Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. I hope all of you
Speaker 1: guys are having a great weekend. Round one NBA Playoff
Speaker 1: coverage on Hoops Tonight is brought to you by Chase
Speaker 1: Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? We had a
Speaker 1: jam packed, highly entertaining day of Playoff hoops. I was
Speaker 1: traveling out of the country. My wife is turning thirty
Speaker 1: this week and our favorite thing to do is ski,
Speaker 1: So we're celebrating with a ski trip up in Whistler
Speaker 1: that I'm very, very excited about. But so I apologize
Speaker 1: that you guys had to wait a little bit longer.
Speaker 1: But I'm recording after two thirty am here in Vancouver
Speaker 1: so that our staff can get it up for you
Speaker 1: guys bright and early tomorrow morning. We're just gonna focus
Speaker 1: on Warriors Kings tonight and Nicks Caves. The Celtics and
Speaker 1: Sixers also notched very impressive wins, but just for the
Speaker 1: sake of the situation that I just laid out, we're
Speaker 1: gonna hit them a little bit later on in this week,
Speaker 1: so you guys know the drill before we get started.
Speaker 1: To subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss
Speaker 1: any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at
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Speaker 1: And if for whatever reason, you guys miss one of
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Speaker 1: to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk
Speaker 1: some basketball. So it's so funny when you start watching
Speaker 1: a playoff series, you could start to see these little
Speaker 1: matchup things start to play out, and you can tell
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the story of the series. And it's
Speaker 1: clear to me already through one game that the story
Speaker 1: of the series on the Warrior side of things is
Speaker 1: going to be can they contain Dear and Fox and
Speaker 1: Malik monk Off? The dribble was the vast majority of
Speaker 1: their defensive breakdowns tonight was just dribble penetration, and that's
Speaker 1: going to be a battle that they're going to have
Speaker 1: to figure out. And then on the other side of things,
Speaker 1: on the King side, where they particularly struggled, they defended
Speaker 1: the three point line really well, and they forced the
Speaker 1: Warriors into a lot of tough shots. There was some
Speaker 1: impressive shot making from Stephan Clay and we'll get a
Speaker 1: little bit deeper into that, but they didn't defend the
Speaker 1: rim well. As a matter of fact, the Warriors shot
Speaker 1: sixty eight percent on twos in this game. So if
Speaker 1: the Warriors adjust their shot selection and start to play
Speaker 1: more Warriors basketball and get more aggressive to try to
Speaker 1: generate rim pressure, they could be in some problem, in
Speaker 1: some trouble. So those are going to be the two
Speaker 1: major matchups that we're going to be looking at. Looking
Speaker 1: at the perimeter defense element, we talked about this a
Speaker 1: lot on this show, but I look at perimeter defense
Speaker 1: like the offensive line defensive line dynamic in the NFL,
Speaker 1: that push and pull ends up kind of going on
Speaker 1: underneath the radar a lot of the times because we
Speaker 1: focus on skill players. It's just the natural inclination we
Speaker 1: have as fans to focus on the more exciting things
Speaker 1: that are happening. But the reality is is whether or
Speaker 1: not you, you know, get a good push up front
Speaker 1: when you're trying to run the ball is going to
Speaker 1: make a lot bigger difference than anything involving the running
Speaker 1: back correct and whether or not you can protect the
Speaker 1: quarterback usually is going to go a long way towards
Speaker 1: giving your quarterback time to make reads and make the
Speaker 1: right reads and move the ball down the field through
Speaker 1: the air right. So you just absolutely have to have
Speaker 1: quality line play. And the same concept takes place in basketball.
Speaker 1: I don't care how well you communicate, I don't care
Speaker 1: how well you rotate. I don't care how athletic you are.
Speaker 1: If you're constantly in rotation, you will severely struggle to
Speaker 1: get stops as opposed to if you can flatten out
Speaker 1: drives and force guys to you know, it kind of
Speaker 1: goes even further to the way that your help defenders operate.
Speaker 1: If your help defender can just kind of sort of
Speaker 1: dig at the basketball but stay with his man as
Speaker 1: opposed to having the outright leave his man to hard help,
Speaker 1: that is makes a world of difference to you know,
Speaker 1: whether or not got in passing lanes, whether or not
Speaker 1: you can force turnovers as opposed to a wide open
Speaker 1: shooter standing on the perimeter. That push pull dynamic of
Speaker 1: perimeter defense means everything. Now, the encouraging part from the
Speaker 1: Warriors standpoint is, I do think they have the personnel
Speaker 1: to do so. Some of their problems they had down
Speaker 1: the stretch of this game was you know, getting beat
Speaker 1: and transition and leading to cross matches, or they spend
Speaker 1: a good amount of the time with Klay Thompson on
Speaker 1: Deer and Fox at the end of that game. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if that's a matchup they'll be able to
Speaker 1: stick with through the whole series. They might have to
Speaker 1: try to keep Gary Payton on the floor longer, or
Speaker 1: you know, but here's the problem, Like even Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: was struggling a bit with containing Maleak monk Off the dribble,
Speaker 1: so you know, and again like obviously he hasn't played
Speaker 1: a lot lately, so conditioning can play a role in that.
Speaker 1: Defensive rhythm can play a role in that. But it
Speaker 1: is what it is. And by the time this series
Speaker 1: is over, if the Warriors are going to advance, they're
Speaker 1: eventually going to have to figure out how to contain
Speaker 1: Deer and Fox and Malik monk Off the dribble. This
Speaker 1: is a consistent kind of like theme that you see
Speaker 1: in the NBA playoffs. We're going to talk about it
Speaker 1: a little bit more with the Nixon Cavs here in
Speaker 1: a minute, involving Cheddy Ousman and their decision to play
Speaker 1: him over Isaac Cacorro down the stretch, and the way
Speaker 1: that opened up a matchup for Jalen Brunson to attack.
Speaker 1: They were attacking Clay at the end of this game. Now,
Speaker 1: I want to give Clay the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 1: This is a one game sample, and we can even
Speaker 1: look back to the NBA Finals last year, and if
Speaker 1: you watch the film of the first three games of
Speaker 1: that series versus the last three games of that series,
Speaker 1: and you look at the difference in the way that
Speaker 1: guys like Klay Thompson were defending guys like Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: guys like Gary Payton, and then you look at the
Speaker 1: second half of that series and how they just locked
Speaker 1: everybody down. One of the most underrated plot lines of
Speaker 1: that NBA Finals series was Klay Thompson locked down Jaln
Speaker 1: Brown down the stretch of that series. And so that
Speaker 1: battle is something that can win in the long run.
Speaker 1: They just have to do a better job. It's less
Speaker 1: about schematics. I mean, maybe Steve Kerr has to get
Speaker 1: involved if you get deeper into this series and consistent
Speaker 1: matchups are getting beat But a lot of times it's
Speaker 1: just do better. You know, Clay's got to slide his
Speaker 1: feet better. Guy's got to get back and transition better
Speaker 1: on the offensive end for the Warriors, you know, and
Speaker 1: I want to credit the King is a great deal
Speaker 1: here because again, when you are in a drop coverage,
Speaker 1: which is the vast majority of what you're going to
Speaker 1: see in situations where Sabonis is involved in a screening action,
Speaker 1: right and it's technically not a drop coverage because he's
Speaker 1: coming up high out of his drop, but the semantics
Speaker 1: are unimportant. Whoever's guarding the screen or whether he's up
Speaker 1: at the level of the screen or he's back. Sabonis
Speaker 1: is just not bothering a lot as as shooters are
Speaker 1: coming up over the top. You saw Steph Curry hit
Speaker 1: a few shots in his face as he was coming
Speaker 1: over the drop coverage in the fourth quarter. But the
Speaker 1: guard has a very important job there. His job is
Speaker 1: to provide what's called a rear view contest, or to
Speaker 1: provide back pressure, whatever you want to call it. He's
Speaker 1: got to chase over the top. And there was a
Speaker 1: little stretch there in that fourth quarter where Stephan Clay
Speaker 1: got obscenely hot and they made some incredibly difficult shots.
Speaker 1: I think the three that Steph him hit in the
Speaker 1: corner on that like one timer catch and release from
Speaker 1: behind the backboard that was ridiculous. There was that crazy
Speaker 1: step back he hit on deer and Fox with like
Speaker 1: a minute and a half left that got it back
Speaker 1: within one. That was ridiculous. They hit some tough shots,
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson hit a couple of tough ones, but surrounding
Speaker 1: that were some ones that they missed. And again this
Speaker 1: is where you have to separate process from results. I'll
Speaker 1: give you an example. Towards the end of the game,
Speaker 1: there was a play where Andrew Wiggins with one. It
Speaker 1: was that final possession with like twenty something seconds left,
Speaker 1: Warriors are down one, and the Warriors actually get downhill
Speaker 1: and create triple penetration, get a paint touch, and they
Speaker 1: kick to Andrew Wiggins in the weak side corner and
Speaker 1: he misses the shot. And I get it, like Steph
Speaker 1: Curry's hot, You're thinking, get the ball to Steph. But
Speaker 1: that's a great shot for a good shooter, right. Whereas
Speaker 1: even the ones that Stephan Clay were making in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, if you asked them, they'd probably say, you know,
Speaker 1: those are tougher shots in our shot diet shots that
Speaker 1: were capable of making, but ideally we'd want to get
Speaker 1: something better. I felt like Steph and Clay were playing
Speaker 1: a little bit of home run ball there in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, and again like that's where you have to
Speaker 1: separate process and results. They made a few of those,
Speaker 1: but then they kept trying to do that and it
Speaker 1: wasn't working right and there was no rhythm in flow
Speaker 1: on their offense. And then they did finally generate a
Speaker 1: wide open shot for Wiggins and he missed it. So
Speaker 1: I do believe that over the course of the series,
Speaker 1: the pathway to victory for the Warriors is figuring out
Speaker 1: how to contain the basketball on the defensive end of
Speaker 1: the floor and then improving their offensive process. Don't play
Speaker 1: home run ball. The Kings are defending the three point
Speaker 1: line really well. The pain opportunities are there. They can't
Speaker 1: protect the rim. That's your opportunity to attack finish at
Speaker 1: the rim when you have the opportunity to and generate
Speaker 1: higher quality three point shots on the perimeter that are
Speaker 1: off the catch or your stand still facing the rim,
Speaker 1: either wide open or a close out coming that you
Speaker 1: can attack right like shot quality is going to bear
Speaker 1: out over a seven game series. In a one game
Speaker 1: sample size, anything can happen. There was a really tough
Speaker 1: shot that Harrison Barnes hit down the stretch of that game,
Speaker 1: like a poundryable step back, pull up three, really tough
Speaker 1: shot tip the cap. One game sample that like that
Speaker 1: can happen. But if you don't solve the shot the
Speaker 1: shot quality dynamic, then over seven games, that's not going
Speaker 1: to work out in your favor. I just rewatched I've
Speaker 1: watched the fourth quarter of King's Warriors at a at
Speaker 1: a bar in Los Angele, at an airport bar in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles while we were waiting for our flight, and
Speaker 1: I rewatched it just now and just kind of looked
Speaker 1: at all the offensive possessions there in that fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and like, look at the King shots, Like there's there
Speaker 1: were a couple tough ones in there, right, Like the
Speaker 1: Harrison Barnes one was tough. That there was a step
Speaker 1: back from darreon Fox over Draymond Green. That was tough.
Speaker 1: But outside of that, it's a lot of like darreon
Speaker 1: Fox getting tons of separation into a floater, getting all
Speaker 1: the way the ram, trying to dunk on people Malik
Speaker 1: Monk getting into the lane and drawing fouls and get
Speaker 1: into the rim and transition just beaten guys off the
Speaker 1: dribble and getting incredibly high quality shots. The two threes
Speaker 1: that Darren Fox hitt in the fourth quarter, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's not the same type of shooter as Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: but he's pretty damn open. Those are good looks for
Speaker 1: a guy who's having a really good shooting season and
Speaker 1: has been one of the best players in the league
Speaker 1: this year. So again, like the series won't flip until
Speaker 1: they flip the shot quality dynamic. From the standpoint of
Speaker 1: the Kings, I was just generally impressed with thereff. We
Speaker 1: talked in our series preview about how they might need
Speaker 1: to balance out the dynamic of shot creation versus defensive personnel.
Speaker 1: We saw a lot of Davion Mitchell in this game.
Speaker 1: He did a really nice job defending Jordan Poole. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be a dynamic they're going to have to continue
Speaker 1: to figure out over the course of the series, especially
Speaker 1: since Malik Monk in particular can run a little bit
Speaker 1: hot and cold, and there's no guarantee that he'll continue
Speaker 1: to shoot that well throughout the series a lot of good.
Speaker 1: If you're a Kings fan, your guards seem to be
Speaker 1: defending well. Sabonus didn't play very well. You have to
Speaker 1: think that he's gonna play better over the course of
Speaker 1: the series. Malik Monk and his game translating to the playoffs,
Speaker 1: lots and lots of good and a lot to be
Speaker 1: excited about. If you're a Kings fan. That said, you
Speaker 1: know the Warriors have a championship pedigree. I do believe
Speaker 1: that they can improve some process things that will help them,
Speaker 1: particularly on the offensive end of the floor, and then
Speaker 1: on the defensive end of the floor. Look like we
Speaker 1: were looking after Game three against Boston, like they can't
Speaker 1: guard these guys, and then you know what, suddenly they
Speaker 1: guarded those guys. And I talked a lot about this before,
Speaker 1: but when you stand eye to eye with a ball
Speaker 1: handler and he starts to make moves on you, it
Speaker 1: might work one time, it might work ten times. Once
Speaker 1: it gets up to twenty thirty, forty times, you've seen
Speaker 1: that same dribral combination, you've seen that same move, you've
Speaker 1: seen that same body language. You start to solve the
Speaker 1: offensive player. And that's where, over the course of a series, like,
Speaker 1: only the truly great players continue to create advantages and
Speaker 1: you hope that that starts to swing in your favor
Speaker 1: in the long run. But big time win for the Kings.
Speaker 1: Warriors are still in this That was an incredibly exciting
Speaker 1: first game of that series, and I think we all
Speaker 1: figured that that would be the most entertaining game in
Speaker 1: the first round, and it definitely lived up to the hype.
Speaker 1: But good start for the Kings. Warriors. Need to contain
Speaker 1: the basketball better and stop going for home runs on offense.
Speaker 1: Play some Warriors basketball. Let's move on to Knicks Calves.
Speaker 1: So when I picked the Knicks to beat the Calves,
Speaker 1: there were a couple of specific reasons that I was
Speaker 1: looking at. One, I thought that Jalen Brunson would be
Speaker 1: able to hold up well in the matchup with Donovan Mitchell,
Speaker 1: primarily as a decision maker. Right. I thought that bared
Speaker 1: out today. Donovan Mitchell had put on it, put on
Speaker 1: a ridiculous show, just like the level of shot making
Speaker 1: there was that wild stretch in the fourth quarter was
Speaker 1: like steel buckets, steel bucket, steel bucket. Like Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: is insane. But here's the problem. He can also kind
Speaker 1: of go through these extended stretches where he just tries
Speaker 1: to shoot himself out of every situation. Right, It's like
Speaker 1: just that tiny bit of Westbrook that he has in him.
Speaker 1: And I thought you saw that a little bit at
Speaker 1: the end of the third quarter when the Knicks were
Speaker 1: going on their run. And Jalen Brunson's he doesn't have
Speaker 1: the athletic ceiling that Donovan Mitchell has. He doesn't have
Speaker 1: the ability to get separation against superior athletes the way
Speaker 1: that Donovan Mitchell does. But he's just a little bit
Speaker 1: more measured in his approach. He's much more methodical, and
Speaker 1: he's a better playmaker. And so, like I thought that
Speaker 1: would just be able to bridge that gap. And you
Speaker 1: know what, like Jalen Brunson had a little bit of
Speaker 1: a rough night in the early portions of the game.
Speaker 1: He was struggling a bit with Isaac Korro, and then
Speaker 1: he kind of picked his spots right like right there
Speaker 1: at the end of the third and then right there
Speaker 1: at the end of the fourth quarter. He just knew
Speaker 1: his time to get involved offensively. And like again, when
Speaker 1: you spam high, pick and roll all game long the
Speaker 1: way that Donovan Mitchell does, eventually, and again, what is this?
Speaker 1: What did I say in the series preview? The Knicks
Speaker 1: guards are the strength of their defense, and so if
Speaker 1: the Knicks guards get an extra thirty forty reps guarding
Speaker 1: this same high pick and roll offense that the Calves
Speaker 1: run every single time, they're just going to figure out
Speaker 1: how to get good contests on Donovan Mitchell. And I
Speaker 1: don't care how talented he is, those pull up contested
Speaker 1: jump shots are going to be missed more than half
Speaker 1: of the time, which means you can go through cold spells,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what happened, especially when they needed baskets
Speaker 1: towards the end of the game. I thought one of
Speaker 1: the most interesting matchup things in this series. I talked
Speaker 1: a lot about this in the series preview again, was
Speaker 1: can the Calves keep Isaac Corro on the floor when
Speaker 1: he's clearly their best perimeter defender but he's one of
Speaker 1: the worst spot up players in the league. I can't
Speaker 1: remember the exact number off the top of my head,
Speaker 1: but Isaac Coro is converting spot up possessions at an
Speaker 1: extremely low rate, despite the fact that he's shooting the
Speaker 1: three ball well. Although he did not shoot the ball
Speaker 1: well in this particular game, and I said, Isaac Accorro
Speaker 1: needs to shoot in the forties from three to keep
Speaker 1: him on the floor for his defensive impact. They ended
Speaker 1: up going with Cheddy Osman instead, and Jalen Brunson just
Speaker 1: picked on him at the end of that game, getting
Speaker 1: him on switches, beating him off the dribble for easy shots.
Speaker 1: And again, that's the thing. Donovan Mitchell can make the
Speaker 1: most amazing shots in the world because he's one of
Speaker 1: the most gifted athletes in the world. He's one of
Speaker 1: the best basketball players in the world. But he doesn't
Speaker 1: have that methodical surgeon approach that Jalen Brunson has, where
Speaker 1: he's just picking on your worst defender and getting easy shots.
Speaker 1: And that's what separates him. And that's why I believe,
Speaker 1: even though Donovan has that higher upside, that Jalen can
Speaker 1: outplay him. In this series, you saw Julius Randall just
Speaker 1: bring that different, like that versatility element that I talked
Speaker 1: about all the time, winning the game with physicality. It's
Speaker 1: clear that as talented as Evan Mobley is, he's just
Speaker 1: a little too thin for Julius. He's struggling to contain him.
Speaker 1: In box outs, he's struggling to stop him from getting
Speaker 1: to his spots. That's not going to change over the
Speaker 1: course of the series. In fact, that might get worse,
Speaker 1: not only as Julius gets in better shape, but he's
Speaker 1: the bigger, stronger player. He's not gonna wear down the
Speaker 1: way that Evan Mobley does. You know, I said this
Speaker 1: going into the series. The Knicks were what seventeenth in
Speaker 1: defense during the regular season. But the thing I said was,
Speaker 1: they defend the Calves well. And you know what, they
Speaker 1: defended the Calves well again tonight. I would, honestly, I
Speaker 1: would consider just going with Isaac Carro anyway, even if
Speaker 1: he's not playing well enough offensively, embrace the rock fight
Speaker 1: in general, they need to compete better physically. Like Mobiley
Speaker 1: and Allen just got bullied on the front line. The
Speaker 1: Knicks guards bullied the Calves guards to rebounding position as well.
Speaker 1: The offensive glass was a huge factor in this game.
Speaker 1: What did I say in the preview? I said Josh
Speaker 1: Hart's winning impact would scream off of the screen. When
Speaker 1: you watch that game today, did it feel like Josh
Speaker 1: Hart's winning impact would scream off the screen? Again, It's
Speaker 1: just one game. It's a long series. The Calves were
Speaker 1: favored for a reason. They're a good team, they have
Speaker 1: a lot of talent. They absolutely can come back and
Speaker 1: win this thing. But the concerning thing for the Calves
Speaker 1: is all of these specific matchup pieces that I saw
Speaker 1: as advantages for the Knicks going into the series have
Speaker 1: played out as advantages for the Knicks early in the series.
Speaker 1: They have to find a way to flip that on
Speaker 1: their head at find some diversity offensively, mix things up,
Speaker 1: don't attack the same exact way every single time. You
Speaker 1: have to play defensive personnel that can switch because Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson is going to attack you throughout the game. You
Speaker 1: have to compete more in the physicality areas of the game.
Speaker 1: They simply have to play better. I think that was
Speaker 1: probably the most disappointing thing for the Cavs is they
Speaker 1: would get some stops towards the end of the game
Speaker 1: and then here would come another offensive rebound just to
Speaker 1: suck the life out of their sales. But yeah, a
Speaker 1: very entertaining first day. We will be going I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if we're going live or covering the games just
Speaker 1: through a video upload to YouTube that entirely depends on
Speaker 1: my Wi Fi situation when we get to Whistler tomorrow,
Speaker 1: but just keep an eye on my Twitter feed at
Speaker 1: underscore json LT. That's where I'll kind of post show
Speaker 1: announcements to keep you guys posted as to how everything's going.
Speaker 1: I apologize again for the delay on this video, but hey,
Speaker 1: it's a happy birthday President to my wife. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys, and I will see you the volume