Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. Here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. We are live on AMPS,
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Speaker 1: to the Eastern Conference Finals. Here Hoops Tonight is brought
Speaker 1: to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? Well,
Speaker 1: the Boston Celtics are now halfway to the greatest comeback
Speaker 1: in the history of the NBA, and I did a
Speaker 1: video yesterday talking about three things that I thought they
Speaker 1: had to do to have a chance to pull this off,
Speaker 1: and I thought a lot of those things kind of
Speaker 1: came to fruition in this particular game. I'm excited to
Speaker 1: break it all down. You guys know the job before
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Speaker 1: there's this old cliche. I think it actually originally was
Speaker 1: from a basketball coach. I might be wrong about that,
Speaker 1: but the cliche goes, hard work beats talent when talent
Speaker 1: doesn't work hard. Now in this series, it's a little
Speaker 1: more convoluted than that, because that's not just hard work
Speaker 1: from Miami. It's also better execution, which was kind of
Speaker 1: a theme during the NBA Finals last year that that
Speaker 1: was the probably the biggest driving factor was execution. So
Speaker 1: it's less about trying hard and more about making the
Speaker 1: right basketball decisions on a play by play basis. But fundamentally,
Speaker 1: the biggest difference between this year's Boston team and last
Speaker 1: year's Boston team is their consistency of effort. Last year,
Speaker 1: execution kind of ebbed and flowed and they would get
Speaker 1: out of the out of whack that way, but they
Speaker 1: were always consistently a dominant defensive team, and they just
Speaker 1: haven't been that way this year throughout the entire regular
Speaker 1: season and then again in this postseason run. Going into
Speaker 1: Game four, they were eight points worse per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions on the defensive end than they were in last
Speaker 1: year's playoff. Runt that's a huge difference. Think about how
Speaker 1: much that would be on the offensive end of the floor.
Speaker 1: Like for that Denver series, they score one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty two points per one hundred posessions against the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Imagine if that's one hundred and fourteen instead, You're not
Speaker 1: looking at a sweep anymore. You might be looking at
Speaker 1: a long series or a Laker win Like that's this huge.
Speaker 1: That's a gigantic difference in commitment to the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. So hard work does beat talent when
Speaker 1: talent doesn't work hard, But when the talent does work hard,
Speaker 1: there's nothing you can do about it. And that combination
Speaker 1: with Boston in particular is so devastating. We did that
Speaker 1: video yesterday talking about the three things Boston had to
Speaker 1: do to pull off this comeback, and the first one
Speaker 1: was fight, because in game three they did not fight.
Speaker 1: They let go of the rope and let themselves get
Speaker 1: their ass kicked by an inferior team from a talent
Speaker 1: peron effective right, and they brought the requisite fight in
Speaker 1: game four they responded to the runs. That was step one.
Speaker 1: Could they continue that into this game absolutely? And you
Speaker 1: saw that in all of the effort and energy parts
Speaker 1: of the game. They had a seventeen to seven advantage
Speaker 1: in second chance points, but particularly you saw it on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. Like, you're gonna see
Speaker 1: certain things that are impacted by length and athleticism, which
Speaker 1: is an advantage that Boston has. You're gonna see that
Speaker 1: contested rebound situations. Boston out rebounded them tonight. You're gonna
Speaker 1: see that running up and down the floor in transition.
Speaker 1: You know, uh, Boston got out in transition more tonight. Like,
Speaker 1: that's a huge natural part that comes with athleticism. And
Speaker 1: that's easy because the offensive end is kind of easy, right,
Speaker 1: But the defensive end is the number one place where
Speaker 1: your athletic tools can impact winning, and so to not
Speaker 1: devote resources in that direction is to play directly into
Speaker 1: Miami's strengths. The defensive intensity has to be the identity
Speaker 1: of this team that everything flows from. Remember last year,
Speaker 1: they would have these stretches where they would struggle with execution,
Speaker 1: they'd take some bad shots, they wouldn't be driving to kick,
Speaker 1: they'd be driving to try to finish in traffic, they'd
Speaker 1: complain about fouls, and they'd struggle with some transition defense stuff.
Speaker 1: As they're getting stuck in the front court. But the
Speaker 1: defensive end was a consistent piece for them last year.
Speaker 1: It has to be part of their identity. They forced
Speaker 1: the heat for the second consecutive game into sixteen turnovers,
Speaker 1: and just like in Game four, those sixteen turnovers led
Speaker 1: to twenty seven points off of turnovers. They dominated the
Speaker 1: game on the defensive end of the floor, and that
Speaker 1: was the difference. That has to be the identity of
Speaker 1: this team. But those of you guys who remember the
Speaker 1: third piece that I mentioned was Jason Tatum has to
Speaker 1: be the focal point of the offense and the idea
Speaker 1: there was rhythm. This is one of the most underdiscussed
Speaker 1: elements in the game of basketball. But you know, all
Speaker 1: things considered, why does a shot miss versus make right?
Speaker 1: There's a muscle memory involved. And I talk about this
Speaker 1: a lot, but like you know, NBA level shooters, Like
Speaker 1: if I put Jason Tatum on a shooting machine or
Speaker 1: just gave him two assistant coaches to rebound, and I said,
Speaker 1: take one hundred catch and shoot threes from the top
Speaker 1: of the key, he's gonna make close to eighty of them,
Speaker 1: probably somewhere right around seventy five, seventy seven of those
Speaker 1: one hundred shots, if not more, Yes, Steph Curry to
Speaker 1: do that drill. He is making ninety of them right.
Speaker 1: So why is it that that dips down to forty
Speaker 1: percent or less in a big playoff game. And the
Speaker 1: answer is because in a basketball game, it's not as
Speaker 1: clear cut. It's there's a rhythm, there's a there is
Speaker 1: a flow to the game, and it's the guy that
Speaker 1: feels most comfortable with the basketball in his hands that
Speaker 1: typically ends up handling the ball better, shooting the ball better.
Speaker 1: The game slows down for them mentally, and they make
Speaker 1: reads better. But you have to be in a flow.
Speaker 1: It's something you gain over the court of the game.
Speaker 1: And so if you disperse your ball handling responsibilities too much,
Speaker 1: you could end up in a situation where no one
Speaker 1: is really feeling good. It's kind of like the too
Speaker 1: many hands in the pot element. Those of you guys
Speaker 1: who listen to the show, and I know there's some
Speaker 1: of you out there that play in high school or
Speaker 1: playing college. You ever go up to like a rec
Speaker 1: center or a just any la fitness or something to
Speaker 1: play pickup and you meet up with a bunch of
Speaker 1: your buddies who also play in college, and they're all
Speaker 1: good players, and you all get on the same team,
Speaker 1: and just the team just feels janki and there's not
Speaker 1: really a ton of flow, even though you're all talented
Speaker 1: and you all know how to play, but it's because
Speaker 1: you all can do stuff with the ball in your hands,
Speaker 1: and there isn't a clear cut hierarchy, and sometimes it
Speaker 1: helps to just have one guy who's the guy and
Speaker 1: everyone else kind of playing off of them. And that's
Speaker 1: where Boston is at their best offensively, when the vast
Speaker 1: majority of possessions are dictated by Jason Tatum, and then
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown gets his token ice on the side, and
Speaker 1: then everyone else is playing off of that attention. Everyone
Speaker 1: else is attacking on the second side when Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: kicks to them and the defense is already in rotation,
Speaker 1: attacking closeouts looking to shoot, catch and shoot jumpers rather
Speaker 1: than trying to run plays for themselves. That's when Boston
Speaker 1: is at their best. And from the very start of
Speaker 1: this game, Jason Tatum absolutely dominated the basketball on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor. First possession, transition push, don't
Speaker 1: mess around with the half court if you don't need to.
Speaker 1: He's one of the best athletes on the floor. Gets
Speaker 1: a nice left handed layup off the glass. Then next
Speaker 1: possession runs a side pick and roll with Al Horford
Speaker 1: hits him with the pocket pass right, so hasn't really
Speaker 1: done anything too extravagant, but the ball's flowing through him.
Speaker 1: From there, he starts attacking Kevin Love in pick and roll,
Speaker 1: so much so that Eric Spolster promptly picks him out
Speaker 1: of the game. So first one he runs a I think,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, at this point in the game,
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry's guarding him, so he runs a pick and
Speaker 1: roll with Kevin Love and Al Horford's the screener and
Speaker 1: he comes off to the right side and Kyle Lowers
Speaker 1: chasing over the top of the screen, and Kevin Love
Speaker 1: just decides to leave and go back to Al Horford.
Speaker 1: So Jason Tatum goes up boom dunks it with two hands.
Speaker 1: Very next possession, they run the exact same play, right,
Speaker 1: Just don't need to do anything else, don't need to
Speaker 1: go to a different player, don't need to run a
Speaker 1: set like You've got an action that's working with a
Speaker 1: really good player that's now in rhythm, so Tatum dribbles
Speaker 1: off the screen. This time Kevin loves lingers and stays
Speaker 1: with Jason Tatum while Kyle Lowers chasing over the top.
Speaker 1: Throws the pass back to Alhover at the top of
Speaker 1: the key. Quick swing in the corner to Jaylen Brown,
Speaker 1: who's wide open because a bam at a bio had
Speaker 1: to rotate, gets a wide open three and he knocks
Speaker 1: it down. After that, a couple possessions later, cleared side
Speaker 1: ISO against Max Strus. We talked a lot about this
Speaker 1: in our show yesterday. But when you clear the side,
Speaker 1: it makes it so that help can only come from
Speaker 1: one side, And when help is only coming from one side,
Speaker 1: that makes it a lot harder for that defender, gives
Speaker 1: you more space to work with. He ends up beaten
Speaker 1: struce off the dribble to the right into the middle
Speaker 1: of the lane. Marcus Smart cuts down the middle, relocates
Speaker 1: to the left corner. Tatum throws a beautiful hook pass
Speaker 1: back over his head too. Smart in the left corner
Speaker 1: knocks down the three. After that, a nice little transition
Speaker 1: push and draws apply some rim pressure, draws multiple defenders.
Speaker 1: Swings to Al Horford. Another extra pass to Marcus Smart
Speaker 1: in the corner another three. Then those you guys might
Speaker 1: remember him trying to post up Max Struce on the
Speaker 1: right wing in a in a clear side ISO situation,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown kind of looks him off. Jalen Brown starts
Speaker 1: mixing up with the basketball. Jason Tatum is still calling
Speaker 1: for it. Then he spins off because Max Strews is
Speaker 1: trying to front him, and on the spin off, Jalen
Speaker 1: actually does lead him towards the basket, and Tatum makes
Speaker 1: this ridiculous touch pass to Al Horford in the corner
Speaker 1: because again he's just seeing everything before it's happening. Because
Speaker 1: he's dominating every possession, he has control of the flow
Speaker 1: of the game. Now Horford ends up not shooting the ball,
Speaker 1: it ends up getting worked around. He goes back to
Speaker 1: Marcus Martin in the corner. He misses the three, but
Speaker 1: there's an offensive rebound and Jason Tatum gets a wide
Speaker 1: open three on the left wing, which he's going to
Speaker 1: make because the ball feels great in his hands because
Speaker 1: he's had control of it over the course of the game.
Speaker 1: Then Tyler Zeller checks into the game, Jason Tatum immediately
Speaker 1: starts attacking it. So Robert Williams is a really nice
Speaker 1: shop on the first one of flipping the screen, so
Speaker 1: he sets up like he's going to go to the
Speaker 1: right side, on the right side of the screen, so
Speaker 1: to get Tatum going to his left, so Zeller sets
Speaker 1: up in a drop coverage on the right side of
Speaker 1: the screen if he's facing Tatum right. At the last second,
Speaker 1: Rob Williams flips the screen and as a result, Tatum
Speaker 1: gets around him, gets into the lane and ends up
Speaker 1: making a really nice and one layup over Cody Martin.
Speaker 1: So again you can tell in Miami's coverage, Zeller has
Speaker 1: to pick a side of the screen based on which
Speaker 1: way he thinks Tatum is going so that he can
Speaker 1: catch him as he's driving to the rim. So flipping
Speaker 1: the screen caught Zeller on the wrong side, so very
Speaker 1: next possession again, don't need to do anything different. You've
Speaker 1: got something here that's working. These Miami heat pick and
Speaker 1: roll defenders, these screen defenders in particular, cannot guard Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum in high pick and roll, so they're on the
Speaker 1: exact same thing. This time, Zeller stays on that. Zeller
Speaker 1: stays on the right side this time, expecting Rob to
Speaker 1: flip the screen again, just like he did on the
Speaker 1: previous possession. Nope, this time Rob stays on the right
Speaker 1: side of Tatum. Tatum goes right around him, goes up
Speaker 1: and throws down that vicious one handed jackhammer smash Towards
Speaker 1: the end of the first quarter. Again, at this point,
Speaker 1: the game's basically over. They're up what eighteen or whatever
Speaker 1: they were up at that point. Everything's through Tatum Again.
Speaker 1: I've said this a million times. I think Boston has
Speaker 1: the most talented roster in the entire NBA, but there
Speaker 1: needs to be a natural They have to organize themselves
Speaker 1: just like any other basketball team. They need guys who
Speaker 1: run primary side action, secondary side action, guys who could
Speaker 1: spot up in tach close out big man that can
Speaker 1: operate in screen and pop screen and roll situations. Right,
Speaker 1: same thing goes for the defensive end of the four.
Speaker 1: There's a list of responsibilities in your point attack guy,
Speaker 1: your lockin trail guy, your ball screen defender, your low
Speaker 1: man defender, like, there's all these different things that you're
Speaker 1: trying to fill in responsibilities on the court. Just because
Speaker 1: you have more talent doesn't mean that those responsibilities don't
Speaker 1: need to be filled they do. And one of the
Speaker 1: key responsibilities, like we talked about, is you need to
Speaker 1: have not just aggregate ball handling, but top end ball handling.
Speaker 1: Your best ball handler needs to have good control over
Speaker 1: a basketball game. Now, Jason Tatum, I don't think is
Speaker 1: as good as Jimmy Butler. I think Jimmy Butler's proven
Speaker 1: that over the last few playoff runs with less talent,
Speaker 1: He's going toe to toe with Jason Tatum and back
Speaker 1: to back playoff series. Right, But if you run everything
Speaker 1: through Tatum and you let him be the focal point
Speaker 1: of the offense, he can at the very least play
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler close. And if he plays him close, then
Speaker 1: your athleticism advantage, your off ball shooting advantage, your overall
Speaker 1: talent advantage, or overall all of those things will carry
Speaker 1: you the rest of the way. And it just slots
Speaker 1: every into a role. Right, all of a sudden, Derek
Speaker 1: White's taking a lot more catch and shoot threes instead
Speaker 1: of doing stuff off of the bounce. Right, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, Jalen Brown's ISO touches that he gets aren't
Speaker 1: taking away from Tatum, They're taking away from the other players,
Speaker 1: which who cares Tatum's the guy we want in a rhythm. Now,
Speaker 1: Jaln Brown's in a better rhythm because he's getting his touches.
Speaker 1: It all just flows better when they slot properly, with
Speaker 1: Tatum acting like a superstar rather than just one cog
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Speaker 1: That's a Ngi dot com. And you know, one of
Speaker 1: the biggest advantages of the way this game played out,
Speaker 1: same thing goes for Game four, was there was a
Speaker 1: big lead. Like in Game four, they were up double
Speaker 1: digits the vast majority of the fourth quarter. Game five,
Speaker 1: they're up twenty plus most of the second half. Right.
Speaker 1: What that does is that relieves the pressure. This Boston team,
Speaker 1: there's so talent, did that when they play low pressure
Speaker 1: basketball and they're just kind of free flowing and it's okay.
Speaker 1: If somebody randomly takes a bad shot, it's not going
Speaker 1: to totally disrupt things. They can get back down and
Speaker 1: go execute properly on the next possession. They just play free.
Speaker 1: They play low pressure basketball, and they look great but
Speaker 1: when things slow down, this is crazy. This stat is
Speaker 1: just mind boggling. In the first two games, when the
Speaker 1: game was in a clutch situation, so when the score
Speaker 1: was within five with less than five minutes left, they
Speaker 1: played seven total minutes of clutch basketball. In the first
Speaker 1: two games of the series, Miami had a plus seventy
Speaker 1: point two net rating in those seven minutes. They held
Speaker 1: Boston to a fifty three offensive rating, and they scored
Speaker 1: against Boston at a one twenty four offensive rating. They
Speaker 1: dominate Boston in the slow down environment because in that
Speaker 1: slow down environment, that's where Miami's execution advantage becomes a
Speaker 1: big deal. Suddenly Boston tightens up up, they start to
Speaker 1: get nervous. That starts to lead into their worst tendencies
Speaker 1: and they can have problems. Big margins equals loose basketball.
Speaker 1: Small margins equals tight basketball. You get the point, and
Speaker 1: in a tight basketball game, Miami has a huge advantage.
Speaker 1: And so as we look forward to Game six Boston,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it yet, and maybe Ryan, you could
Speaker 1: check that out and text it to me. But there
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what the line is yet, but my
Speaker 1: guess is that it's somewhere around five or six points,
Speaker 1: like Boston's gonna be a significant favorite. But everything is
Speaker 1: going to come down to can they keep the game
Speaker 1: in that loose, kind of free flowing nature. If Miami
Speaker 1: can keep it close, Miami can keep it close, they
Speaker 1: have a chance to end this series in six. Ryan
Speaker 1: just text me it looks like Boston's only a three
Speaker 1: point favorite, so it's a little bit less than I thought. Again,
Speaker 1: they're probably factoring in there that Miami's gonna play a
Speaker 1: very Miami's gonna play very desperate brand of basketball, which
Speaker 1: I expect them to. Miami's not gonna want anything to
Speaker 1: do with the games evan on the road in Boston.
Speaker 1: But I think Boston would win a game seven. So
Speaker 1: everything comes down to Game six in Miami. Gotta keep
Speaker 1: it close, got to find a way to slow the
Speaker 1: game down into a slow down half court environment. Now,
Speaker 1: I was generally impressed with Miami today in the sense
Speaker 1: with just how they competed. You know. I thought Duncan
Speaker 1: Robinson did a lot of really good stuff off of
Speaker 1: the bounce creating shots. I thought that Caleb Martin still
Speaker 1: had his scoring pop that he had earlier. Heyward Highsmith
Speaker 1: A Haywood high Smith just using his athleticism to make
Speaker 1: plays defensively, knocking down open shots, attacking the rim when
Speaker 1: he had opportunities to. They they competed, but there's a
Speaker 1: talent advantage here, and so again for Miami in particular,
Speaker 1: they're going to have to throw the kitchen sink in
Speaker 1: game six to keep this thing close. And then from there,
Speaker 1: it's the exact same thing that they used to win
Speaker 1: games one, two, and three. Slow down the game, keep
Speaker 1: it in the half court, take care of the basketball
Speaker 1: so you can keep your defense set, and then on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor, match up hunt with
Speaker 1: cleared side ISOs for Jimmy Butler, with Pam Andebayo operating
Speaker 1: in that kind of dunker spots, a semi circle area
Speaker 1: as a release valve. That's when they are at their best,
Speaker 1: and just letting Jason Jimmy Butler make plays again like
Speaker 1: it's gonna be they They've dug themselves in a hole
Speaker 1: the Celtics tab, so it's gonna require perfection in order
Speaker 1: to close this thing out. And Miami's a great team
Speaker 1: with two fantastic players at the top and the best
Speaker 1: coach in the league, and they're gonna have their home
Speaker 1: crowd behind them in a desperate situation to get to
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. But you are the more talented team, Boston,
Speaker 1: and when you play hard and you run everything through
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, you are the better team, and so that
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the key for them in Game six.
Speaker 1: All Right, guys, that is all I have for tonight.
Speaker 1: Keep an eye on the feeds tomorrow morning. I've got
Speaker 1: a thirty five minute special that I recorded today that
Speaker 1: just goes over all things NBA offseason for the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers. Dove into a bunch of stuff there, and
Speaker 1: then we will be going live again on Saturday night
Speaker 1: after the final buzzer of Game six of the Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference Finals. As always, I appreciate you guys rocking with me,
Speaker 1: and I'll see you tomorrow morning. The volume