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Speaker 1: here at the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody up ball, If
Speaker 1: you guys are having a great start to your week.
Speaker 1: We got a jam pack show for you tonight, very
Speaker 1: very entertaining game one of the Eastern Conference Finals, and
Speaker 1: it was entertaining before it went completely off the rails
Speaker 1: in the final minute and got just unbelievably unorganized and
Speaker 1: sloppy for both teams as Boston ends up coming back
Speaker 1: in wild fashion to beat Indiana in overtime. We're gonna
Speaker 1: break that game down from the perspective of both teams,
Speaker 1: and then we'll get out of here for the night.
Speaker 1: You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: and then keep dropping mail bag questions in the YouTube
Speaker 1: comments that we keep hitting them throughout the rest of
Speaker 1: the playoffs.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So this was the very best case scenario for Boston
Speaker 1: because you got one in the win. Come you're officially
Speaker 1: up one to zero in the series, but you played
Speaker 1: poorly enough to have lost, right, which is like a
Speaker 1: wake up call. It breeds urgency. It's also super discouraging
Speaker 1: for the Indiana Pacers, right, and most importantly, I thought
Speaker 1: that there was a lot that Boston could clean up,
Speaker 1: particularly on the defensive end of the floor. And so
Speaker 1: like this is the best case because you can go
Speaker 1: into that film session you're a winner, but you can
Speaker 1: be pissed off about how you played, address those things
Speaker 1: and go into Game two with the requisite adjustments and
Speaker 1: level of urgency to try to take a two to
Speaker 1: zero lead in the series. So this game kind of
Speaker 1: felt like two games to me. There was the actual
Speaker 1: basketball game that the Pacers more or less won until
Speaker 1: the final minute when they choked it away, and then
Speaker 1: it was the overtime sequence.
Speaker 2: Right, don't want to start on the late.
Speaker 1: Game sequence first, and then we'll get into the basketball
Speaker 1: because in the basketball part of the game, there's just
Speaker 1: a lot of different things that Boston can improve on
Speaker 1: to do a better job, specifically of guarding the Indiana Pacers.
Speaker 1: So in terms of the late game sequence, that was
Speaker 1: a legendary choke job from the Indiana Pacers. Boston missed
Speaker 1: four shots in the final minute in ten seconds of
Speaker 1: this game, and somehow still sent it to overtime, just
Speaker 1: incomprehensible mistakes from Tyrese Halliburton randomly shoots an early clock
Speaker 1: step back three on the left wing that was way
Speaker 1: off it almost banked in. They end up committing a
Speaker 1: foul on the rebound. They have two awful turnovers after
Speaker 1: that point where Tyree's just dribbles the ball up the
Speaker 1: floor and just coughs it up. Another one that they
Speaker 1: turn over just on the inbounds pass, and then even
Speaker 1: on that final possession, like one of the things that
Speaker 1: like you'll see coaches do at just about every level
Speaker 1: of basketball is specifically on final possessions, and especially when
Speaker 1: you're trying to take away a three point shot, you
Speaker 1: switch everything because again, usually in a sequence like that,
Speaker 1: there's not enough time to try to try to go
Speaker 1: for two and then foul again or whatever it is
Speaker 1: that you might try to do in a situation like that,
Speaker 1: other than taking a three, you're probably gonna be looking
Speaker 1: for a three point shot, right, And so in those situations,
Speaker 1: the last thing you want to do is have a
Speaker 1: guy get caught up on a screen, which let's say
Speaker 1: someone throws an illegal screen or something like that. You
Speaker 1: don't want to be caught on that and then be
Speaker 1: looking at the refs when the rest are probably gonna
Speaker 1: swallow their whistle. In a situation like that, as your
Speaker 1: man breaks open to shoot a three, instead of switching,
Speaker 1: they run a little screening action on the left side
Speaker 1: of the floor, like Jalen Brown like loops up to
Speaker 1: the top and then comes off the screen and loops
Speaker 1: back to the left corner, and Siakam's chasing instead of switching.
Speaker 1: And the problem there was once the pass was made
Speaker 1: to Jalen Brown now closing out at him, and all
Speaker 1: this talk was about, oh, you're supposed to foil, You're
Speaker 1: supposed to foul, and like, for all we know, Rick
Speaker 1: Carlisle might have said foul. But if Siakam just comes
Speaker 1: sprinting at Jlen Brown with his hands out like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna foul you, Jalen Brown could just shoot a three
Speaker 1: point shot as Siakam comes up, now he's going to
Speaker 1: the line to shoot three free throws, and so by
Speaker 1: virtue of him getting detached, meaning like him getting caught
Speaker 1: up on that screen and having to close out on
Speaker 1: Jaylen Brown. It effectively removed fouling from the equation. At
Speaker 1: that point, the foul becomes too risky because Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: is staring right at Siakam as he's running at him.
Speaker 1: Right from there, Jalen Brown just makes a hell of
Speaker 1: a shot. Sacame once he got back into the play.
Speaker 1: He did what you're supposed to do. He was right
Speaker 1: there up in his face. But Jalen Brown is squared
Speaker 1: up to shoot a three. Soakam can't foul anymore because
Speaker 1: as soon as he reaches out, Jalen Brown could just
Speaker 1: go up with the shot right. So what he did
Speaker 1: at that point is he just walled up and just
Speaker 1: put his chin back, and Jalen Brown rose up and
Speaker 1: he made a really impressive shot to send the game
Speaker 1: to overtime. The first part of overtime was and the
Speaker 1: Celtics were making all sorts of mistakes again. Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: passes early out of a slipped ball screen, and I
Speaker 1: think it was Drew Holliday set the screen and then
Speaker 1: slipped out of it.
Speaker 2: He threw the pass way too early.
Speaker 1: Tyres halliburtn steals it and end up committing a foul
Speaker 1: on the other end, and the Pacers go up one
Speaker 1: twenty three one twenty one, but Aaron Nesmith ends up
Speaker 1: fouling out of the game, And that was a big
Speaker 1: moment because again there was there was a driving layup
Speaker 1: that Tatum had against Aaron Nesmith where he ball pressured
Speaker 1: him out about like thirty five feet from the basket
Speaker 1: earlier in the game, where Tatum spun off of him
Speaker 1: and got all the way to the basket. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, Nie Smith on an island against Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum can at least force him to take over the
Speaker 1: top jump shots because the Smith's a little quicker than him,
Speaker 1: and he's big and strong enough to kind of avoid
Speaker 1: getting bullied for the most part, right, And so that
Speaker 1: kind of forces Tatum to take pull of jumpers, which,
Speaker 1: as we know, Jason Tatum likes to take a lot
Speaker 1: of pull of jumpers, but in terms of his actual
Speaker 1: efficiency on them, he's not very good at him, right,
Speaker 1: And so that matchup kind of was working in Indiana's
Speaker 1: favor down the stretch of the game. But as soon
Speaker 1: as Nie Smith went out of the game, to Tatum's credit,
Speaker 1: he identified the new matchup, which was Andrew Nemhard and
Speaker 1: immediately took him to the post and.
Speaker 2: Down on the block.
Speaker 1: Andrew Emhard opted to try to play defense before the catch,
Speaker 1: so instead of like letting Tatum catch and walling him
Speaker 1: up as he tries to score in the post, Nemhard
Speaker 1: tried to front the post and Tatum just made a
Speaker 1: good physical positioning move and Nemhart ended.
Speaker 2: Up falling over.
Speaker 1: He got a little and one right Then they come
Speaker 1: down the floor and they run two man games. Tyres
Speaker 1: Alliburton was guarding Derek White and Andrew Nemhard was guarding
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum. Tatum sets the screen and Indiana runs this
Speaker 1: really bizarre coverage. They basically guard it like it's a
Speaker 1: big man pick and roll, like they guard it like
Speaker 1: a drop coverage, like Andrew Emhard drops or Tyres Aliburn
Speaker 1: chases over the top, and then Nemhard kind of drops
Speaker 1: into the lane, and so as a result, it's just
Speaker 1: like any other pick and pop. The guy who sets
Speaker 1: the screen and pops the three point line is wide open,
Speaker 1: and so Nemharden and Tyris Aliburton tried to get a
Speaker 1: late close out, but Tatum finally after missing the one
Speaker 1: re really good look he got down the stretch was
Speaker 1: a wide open catch and shoot three that would have
Speaker 1: tied the game in light regulation that he left just
Speaker 1: barely short, like it was dead on straight, just left
Speaker 1: at a tiny bit short. But by courtesy of the
Speaker 1: Indiana Pacers, he gets another opportunity in overtime and he
Speaker 1: hump fakes, takes a little side step, knocks down the
Speaker 1: three at the top of the key, and the game
Speaker 1: was pretty much over from there.
Speaker 2: Shout out to.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum again, just like I talked about with Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards in Game seven against the Denver Nuggets, like you
Speaker 1: always have another opportunity to make a play. That's the
Speaker 1: beautiful thing about basketball. You can start, you can have
Speaker 1: an absolute nightmare game, but you can find a way
Speaker 1: to make a play. And this was actually a very
Speaker 1: interesting up and down game from Tatum. He came out early,
Speaker 1: was super aggressive at the rim, got a couple early buckets.
Speaker 1: You could tell like he's just too big for most
Speaker 1: of these guys around the rim. Right then he kind
Speaker 1: of starts settling for jumpers in the late first quarter,
Speaker 1: he goes through a cold spell. Then in the second quarter,
Speaker 1: starts being physically aggressive again, gets going as that. I
Speaker 1: think he was eight for fourteen at one point. Then
Speaker 1: he goes like ice cold in the second and half,
Speaker 1: really really struggling to make those pull up jump shots,
Speaker 1: settling a lot in isolation situations, and I think at
Speaker 1: one point he was twelve for twenty six from the field.
Speaker 1: Has that really bad turnover and overtime looked bad there, right,
Speaker 1: but he recovered from that and made a couple of
Speaker 1: huge plays down the stretch. And then one of the
Speaker 1: big things with Jayson Tatum. We're gonna talk about this
Speaker 1: a lot when we get into the ball screen coverage stuff,
Speaker 1: but like Jason Tatum can be a very frustrating basketball
Speaker 1: player on the offensive end of the floor, but he
Speaker 1: is deeply, profoundly impactful on the defensive end. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how many times he made massive swing plays
Speaker 1: on defense, switching to Miles Turner and forcing somebody else
Speaker 1: for the Pacers to score bucket, which we'll get into
Speaker 1: in a little bit. He had a big late steal
Speaker 1: on Obi Toppen and I think in their early fourth
Speaker 1: quarter if I remember correctly, where Obi was stupid enough
Speaker 1: to try to attack Tatum and iso the late switch
Speaker 1: on to Tyrese Haliburton in late regulation where he just
Speaker 1: switched on to Halliburton and just basically swallowed him up
Speaker 1: on the right wing so he could barely even get
Speaker 1: a shot off. Like, Jason Tatum is a deeply and
Speaker 1: profoundly impactful athlete in this league, and it covers up
Speaker 1: a lot of the kind of up and down nature
Speaker 1: of his offensive performances, right, and then again it just
Speaker 1: kept buying him opportunities to try to make more plays
Speaker 1: on offense, and he made several big ones down the
Speaker 1: stretch of his game. So absolutely wild, completely insane. If
Speaker 1: you're Indiana, like literally all you have to do is
Speaker 1: get the ball up the floor and run any offense
Speaker 1: and Boston's gonna have to foulue and then you end
Speaker 1: up winning. So like, I don't even know what to
Speaker 1: say from the Indiana perspective other than like, yet, yet
Speaker 1: you played well enough to win and then you just
Speaker 1: choked it away.
Speaker 2: There's really no better way to put it.
Speaker 1: You choked the basketball game away by basic inability to
Speaker 1: handle ball pressure. Now, credit to Boston, they've got a
Speaker 1: lot of really good defenders. Drew Holliday did an amazing
Speaker 1: job with physicality on Tyrese Saliburton played him into two
Speaker 1: of those turnovers late, but again, like that's stuff that
Speaker 1: he should be able to handle. So Indiana's got to
Speaker 1: clean that up for the rest of the series. I
Speaker 1: want to get into some of the specific basketball dynamics
Speaker 1: that took place over the meat and potatoes of the game,
Speaker 1: because again, as we look forward, the entire series isn't
Speaker 1: going to come down to like chaotic two three minute
Speaker 1: stretches at the end, right, Like you play forty eight
Speaker 1: minute basketball games, right, and Boston is a more talented
Speaker 1: basketball team than the Indiana Pacers, and.
Speaker 2: They shouldn't need to be in a situation.
Speaker 1: Where they need Jalen Brown to make some crazy, you know,
Speaker 1: face up jumper over a player taller than him when
Speaker 1: he's completely smothered in the left corner, right, Like, that
Speaker 1: shouldn't need to be the case. So how do you
Speaker 1: clean up what happened in the rest of the game
Speaker 1: to make sure that you don't find yourself in this
Speaker 1: situation again? So first I want to start on a
Speaker 1: really basic level as it pertains to their switching. So
Speaker 1: there was it. Do you guys remember the nine to
Speaker 1: zero run that took place in the It was like
Speaker 1: middle third quarter. I want to say Boston went up.
Speaker 1: It was like gosh, I want to say it was
Speaker 1: like seventy three to or something like that. They were
Speaker 1: up thirteen in the in the middle third quarter, if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, and Indiana literally goes on a nine
Speaker 1: to zero run in two minutes, and like that's where
Speaker 1: Aaron E. Smith hit the trailing three point shot at
Speaker 1: the top of the key and just like that, like
Speaker 1: it was a it was a four point game, right,
Speaker 1: And like there were multiple stretches in this game where
Speaker 1: Boston went up by double digits and then they just
Speaker 1: lost focus and kind of fell apart. And like, honestly,
Speaker 1: the offense during that stretch wasn't that bad. There was
Speaker 1: a Jalen Brown turnover a very similar to the turnover
Speaker 1: that Jason Tatum had an overtime, where like a guy
Speaker 1: slipped out of a hedge and Jalen Brown just telegraphed
Speaker 1: to pass and threw it right to Tyres Halliburton. There
Speaker 1: was a pretty decent look at three that Sam Hauser
Speaker 1: got that he just airballed, but it was like a
Speaker 1: decent look. There was one bad shot.
Speaker 2: That I didn't like.
Speaker 1: Peyton Pritchard took a thirty footer with fifteen on the
Speaker 1: shot clock on the left wing, but he had already
Speaker 1: made two threes and another short jumper in the game,
Speaker 1: so I think he was just feeling confident. I didn't
Speaker 1: really think the offense was the problem in that run.
Speaker 1: They were just abysmal defensively in that stretch, specifically botching switches.
Speaker 1: They give up four buckets in that two minute stretch,
Speaker 1: and three of them where three of them were botched switches,
Speaker 1: and the fourth was a really bad close out from
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown. So this is one of the things that
Speaker 1: Indiana does right. Indiana we talk a lot about different
Speaker 1: ways to beat switching, and one of the ways that
Speaker 1: you can beat switching is take advantage of the fact
Speaker 1: that there's a static defender involved. So, for instance, if
Speaker 1: you're guarding another player and I'm dribbling at you fast
Speaker 1: and your man screens for me, and I'm coming off
Speaker 1: with a lot of pace and you're standing still, you're
Speaker 1: at a disadvantage when you switch unless you're very ready
Speaker 1: for it, because if you hesitate even for a second,
Speaker 1: I'm already in motion. Doesn't matter how quick my first
Speaker 1: step is if I'm already moving at full speed and
Speaker 1: you're coming from a standstill to try to catch up
Speaker 1: with me. And one of the things that Indiana did
Speaker 1: in a amazing job of in this game is just
Speaker 1: like really quick ball in player movement. It's like swing
Speaker 1: pass ball screen, drible handoff, swing pass ball screen, dribble handoff.
Speaker 1: Just they were just moving so quickly in the half court,
Speaker 1: and basically what they would do is they would just
Speaker 1: do it, and Boston would switch and switch and switch
Speaker 1: and switch until somebody made a mistake. And as soon
Speaker 1: as somebody made a mistake, that guy would turn the
Speaker 1: corner and he'd get into the lane and he'd get
Speaker 1: a basket. So the main thing is when they get
Speaker 1: into this film session, they're gonna notice pretty quickly we
Speaker 1: can clean up a lot of this just by communicating
Speaker 1: better when it comes to switches and just being in
Speaker 1: an athletic stance actually ready to switch when you see
Speaker 1: the ball starting to come towards you, just be aware
Speaker 1: of the fact that you're gonna need to get moving
Speaker 1: quickly because Indiana moves with so much with so much pace.
Speaker 1: Like again, that was Boston was in position that was
Speaker 1: their biggest lead. They were in position to put this
Speaker 1: thing away in two minutes of lazy defense where they
Speaker 1: were botching switches, ended up giving Indiana a chance to
Speaker 1: to get back into the game. And we're gonna go
Speaker 1: into that kind of thing in the film session tomorrow.
Speaker 1: All the stuff that I'm talking about right now, we'll
Speaker 1: get into some more detail in film tomorrow morning. The
Speaker 1: second piece that I want to look at is ball
Speaker 1: screen defense. So one of the things that I've talked
Speaker 1: about a lot in this playoff round, specifically in the
Speaker 1: series preview, is the fact that one of the weaknesses
Speaker 1: for Boston is even with porzingis porzingis Al Horford, Luke Cornett.
Speaker 1: They when you actually have to guard a good quick
Speaker 1: ball handler that can shoot pull up jump shots, like
Speaker 1: a Donovan Mitchell, like a Tyree S. Halliburton, like even
Speaker 1: like Tyler Harrow is a lesser version of that, but
Speaker 1: a guy that in the first round that they played
Speaker 1: against to had some success hitting pull up jump shots
Speaker 1: and pick and roll. It forces Al Horford, it forces
Speaker 1: chrisops Mordingis, it forces Luke Cornette to guard in space
Speaker 1: as opposed to a deep drop against a non skill
Speaker 1: guard where you can kind of sit in the paint
Speaker 1: just wait for the guy to drive that at you.
Speaker 2: Right, And this, by the way, is man infested. In
Speaker 2: the numbers.
Speaker 1: Per Synergy, Boston has been the very worst pick and
Speaker 1: roll defense in the playoffs so far, including passes by
Speaker 1: a wide margin. They're giving up one point zero nine
Speaker 1: points per possession in ball screens including passes. It's like
Speaker 1: five hundreds of a point worse than the next team
Speaker 1: in line, which by the way was the Indiana Pacers.
Speaker 1: Fun fact, but that was the worst out of the
Speaker 1: sixteen teams. This has been a consistent problem for them.
Speaker 1: When they face like good quick ball handlers that can
Speaker 1: attack their big guys in space in pick and roll,
Speaker 1: they have problems. Right, So the question is this is
Speaker 1: this is just a fact about Boston's roster, So how
Speaker 1: do you account for that? By the way, no team
Speaker 1: in the league doesn't have a flaw. Boston has better
Speaker 1: personnel than most teams, though, and they have so many
Speaker 1: good defenders and so many super versatile defenders, guys like
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown in particular, who are so
Speaker 1: big and strong and athletic that they can guard players
Speaker 1: that are significantly smaller than them and significantly bigger than them. Right, So, like,
Speaker 1: how do you as a team cover for the fact
Speaker 1: that you're struggling to guard and pick and roll? And
Speaker 1: for me, that is pretty simple. It's about putting Al
Speaker 1: Horford similar to what you've seen a lot of teams
Speaker 1: do in this postseason run and in the playoffs in general,
Speaker 1: instead of putting your center on the opposing center who's
Speaker 1: going to set ball screens and has a ton of
Speaker 1: pick and roll chemistry with the ball handler. And a
Speaker 1: guy like Miles Turner who's like legitimately just shooting the
Speaker 1: laces off the basket or shooting the seams off the
Speaker 1: basketball in this postseason runs. I think he was up
Speaker 1: over forty six percent from three before tonight and is
Speaker 1: like has the ability to take off from like twelve
Speaker 1: feet away from the basket off of two feet and
Speaker 1: just dunk everything like he's a problem. He's flat out
Speaker 1: a problem. And then Tyrese Haliburton on the other end
Speaker 1: of that can hit the pull up three, can hit
Speaker 1: the mid range jumper, and can get all the way
Speaker 1: to the basket and finish. So like that pick and
Speaker 1: roll duo is a problem. And so as long as
Speaker 1: you have Al Horford or Luke Cornett or whoever it
Speaker 1: is in that matchup, they're just gonna look to attack NonStop, right,
Speaker 1: So you've got to find a way to protect Horford there. Now,
Speaker 1: one of the things we talked about in the series previews,
Speaker 1: I said I'd move him to Siakam, but I specifically said,
Speaker 1: if Siakam gets going as a score, I think you
Speaker 1: need to move him to Nie Smith. By the way,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what happened. They moved Horford to Siakam. In
Speaker 1: early Siakam struggled. He missed a pick and pop three,
Speaker 1: he missed a little mid range jumper, like he blocked
Speaker 1: Siakam on a driving a layup in the first half
Speaker 1: or I think it was early second half, Like they
Speaker 1: had some success there. But then Siakam got going late
Speaker 1: in the game, right, he got that little mid range
Speaker 1: jumper going, the jab step jumper, the kind of like
Speaker 1: little step back jumper there in the fifteen foot range.
Speaker 1: That's why I think the most the most realistic option
Speaker 1: for them to make it be the least effective offensive
Speaker 1: player that Indiana has in that lineup, just put him
Speaker 1: on Aaron Nee Smith again.
Speaker 2: Aaron NEI.
Speaker 1: Smith is a slasher, but in this postseason run, he's
Speaker 1: barely cracked thirty percent from three. He's a very, very
Speaker 1: inconsistent three point shooter. Most importantly, he's not a movement
Speaker 1: three point shooter. What that means is because what Haliburton
Speaker 1: did is as soon as they move Jason Tatum onto
Speaker 1: to Miles Turner, they just started having Pascal Siakam set
Speaker 1: the ball screen right like they're targeting Horford wherever he
Speaker 1: is on the floor, right, So whatever, you are literally
Speaker 1: picking who's gonna be taking the shot by who you
Speaker 1: put Horford on, you put Horford.
Speaker 2: On Turner, it's gonna be Turner.
Speaker 1: Turner's hitting his threes and he's making everything on the role.
Speaker 1: You put Horford on Siakam, he's gonna Sakam's gonna be
Speaker 1: the guy shooting. Siakam was making his mid range jumper
Speaker 1: in this game. You want Aaron E. Smith to be
Speaker 1: the guy that's taking the shot there. So like, this
Speaker 1: is the advantage, this is the credit of having a
Speaker 1: guy like Jason Tatum on your team. He's so damn big,
Speaker 1: he's so damn strong, he's such a gifted defensive player
Speaker 1: that you can put him on Miles Turner, switch him
Speaker 1: on to Tyree Saliburton, He'll put him in jail.
Speaker 2: Two.
Speaker 1: Miles Turner is not a guy that can attack post
Speaker 1: mismatches very well. He had one bucket shooting over the
Speaker 1: top of a post mismatch tonight, but that's not really
Speaker 1: his game, right. So like you can just switch that
Speaker 1: ball screen, right, you just move j you keep Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown on Pascal Siakam. That's a matchup that you like, right.
Speaker 1: And then essentially you have Horford be aggressive in a
Speaker 1: coverage when Nie Smith sets the ball screen. If Nie
Speaker 1: Smith pops to the three point line, you just close
Speaker 1: out at him short. You give him a token short
Speaker 1: close out, right, because with that short close out, Nie
Speaker 1: Smith is only is barely hitting over thirty percent from
Speaker 1: his threes. And then and Al Horford's actually very gifted
Speaker 1: at kind of at anticipating driving angles and beating guys
Speaker 1: to spot spots and taking contact in the chest.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: There are a couple other things that they can do,
Speaker 1: and they actually tried both of these during the game
Speaker 1: for starters, just really good help and recover on the
Speaker 1: weak side. Do you guys remember that play where Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown blocked Aaron Nee Smith on a three on the
Speaker 1: right wing and then on the block like saved the
Speaker 1: ball and threw it off off of a Nie Smith
Speaker 1: and saved it and they went out the other way.
Speaker 1: That was a ball screen with Horford and Turner where
Speaker 1: Turner set the ball screen. Horford was covering Halliburton in
Speaker 1: the In the screen, Turner kind of did like a
Speaker 1: hoop slash role that kind of took him to the
Speaker 1: right elbow area and Halliburton went to throw the skip pass,
Speaker 1: but Jalen Brown, who was guarding Aaron Ees Smith on
Speaker 1: the right wing, stunted like he was going to tag
Speaker 1: the roller from that wing spot. Forced Halliburton to throw
Speaker 1: the skip pass. But he's such a good athlete he
Speaker 1: closed back out to Denise Smith and ended up blocking
Speaker 1: him out of bounds. It was an unbelievable defensive play,
Speaker 1: right Like, That's an example of something you can do
Speaker 1: to protect al Horford in ball screens. Another thing you
Speaker 1: can do pre switching. Do you guys remember that absurd
Speaker 1: defensive play that Derek White had where he blocked Obi
Speaker 1: Toppin on the lob. On that play, they were running
Speaker 1: a ball screen to try to get Al Horford in it.
Speaker 1: Al Horford was guarding Myles Turner on this possession. Turner
Speaker 1: went to go set the screen. Al Horford literally pointed
Speaker 1: to have I think it was Drew Holliday go up instead, right,
Speaker 1: And so Drew Holliday just followed Miles Turner up and
Speaker 1: Horford switched onto Drew Holliday's man.
Speaker 2: Drew Holliday went up to the to.
Speaker 1: The ball screen and literally as Halliburton came off, Uh,
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday switched onto him. And then Derek White literally
Speaker 1: peeled off and guarded Myles Turner Miles Turner on the
Speaker 1: roll as soon as the pass two. Uh, it might
Speaker 1: have been I think it was Turner in this possession.
Speaker 1: We'll go over and more detail in the film session.
Speaker 1: But he got dropped off to Turner and then Derek
Speaker 1: White peeled off of Myles Turner too, as Miles Turner
Speaker 1: threw the lob to Obi top in and Derek White
Speaker 1: came flying in and blocked it. So we executed two
Speaker 1: switches in a matter of like two seconds to block
Speaker 1: that lob pass along the base on his unbelievable defensive play.
Speaker 1: But again, what you did is you took your worst
Speaker 1: defensive player and now Horford in this situation and protected
Speaker 1: him by pre switching and sending a guard up switching
Speaker 1: the ball screen up high. And then now you've got
Speaker 1: your two best perim defenders or your two best guard
Speaker 1: defenders trying to make a play instead of Al Horford,
Speaker 1: who's a little bit slower afoot, trying to make a play.
Speaker 1: And guess what, Derek White is just like an unbelievable
Speaker 1: shot blocker. And so you put him in a position
Speaker 1: where it's a strength of his rather than Horford in
Speaker 1: a position that's a weakness of his, and you get
Speaker 1: a key stop and like one last little shout out
Speaker 1: for Derek White there. Every time I see a game
Speaker 1: like this where it's like absolute chaos and anything could
Speaker 1: happen and a team barely pulls out a narrow, narrow,
Speaker 1: narrow victory, I always think about little plays like that.
Speaker 1: I'm always like, man, that was a dunk. That was
Speaker 1: an obi top and dunk ninety nine out of one
Speaker 1: hundred times, and Derek White literally made one of the
Speaker 1: best defensive plays I've seen all postseason and stole two
Speaker 1: points off the scoreboard for the Indiana Pacers, so shout
Speaker 1: out to Derek White. But again, those are the three
Speaker 1: things that I think Boston can do to clean up
Speaker 1: their ball screen defense, pre switching better, helping rotations on
Speaker 1: the weak side, and then just putting Al Horford, I'm
Speaker 1: the worst offensive player for Indiana and just baiting them
Speaker 1: into trying to attack that rather than playing through their
Speaker 1: better offensive players. And again, like this has been an
Speaker 1: issue all postseason, this is something they have to address.
Speaker 1: You gotta win, but you need to fix these problems
Speaker 1: going into Game two. A couple other shoutouts on some
Speaker 1: specific Boston offensive stuff that I wanted to talk about.
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday was amazing in this game. We saw it
Speaker 1: on the defensive end late right with his on ball
Speaker 1: defense against Tyrese Haliburton playing him into those turnovers. But
Speaker 1: a big part of it was, and that's right, that's
Speaker 1: what I was getting so confused about on that stupid
Speaker 1: Derek White block, Derek White was actually the guy that
Speaker 1: won up in the pre switch Drew Holliday was on Halliburton,
Speaker 1: Derek White switched onto to the ball handler and then
Speaker 1: peeled off and got the block. It was just an
Speaker 1: unbelievable play. Anyway, Drew Holliday not only was the impactful
Speaker 1: defensively down the stretch of that game, he also was
Speaker 1: the guy that was getting the most favorable matchups throughout
Speaker 1: the game.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: We talked about this in the series preview, right like,
Speaker 1: he's gonna get Tyrese Haliburton on him for the most part,
Speaker 1: and he scored so effectively against Tyrese that they actually
Speaker 1: had to switch Tyres onto Derek White, which ended up
Speaker 1: being a huge advantage in the late game situation because
Speaker 1: now Tyres Haliburton was guarding the ball in the pivotal
Speaker 1: on ball possessions in overtime, where Derek White was consistently
Speaker 1: generating quality shots. So, like Drew Holliday laid Indiana into
Speaker 1: a lot of unfavorable matchups over the course of the game.
Speaker 1: He also did some damage to Ben Sheppard when he
Speaker 1: was on the floor. Like Drew, this is the advantage
Speaker 1: of having five high powered offensive players in your starting lineup.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to put your worst defender on somebody,
Speaker 1: and ended up being Drew Holliday for the majority of
Speaker 1: the game, and he just cooked all of those guys.
Speaker 1: He was incredible in this game. And then lastly, just
Speaker 1: typical stuff that I've talked about a lot when it
Speaker 1: comes down to Boston in their offensive process, which is
Speaker 1: just like having more value for the individual possession and
Speaker 1: being more deliberate about getting great shots rather than just
Speaker 1: playing with vibes and just taking the.
Speaker 2: First available shot that you get. Right.
Speaker 1: A lot of bad shots selection in this game, but
Speaker 1: one of the things I noticed is like typically when
Speaker 1: they actually execute properly, they do get good looks. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, when there was a I'm trying to remember
Speaker 1: who hit the shot, somebody hit a shot that put
Speaker 1: the Pacers up by four right in the late I
Speaker 1: think it was late third or early fourth quarter, right,
Speaker 1: and Boston calls a timeout because now we're down four,
Speaker 1: it's a totally different game, right. They immediately come out
Speaker 1: of the They immediately come out of the timeout, and
Speaker 1: they have Al Horford set the screen on Jason Tatum.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum uses Al Horford in the screen, Miles Turner
Speaker 1: ends up hedging Al Horford pops to the three point
Speaker 1: Tatum just throws the basic over the top pass to
Speaker 1: al Horford, who's wide open to the top of the key,
Speaker 1: swing to the left wing rotation, swing to the corner,
Speaker 1: wide open three for Derek White and he knocks it down.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: It's like when they slow down and it's like they're
Speaker 1: in a time out. It's like, hey, guys, we really
Speaker 1: need a bucket here. Let's run this action. Let's get
Speaker 1: a great shot. They do that, they score so damn effectively, right,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like overtime, Like down the last two
Speaker 1: and a half minutes of overtime, they're so deliberate. It's
Speaker 1: like Tatum on it has Andrew Nemhart on him, Let's
Speaker 1: just go to him in the block, right, easy bucket
Speaker 1: and one like, hey, like they have Tyrese Haliburton and
Speaker 1: Andrew Nemhart guarding Derek White and Jason Tatum. Let's just
Speaker 1: run two man game. And then Tatum like he went
Speaker 1: to go set the screen and he identified that they
Speaker 1: were both going with Derek White. So he's like, I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna pop to the three point line, like I
Speaker 1: just got the same shot at the end of regulation.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take my time and I'm gonna knock this down.
Speaker 1: Like it's just being more deliberate with their shot selection,
Speaker 1: valuing the individual possession because here's the thing, Like, you're
Speaker 1: gonna face a team coming up out of the Western
Speaker 1: Conference who's better than Indiana. I have a feeling it's
Speaker 1: gonna be Minnesota. It's going to be a team that's
Speaker 1: going to have You're gonna have a much smaller margin
Speaker 1: for air than you do in this Indiana Pacers matchup,
Speaker 1: and so I just want to see Boston just be
Speaker 1: a little bit more deliberate about valuing each individual possession.
Speaker 1: But again, like really encouraging night for Boston because again,
Speaker 1: you get the win, you have good motivation going into
Speaker 1: Game two because you played poorly enough to lose, and
Speaker 1: there's just so much that they can clean up going
Speaker 1: into Game two, especially on the defensive end of the four.
Speaker 1: I actually think Boston's gonna win convincingly in Game two.
Speaker 1: I think they've lost Game two twice already in this
Speaker 1: postseason by letting their foot off the gas. They already
Speaker 1: know that that's a threat. They have the advantage of
Speaker 1: the motivation of playing as poorly as they did tonight.
Speaker 1: I think Boston's gonna go up two oh on Thursday
Speaker 1: night with a really, really impressive win. On the Indiana front,
Speaker 1: you got to take care of the damn basketball, Like
Speaker 1: it's literally that simple. You wasted one of your better
Speaker 1: offensive nights in a game that you should have won,
Speaker 1: just simply because of execution errors down the stretch of
Speaker 1: the game. They know what they need to do. They
Speaker 1: need to make the series a track meet. They need
Speaker 1: to have as much chaotic ball in player movement as
Speaker 1: possible to make Boston make mistakes in their switches into
Speaker 1: A big part of it, too, is like Boston tends
Speaker 1: to like do you remember that shot that Derek White
Speaker 1: took when Tyres Haliburton was trailing the play and Tyres
Speaker 1: Aliburton blocked him? It was I think it was the
Speaker 1: one right before Tyres Haliburton took that stupid ass or
Speaker 1: semi transition three on the left wing right in the
Speaker 1: final two minutes, Like on that possession, it's like you're
Speaker 1: you're playing too chaotically, Like slow the hell down, You can't.
Speaker 1: You haven't even looked at the floor yet to realize
Speaker 1: that Tyres is not even in the picture yet, Like
Speaker 1: he's clearly going to be trailing the play somewhere.
Speaker 2: Slow down and execute. That's the thing.
Speaker 1: When Indiana plays fast, it bits Boston into playing fast.
Speaker 1: And then they can start making mistakes. And so again,
Speaker 1: if you're Indiana, that's your pathway. Just continue to have
Speaker 1: as much bond player movement as possible, live in transition
Speaker 1: as much as possible, just generate as much chaos as possible,
Speaker 1: and then take care of the damn ball when you
Speaker 1: do get a situation where you have a lead late
Speaker 1: in the game, super entertaining Game one. I you know, Indiana.
Speaker 1: One of the things that have been thinking, I think
Speaker 1: people forget is like Tyre's Halliburton before his hamstring injury.
Speaker 1: The Pacers, I think started the season twenty and fourteen
Speaker 1: and they made it to the Ncason Tournament final, beat
Speaker 1: Boston and Milwaukee in that process, right, and Tyres Halliburton
Speaker 1: was like playing just absurdly good basketball, right, and like
Speaker 1: they they were the best offense in the league by
Speaker 1: a mile. At that point. They had a one to
Speaker 1: twenty three something offensive rating. The gap between them and
Speaker 1: number two was the same as the gap between two
Speaker 1: and number six. Like that's how good this Indiana offense is.
Speaker 1: When Tyres Halliburton is healthy and playing at the level
Speaker 1: that we know he's capable of. And like, I will
Speaker 1: say that, like even though I think Boston's gonna win,
Speaker 1: and I think, especially after tonight, they might win more
Speaker 1: more convincingly than we'd think.
Speaker 2: The Pacers are just really fun to watch.
Speaker 1: They make for an entertaining brand of basketball, and I
Speaker 1: just really enjoyed watching that basketball game. Looking forward to
Speaker 1: Game two on Thursday night, We're gonna be back tomorrow
Speaker 1: morning with the film session that's gonna go over some
Speaker 1: of the concepts that I was talking about to Celtics fans.
Speaker 1: Just come back to tomorrow morning to the feed and
Speaker 1: you're gonna see I'll basically just do the same film
Speaker 1: session that I expect Boston to do after this game tonight,
Speaker 1: and I'll just kind of go over and more detail
Speaker 1: some of the execution stuff I think that they can
Speaker 1: sharpen up in Game two. And then we'll be back
Speaker 1: tomorrow night live on YouTube after the final buzzer of
Speaker 1: Game one of Maverick's Wolves, a game I'm super super
Speaker 1: excited for.
Speaker 2: I will see you guys. Then the volume