: And so Derek White's hard dribble moved to the right
Speaker 1: like two three hard dribbles snatched back behind his back.
Speaker 1: And and talk about like skill development. Go watch that
Speaker 1: shot again and like try pausing it right when he
Speaker 1: does the snatchback dribble and then watch it. It looks
Speaker 1: literally like he goes straight up and down. It looks
Speaker 1: like a normal catch and shoot jump shot. That is
Speaker 1: the all of the best pull up jump shooters. They're
Speaker 1: actually it's all ball handling and footwork to get to
Speaker 1: straight up and down jump shots. Like that's why they're
Speaker 1: so efficient. On those shots. They do their work early,
Speaker 1: They do their work with the handling and the footwork
Speaker 1: and the like strength to stop on a dime. Then
Speaker 1: once they get that separation, it's just going straight up
Speaker 1: and down into a jump shot. Beautiful move, beautiful shot
Speaker 1: from Derek White. But again, like, yeah, that's something I
Speaker 1: think the Caves are gonna need to take a look at.
Speaker 1: And we'll go over some options here in a few minutes.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that Derek White hot street kind of put
Speaker 1: the game away in the third quarter. Two more guys
Speaker 1: I wanted to shout out Luke Cornette. He came in
Speaker 1: for a shift in the late first quarter and immediately
Speaker 1: had a couple of blocks. He blocked Isaacacorro slashing on
Speaker 1: a close out and then got Donovan Mitchell in a
Speaker 1: drop coverage that was part of the defensive run. They
Speaker 1: got Boston's first separation because again Caves kind of hung around.
Speaker 1: They were up twenty three to twenty one after a
Speaker 1: Mitchell pull up three, and that defensive run kind of
Speaker 1: led by Cornette there. Getting those stops at the rim
Speaker 1: kind of helped them get that initial separation. Peyton Pritchard,
Speaker 1: he pitches in sixteen points off the bench, hit a
Speaker 1: huge pull up three at the buzzer in the third
Speaker 1: quarter that felt more or less like a dagger. It
Speaker 1: felt like the shot that kind of put the game
Speaker 1: out of reach on the Cavs front. Not a whole
Speaker 1: lot they can do. They don't really have the firepower offensively,
Speaker 1: and without Jared Allen, they're too small in this matchup.
Speaker 1: They got killed on the glass today fifty five thirty eight,
Speaker 1: thirteen to seven in offensive rebounds. You know, with Jared Allen,
Speaker 1: excuse me, with Jaron Allen, they're a pretty big team,
Speaker 1: but as soon as you take him out of the lineup,
Speaker 1: they fund like Evan mobiley undersized, you know, center right
Speaker 1: Like now you're going Max Struce and Isaac accorro as
Speaker 1: you're three to four and then Donovan Mitchell Darius Garland,
Speaker 1: two small guards. So they're just like almost like untenably
Speaker 1: small without Jared Allen. But if I had to do something,
Speaker 1: I'd tinker with the matchups a little bit. We talked
Speaker 1: about maybe just swapping Garland and Mitchell. Another thing you
Speaker 1: could do just take your three best defenders and put
Speaker 1: them on their three best shot creators and hide Garland
Speaker 1: and Mitchell even if they're undersized on Horford and Drew, Like,
Speaker 1: just take Evan Mobley and put him on one of
Speaker 1: the wings and has shrew Sinecorro guard the other wing
Speaker 1: and Derek White and then have Donovan Mitchell guard Al
Speaker 1: Horford and have Darius Garland guard guard Drew Holliday. And
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe you'll just disrupt Boston's offense by
Speaker 1: causing them to bail on their typical actions and start
Speaker 1: force feeding the post on Horford and Drew Holliday. Maybe
Speaker 1: you can double team and rotate out of it or
Speaker 1: front the post or something. Look, i don't expect any
Speaker 1: of this to work. I'm just kind of spitballing here
Speaker 1: on some options they have, but like Darius Garland on
Speaker 1: Derek White certainly is not gonna work. And like, this
Speaker 1: is the thing that Boston does to you. This is
Speaker 1: so many damn good players that there aren't really good
Speaker 1: places for you to hide your guys, and they can
Speaker 1: put you in a predicament like this where it's like
Speaker 1: maybe you put your two small guards on their two
Speaker 1: phys strongest players in the starting lineup. It's it's just
Speaker 1: this is these are Boston problems. Man, this is what
Speaker 1: Boston does to you more mixing up coverages too, like
Speaker 1: just throwing random blitzes, switching randomly going into They threw
Speaker 1: some token zone in garbage time, but like what if
Speaker 1: they went to a little bit more random zone, like
Speaker 1: just do it, like not not consistently, but a random
Speaker 1: possessions to disrupt rhythm. But it's all gimmicky, and the
Speaker 1: talent gap is just too wide to really make up
Speaker 1: that gap. There's a reason why the Celtics were a
Speaker 1: minus twelve hundred favorite to win this series and every
Speaker 1: other series in the first round was substantially closer, and
Speaker 1: it's because there is a chasm between these two teams
Speaker 1: in talent, athleticism, size, everything, and it's just gonna be really,
Speaker 1: really hard for the Caves to hang around. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for tonight. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Tomorrow morning,
Speaker 1: I'll do a quick mailbag, So why don't you guys
Speaker 1: drop some questions in the YouTube comments and we'll get
Speaker 1: to those in the morning. And then tomorrow night is
Speaker 1: I want to say Game two of Knicks Pacers, and
Speaker 1: I think that's the only game tomorrow night, so we're
Speaker 1: gonna hit that one. We'll go live on YouTube right
Speaker 1: after that game, and then we'll get back into it
Speaker 1: on Thursday. All right, guys, I appreciate you. I'll see
Speaker 1: you tomorrow. The Volume