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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by Fandel here at the volume Happy Friday, everybody. I
Speaker 1: am incredibly frustrated with the Boston Celtics tonight. I have
Speaker 1: not actively rooted for a team at all in this
Speaker 1: playoff run. Obviously, They've had teams that I've had predictions
Speaker 1: about and teams that I've hoped would win for the
Speaker 1: sake of my predictions. But tonight was the first time
Speaker 1: I was actually rooting for a team to win. I
Speaker 1: was rooting for Boston to win because if they won,
Speaker 1: I would have gotten Saturday and Sunday off this weekend,
Speaker 1: which would have been my first weekend off and over
Speaker 1: a month, and I was very much looking forward to
Speaker 1: that they had enough talent to do so it didn't
Speaker 1: go that way. I can't sit up here though, and
Speaker 1: just and say, oh, Boston didn't play hard, or you
Speaker 1: know that they let Miami get lucky. No, no no, no,
Speaker 1: Miami came in here tonight and played an incredible basketball
Speaker 1: game on both ends of the floor. Every single one
Speaker 1: of their players showed up in some capacity except for
Speaker 1: maybe bam At a bio on the offensive end the floor,
Speaker 1: which is a whole other story. And they came in
Speaker 1: here and they beat a team that has more talent
Speaker 1: than them on both ends of the floor, and I
Speaker 1: have to give them a resounding round of applause for that.
Speaker 1: I always talk about how there's a range of outcomes
Speaker 1: with a basketball team. It's the same thing for players
Speaker 1: to like, you're it's kind of like the floor ceiling conversation, right,
Speaker 1: like your your best punch versus your worst punch, And
Speaker 1: you know, Boston's best punch is not as good as
Speaker 1: excuse me, Miami's best punch is not as good as
Speaker 1: Boston's best punch, and Boston's worst punch might be better
Speaker 1: than Miami's worst punch, depending on who you ask. I
Speaker 1: tend to think that Boston's floor is pretty low. But
Speaker 1: if you catch them on the right night, and Miami
Speaker 1: throws their best punch and Boston throws a mediocre punch,
Speaker 1: they can win a huge road game in Boston to
Speaker 1: extend this series to seven. We're gonna break this game
Speaker 1: down in its entirety. We're gonna talk to Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the rest of the Miami
Speaker 1: role players. We're gonna talk about Boston and some of
Speaker 1: their late game execute you should and some of the
Speaker 1: issues I had with their process throughout this game. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk to some Jayson Tatum because I thought he
Speaker 1: was outplayed by Jimmy Butler and three of the six
Speaker 1: games of the series, which is something that you can't
Speaker 1: allow to happen if you're Jayson Tatum and you put
Speaker 1: yourself in that superstar class. And then we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about Game seven and what I expect
Speaker 1: to see there before we get started. If you guys
Speaker 1: could take the time to like this video, I would
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate that it helps us a lot. Also, if
Speaker 1: you could subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels so you
Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Also, if you
Speaker 1: can't finish this entire video for whatever reason and you
Speaker 1: can't spend more time on YouTube for whatever reason, check
Speaker 1: out our podcast feed. It's called Lakers Tonight. We're we're
Speaker 1: doing some rebranding after the season, but that's where you
Speaker 1: can find are the recording of these shows as soon
Speaker 1: as we finish, usually about an hour after we finished recording.
Speaker 1: And then, last but not least, follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Underscore Jason LT. We're gonna be doing a bunch
Speaker 1: of different video stuff as we go into the finals.
Speaker 1: That's where you're gonna go to see that sort of
Speaker 1: your content. But let's start with Jimmy Butler. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to everything. We're gonna get to the late
Speaker 1: game stuff um here in a little bit. But Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler was the hero of the night, and I think
Speaker 1: he deserves to be up first. A truly bizarre performance
Speaker 1: on a bunch of different levels. First of all, and
Speaker 1: I tweeted this out and I sincerely mean it. This
Speaker 1: was an all time great playoff performance from Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: Like pantheon level stuff. If you saw this from a Lebron,
Speaker 1: if you saw this from a Kobe or Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: or Steph Curry, we would be making the same case.
Speaker 1: And I don't believe in moving goalposts for players. For
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler, this is that type of performance. Forty seven points,
Speaker 1: nine rebounds, eight assists from three efficient everywhere else on
Speaker 1: the floor, got to the foul line. He was un
Speaker 1: freaking believable on defense. I'm gonna spend some time talking
Speaker 1: about that here in just a minute, because I think
Speaker 1: it's deeply impactful in a way that a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't see on first watch. You almost have to
Speaker 1: go back on the tape to see the different ways
Speaker 1: that he can be so disruptive to another team in
Speaker 1: the way they run their offense. The thing that I
Speaker 1: wanted to start with that's so interesting about this is
Speaker 1: just the dynamic Jimmy Butler in the previous three games
Speaker 1: average nine points and two assists, two assists in nine
Speaker 1: points from the field from three. Now, is there knee
Speaker 1: stuff involved, Yes, but that same knee stuff applied today,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler said himself after the game. My knees banged up.
Speaker 1: But everybody's banged up, and I'm not going to make
Speaker 1: the excuses, and that's the truth. Marcus Smart is banged up.
Speaker 1: You know, Jason TAM's dealing with a shoulder dinger. You
Speaker 1: know Jalen Brown in the first half tonight would need
Speaker 1: a knee with somebody. If you've ever had that feeling
Speaker 1: that lingers for a while, everyone's banged up. But for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, the Jimmy Butler that we saw in the
Speaker 1: previous three games was replaced by a guy who was
Speaker 1: capable of putting out an absolute pantheon all time great
Speaker 1: NBA playoff performance, and it stole a game on the
Speaker 1: road to extend this series to seven. For those of
Speaker 1: you have been listening to my show for a while, UM,
Speaker 1: I always talk about the problem with tricking off playoff games.
Speaker 1: There's certain stuff that's out of your control to some extent,
Speaker 1: right like Boston, what what happened to them in Game
Speaker 1: three of this series not trying when they came out
Speaker 1: the gate. It's very different than some of the issues
Speaker 1: they've had earlier in this playoff run. They've lost games
Speaker 1: because of execution, But execution, in large part comes down
Speaker 1: to your decision makers, that's not something that you know,
Speaker 1: you can focus really hard to take care of in
Speaker 1: the sense that like that's kind of in their nature
Speaker 1: as basketball players. They're finicky when they make decisions. Some
Speaker 1: nights they are dialed in and they're doing it the
Speaker 1: right way, and some nights they're not right. But when
Speaker 1: you trick off a game the way you did in
Speaker 1: Game three, which was very much in your control, when
Speaker 1: you came out in the first quarter and you weren't
Speaker 1: giving effort and you were being or or even just
Speaker 1: the third quarter of Game one, when you were just
Speaker 1: persistently turning the ball over. Jayson Tatum at six turnovers
Speaker 1: just in that quarter, that's that's I don't care how
Speaker 1: much of a facilitating weakness you have. Six turnovers in
Speaker 1: a quarter is inexcusable. When you trick off games early
Speaker 1: in the series, you run the risk of an outlier
Speaker 1: performance like Jimmy Butler going for forty seven, nine and eight,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler transforming into prime Lebron James. You run the
Speaker 1: risk of that happening when you have a chance to
Speaker 1: close that a series in Game six. And that's why
Speaker 1: it's so important to feel that urgency early in series.
Speaker 1: Even when you're going against a team that you know,
Speaker 1: you have an advantage against a talent advantage because in
Speaker 1: a large sample size, talent wins, but in a short
Speaker 1: sample size, variants wins. In a short sample size, you
Speaker 1: can go cold. In a short sample size, you can
Speaker 1: make a handful of mistakes at the end of a
Speaker 1: game and it can cost you. In a short sample size,
Speaker 1: a player that averaged nine points in his previous three
Speaker 1: games can go for forty seven or max strus. A
Speaker 1: player who couldn't hit a shot in the last few
Speaker 1: games can get hot and make a bunch of key
Speaker 1: three pointers in this game. That is the problem with
Speaker 1: tricking off games. You run into this type of predicament.
Speaker 1: But Jimmy Butler, you know it's not. It's an outlier
Speaker 1: compared to the way he played in this series, and
Speaker 1: it's an outlier compared to his regular averages in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Like Jimmy Butler's typically about a twenty point per game
Speaker 1: guy in the playoffs. That's just what he is. But
Speaker 1: we have seen tons of examples over the years of
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler flashing this type of upside in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: You absolutely knew that was a risk. Is it shocking, Yes,
Speaker 1: this might be his best playoff game ever, But you
Speaker 1: always knew there was a risk with Jimmy Butler. He
Speaker 1: dropped forty in the finals twice against Lebron. That's always
Speaker 1: been one of the potential outcomes when you're playing against
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler. Really quickly, I wanted to talk about his
Speaker 1: defense because I think, you know, I had people asking
Speaker 1: like why don't in in my Twitter mentions like why
Speaker 1: don't people backdoor cut? More like why is it that
Speaker 1: Jimmy can recover so easily? Why does it always feel
Speaker 1: like he's in the right spot. It's instincts, you know.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of different things that go into defense,
Speaker 1: right Like your physical tools play a certain role, your
Speaker 1: commitment physically getting into shape in terms of your conditioning,
Speaker 1: also just your willingness to do the work. There's focus
Speaker 1: right up here. A huge part of defense is that
Speaker 1: I remember one time when I was when I was
Speaker 1: playing basketball in college. One time I botched a coverage
Speaker 1: in a key late game situation, uh, chasing a shooter
Speaker 1: over the top of the screen. I was supposed to
Speaker 1: chase him over the top. I went underneath the screen,
Speaker 1: and I got pulled from the game and I had
Speaker 1: to sit crunch time because my coach didn't trust me
Speaker 1: to finish that coverage for the rest of that game.
Speaker 1: That's part there's so many different elements that going to defense.
Speaker 1: That's one that constantly gets overlooked. Your your focus on
Speaker 1: the game plan, your ability to execute that. And Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 1: his instincts, his ability to focus, his ability to do
Speaker 1: those things in conjunction with his physical tools, in conjunction
Speaker 1: with his conditioning, and his commitment amounts to a guy
Speaker 1: that can be downright disruptive all night. Tonight. I thought
Speaker 1: he did a really nice job of in the passing lanes,
Speaker 1: baiting players into thinking he wasn't a threat. That's with
Speaker 1: body language. That's like it's like you think of a
Speaker 1: no look pass, it's like a no look steel. Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler being in a position where his he tricks you
Speaker 1: with his body language into thinking he's in the passing
Speaker 1: lane but not paying attention, or that he's a step
Speaker 1: too far away to get to a pass. But then
Speaker 1: as soon as you start your passing motion, he's shooting
Speaker 1: like a dart into that lane. That's all instincts and focus.
Speaker 1: But that instinct part is one of the another part
Speaker 1: of defense that frequently gets clossed over. Some of this
Speaker 1: this is not coachable. This is something that you can't
Speaker 1: train someone into doing. Some people just have a nose
Speaker 1: for the ball. We talked about this a lot last
Speaker 1: night when I was talking about Clay Thompson and I
Speaker 1: was talking about Kavan Looney. Great rebounders in NBA history
Speaker 1: have a knack for just knowing where the ball is
Speaker 1: going to come off the rim. Great shooters in NBA
Speaker 1: history just have a knack for where to relocate to
Speaker 1: give themselves their best opportunity to get an open shot.
Speaker 1: And great defensive players like Jimmy Butler have a knack
Speaker 1: for understanding how plays develop. They understand when the backdoor
Speaker 1: guts come, cuts coming, they understand when the swing passes coming.
Speaker 1: They can see plays develop before they happen, which allows
Speaker 1: them to be in the right spot to blow plays up.
Speaker 1: Just an unbelievable, masterful two way performance. When you factor
Speaker 1: in the degree of difficulty on some of the shots
Speaker 1: he was making, When you factor in the timeliness of
Speaker 1: the shots and the impact they had on the game.
Speaker 1: When you factor in the quality of his supporting cast,
Speaker 1: he does not have as much talent on his team
Speaker 1: as Boston does. And when you factor in the stakes
Speaker 1: down three two on the road in Boston, that is
Speaker 1: an all time great playoff performance from Jimmy Butler. So
Speaker 1: tip of the cap to him if he does If
Speaker 1: he does it one more time and closes his out
Speaker 1: in game seven, that's one of the all time great
Speaker 1: NBA accomplishments for Superstar to beat a team again, like
Speaker 1: everything is more complicated than it looks on the surface,
Speaker 1: but Johannest couldn't push his team over the top. If
Speaker 1: Jimmy could pull that off, that'd be a remarkable accomplishment
Speaker 1: because I thought that Bucks team was better than this
Speaker 1: Miami Heat team depending on who you ask. Obviously, I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about some of the Miami role players
Speaker 1: because I thought shot making was a very important part
Speaker 1: of tonight's game. Now, what is the difference between shooting
Speaker 1: and shot making? Shooting to me has to do with
Speaker 1: your ability to finish plays that are created by people
Speaker 1: elsewhere on the floor. Right, So like if Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: drives and kicks to Maxter's wide open in the corner
Speaker 1: with seven seconds on the shot clock. That's the shooting
Speaker 1: opportunity right. To me, shot making is off script. To me,
Speaker 1: shot making is bailing out possessions, making tough shots over contests,
Speaker 1: the shots that are on the margins of these half
Speaker 1: court sets that are not great opera tunities. You know,
Speaker 1: over the course of a game, you expect your offense
Speaker 1: to generate a certain amount of open shots, and then
Speaker 1: you expect, you know, you have to have possessions that
Speaker 1: go south right, And when those possessions go south, one
Speaker 1: of two things can happen. You can either have guys
Speaker 1: bail you out with shot making, or you can miss
Speaker 1: and run back the other way. On defense in Miami's
Speaker 1: I think Miami's biggest weakness in their roster construction is
Speaker 1: shot making because most of the guys on this roster
Speaker 1: require being open to make shots. Guys like Kyle Lowry
Speaker 1: and Tyler Harrow and Duncan Robinson and Max trus They
Speaker 1: are guys that typically succeed only when the offense generates
Speaker 1: them open looks. Maybe the best guy that bunches a
Speaker 1: guy like Tyler Harrow, but again, he likes to come
Speaker 1: off terrible handoffs and high ball screens to get to
Speaker 1: a spot where he can elevate when he has when
Speaker 1: he has an opening to operate in. Jimmy Butler really
Speaker 1: is the only guy on the roster who's a great
Speaker 1: shot maker, a guy who can rescue possessions. But I
Speaker 1: thought Max Strusce and Kyle Lowry both helps Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: tonight with massive shot making an end of shot clock situations.
Speaker 1: Max Strews made a huge three on the right wing
Speaker 1: in the late third quarter that kind of stemmed the
Speaker 1: tide of a Boston run. And then I thought Kyle
Speaker 1: Lowry hit one of the biggest shots of the night.
Speaker 1: After Derek White makes a three in the right corner
Speaker 1: to give Boston lead. Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry runs
Speaker 1: some Jankee little dribble handoff sequence on the right on
Speaker 1: the right wing. It's defended really well. Marcus Smart kind
Speaker 1: of anticipates it and gets a late close out on
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry and he just sticks it like a twenty
Speaker 1: six ft contested three. That's not just shooting within the
Speaker 1: flow of your offense. That's shot making, that's creating something
Speaker 1: out of nothing. And I think you need a certain
Speaker 1: amount of that, especially in the playoffs because of the
Speaker 1: fact that the easy opportunities are few and far between,
Speaker 1: and having guys that can rescue possessions brings a ton
Speaker 1: of value. So Miami's role players I thought all came
Speaker 1: through in big in a big way tonight. The only
Speaker 1: guy again and that I could be critical of his
Speaker 1: bam at a bio who for whatever reason just seems
Speaker 1: content to basically UHCT just basically be Kevon Looni for
Speaker 1: this team. I've never seen anything like it for a
Speaker 1: guy who dictates a max contract with his impact on
Speaker 1: both ends of the four typically truly bizarre on that front.
Speaker 1: But a massive performance from the Miami role players, a
Speaker 1: massive performance from Jimmy Butler, and I am working Sunday
Speaker 1: night and we're gonna we're gonna be covering Game seven.
Speaker 1: Immediately after the final buzzer on Sunday Night, I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about Boston for a minute because their execution
Speaker 1: has been my biggest personal issue with them in this
Speaker 1: postseason run. Again, I talked about them being the Jackal
Speaker 1: and high team of this playoff run, and what that
Speaker 1: means to me is they have the lowest floor in
Speaker 1: the highest ceiling or or the biggest gap between their
Speaker 1: ceiling and their floor, but it's not typically related to effort.
Speaker 1: Game three was the outlier. That game was the first
Speaker 1: time I can remember in this playoff run where they
Speaker 1: really came out flat and arrogant, underestimating their opponent. Which again,
Speaker 1: if that doesn't happen, this series would already be over.
Speaker 1: They would have won this series in five games had
Speaker 1: they not done that. And they damn near won that
Speaker 1: game anyway. They had it within one, within a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes left. But more often than not, their issue
Speaker 1: has not been effort, it's been execution. We talked about
Speaker 1: their decision making. Boston's defense is so good in the
Speaker 1: half court, but when you gift Miami twenty two points
Speaker 1: off of turnovers, that's that's a fifth of their production
Speaker 1: in this game. That's a huge swing. You're gifting them
Speaker 1: a fifth of their offense by gifting them transition opportunities.
Speaker 1: That's all comes down to execution. There was a play
Speaker 1: early in the game it's this is this This to
Speaker 1: me encapsulates the Boston decision making issue that they have
Speaker 1: from their perimeter initiators. It's nineteen to nine Miami has
Speaker 1: a big early lead. There's a nice little betting opportunity
Speaker 1: at they You could have gotten Miami at like plus
Speaker 1: to win the first quarter. Thought about it, but I
Speaker 1: ended up passing on it. It's nineteen to nine, Miami's
Speaker 1: on a run, typical start to a close out game,
Speaker 1: right and Jalen Brown comes down after after Boston or
Speaker 1: Miami just scored to put them up ten, and your
Speaker 1: offense is not functioning. He came down the right wing
Speaker 1: and just shot a pull up three off the dribble
Speaker 1: that was moderately contested by Jimmy Butler early in the
Speaker 1: shot clock, and it went in. That's the wild part.
Speaker 1: They went in brought the game to nineteen twelve. But
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there watching on the couch and I'm like,
Speaker 1: why did he take that shot? Your offense is struggling.
Speaker 1: You desperately need to get something easy to get you going.
Speaker 1: Miami's on a run. You need this is that Those
Speaker 1: are the moments when you have to rein it in
Speaker 1: with your decision making, not continue to fan out wildly.
Speaker 1: And it was a bizarre shot again, he made it,
Speaker 1: but to me, it's a great indicator of bad process.
Speaker 1: The Boston Celtics laugh a floor general. I know the
Speaker 1: Celtics fans think Marcus Smart as the floor general. He
Speaker 1: is not. He had a possession in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: where he just dribbled the ball around on the perimeter
Speaker 1: literally until the shot clock ran out, and jacked up
Speaker 1: at three at the end of the buzzer and hit
Speaker 1: the barely graze the front of the rent. Didn't even
Speaker 1: throw a pass on the possession. Like, Marcus Smart is
Speaker 1: not a four general. But because nobody on the team
Speaker 1: has that instinct, they walked down the floor nine and
Speaker 1: there's nobody to say, give me the ball, Let's run
Speaker 1: our sets, let's get a good shot, let's start executing
Speaker 1: so we can get this game back under control. It's
Speaker 1: something actively missing from the roster. It's and Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: draws a foul, goes to the line. This is literally
Speaker 1: how the next six possessions for both teams went Daylen
Speaker 1: Brown misses both free throws, which again it's unfortunate. It
Speaker 1: happens though, like you can't. I mean, if you're three
Speaker 1: point a free throw shooter, is a good chance you'll
Speaker 1: miss one. Attitude, which means there's always a possibility that
Speaker 1: you'll miss both. They come right down on defense, and
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler has been persistently trying to attack Derek White
Speaker 1: because he's small. So Boston has been doing what Golden
Speaker 1: State in Miami and a lot of these guys have
Speaker 1: been doing to avoid switches. They're doing a hedge and recover.
Speaker 1: We've broke that down several times over the course of
Speaker 1: the last couple of nights. Essentially, when the when the
Speaker 1: when the screen is coming, whoever it is that you
Speaker 1: do not want switching onto the offensive player has to
Speaker 1: hard hedge because if you hard headed, then Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: has to dribble around you, and if you has to
Speaker 1: dribble around you, he bye bye. By the workings of
Speaker 1: the coverage, should have to retreat because if you actually
Speaker 1: said a good hard head, he has to go outside
Speaker 1: of you to turn around. And so if you do
Speaker 1: it right, it forces you to go around in a
Speaker 1: bias time for Jalen Brown to get underneath the screen
Speaker 1: and recover. All right, I think it was actually Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart guarding Jimmy Butler on this play. But what happens
Speaker 1: They run up to set the screen and Derek White
Speaker 1: doesn't hedge or goes to hedge, but he's way too late,
Speaker 1: and as a result, Jimmy Butler goes flying downhill and
Speaker 1: gets an and one over Al Horford. So it's a
Speaker 1: botched defensive coverage again off of a free throw situation.
Speaker 1: Now he missed it, but it's a free throw situation.
Speaker 1: You should have your defense set. That is poor execution.
Speaker 1: That is Jimmy Butler capitalizing on you not being sharp.
Speaker 1: Boston goes down. Now it's not one or one, o,
Speaker 1: two to ninety nine. Boston goes down. Tatum is posting
Speaker 1: on the right and p J. Tucker is guarding Derek White,
Speaker 1: and p J Tucker just simply goes to double Jayson Tatum.
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum rips through to the baseline, gets cut off
Speaker 1: and spins back and somehow just was completely unaware of
Speaker 1: the fact that p JA Tucker was coming. Mind you, before,
Speaker 1: before Jayson Tatum even started the move, p J Tucker
Speaker 1: was already coming with the double. He had to have
Speaker 1: known that was coming. He spun back into p J
Speaker 1: Tucker and immediate they turned it over. Jayson Tatum turned
Speaker 1: the ball over seven times in this game. Then Boston. Okay,
Speaker 1: so he turned it over. That sucks. Miami's out executed
Speaker 1: you three possessions in a row. It's really unfortunate. They
Speaker 1: got three point lead. But sit down and get a stop. No,
Speaker 1: they commit a foul as we're working down in transition,
Speaker 1: a pointless foul in the penalty that accomplished nothing for
Speaker 1: your defense, and just set Miami to the line. They
Speaker 1: make both free throws. Now it's a five point game.
Speaker 1: Then you go down and you execute well, and you
Speaker 1: get a wide open three for Al Horford on the
Speaker 1: left wing, wide open, and he missed it. That happens, right,
Speaker 1: But that's the only possession where you executed properly to
Speaker 1: get a good look down the stretch. And after he
Speaker 1: missed it, both Jayson Tatum and Derek White and Marcus
Speaker 1: Smart I'll just started hacking like crazy at p J.
Speaker 1: Tucker may or may not have gotten all ball. I
Speaker 1: think on the one that they called the foul was
Speaker 1: all ball, but the one before that was a foul.
Speaker 1: And typically when ref sea guys just hacking like crazy
Speaker 1: on a rebound like that, they're gonna call a foul.
Speaker 1: And guess what happened. They called a foul and peach
Speaker 1: At Tucker got to go down to shoot two free
Speaker 1: throws and then the game's over. That games right there
Speaker 1: for the taking, and methodically down the stretch. You made
Speaker 1: mistakes while the other team executed. That is the biggest
Speaker 1: weakness of this Boston team. They are a bad execution team. Now,
Speaker 1: I've had people say, you know, Jason, if if Boston
Speaker 1: is the most talented team on both ends, if they
Speaker 1: can't execute, doesn't that mean they're a bad team. If
Speaker 1: they're unfocused, doesn't I mean they're a bad team. If
Speaker 1: they're too volatile and they're spread between their good side
Speaker 1: and their bad side, doesn't mean that means they're a
Speaker 1: bad team. Well, I think bad's not the right word,
Speaker 1: but you're that's that's a very fair point. If a
Speaker 1: team is persistently showing you they are inconsistent, then you
Speaker 1: can't evaluate them by their upside. You have to evaluate
Speaker 1: them by kind of the average between the two. And
Speaker 1: so here's the thing. If Miami goes home in Game
Speaker 1: seven and wins, Miami is the better team, not in talent,
Speaker 1: but they're the better basketball team. Because the best basketball
Speaker 1: teams in the world do execute on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor. The best basketball teams in the world, do
Speaker 1: try hard every single night. The best basketball teams in
Speaker 1: the world are sharp. In Boston is not. That's why,
Speaker 1: even though I said Boston is the most talented team
Speaker 1: in the league when the series was tied, it to
Speaker 1: what did I tell you, guys that are not out
Speaker 1: of the woods yet, Because they're just as likely to
Speaker 1: blow this as they are to win it. When I
Speaker 1: was making my prediction about the Golden State Boston Finals, potentially,
Speaker 1: when I was breaking that down last night, what did
Speaker 1: I say. I'm siding with Golden State because I trust
Speaker 1: them more to execute their game plan and to reach
Speaker 1: their individual ceilings and their team ceiling that Boston has tried. Look,
Speaker 1: it's a it's an old, you know, little life philosophy.
Speaker 1: When someone tries again and again to show you who
Speaker 1: they are, believe them. Boston has shown us their untrustworthy,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't make sense to trust them. I mean,
Speaker 1: looking forward to Game seven, Boston should win. Right, They're
Speaker 1: more talented on both ends of the floor. That's what
Speaker 1: happened in Milwaukee, Right. They toasted off Game five at home,
Speaker 1: and then they went into Milwaukee, and even when they
Speaker 1: were trailing a little bit late, they just put it
Speaker 1: all together finally and hit their ceiling and beat that
Speaker 1: Milwaukee team. That's very possible in Game seven. My thing is, like,
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in the basketball gods. I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in basketball karma. I don't know what you
Speaker 1: want to call it, but like, this has to burn
Speaker 1: them eventually. This volatility has to eventually burn this team,
Speaker 1: and I it might be in Game seven against Miami,
Speaker 1: or it might be against Golden State in the finals.
Speaker 1: We'll see, But I just I can't imagine a team
Speaker 1: that is this volatile hole and that executes this poorly
Speaker 1: hoisting up the Larry O'Brien Trophy. I would be shocked.
Speaker 1: At this point. Obviously, it's still a possibility, and my
Speaker 1: predictions have been all over the place in this playoff run,
Speaker 1: as as as many incensed Warriors fans have been uh
Speaker 1: kind enough to let me know. But I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know what to expect from this Boston team. Predicting
Speaker 1: with them feels like a fool's Errand the last thing
Speaker 1: I want to talk about tonight was Jayson Tatum. Again.
Speaker 1: He had thirty. He was efficient, I thought, I think
Speaker 1: he only took like twelve shots did a really nice
Speaker 1: job kind of navigating as a decoy throughout the night,
Speaker 1: but too many mistakes. Seven turnovers, and when Miami scores
Speaker 1: twenty two points off of turnovers in the game, again,
Speaker 1: your feed your spoon, feeding them offense when they're a
Speaker 1: team that struggles to score in the half court, I
Speaker 1: can't happen. Now. Jayson Tatum is a player that I
Speaker 1: look at, as you know, in that tier of superstars. Right.
Speaker 1: We've talked about that a lot in this playoff run.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Jimmy Butler's not guy. And he's
Speaker 1: outplayed you three times in this series, and all three
Speaker 1: times it led to a win. So at a certain point, like,
Speaker 1: if you're Jason Tatum and you are that superstar, you
Speaker 1: have to come through. I I I wish I could
Speaker 1: say that I feel confident that he's gonna go into
Speaker 1: Miami and Game seven and close the deal. But I
Speaker 1: just don't know. He should have closed the deal tonight.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's he's seen the traps often in this series.
Speaker 1: He's seen Tatum playing passing lanes NonStop in this series.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, Jimmy Butler playing passing lanes non stopping this
Speaker 1: series he knew tonight and still turn the ball over
Speaker 1: seven times. It was a bizarre performance. So lots on
Speaker 1: steak at steak for him to going into Game seven
Speaker 1: to close this deal. That's the nature of the expectations
Speaker 1: that come with being a superstar. Gun to my head,
Speaker 1: if I had to pick a team in Game seven,
Speaker 1: I'd pick Boston, but I damn sure don't feel good
Speaker 1: about it, And if anything, I'll be rooting for Miami
Speaker 1: because because us, that took away my weekend. Alright, So
Speaker 1: the Lakers have a new head coach. I wanted to
Speaker 1: take a couple of minutes tonight to break down why
Speaker 1: I think Darvin Ham is such a good hire. Talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about the Lakers front office and what's
Speaker 1: next for them, as well as just what I expect
Speaker 1: moving forward as they're rounding out the rest of the
Speaker 1: coaching staff. So, um, you know, they narrowed it down
Speaker 1: to Terry Stott's and Kenny Atkinson and Darvin Ham. There
Speaker 1: were some rumors out there about dr revers. We'll get
Speaker 1: to those in just a few minutes. The Kenny Atkinson
Speaker 1: and Terry Stott's examples, I didn't think they were bad
Speaker 1: options necessarily, I think both of them have a little
Speaker 1: bit more experience in terms of offensive organization as head coaches,
Speaker 1: and they've demonstrated in their personal experience better offensive organization.
Speaker 1: And I do think offensive organization is vitally important to
Speaker 1: this Lakers team to a certain extent, But I think
Speaker 1: there's something far more important to this Lakers team, and
Speaker 1: that's restoring their identity that they built in the season,
Speaker 1: which was as a defensive team. And as you're seeing
Speaker 1: routinely in this playoff run, it is the teams that
Speaker 1: hang their hat on the defensive end that end up
Speaker 1: having the most success, especially as you get later into
Speaker 1: the postseason. So, first of all, schematically, I think it's
Speaker 1: a seamless transition for Darvin Hamd with what he brings
Speaker 1: over from Milwaukee to the Lakers. The Bucks ran a
Speaker 1: twin rim protector system. They used Janice and Brook Lopez
Speaker 1: at the same time, typically Janice navigating the screen and
Speaker 1: roll coverage because he's more mobile, and brook Lopez on
Speaker 1: the back line as a rim protector. But there was
Speaker 1: some interchangeability there, although Brooke wasn't as good in his
Speaker 1: drop coverage as Janice was. As you can see, Janice
Speaker 1: is capable of some things and drop coverage that are
Speaker 1: you know, no other NBA player can do, like his
Speaker 1: block that he had on DeAndre and in the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals last year. But what I like about that coverage
Speaker 1: is I think it's a good example of a coverage
Speaker 1: that can help the Lakers eat innings in the regular season.
Speaker 1: I prefer switching defenses. I've laid this out in detail
Speaker 1: on the show. I think it bates teams into isolation basketball.
Speaker 1: I think gets easier on teams physically because they don't
Speaker 1: have to fight through screens as often. It takes the
Speaker 1: strain of defense off of the physical the physical elements,
Speaker 1: and puts it on your brain. As long as you're
Speaker 1: focused and paying attention and you're communicating with your teammates,
Speaker 1: you can run a successful switching scheme without having to
Speaker 1: battle through a ton of physicality. Right. But a couple
Speaker 1: of things. First of all, teams don't like to switch
Speaker 1: too much in the regular season because those physical mismatches
Speaker 1: lead to wear and tear. Also, it requires a certain
Speaker 1: type of personnel. You can't run a successful switching scheme
Speaker 1: unless you have at least three or four really solid
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders on the team. You can do what you've
Speaker 1: seen Miami and Golden State do, where you have your
Speaker 1: weaker defenders do hedges and like basically do a hedge
Speaker 1: and recover to avoid a switch. But you can't do
Speaker 1: that when everyone on the floor is a defensive liability.
Speaker 1: You need a certain amount of overall defensive talent on
Speaker 1: the roster in order to make that work. A lot
Speaker 1: is up in the air in that department for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: We don't know what they're going to be able to
Speaker 1: accomplish this offseason. They don't have a ton of options,
Speaker 1: so much comes down to what they can get back
Speaker 1: for us. So much comes down to what they can
Speaker 1: find in the veteran minimum market, changing their priorities from
Speaker 1: the types of players that they targeted last offseason, which
Speaker 1: obviously did not pan out. If I hope that they
Speaker 1: can target enough bigger, stronger perimeter players that defend well
Speaker 1: that they can do more switching, but chances are that
Speaker 1: they won't be able to do that as much, and
Speaker 1: they'll have to be a team like Milwaukee that relies
Speaker 1: heavily on drop coverage as they go into the postseason.
Speaker 1: So because of that, I like the idea of taking
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham's twin rim protector scheme that he helped run
Speaker 1: with Milwaukee and bringing that into Lebron James and Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis plus Lebron James Anthony Davis for all of their
Speaker 1: issues with being engaged and carrying on the defensive end
Speaker 1: when they care, they're actually a better defensive duo than
Speaker 1: Brook Lopezigiana. So you could see a version of that
Speaker 1: working extremely well. So I love the the schematic train
Speaker 1: transition coming from Milwaukee to l A for Darvin. But
Speaker 1: that buying that, that trying on defense part that I
Speaker 1: just hinted at is the second and is the second
Speaker 1: big element here and arguably the most important, you know,
Speaker 1: for everything that we can talk about with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Over the course of the last two seasons, there were
Speaker 1: two consistent issues. One, Lebron James and Anthony Davis weren't
Speaker 1: on the floor together enough. Over the course the last
Speaker 1: two seasons. It just was an incessant line of injury
Speaker 1: to one guy or the other. It was incredibly discouraging
Speaker 1: and it never seemed like they could get a consistent
Speaker 1: stretch of games where the two guys were playing. But
Speaker 1: then last season, Anthony Davis had a bad defensive season
Speaker 1: by his standards in terms of his overall engagement. And
Speaker 1: then this last season, Lebron James and Anthony Davis had
Speaker 1: bad defensive seasons by their personal standards, And I think
Speaker 1: a lot of that has to do with just their
Speaker 1: egos and them having a hard time buying into these established,
Speaker 1: kind of uh traditional types of coaches, These guys that
Speaker 1: have been around the league for the long time, the
Speaker 1: guys that aren't former players, that don't really resonate with
Speaker 1: them when they're trying to look at them in the
Speaker 1: face and be like, hey man, I need you to
Speaker 1: play some defense. I saw Lebron James tune out Frank Vogel.
Speaker 1: I saw Anthony Davis tune out Frank Vogel. I saw
Speaker 1: Lebron James tune out David Blatt back in two thousand sixteen.
Speaker 1: It's been a pretty consistent theme for those guys. But
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a coincidence that you're seeing a
Speaker 1: lot of former players, guys like Jason Kidd, guys like Tylu,
Speaker 1: guys like you Udoka, Guys that were not just former
Speaker 1: NBA players but former remedia players that played relatively recently
Speaker 1: in the league in a way that they can, you know,
Speaker 1: have some common ground with these players, and also players
Speaker 1: that had a persona that was tough players that they're
Speaker 1: they're The impact that they had on the locker room
Speaker 1: as players was infectious toughness. I think that specific archetype
Speaker 1: archetype of coach is having a lot of success these days,
Speaker 1: resonating with some of the egotistical players around the league.
Speaker 1: Like I said before, you guys have seen Boston under
Speaker 1: Email Udoka go from a team that was notoriously soft
Speaker 1: to a team that is remarkably tough, and it's won
Speaker 1: some huge playoff games with their back against the wall
Speaker 1: in this playoff run. Right. You've seen Tyler and all
Speaker 1: the success he's had with the Clippers. He saw Jason
Speaker 1: Kidd finally get the Dallas Mavericks to play defense. Luk
Speaker 1: at Donchez, for all of his issues on defense, had
Speaker 1: a better season on that end than he's had in
Speaker 1: years past. That's the example of a a tough former
Speaker 1: player having an impact on their on big egos in
Speaker 1: the locker room and getting them to commit to that
Speaker 1: end of the floor. So I love the example that
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham kind of fits into and the way that
Speaker 1: I believe he will resonate with Lebron James and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: getting them not just on the floor, which is out
Speaker 1: of his control, but dialed in and bought in when
Speaker 1: they are on the floor, which is arguably the most
Speaker 1: important detail and the last, but not least tonight. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been incredibly critical of the Lakers front office in
Speaker 1: ownership group over the course of the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: and for good reason. I don't need to get into
Speaker 1: the details again, but they have burnt so many bridges
Speaker 1: for me as a as as someone who covered the
Speaker 1: franchise over the course of the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: I don't trust them at all, and all that criticism
Speaker 1: that I levity on them, I believe was fair and
Speaker 1: criticism is an important part of this job. But I
Speaker 1: also believe fairness is an important part of this job.
Speaker 1: If I'm gonna be critical of you, it's it's incomming
Speaker 1: on me to also call out your successes. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't agree with everything they did during this coaching search.
Speaker 1: I didn't believe it was necessary to continue to consult with,
Speaker 1: you know, play coaches and personalities that aren't involved in
Speaker 1: the NBA anymore, guys like Magic Johnson, guys like Phil Jackson.
Speaker 1: I disagreed with that approach personally, but in terms of
Speaker 1: the candidates they interviewed, the things that they prioritized. I
Speaker 1: loved their list of finalists, and then they picked the
Speaker 1: guy that I liked the most, the guy that I
Speaker 1: thought was best equipped for this job. So, you know,
Speaker 1: for a team that in an ownership group, in a
Speaker 1: front office that has had a pretty ugly history, I
Speaker 1: gotta tip the cap to him. This time they did.
Speaker 1: They did what I believe was a very a very procedural, smart,
Speaker 1: patient and you know, properly motivated coaching search. So hats
Speaker 1: off to them, you know, but this is the thing,
Speaker 1: as is always the case, you know, the best indicator
Speaker 1: of future performances past performance, and I'm worried about the
Speaker 1: future steps after this point. Now we have to round
Speaker 1: out the coaching staff with qualified candidates that compliment Darvin
Speaker 1: Hamm's uh persona, Right, it'd be great to have a
Speaker 1: guy who's specialist, who's a specialist in offensive organization, spacing concepts,
Speaker 1: things that I believe are vitally important in the playoff run.
Speaker 1: And then they have to round out the roster. You've
Speaker 1: got to give Darvin Ham the tools necessary to succeed.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I'm personally worried about for
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham is that this team is so poorly run
Speaker 1: that he's gonna end up being the next scapegoat for
Speaker 1: issues that are brought on by Rob Polinka and Jeanie Buss.
Speaker 1: I sincerely hope that's not the case. This is the
Speaker 1: first step in the right direction. They've got a lot
Speaker 1: more to do, but I'm very excited for Darvin Ham.
Speaker 1: This was the this is the first step in restoring
Speaker 1: the Lakers to where they were in But anyway, that's
Speaker 1: all I have for tonight, guys. I sincerely appreciate your support.
Speaker 1: As always, Again, if you guys could take the time
Speaker 1: to like this video, I would sincerely appreciate that it
Speaker 1: helps us a lot. If you could subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Volumes YouTube channel, follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason Lts,
Speaker 1: you guys can see my video content and then subscribe
Speaker 1: to our podcast feeds that are under Lakers. Tonight, we
Speaker 1: will be going live. I actually I don't think we're
Speaker 1: going live because I believe my producer is still out
Speaker 1: of town. So we're gonna be doing a video reaction
Speaker 1: just like this after Game seven on Sunday night, and
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys then