Speaker 1: This crowd rises to it speeding. What Carlos slam it?
Speaker 1: Oh Carlo left wing free ball perfect, Darlint pop the
Speaker 1: half block, the shot at the rim? How with the
Speaker 1: left hand? And of fowl.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Chase Down Podcast, part of the Caves
Speaker 2: Media family. I'm your hostess Roan. The Chase Down is
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Speaker 2: Slash Calves. The Cleveland Cavaliers now have their third double
Speaker 2: digit winning streak of the season thanks to two come
Speaker 2: from behind wins against the Boston Celtics and the Portland Trailblazers.
Speaker 2: Joining me today is my co host, Carter Rodriguez. Carter,
Speaker 2: how you doing, Buddy? I'm doing all right, bro. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, just uh working out some kinks with a
Speaker 2: new computer. So my bad UMU. But uh, you know,
Speaker 2: obviously it feels really good. The Calves haven't had a
Speaker 2: tremendous amount of ugly wins this year, you know that
Speaker 2: just kind of hasn't been what's factored into their year
Speaker 2: so far. And it's honestly kind of stunning that, you know,
Speaker 2: it's taken this long to even have like two or
Speaker 2: three of them where it's like a game where nothing's
Speaker 2: going right against the Blazers, you know, a huge come
Speaker 2: down from a from a huge win in Boston on
Speaker 2: Friday night and they have to got one out. Like
Speaker 2: I mean, we talk about that twenty eighteen team that
Speaker 2: won like eight nine, ten in a row to start
Speaker 2: the year, and like eight of those ten were hideous
Speaker 2: and they were went in but it didn't feel great,
Speaker 2: Like we really haven't had a lot of those this year,
Speaker 2: and like it does feel like a super validating weekend
Speaker 2: for the Cavs between this and a resounding comeback against
Speaker 2: the Boston Celtics. Yeah, and this felt like a perfect
Speaker 2: storm for a potential letdown game against the Portland Trail Blazers,
Speaker 2: who are not only coming off an incredibly emotional victory
Speaker 2: over the Boston Celtics, you're also dealing with it being
Speaker 2: an afternoon game. We have seen weird things tend to
Speaker 2: happen with those afternoon games. It's a quicker turnaround time,
Speaker 2: No Donovan Mitchell in this game, that's obviously going to
Speaker 2: make things.
Speaker 1: A little tougher for them.
Speaker 2: And even though it displayed all the classic signs of
Speaker 2: it potentially being a trap game, I was really hoping
Speaker 2: it wasn't because I was sitting here hoping that we
Speaker 2: could spend the majority of this podcast talking about the
Speaker 2: Celtics game because that's who we're measuring ourselves against. And
Speaker 2: trust me, we will be getting into that Celtics game.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of thoughts from it. But because
Speaker 2: this game was so dramatic against the Blazers, we obviously
Speaker 2: have to start there, and I think the clearest starting
Speaker 2: point for that game is DeAndre Hunter, who still has
Speaker 2: not had a twenty point game for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 2: He just happened to have a thirty point one with
Speaker 2: thirty two points and seven rebounds, just on a night
Speaker 2: where everything felt a little herky jerky, where guys were
Speaker 2: a little less predictable than their normal predictable cells. Hunter
Speaker 2: is just that steady presence. You know what he's going
Speaker 2: to bring on every single possession, and I really felt
Speaker 2: like the stability that he was bringing was almost as
Speaker 2: big as the shots.
Speaker 1: He was hitting. Yeah, Well, there's just something to the
Speaker 1: size and the play style profile that kind of makes
Speaker 1: his game, I don't know, easy, and like it just
Speaker 1: didn't require a lot of the surrounding context to be
Speaker 1: that good to be doing what he did. You know,
Speaker 1: it was walking to catch and shoot threes, it was
Speaker 1: attack closeouts and draw fouls and then you know, just
Speaker 1: guard on the other end of the floor. Like, I
Speaker 1: just didn't feel like he had to. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Obviously he took on a greater usage load than he's
Speaker 1: taken on thus far in his CAP's tenure, but it
Speaker 1: didn't feel like a, well, I've got to go run
Speaker 1: thirty pick and rolls because Donovan's not in the game, Like,
Speaker 1: and that used to kind of beat Carris's job, and
Speaker 1: like that's kind of our best frame of reference for
Speaker 1: when Donnie is out is all right, now Carris will
Speaker 1: step in and kind of run the offense a little bit.
Speaker 1: Hunter didn't do that. He just did his what he's
Speaker 1: been doing more, yeah, at a higher volume.
Speaker 2: Right, And I think that was the point that I
Speaker 2: was going to make about how when Carris was playing
Speaker 2: in these spots, it could kind of go either way, right,
Speaker 2: Like there were the games where and I think more
Speaker 2: often than not, when one of the guards was out,
Speaker 2: he would step up and he would have a big impact.
Speaker 2: But on some of those nights where you know, Darius
Speaker 2: is having a terrible game against Portland, like kennot hit
Speaker 2: any of his shots, any of his floaters and the
Speaker 2: normal stuff that he hits on a routine basis, it
Speaker 2: wasn't going down. Even when they showed him, you know,
Speaker 2: getting those shots up in the timeout, I think he
Speaker 2: won won a three on those Like you know it,
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just not your night, and you know, some
Speaker 2: credit to him for sure for continuing to battle through that.
Speaker 2: But on a night where Darius wouldn't have it going,
Speaker 2: you know, evan up and down game moments where he
Speaker 2: looked great, other times where he was a little out
Speaker 2: of control and just nobody was really bringing that consistency
Speaker 2: to the table, I felt like sometimes Kars would get
Speaker 2: sucked into that, like he would almost feed off of
Speaker 2: that energy and it would become more chaotic. Whereas in
Speaker 2: this spot you had Ty Jerome once again step up
Speaker 2: with one of those guards out and DeAndre Hunter, as
Speaker 2: you said, not playing outside of himself, but just cranking
Speaker 2: up the volume on what he already does so well.
Speaker 2: And I think that that is one of the huge
Speaker 2: benefits of you know, this situation where we're sitting here
Speaker 2: with fifty wins through sixty games, because we have so
Speaker 2: much depth, because we have, you know, four guys that
Speaker 2: are probably top thirty players in the league at the
Speaker 2: very least, you know, we have three top twenty four
Speaker 2: because we had three all starts. And when you take
Speaker 2: DeAndre Hunter from you know, kind of number three rolled
Speaker 2: in Atlanta to number five in Cleveland, where oh, if
Speaker 2: someone you know, Jared Allen having an off game against Boston,
Speaker 2: we can put DeAndre in and we can expect a
Speaker 2: little more from him in this spot because he is
Speaker 2: overqualified to be a fifth man. When you have that
Speaker 2: kind of luxury and you have the supporting depth around them,
Speaker 2: it is just going to help you have an insane
Speaker 2: flour when it comes to the regular season. But not
Speaker 2: only that, it's going to increase your margin for error
Speaker 2: when you're playing a top team like the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I said this. I went on Bob Manning's
Speaker 1: Celtics show on Saturday night or Saturday afternoon, and I
Speaker 1: did just say that before the Hunter trade, I felt
Speaker 1: like there was no lineup context in which I would
Speaker 1: be really cool with benching Jared out. I just I
Speaker 1: really did pretty steadfastly believe that no matter what the matchups,
Speaker 1: pretty much no matter what the form was, the best
Speaker 1: shot was going to be with Jared at the five
Speaker 1: and Evan at the four. And what Hunter has done
Speaker 1: is give any a real legit high upside option on
Speaker 1: nights where one of the two biggest doesn't have it,
Speaker 1: one of the two bigges in foul trouble, whatever it
Speaker 1: may be, he just doesn't have to do anything. And
Speaker 1: that's really important. Yeah, it's really, really, really damn important.
Speaker 2: And you know, I probably would have liked to have seen,
Speaker 2: you know, I understand going with Max in the starting lineup,
Speaker 2: I would have liked to have seen some minutes with
Speaker 2: the core for and DeAndre Hunter against the Boston Celtics. Like,
Speaker 2: just from an experimenting standpoint, I guess the first time
Speaker 2: that's going to occur is going to be in the
Speaker 2: playoffs if it does in fact occur. But having that
Speaker 2: versatility I think is really big, and Ken talked about
Speaker 2: it postgame after this win over the Blazers, where I
Speaker 2: forget who asked the question, but you know a very
Speaker 2: good question. Oh it was our buddy Mike Lucas Ultimate
Speaker 2: Cleveland Sports Show asked, Hey, this is the second time
Speaker 2: now where you've kind of closed the fourth quarter with
Speaker 2: Jared on the bench, and Kenny said, yeah, teams are
Speaker 2: putting some pressure on us. They're really downsize and they
Speaker 2: have three or four guards out there, and that just
Speaker 2: requires a different kind of you know, mobility from a
Speaker 2: defensive standpoint and having the flexibility to do that where
Speaker 2: you know, Jarrett was not having a strong game against Boston.
Speaker 2: I thought he was playing pretty well tonight against Portland,
Speaker 2: but just hey, the matchup is a little tricky. We
Speaker 2: are able to kind of CounterPunch. We are able to,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of dare you to go big because
Speaker 2: if we are our scale down lineup contains somebody that
Speaker 2: we were comfortable giving some small ball five minutes in
Speaker 2: this game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta say I'm a little worried about Jared's hand.
Speaker 1: You know, he's still wearing that rap on it. And
Speaker 1: you know this is not a source reporter or anything
Speaker 1: like that. I just have noticed there's a few times
Speaker 1: where he's tapping the ball to his other hand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he even had that very the shot that went in,
Speaker 1: but he had like a fifteen foot left handed floater,
Speaker 1: and I just I work I had.
Speaker 2: Some incredible left handed finishes. There was the one against
Speaker 2: Boston where it was a lob and he just kind
Speaker 2: of deflected it in. He had that nice touch one
Speaker 2: where Darius found him underneath the basket. Definitely notice like
Speaker 2: he's shown the floater with the left even prior to this,
Speaker 2: but it feels like he's going to it just a
Speaker 2: little bit more. And I think you're seeing it sometimes
Speaker 2: in those contested rebound situations where he's just not securing
Speaker 2: it the way that he was even a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also it just I've also noticed it does
Speaker 1: short circuit the finishing just a little bit, you know.
Speaker 1: So I'm definitely keeping my eye on that. I know
Speaker 1: Jared's goal was to play all eighty two and we'll
Speaker 1: see if he can do it. But yeah, that it
Speaker 1: just does jump out at me just a little bit
Speaker 1: that that they have gone without him the last two games,
Speaker 1: understand most importantly, gone without him at all, even in
Speaker 1: line ups without Evan. Yeah, that is not something that
Speaker 1: they've ever done before. And I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: a we like it and Hunter and Wade we think
Speaker 1: is enough length in the front court to survive, or
Speaker 1: if it's we feel we have to right the second.
Speaker 1: But I do think it there is keeping an eye on.
Speaker 2: You know, it might fall into category three of we
Speaker 2: want to see if we're able to like, you know,
Speaker 2: let's you know, let's try some stuff, right. I think
Speaker 2: that's important to keep in mind where I think we
Speaker 2: saw playoff like intensity from Cleveland and Boston in these
Speaker 2: last couple of matchups and honestly every game that they've
Speaker 2: played this season. I feel like both teams have really
Speaker 2: got up for those games. But I would expect both
Speaker 2: sides have a something that they're holding back that they
Speaker 2: didn't show, you know, during the regular season that there
Speaker 2: may go to in the playoffs, whether it be Kenny
Speaker 2: changing up how he's going to counter Boston defensively, what
Speaker 2: types of looks he anticipates thrown at.
Speaker 1: Like, I feel like we've played.
Speaker 2: A very kind of normal regular season rotation for the
Speaker 2: most part against the Celtics. Now you're not going to
Speaker 2: do you know, Craig Porter Junior in that matchup, but
Speaker 2: he still did go very deep within the rotation, and
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's going to continue in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: I don't know what changes are going to be there.
Speaker 2: So I think it's important to have that caveat. But
Speaker 2: you know, maybe there is some element at least of Hey,
Speaker 2: Jared's at like eighty five percent right now, let's see,
Speaker 2: let's see if we can play Dean and Hunter as
Speaker 2: our loan bigs when Boston's going really small here with
Speaker 2: you know, six nine Al Horford and a bunch of
Speaker 2: guards and wings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're absolutely right, And I mean Hunters is holding up.
Speaker 1: He had seven boards in this one, seven important boards.
Speaker 1: I thought he battled down the stretch as Portland kept
Speaker 1: counter punching and attacking the glass and trying to attack
Speaker 1: and transition and just you know, be the more chaotic team.
Speaker 1: I thought they did a great job of just being like, nope,
Speaker 1: we're gonna in this. These possessions where they where they end.
Speaker 1: And you know, again, it was not a clean game
Speaker 1: by any means, but like it just goes back to
Speaker 1: I mean your Virginia Cavaliers, Ties Rome and DeAndre Hunter
Speaker 1: just went won you the game because Darius never really
Speaker 1: got into the game. Max didn't have a particularly clean game.
Speaker 1: They were fouling like absolute crazy. Barland had four stru
Speaker 1: said five hundred had four mobilely fouled out, which never happened. No,
Speaker 1: Like it's just one of those games, man, And you
Speaker 1: know that was part of why I felt like they
Speaker 1: were going to lose it. Like even when they cut
Speaker 1: it to ten to start the fourth, I was like,
Speaker 1: maybe there's a chance. But when you have you know,
Speaker 1: seventy free throws between the two teams, that's just going
Speaker 1: to lead to a choppy game where it's really tough
Speaker 1: to find a rhythm. And I thought Portland deserves a
Speaker 1: lot of credit. They played really hard, They have a
Speaker 1: lot of length and their ass off.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think they won fourteen of their last nineteen
Speaker 2: games coming into that game, so you know they've been
Speaker 2: playing really good basketball. There's someone that you know is
Speaker 2: almost tailor made to get you in one of these
Speaker 2: early afternoon games where you're coming off an emotional win.
Speaker 2: So they deserve a ton of credit. Tomorrow, Kamara, it
Speaker 2: was fantastic and he had a great game. There's there's
Speaker 2: a lot to like with that Portland group. So I
Speaker 2: don't want to take anything away from them. But yeah,
Speaker 2: Darius did not have it going at all. That steal
Speaker 2: that he had at the end of the game may
Speaker 2: have really impacted the outcome there because that was a
Speaker 2: fast break opportunity for Portland. But that was actually one
Speaker 2: of the few times that I've seen this season where
Speaker 2: it felt like he recognized he didn't have it going
Speaker 2: and went passive. And I don't think that's necessarily a
Speaker 2: good thing, but it seemed like he was not even
Speaker 2: trying to get those shots up down late. I felt like,
Speaker 2: you know, he created some looks for guys, he was
Speaker 2: able to turn the corner offensively, but he just didn't
Speaker 2: seem to have confidence in his shot. I don't know
Speaker 2: if that's you know, working his way back from the hip,
Speaker 2: this is a short turnaround time from Boston not feeling right,
Speaker 2: or if this was just one of those games where
Speaker 2: he didn't have your shot going, which certainly happens, but
Speaker 2: definitely one of his worst offensive games of the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, he still got up sixteen shots. It's
Speaker 1: not like he went full passive, but like he definitely
Speaker 1: was letting letting Tye be the run the offense down
Speaker 1: the stretch, of the game. But the counter to that,
Speaker 1: of course, is ty was the best player on the
Speaker 1: court for a lot of the game, and Tye was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So like it. You know, I'm hesitant ing him too
Speaker 1: hard for that. In fact, it's funny that you ing
Speaker 1: him a little bit, because I was going to go
Speaker 1: the other way, where I go, Hey, you don't have it.
Speaker 1: It's freaking March second against the Blazers. You don't need
Speaker 1: to prove anything to anyone, just just whatever is the
Speaker 1: best road to getting them to a win. I do
Speaker 1: think Tye running a lot of pick and roll was
Speaker 1: their best road to a win in that game.
Speaker 2: No, I think that's a very valid point. I just
Speaker 2: wanted to kind of highlight that that that's been unique, right, Like,
Speaker 2: I don't think we've seen that a whole lot this year,
Speaker 2: even against Boston. One of the things I really enjoyed
Speaker 2: was he was assertive. He took those shots late, right,
Speaker 2: He hit that three to make it a six point game,
Speaker 2: and then hit that dagger step back that basically ice
Speaker 2: the win against the Celtics. He was not afraid of
Speaker 2: the moment in that spot. So I don't know if
Speaker 2: it was just one of those nights where he didn't
Speaker 2: have it going. But it was definitely a tough night
Speaker 2: for him. But before we get into to Boston, is
Speaker 2: there any other things you want to highlight with this
Speaker 2: Portland game?
Speaker 1: Just? I mean, Ty was a demon man, he was
Speaker 1: he was so good physical. Uh, he got the you know,
Speaker 1: him and Hunter got nineteen combined free throw attempts, and
Speaker 1: Cavs role players just haven't been like you don't normally
Speaker 1: see two Cavs role players combined for nineteen free throw
Speaker 1: attempts in a game. You know, it's just not really
Speaker 1: been their style. You know, the four, the core four
Speaker 1: typically eat such a big minutes load that it's hard
Speaker 1: to get there from even from a usage perspective. But
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, they they probably won the game
Speaker 1: with those nineteen free throws because in a game where
Speaker 1: nothing nothing's easy. And by the way, even in this
Speaker 1: hideous game, they end up at forty one point three
Speaker 1: percent from three. So I don't know, man, I guess
Speaker 1: they'll just they just can't. They can't be too bad
Speaker 1: at shooting, uh, for for for too long. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I just thought Jerome was a was just yet another
Speaker 1: example of and being an absolute murderer for this team
Speaker 1: every time they need him to be. Every time they're like, Hi, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're just gonna comar on you, but just figure it out,
Speaker 1: Like figure it out, get get to the rim. He
Speaker 1: had a couple nasty cross court passes out of the
Speaker 1: pick and roll. You know, I thought he had a
Speaker 1: really really great game as a playmaker. He had six
Speaker 1: assistant one turnover, and when you pair that with these
Speaker 1: six justin count them six steals, a career high. Uh.
Speaker 1: It just felt like a really dominant floor game for him,
Speaker 1: and they needed someone to be an event player, and
Speaker 1: he probably had. Hunter had the best scoring game. I
Speaker 1: felt like Jerome had the loudest game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, we've talked about how we stepped
Speaker 2: up in those games without Donovan or without Darius at
Speaker 2: times when with.
Speaker 1: The way Darius was shooting, it felt like neither of
Speaker 1: them were out there right.
Speaker 2: So for him to to step up in that way
Speaker 2: in a night where we really needed it, I thought
Speaker 2: was significant. Only other thing that I kind of had
Speaker 2: noted from this game was I still like just fundamental
Speaker 2: basketball philosophy. I don't love the foul up three, at
Speaker 2: least when there's over ten seconds left. I think if
Speaker 2: you're down in the final seven seconds and a team
Speaker 2: is drawing up something on the sideline, foul there. But
Speaker 2: particularly where you know they used up their last time
Speaker 2: out to advance the ball and didn't have an opportunity
Speaker 2: to call it and get a shot up, but then
Speaker 2: a regulation. That's just one of those little things where
Speaker 2: I understand what the numbers say, but just from a
Speaker 2: philosophical standpoint, I don't love the timing with that much
Speaker 2: time left in the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels it has felt a little bit like
Speaker 1: we're doing a thing we don't do that often. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not you watch some teams foul up three and
Speaker 1: it feels it feels really hard for the other team
Speaker 1: to account for. And I feel like when the Cabs
Speaker 1: have done it, it's felt like like a thing they
Speaker 1: weren't doing last year. You know.
Speaker 2: It's just it doesn't probably feel even weirder because we're
Speaker 2: never within one possession at the end of a game,
Speaker 2: like that's happened like four times this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so like they don't have a ton of practice
Speaker 1: doing it. Uh and uh, and yeah, it's just been
Speaker 1: a little rough. Last thing I'll say about this game
Speaker 1: because I noticed that you're wearing it too. Shout out
Speaker 1: to Nick Gilbert. Uh. It was bow tie night for
Speaker 1: the Cabs and uh, you know, a cool night honoring
Speaker 1: their memory, a great great appearances from the Gilbert family
Speaker 1: on the on the broadcast talking about kind of Nick's legacy. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the all the work they're doing to cure
Speaker 1: an f And I just wanted to shout out the
Speaker 1: Gilbert family because you know, even on a night that's
Speaker 1: celebrating a loved one that's passed away, it's still a
Speaker 1: hard heavy thing to kind of deal with. So send
Speaker 1: in love uh to the boss man and UH. And
Speaker 1: I hope their family is doing doing good uh through
Speaker 1: who it was probably a tough day for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to totally agree with that. I appreciate you uh
Speaker 2: making note of that. And you know, it's great to
Speaker 2: get a win. It's great to get a win on
Speaker 2: that night. I forget what the matchup was last year,
Speaker 2: but this is the third annual UH bow Tige night, UH,
Speaker 2: and absolutely we had to rock the pins for that,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's good to keep the good vibes going.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: I mentioned that at the top of the podcast. But
Speaker 2: third double digit winning streak of the season. That's nuts.
Speaker 2: Nobody else in the Eastern Conference has one of those
Speaker 2: this season.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I saw someone I forget who tweeted. I think
Speaker 1: I retweeted it, but uh they said, uh it was
Speaker 1: uh it was Calves Jack on Twitter. I don't know
Speaker 1: if this is real. Didn't vet this, but he said
Speaker 1: before the season the Caves had had five ten plus
Speaker 1: game winning streaks and franchise history. They have three this
Speaker 1: season alone. Absolutely bonkers. I don't know if that's true.
Speaker 1: It sounds true, it sounds right. I mean, these are
Speaker 1: pretty rare, so the fact that they've done it this
Speaker 1: many times just bananas. And can I share that year
Speaker 1: with of course? Mark Stein shared this on a substack
Speaker 1: just before we recorded. But Boston is currently since the
Speaker 1: start of last year, sixty four and three when they
Speaker 1: lead by twenty in a game. Two of those three
Speaker 1: losses have come against your Cleveland Cavaliers. Oh yeah, brother, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just think the season's been unbelievable. And we'll dive
Speaker 1: into the Boston stuff with the back half of the pod.
Speaker 1: And because there was I think that's the much more
Speaker 1: noteworthy game. Yeah, but I just cannot believe this team
Speaker 1: is fifty and ten. Dude, that's a banana stat. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, the the Phil Jackson club is like forty
Speaker 1: wins before twenty losses. How about fifty wins before eleven.
Speaker 1: It's it's absolutely bananas. I updated this stat going after tonight.
Speaker 1: I tweeted out a little while ago, updated tonight calves
Speaker 1: I've had two rough stretches this season, and rough and
Speaker 1: parent and quotation marks not even that rough. Mid mid
Speaker 1: November to end of November they lost three out of five,
Speaker 1: and then mid January to the end of January they
Speaker 1: lost five out of eight. The rest of the year,
Speaker 1: they are forty five and two. Seems pretty good.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's easy to get caught up on
Speaker 2: the Cavs larger aspirations for this season, right like, particularly
Speaker 2: coming off that Boston game, I couldn't help but think
Speaker 2: that next time we see this team is going to
Speaker 2: be the Eastern Conference Finals, and I will continue to
Speaker 2: speak that into existence.
Speaker 1: I feel like we're going to get there.
Speaker 2: But the next time, the next time it's possible to
Speaker 2: play them is the Eastern Conference Finals.
Speaker 1: If you're a little superstitious.
Speaker 2: But it's so easy to lose track of that right,
Speaker 2: and sometimes it's easy to lose track of things in general,
Speaker 2: which is why zoom i can Companion so important, Carter,
Speaker 2: because only you can do your best work, zoom Mayi
Speaker 2: Companion can help you do the rest, like automatically taking notes,
Speaker 2: answering meeting questions, and helping you respond to your coworker
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Speaker 1: Were happy with zoom may I Companion. Now, before we
Speaker 1: dive into yeah, before we dive into the Boston stuff,
Speaker 1: I did to say. Paley Dodd just said in the
Speaker 1: in the chat, seventy four percent of our wins this
Speaker 1: season are part of winning streaks, which is hilarious and
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's accurate.
Speaker 2: It feels it spiritually feels right at the very least.
Speaker 2: That's a great, great point. And you know, the funny
Speaker 2: thing about that Celtics game, I'm going to start it off.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if sour no is.
Speaker 2: The right way to put this, but my takeaway from
Speaker 2: that game is the same as if we would have
Speaker 2: lost it, which is I'm a little frustrated that I
Speaker 2: feel like I didn't learn anything from that game. I
Speaker 2: am very happy to see that this Cavs team is
Speaker 2: once again resilient as hell. They came back multiple times,
Speaker 2: like the fact that they you know, within the first quarter,
Speaker 2: they cut that down to six, they cut it down
Speaker 2: to three. Later on, Boston extended the lead to seventeen.
Speaker 2: They had the energy for multiple comebacks. That's not something
Speaker 2: I've learned in that game. I know that this team
Speaker 2: is resilient. I know that they are tough as hell
Speaker 2: and that they can come back. I know that this
Speaker 2: team is a team that can close out. They have
Speaker 2: not lost a game that they were leading going into
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter. What I saw on Friday night is
Speaker 2: exactly what I thought the Cavs were. They are a
Speaker 2: team that has everything they need to beat the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 2: They have the personnel, they have the talent. They are
Speaker 2: capable of doing it. I don't know if they're ready
Speaker 2: to do it. And that's not something we're going to
Speaker 2: learn until a playoff series, and that's you know, that's
Speaker 2: something we might not learn until, you know, midway through
Speaker 2: the series. We didn't learn about that with the twenty
Speaker 2: sixteen Cavaliers basically until game because those two blowout losses
Speaker 2: to start that series that hurt, that sucked. It looked
Speaker 2: like they didn't belong, but they dug deep and they
Speaker 2: found a way to reopen that series. We may not
Speaker 2: learn that until midway through the series against the Celtics,
Speaker 2: but I remain convinced that they have what it takes.
Speaker 2: It's just going to be about whether or not the
Speaker 2: guys are ready to execute at the consistent level necessary
Speaker 2: to beat Boston four hours, seven times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the fourth straight game where they came out
Speaker 1: really tight, and I feel like there was just a
Speaker 1: little bit of that letting perfect be any enemy of
Speaker 1: good creep into their process. And that's a little scary.
Speaker 1: You know this. We've said it all year. They have
Speaker 1: shredded much better defenses than the Boston Celtics. And the
Speaker 1: fact that we're four four first quarters in like I
Speaker 1: don't know if they talk twenty five in any of them,
Speaker 1: and even the first six minutes of each quarter probably
Speaker 1: is even worse. I feel like there's just a general
Speaker 1: tightness that takes over the team. Wide open threes, there's
Speaker 1: that extra half second of loading up and looking at
Speaker 1: the brim. It's just like this. I don't know if
Speaker 1: they want it too much. I don't know if it
Speaker 1: is the anxiety of playing Boston in terms of they
Speaker 1: are going to avalanche you if you're not careful. So
Speaker 1: there's this, like you know, a little Sasha Pavlovitch. Their
Speaker 1: offense is their defense where you're worried about letting their
Speaker 1: machine get going, so you feel like you have to
Speaker 1: like build up some give to maintain connection. But we
Speaker 1: have seen it. However, I will say I think that
Speaker 1: we have to give them credit for they're a bil
Speaker 1: to find offense and find an offensive flow. For forty
Speaker 1: three minutes of this game. Yeah, for forty three minutes
Speaker 1: they put up about a one to forty four offensive
Speaker 1: rating against the defense they have not been able to
Speaker 1: figure out. I don't because that's if I have anxieties,
Speaker 1: it's are they mentally ready and are they able to
Speaker 1: figure out how to score on this team consistently? And
Speaker 1: my big question at the offensive death machine going the
Speaker 1: way they have and maybe that, I mean, one four
Speaker 1: is a pretty good offensive rating forty three minutes. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like they found anything there or do you
Speaker 1: think that was just more reliance on Donovan mitchell excellence.
Speaker 2: I don't think it was more reliance on Donovan Mitchell excellence,
Speaker 2: just because I did feel like we got valuable contributions
Speaker 2: from a variety of guys during certain stretches. Right like
Speaker 2: whenevn't Mobiley gotten foul trouble in the third quarter, Jared,
Speaker 2: even though he had a tough game, went out there
Speaker 2: in those minutes, bought Mobley sometime, got eight points, got
Speaker 2: a couple of rebounds, extra possessions where he was fighting
Speaker 2: for it and they deflected outbounds. That was really important.
Speaker 2: Evan Mobley awesome fourth quarter, Like he really stepped up
Speaker 2: and was assertive on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: I think it was what.
Speaker 2: Eleven points and eight rebounds in the fourth quarter, that
Speaker 2: was awesome. Flthy Darius. I mentioned it before, but hitting
Speaker 2: that big three in the clutch and then that that
Speaker 2: step back on Houser to ice the game, that's that's
Speaker 2: big kohone stuff like I'm happy to see that. I
Speaker 2: thought Ty Jerome gave them a good stretches. I thought
Speaker 2: even Sam Merrill did a good job competing at times.
Speaker 2: Icycle Corl I want to get into him in depth,
Speaker 2: but I loved what I saw from him, not only
Speaker 2: in this Boston game, but I liked a lot of
Speaker 2: his minutes against Portland as well. I don't feel like
Speaker 2: it was just more Mitchell greatness, but I do think
Speaker 2: that one of my big takeaways was Mitchell greatness, and
Speaker 2: that was one of our takeaways against the last game
Speaker 2: that we won versus Boston, where we said, you know,
Speaker 2: I think correctly, we deserve to pat ourselves on the back.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I'm a little hesitant to do that, but we've
Speaker 2: talked all season about how, yeah, you can look at
Speaker 2: the impact metrics and you can say Darius is the
Speaker 2: primary driver of the offense. Evan's the primary driver of
Speaker 2: the defense. But that has been facilitated because of Donovan
Speaker 2: Mitchell's leadership. He has enabled them to do that. I
Speaker 2: think in these matchups, this is where you see, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: Donovan is the best player on the team. Donovan is
Speaker 2: that guy that's ready to meet the moment. He is
Speaker 2: so proficient against the Boston Celtics. He's phenomenal. And before
Speaker 2: I let you talk Carter, I do need to fact
Speaker 2: check your one note because he said I don't know
Speaker 2: if we scored twenty six in a first quarter. We
Speaker 2: did outscore Boston twenty eight to four in the game
Speaker 2: we won in Cleveland. But to your point, in that
Speaker 2: game me into twenty four, twenty eight to twenty four,
Speaker 2: did I say that.
Speaker 1: You said twenty eight to four. I was like, well,
Speaker 1: that was.
Speaker 2: A you know, that's that's the lead only Boston could blow.
Speaker 2: But no, it was twenty eight to twenty four, so
Speaker 2: we we did eclipse that number. But to your point,
Speaker 2: I do recall Less starting off slow at the beginning
Speaker 2: of that game.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, you know, I do think the Donovan thing
Speaker 1: it's been I don't know. I'm not trying to act
Speaker 1: like it's a bad thing that he's going nuts against
Speaker 1: this team, but it is kind of a meaningfully different
Speaker 1: road to their points than what they've been all year,
Speaker 1: and I don't I'm not quite sure how to reconcile that.
Speaker 1: I also just don't know why Boston cannot do anything
Speaker 1: with this guy, like because even when, like I feel
Speaker 1: like Donovan has been good all year. Obviously he's been
Speaker 1: a I think he's gonna end up first team All
Speaker 1: NBA by the end of the year. Yeah, but there
Speaker 1: have been teams that have at least made it hard
Speaker 1: for him, and I feel like Boston it's not been
Speaker 1: hard for him, really even when he's had less efficient
Speaker 1: games in the season series, it's been just because he's misshots, yeah,
Speaker 1: as opposed to getting knocked off of his rhythm. Like,
Speaker 1: I feel like there are a lot worse teams where
Speaker 1: he has to work way harder to get to his spots.
Speaker 1: I asked Bobby Manning yesterday on yesterday's pod, like, why
Speaker 1: can't you guys do anything with him? Shouldn't you be
Speaker 1: like Taylor made And they're not. I don't know they can't,
Speaker 1: whether it's Drew or Derek White, Like, it doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like like Boston has a tremendous amount of answers. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's the bigs and the drop coverage
Speaker 1: or what, but man, he has just been electric against
Speaker 1: that matchup and it's my number one reason to feel
Speaker 1: like we can go into a series and beat them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, to your point, I think it
Speaker 2: is a little different than our overall profile, right how
Speaker 2: we get points throughout the course of the season, But
Speaker 2: that's kind of what it needs to be. When you're
Speaker 2: playing elite teams, you need your best guys to step
Speaker 2: up to the moment and be there in a lot
Speaker 2: of these games against Boston, where Mitchell has scored other
Speaker 2: guys have been struggling. I think that was true even
Speaker 2: at times in this game. But when you look at
Speaker 2: it again, similar lesson to previous games against Boston, where
Speaker 2: we said Darius after that first game, we're like, if
Speaker 2: Darius just had a B game, like not even a
Speaker 2: B plus, that's probably enough to win, you know, the
Speaker 2: game that we had just lost at home versus Boston.
Speaker 2: If Evan just has a B game, that's probably enough
Speaker 2: to win that game. I thought Evan and Darius both
Speaker 2: had B games. They both struggled at times, but Mobile
Speaker 2: seventeen to twelve and three, Darius twenty seven and three,
Speaker 2: like that you can live with. That is enough to
Speaker 2: get us over the hump. I thought both of them
Speaker 2: had good enough games. So I don't really feel like
Speaker 2: it felt like Donovan's scoring really did still come kind
Speaker 2: of within the flow of the offense. It didn't feel like, Okay,
Speaker 2: we're standing around and watching. I thought there was enough
Speaker 2: guys getting involved. I thought we were still being creative
Speaker 2: with how we got him those looks. But if I
Speaker 2: had to give you a thesis for why he has
Speaker 2: success versus Boston compared to let's say, loud Dort, I
Speaker 2: feel like Derek White and Drew Holiday, they move their
Speaker 2: feet well, they try to poke at the ball and
Speaker 2: kind of get steals and stay in good position, and
Speaker 2: you know, do a good job of bodying you up.
Speaker 2: Lou Dort, He's not letting you move like he's going
Speaker 2: to draw some fouls. But that guy is like a linebacker.
Speaker 2: He is impeding where you're trying to go on the
Speaker 2: court and really disrupting you. I feel like Derek White
Speaker 2: and Drew Holiday really trust their lateral quickness and aren't
Speaker 2: looking to disrupt the dribble as frequently. So Mitchell's still
Speaker 2: able to get to his spots, even Darius in the
Speaker 2: kind of one guard lineup. That first run that we
Speaker 2: had was with Mitchell out of the game, and Darius
Speaker 2: basically had a six to zero runner himself where he
Speaker 2: scored on Derek White and then created shots to assists.
Speaker 2: I think it was to Max Drews and Jared Allen,
Speaker 2: but you know, he was still kind of getting by
Speaker 2: those guys.
Speaker 1: And I just.
Speaker 2: Feel like you are able to get to your spots
Speaker 2: against the Boston guards in ways that you aren't able
Speaker 2: to against the loudord or even a Jalen sucks. Remember
Speaker 2: how different it felt coming off that Magic series.
Speaker 1: Ball pressure the ball pressure is is really I think
Speaker 1: he can knock Donnie out of his game a little bit,
Speaker 1: and that's just not Boston style. They wait for you
Speaker 1: to you know, it's like your older brother letting you
Speaker 1: get past him and open the ball out from behind. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I always was I would come for the block from behind.
Speaker 1: But yeah, naturally, naturally, you scumbag older brother the worst,
Speaker 1: the worst among us. I was getting chased downs long
Speaker 1: before this pod buddy, I know. But you know, representing
Speaker 1: the little others here, you know, I just think there
Speaker 1: is a matchup thing with him where he just feels
Speaker 1: really comfortable. I mean, he is now the all time
Speaker 1: leading point scorer by per game average against the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: sturt passing Michael Jordan as the only two guys that've
Speaker 1: ever averaged thirty plus against the Celtics. He was freaking
Speaker 1: phenomenal in that game. I wonder how they can handle
Speaker 1: games where he's not phenomenal, because I do think we
Speaker 1: need to talk a little bit about how Darius has played.
Speaker 2: When you talk about how Darius is playing, and we
Speaker 2: got to talk about as like you know that that
Speaker 2: is one of my central frustrations of that matchup is
Speaker 2: I'm annoyed Porzingis didn't play, like I get it. You know,
Speaker 2: he at the flu. I don't believe he played today either.
Speaker 2: Drew Holiday that that injury is probably fairly serious at
Speaker 2: least it's going to cost him some time. So it's
Speaker 2: not like that was gamesmanship, but it was knowing to
Speaker 2: not have Porzingis out there because I wanted to see
Speaker 2: what Evan could do there, right like. That was one
Speaker 2: of the main things that we were trying to highlight,
Speaker 2: and I think it's worth noting if you look at
Speaker 2: kind of net ratings versus the Caves, Boston has a
Speaker 2: negative nine net rating when Porzingis is on the court
Speaker 2: versus Cleveland, even though we can't score on them, they
Speaker 2: struggle offensively in those minutes. And when you look at
Speaker 2: the Drew Holiday minutes minus ten net rating versus the Calves,
Speaker 2: so on the one hand, you could say, hey, if
Speaker 2: they were taking shots away from Jason Tatum and Jalen
Speaker 2: Brown on one of their best combined scoring nights of
Speaker 2: their entire career together, that probably would have been in
Speaker 2: that positive. You could probably even argue, hey, this was
Speaker 2: a you know, they've been net negatives versus the Cavs
Speaker 2: this season. You can do all of those kind of arguments.
Speaker 2: But from a fac collecting standpoint, I would have loved
Speaker 2: to see them out there because that was one of
Speaker 2: the main things I wanted to see. But you're right,
Speaker 2: I think when it comes to Darius and his efficiency
Speaker 2: against Boston, I think that is something that we need
Speaker 2: to discuss.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think every I think the impulse for
Speaker 1: everyone has been to talk about Darius on the defensive
Speaker 1: side of the floor. And I think you know, Tatum
Speaker 1: took two field goal attempts against him yesterday, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: two days ago. Jalen definitely got more in. Jalen, by
Speaker 1: the way, scares me much more on a switch than Tatum.
Speaker 1: He'll just bury guys and go all the way to
Speaker 1: the rim or get so damn close that he's taking
Speaker 1: a midi from float range basically, and you know he's
Speaker 1: he's a much nastier, I think, switch attacker than Tatum,
Speaker 1: who tends to That's that's one of the biggest differences. Yeah, However,
Speaker 1: Boston had in the in the forty three minutes following
Speaker 1: the you know, the insane explosion to start the game
Speaker 1: where they get seven of their first nine three point attempts.
Speaker 1: Boston mustard a one to twelve offensive rating that is
Speaker 1: well below their season average, and it's very important that
Speaker 1: the Cavs be able to outscore one to twelve per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions. That's with Tatum and Brown taking sixty
Speaker 1: one field goal attempts, the defense held up and I'm up,
Speaker 1: I'm watching the game, two guys. It doesn't feel good
Speaker 1: to watch Darius get beat up on some of these possessions.
Speaker 1: And they did start making some tweaks in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter that I want to talk about later, But like,
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel good to watch Tatum, you know, put
Speaker 1: his shoulder into Darius's chest and knock him back five
Speaker 1: feet and hit him MIDI over him, or even bury
Speaker 1: him and get all the way to the rim before
Speaker 1: help can come. That doesn't feel good. I don't care.
Speaker 1: The only thing I care about is the points per
Speaker 1: one hundred possessions. I care about how efficient their offense is.
Speaker 1: And their office wasn't that freaking efficient two nights ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so until the and I thought, and I was waiting.
Speaker 1: Sorry to monologue a little bit here, man, but I
Speaker 1: was waiting for the Tatum explosion game, in the Brown
Speaker 1: Explosion game, because in the first three matchups, I kept saying,
Speaker 1: I'm fine with this strategy, even though it doesn't look good,
Speaker 1: even though the worst case scenario is those guys go
Speaker 1: off for like sixty points on you. Well, it happened,
Speaker 1: and they still didn't score that efficiently justin.
Speaker 2: And the funny thing was it largely happened on Jared
Speaker 2: and Nevian like they were hitting a lot of shots
Speaker 2: over the bigs where it's like it did seem like
Speaker 2: the broadcast was waiting to make the Darius point and
Speaker 2: Tatum only hit one shot on him all evening. There
Speaker 2: was a few possessions. I agree with you. I think
Speaker 2: the Brown one is tougher for Darius on those switches
Speaker 2: because he's really going to continue to work his way through.
Speaker 2: He's going to elbow his way to the rim. And
Speaker 2: there's a couple of times where Darius held his ground.
Speaker 2: Well Brown missed the shot and but got the offensive rebound.
Speaker 2: You got to make sure that you're cleaning up those possessions.
Speaker 2: But I thought Darius did a good job. Like there's
Speaker 2: a difference between him getting targeted because he's the shortest
Speaker 2: guy on the court and everybody else. You know, he
Speaker 2: is largely good defenders. I think you still see them
Speaker 2: target Donovan in the same way when he's the loan
Speaker 2: guard out there. That's what Boston's going to do. They
Speaker 2: are a heavy ISO team. They try to get the
Speaker 2: advantage of switches and they're going to go at the
Speaker 2: smaller guards. There's a difference between that and like attacking
Speaker 2: Tray Young who's offering you know, clean paths to the basket,
Speaker 2: getting you know, blowing by Lukadanca geezily because he's not
Speaker 2: trying on the defensive end, That's not what this is.
Speaker 2: If you're talking about a not good mid range shooter
Speaker 2: taking not great shots over darre and the health defense
Speaker 2: is going to be there if he gets to the rim.
Speaker 2: I will continue to live with that, but I do
Speaker 2: wonder what type of impact that that has, you know,
Speaker 2: on Garland's efficiency too, right, because he's taken a pounding
Speaker 2: out there, and you know, maybe there's some correlation there.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's you know, just happens to be what's happened,
Speaker 2: so far this season. I do think, you know, Drew
Speaker 2: Holiday and Derek White are terrific defensive guards. They're going
Speaker 2: to make things tough. Carter, If you had to, yes,
Speaker 2: what do you think Darius is shooting on wide open
Speaker 2: threes versus Boston this season?
Speaker 1: Bad would be my guest. I'm going to say thirty.
Speaker 1: He is shooting forty one percent on wide open threes
Speaker 1: versus Boston this year. That's disappointing.
Speaker 2: And that's over four attempts a game. If you want
Speaker 2: to take out that, and that's with that awful, awful
Speaker 2: game where you know he missed everything. If you're taking
Speaker 2: that game out of the mix, it's forty four percent.
Speaker 2: He's shooting really, really well on those What do you
Speaker 2: want to guess he's shooting on contested threes, like very
Speaker 2: tight coverage threes versus Boston this season, zero sixty seven
Speaker 2: percent on those tightly contested.
Speaker 1: Threes, shooting thirty three percent overall.
Speaker 2: Know where he's really struggling. And this matches my eye test.
Speaker 2: I was thrilled that these numbers match my ad tests.
Speaker 2: Those late contests, those you know, four to six feet
Speaker 2: away range, I noticed that all of those against Boston
Speaker 2: were long in this game. It was like he was thinking, Okay,
Speaker 2: do I attack, do I pull? Like those in between
Speaker 2: shots versus Boston, He's shooting zero percent on those threes.
Speaker 2: He's missed every single one of those threes. Now, why
Speaker 2: don't you have that at the ready? I don't have
Speaker 2: that at the ready. I can look that up for you,
Speaker 2: but I know he's take the wide open ones. Uh
Speaker 2: four point three attempts. He's hitting those wide open ones. Well,
Speaker 2: it's the in between game where he's shooting twenty four
Speaker 2: percent from the floor and zero percent from three.
Speaker 1: Well, that that just tracks with the overall Darius experience
Speaker 1: against Boston. I feel like they speed him up. Man.
Speaker 1: I feel like the floaters are are coming a bit,
Speaker 1: you know, a half beat early or a half beat late,
Speaker 1: as opposed to their perfect, you know, indecisive times. I
Speaker 1: notice he's short arning arming a lot of them, which
Speaker 1: is like a dead giveaway. So he's rushing. He's just
Speaker 1: trying to get him out before the help comes in. Blocks,
Speaker 1: you know, putting some layups off glass too hard and
Speaker 1: then they're rimming out. I just I haven't seen the
Speaker 1: scoring efficiency, and that's why I think if the Cavs
Speaker 1: have a Darius Garland problem against the Boston Celtics right now.
Speaker 1: I actually think if I'm Kenny Atkinson, this coaching staff,
Speaker 1: and I'm Darius Garland, I am worried much more about
Speaker 1: the offense because if he is playing his normal at
Speaker 1: his normal Darius Garland level, then I am even more
Speaker 1: confident that they can weather the storm with him. Defensively,
Speaker 1: I think it gets harder to justify the aesthetics of
Speaker 1: what we're watching if he is as he currently is,
Speaker 1: shooting thirty three percent from the field, thirty three percent
Speaker 1: from three uh and taking more field goal attempts than
Speaker 1: his points per game. He's averaging nineteen field goal attempts
Speaker 1: in his four games, he is averaging eighteen point eight points.
Speaker 1: Last two nights ago, he had twenty points on twenty
Speaker 1: three field goal attempts, and it's like, well, if we're
Speaker 1: not going to get you know, peake, Darius, I understand
Speaker 1: why you might be worried about this matchup, because the
Speaker 1: whole value of him, of the value proposition, gets harder
Speaker 1: to work with. And he's been great against physical defenses. Yep.
Speaker 1: He killed Oklahoma City in that win against some of
Speaker 1: the best guard defenders in the NBA. But he's got
Speaker 1: to figure out out how he's going to kill Boston.
Speaker 1: I'm going to I'm not including last I'm not going
Speaker 1: to include last year's playoff series as part of this
Speaker 1: sample because I just don't think he was himself. But
Speaker 1: I haven't seen a track record of him figure this
Speaker 1: out yet. And he's and you and if you're listening
Speaker 1: to this, you know we are like the biggest pro
Speaker 1: Darius podcast out there. He has to be himself if
Speaker 1: they want to win a series against the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 2: To answer your question, those in between shots, oh of
Speaker 2: seven on those, and it's actually higher on the wide
Speaker 2: open ones. If you take out that first game, he's
Speaker 2: shooting fifty four percent on wide open threes seven to
Speaker 2: thirteen after that first game against Boston. So it really
Speaker 2: does match the eye tests, Like I think, the fact
Speaker 2: that he is finishing well on tightly contested shots and
Speaker 2: he is finishing well on wide open shots, that to me,
Speaker 2: tracks like that is what I'm seeing against Boston. It's
Speaker 2: the in between where I feel like he's pressing where
Speaker 2: it's should I pull, and then when he decides to pull,
Speaker 2: it's a half beat too slow, and he rushes the shot.
Speaker 2: He rushes the floater. We saw some in those earlier
Speaker 2: matchups where the floaters are hitting the back rim. The
Speaker 2: three pointers that you know hit the back rim. He's
Speaker 2: someone that has great touch, And I think that that
Speaker 2: is one of those spots where I don't think that
Speaker 2: that reflects being scared of the moment, because he's very
Speaker 2: clearly still being assertive. He's taking those shots in clutch time.
Speaker 2: He's not passing up open looks. I think that that
Speaker 2: is a ready for the moment question of do you
Speaker 2: can you maintain the composure against the defense that specifically
Speaker 2: is trying to rush you, that is trying to make
Speaker 2: you second guess. He needs to be consistently assertive and
Speaker 2: attack those late closeout situations. He needs to attack when
Speaker 2: it's four to six feet away and you have that
Speaker 2: open three, do not hesitate take that shot. But to
Speaker 2: me overall, when I'm looking at these numbers, I like seeing,
Speaker 2: you know that he's shooting fifty four percent on those
Speaker 2: open looks after that first game and forty overall. Right,
Speaker 2: I like that that he's finishing well when he's contested,
Speaker 2: because I think when someone's contesting you and there it's
Speaker 2: tight coverage. You got, you know, Derek White on your
Speaker 2: hip or whatever the case may be. You know what
Speaker 2: you're supposed to do there, right, Like, if enough defense collapses,
Speaker 2: he's going to make the right pass. Seven assists to
Speaker 2: one turnover. That's what you want to see against Boston.
Speaker 2: If you're finishing, you know, like, all right, I'm going
Speaker 2: up with the shot. There's no indecision in that spot.
Speaker 2: It's the in between spots that I am noticing that
Speaker 2: he is rushing his decision making. And I think that
Speaker 2: that comes down to composure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think. I don't know. Maybe it's so a
Speaker 1: bit of wanting it too much. Maybe it's that you know,
Speaker 1: just leaning, you know, a little bit of regression to
Speaker 1: past bad habits. But I do think it matters. I
Speaker 1: do think that you you need to see this because
Speaker 1: he just gets hard to justify the defensive pain and
Speaker 1: the nots you're putting yourself in defensively to help to accommodate,
Speaker 1: you know, the size disadvantage you have when he's not
Speaker 1: scoring officially on his end. So I do think a
Speaker 1: lot of that stuff, I won't care. I don't think
Speaker 1: the aesthetics will ever be good with Boston because they
Speaker 1: are mismatch hunters. But I do want to just get
Speaker 1: back to.
Speaker 2: What can I just say if they go ahead, if
Speaker 2: we're looking at the last three games against Boston, because
Speaker 2: the first one, you know, he was gassed and he said,
Speaker 2: you know, they have to give him a game off
Speaker 2: and it was just an off off night. Does it
Speaker 2: sway you at all that in the following three games,
Speaker 2: he's averaging twenty two points per game. He's shooting forty
Speaker 2: percent from the field and forty three percent from three
Speaker 2: versus Boston.
Speaker 1: Not that much. I think he's I still don't think
Speaker 1: he's been at his level. I think the win he.
Speaker 2: Was, Yeah, But I just feel like I feel like
Speaker 2: you're not going to get Darius at his level consistently
Speaker 2: in a series against Boston. Like I think, bottom line here,
Speaker 2: you're going to have below your season averages there. But
Speaker 2: if I'm getting twenty two and six on forty forty
Speaker 2: three shooting and he's not turning the ball over, I
Speaker 2: think that that I think you can win with that.
Speaker 2: If I want what you're supposed to from Donovan and Nevin.
Speaker 1: Maybe we're not going to see him at an A
Speaker 1: plus a lot, I think he needs to find his
Speaker 1: way to a B plus. I don't think he has
Speaker 1: hit a B plus game yet against Boston. And I
Speaker 1: know that seems like a persnickety distinction to make, but
Speaker 1: like I do think it matters, and I think there
Speaker 1: are margins against a team that's good are so thin
Speaker 1: that there's also the just the rising tide effect that
Speaker 1: Darius has that no one else on this team has.
Speaker 1: No one else affects this team's overall off offensive health
Speaker 1: like Darius Garland. There's a reason the whole team looked
Speaker 1: like they were playing in the mud today because Darius
Speaker 1: was having an awful game and couldn't get that and
Speaker 1: the machine wasn't wasn't humming, like the key conductor for
Speaker 1: the for the train wasn't making sure all everything was going.
Speaker 1: So that's why the B plus thing matters more with
Speaker 1: him than like if you were to say, party you
Speaker 1: can have seven B plus games from Darius or Evan
Speaker 1: against Boston and the other guy is going to flex
Speaker 1: weight between like a C plus and a B minus.
Speaker 1: I might still pick Darius, I really, and I know
Speaker 1: that's a I know that's a I know that would
Speaker 1: probably be a controversial take, that would probably put me
Speaker 1: in the minority. But I think Evans baseline is so
Speaker 1: much higher because we can do on defense how he
Speaker 1: can duck in and how he can have he can
Speaker 1: ruin games in a six minute stretch like he had
Speaker 1: like he had two days ago, Whereas I think for
Speaker 1: the overall health of how the offense is functioning, if
Speaker 1: Darius is cooking, I just feel so good about everyone
Speaker 1: else's ability to eat just by being around. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I think there's validity to that, and I think
Speaker 2: that there is room for growth. I like that he's
Speaker 2: not scared of the matchup, that he is continuing to
Speaker 2: be aggressive. I like the fact, you know that he
Speaker 2: hit those shots at the end of the game. I
Speaker 2: think it's really going to come down to settling down.
Speaker 2: And you know, I hate bringing this up because I
Speaker 2: think all four games did start with the Cavs having
Speaker 2: a slow start, and I think that is something that
Speaker 2: we need to keep an eye on, right that you
Speaker 2: can't have that happen in a playoff series where you
Speaker 2: are putting yourself behind the eight ball to start, you know,
Speaker 2: every game, to start a series. I do think that
Speaker 2: there's maybe something to the fact that the last two
Speaker 2: games were particularly rough, and both of them were coming
Speaker 2: off of forty point wins. They beat Dallas by forty
Speaker 2: three prior to the previous game, you beat Orlando by
Speaker 2: forty and you're playing, you know, very loose. You don't
Speaker 2: have to play as focused, And I'm interested what that
Speaker 2: adjustment looks like going into a playoff series. But it
Speaker 2: could go the other way, right, Like, you know, you
Speaker 2: may not have the good vibes, you might be coming
Speaker 2: off a tough playoff series and you tighten up even
Speaker 2: more against Boston. I think that this is a trend
Speaker 2: that is legitimate. I don't think it is, you know,
Speaker 2: context dependent on those two I hate bringing it up,
Speaker 2: but it is something that was in the back of
Speaker 2: my mind of you almost want to be in a
Speaker 2: rhythm going in and I feel like those types of
Speaker 2: wins take you out of that rhythm entirely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there is something to that. It's always
Speaker 1: a weird oh we're playing in a different sport now,
Speaker 1: a ramp up, Like we always felt that about the
Speaker 1: Cabs in the finals, when they would just romp through
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference and then all of a sudden they'd
Speaker 1: have to go play the Warriors death machine, and it's like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
Speaker 1: slow down, We're we're getting up to speed here, fellas.
Speaker 1: And the most.
Speaker 2: Damaged Toronto would do to us in a playoff series
Speaker 2: was getting us used to attacking Demarta Rozen and Jonnas Malencunas.
Speaker 1: Did the Did the Cavs win a single game one
Speaker 1: against the Warriors in any of those four finals? No,
Speaker 1: I didn't think, so oh no, no, we don't. No, no,
Speaker 1: they didn't. So uh, you know, I do think there's
Speaker 1: a little bit of that that comes into this. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it's not a not a great excuse. I hope the
Speaker 1: players wouldn't make that excuse. No, and I don't mean
Speaker 1: it as that. I know, I know you're not trying it.
Speaker 1: We're just we're just evaluating everything across the board. I
Speaker 1: do want to talk about my favorite squeak or my
Speaker 1: favorite learning from the game, which is that after the
Speaker 1: Calves won the second game of the series. I mean,
Speaker 1: you got on this podcast and we both we both
Speaker 1: defended and agreed with the switching philosophy, even if Darius
Speaker 1: was gonna get beat up in the process. But you
Speaker 1: said I want to see them fight over screens a
Speaker 1: little bit harder, And I said, that sounds nice in theory,
Speaker 1: but it does open you up to slips, to miscommunications
Speaker 1: and those both those things kill you against this Boston
Speaker 1: team and gets there, you know, because when you mess
Speaker 1: those exchanges up, you put two on the ball and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, the Boston three point machine
Speaker 1: is cranked up. So I pushed back, and I felt
Speaker 1: like we left it in a pretty good place and
Speaker 1: through Game three and through I felt like three quarters
Speaker 1: of Game four mostly still the soft switch. So Darius's
Speaker 1: man comes up in screens for one of the Jays
Speaker 1: and they just kind of do a pass off. Fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: I felt like things changed and guys started fight over
Speaker 1: screens just a little bit, or to force a re screen,
Speaker 1: or to force the ball handler to pick up the
Speaker 1: ball and hit an outlet and have the Cavs defense
Speaker 1: scrambling back. And I thought it mostly led to good results.
Speaker 1: And I just wanted to if you had noticed that,
Speaker 1: what you thought about that that tweak, because it is
Speaker 1: I feel like the first major defensive tweak we've seen
Speaker 1: from Kenny in this season series.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I liked it when I saw it at
Speaker 2: the end of Game two. That is something that I
Speaker 2: have circled on. You know that I'm thinking about of
Speaker 2: not showing your cards in the regular season, but something
Speaker 2: we might see in the playoffs. I think when you
Speaker 2: are when you have a mentality of we're okay if
Speaker 2: you do force the switch, We're going to make you
Speaker 2: force it. We're not going to give you this off switching.
Speaker 2: We trust our guys to fight around screens, and honestly,
Speaker 2: I think you can. I think DeAndre Hunter does a
Speaker 2: good job of screen navigation. I think I think Darius
Speaker 2: has done it really improved as a screen navigator. I
Speaker 2: think Donovan's doing a good job. I think Sam Merrill
Speaker 2: does a good job of that. Isaacokorro for years has
Speaker 2: some of the best screen navigation metrics in the league. Defensively,
Speaker 2: I think you have the personnel to do that. If
Speaker 2: your mentality is, hey, we're going to make you really
Speaker 2: fight to earn that, I think that that completely changes
Speaker 2: the complexion of what this series is. Defensively, Austin can
Speaker 2: take advantage of it at times. Right like that, you
Speaker 2: open yourselves up to counters in that spot, you open
Speaker 2: yourself up the slips, you open up yourself to to
Speaker 2: you know, the basketball IQ of the Celtics, but I
Speaker 2: think having that as the primary kind of look. And
Speaker 2: you know, if Tatum does eventually force the switch on
Speaker 2: Darius and it takes two three re screens, but the
Speaker 2: not only has he used energy to do so, the
Speaker 2: shot clock is now down at eight when he goes
Speaker 2: to work, it is more likely that he is going
Speaker 2: to settle for one of those mid range shots that
Speaker 2: he's not good at. You are baiting him again into
Speaker 2: those worst tendencies that has resulted in him being ten
Speaker 2: of twenty six against Darius. I just think that that
Speaker 2: is the way I can jump into. It also allows
Speaker 2: you to send help to Darius because he doesn't have
Speaker 2: as much time to swing. Like if he gets the
Speaker 2: switch with eight seconds left on the shot lock and
Speaker 2: then takes the next four to five seconds to attack
Speaker 2: Darius and hit him a couple times on the way
Speaker 2: to the rim. Even if he does get all the
Speaker 2: way to the rim, you can just bring help because
Speaker 2: he can't kick it out to the opposite side of
Speaker 2: the floor unless if he does, it's a grenade, right Like,
Speaker 2: that's a high, high degree of difficulty shot. It's different
Speaker 2: than a kickout with twelve seconds left. When you're lining
Speaker 2: that up, you know the person standing in the corners like, God,
Speaker 2: I've been watching you try to get this switch for
Speaker 2: the last seventeen seconds and I was not expecting you
Speaker 2: to throw this ball to me, Like yeah, I just
Speaker 2: that is something that I'd really like to see because
Speaker 2: I think, you know, having these tools in your arsenal,
Speaker 2: being able to go to zone and throwing them off.
Speaker 2: I thought Kenny's used the zone in this game disrupted Boston.
Speaker 2: I thought that they got out of their game a
Speaker 2: little bit to try to attack the zone, screwed up
Speaker 2: their rhythm offensively being able to saw switch at times
Speaker 2: right like, because that's the other beauty about you know,
Speaker 2: when you're fighting through the switch, if they're expecting that,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden you do throw kind of
Speaker 2: a quick sauce switch or a hard head or kind
Speaker 2: of a variety of different looks, you're able to, all
Speaker 2: of a sudden keep them out of a rhythm offensively.
Speaker 2: I would like to see that. I'm just not a
Speaker 2: big fan in general of sawce switching. I do think
Speaker 2: it's impressive that we're able to do it as frequently
Speaker 2: as we do, and I think that's a credit to
Speaker 2: the dedication of you know, guys one through eleven on
Speaker 2: this roster. But I do think that that is one
Speaker 2: of those second gears that they can get to on
Speaker 2: the defensive end of the court that we may not
Speaker 2: see in the regular season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think. I think the reason why I have
Speaker 1: been sold coming out of that game is that, yes,
Speaker 1: your risk goes up when you fight, but one so
Speaker 1: does theirs. Like Jason Tatum gets called for a really
Speaker 1: crucial moving screen because Darius stayed connected and tried to
Speaker 1: fight through. So they have to be they have to
Speaker 1: be better, they have to execute well. And then at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, I just was sitting there
Speaker 1: watching rewatching that fourth quarter and thinking, well, if we're
Speaker 1: not gonna ask the Cavs defense to think really hard
Speaker 1: and not mess up, well, then like we're not gonna
Speaker 1: win a championship, right, Like this team is gonna have
Speaker 1: to be able to live in the gray excusally. And
Speaker 1: you know, stop switching is nice because it is black
Speaker 1: and white. We're gonna switch everything. It's really hard to
Speaker 1: mess it up and removes the miscommunication. Yes, but if
Speaker 1: they really want to defend at their best, they're going
Speaker 1: to have to live into that gray into that gray
Speaker 1: area of well, we'd better be talking, we'd better be planning,
Speaker 1: we'd better you know, have our principles in order. Uh,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna even just literally have to do our
Speaker 1: jobs well outside of the communication. We're gonna have to
Speaker 1: stay connected and fight over this. We can't die on
Speaker 1: the screen if we're not gonna switch. We can't go
Speaker 1: too far under. You know, there was one possession where
Speaker 1: Derek White walked into a pull up three because Darius
Speaker 1: went took a really wide angle under a Tatum screen
Speaker 1: and you know, Hunter got it, gave a late contest,
Speaker 1: but it's one that White hits a lot, and so
Speaker 1: they're they're they're the the risk goes up. But you know,
Speaker 1: nothing mentioned, nothing gained strategically, and something else I was
Speaker 1: thinking about. The other thing that has kind of brought
Speaker 1: me over to your side of the argument is the
Speaker 1: calves are bigger now up and down the roster, and
Speaker 1: teams that are playing big guys at the two through
Speaker 1: five and oftentimes the one through five when Tigerom is
Speaker 1: out there, you have more margin for error to play
Speaker 1: more aggressive. You know, there were plays where Hunter fought
Speaker 1: over the screen and he got screened, but he was
Speaker 1: able to get back to the hip of Tatum. There
Speaker 1: was a few plays where Dean Wade, who played his
Speaker 1: best defense of the entire season. I thought he was
Speaker 1: unbelievable in this game, but he was just bought through
Speaker 1: and stayed connected. And it's easier to stay connected when
Speaker 1: you're bigger and longer and you have other big, tall,
Speaker 1: long armed dudes on the weak side patrolling any of
Speaker 1: those kickout passes. I mean, Boston turned the ball over
Speaker 1: in that game, yeah, more than they normally do. Tatum
Speaker 1: at three really brutal turnovers, Daly turnovers, and they won
Speaker 1: the possession battle ever so slightly, because again, I just
Speaker 1: don't think you get to kick Boston's ass much because
Speaker 1: they're too good. But like all those things have tipped
Speaker 1: the scales for me, and I really like the change,
Speaker 1: and I think they're better built to play the way
Speaker 1: you were hoping they would play after the Hunter trade
Speaker 1: than they were before. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, as I always say, I'm never wrong,
Speaker 2: I'm just early, and this is yet another one of
Speaker 2: those examples. And you were correct to call me out
Speaker 2: on the last podcast about how I put you in,
Speaker 2: you know, a tough spot sometimes being the one that's
Speaker 2: always right. It's a burden. It's a responsibility that I
Speaker 2: do not take lightly. I do want to before we
Speaker 2: wrap this up because we are going long, but I
Speaker 2: can't get out of this podcast without talking about it.
Speaker 2: Since he's come back from injury.
Speaker 1: It's not his best statistical stretch, but this is the
Speaker 1: best I've ever felt about Isaac Ocorra.
Speaker 2: I am loving how he's being used. I am loving
Speaker 2: his impact and I didn't feel it in real time,
Speaker 2: maybe because the start felt so terrible against Boston, But
Speaker 2: when I did my rewatch this morning, he jumped off
Speaker 2: the screen, particularly in that first quarter, in terms of
Speaker 2: his impact on that run that got the Cavs kind
Speaker 2: of back within range. The you know, he set a
Speaker 2: screen for DeAndre Hunter, he gets a wide open three
Speaker 2: in the corner, set a screen to free ab Donovan,
Speaker 2: you know, rolled to the basket.
Speaker 1: It was one.
Speaker 2: I think it was Donovan's second turnover. He shouldn't have
Speaker 2: been credited for it because you know, Luke Cornette blew
Speaker 2: up o'cor and him in the head there. But then
Speaker 2: there was also, you know a play as a screener
Speaker 2: where he set Donovan free. Donovan got the shot, he
Speaker 2: crashed to the glass and got the put back after
Speaker 2: Mobile tipped it to him. There was another one where
Speaker 2: he screened for Pritchard and rather than flaring out to
Speaker 2: the corner as he traditionally would, he rolled to the basket.
Speaker 2: When he rolled to the basket, it forced al Horford
Speaker 2: to pick him up because al Horford was forced to
Speaker 2: pick up a coro there rather than ignore him going
Speaker 2: to the corner. That meant that Sam Hauser had to
Speaker 2: come over and help on Darius because Darius blew by
Speaker 2: Pritchard after that screen. That led to Darius hitting Dean
Speaker 2: Wade for a wide open three that he cashed. Okoro
Speaker 2: being used in this way being used as kind of
Speaker 2: that Bruce Brown player has changed his game from being
Speaker 2: a all right, we're gonna sit you in the corner
Speaker 2: and if you hit your threes, you had an impactful game.
Speaker 2: If you don't, you know, we can't have you out there.
Speaker 2: He is playing in a manner that has an impact
Speaker 2: in all of his minutes. He is more aggressive attacking
Speaker 2: the glass. He is making smart passes out of the role.
Speaker 2: He is being used in a much much more creative way,
Speaker 2: even better than that stretch he had earlier this season.
Speaker 2: And I think some of that is tied to what
Speaker 2: we said after the Hunter trade of he's going to
Speaker 2: get to play a lot more too. But I just
Speaker 2: feel like his understanding of what he needs to do
Speaker 2: within the flow of this team has improved dramatically. Well.
Speaker 1: We've always liked his playmaking, chops and his reads, and
Speaker 1: I just think the skill has never really caught up
Speaker 1: to the handles not good enough to access it basically, yeah, basically,
Speaker 1: And I think Kenny has done a nice job of
Speaker 1: getting Isaac just moving around the court a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know. I just think there's less. There's less. No
Speaker 1: one really hangs in one spot for too long in
Speaker 1: this offense, Like there's just constant, you know, vacation of space.
Speaker 1: And I think, oh, Quarrel really benefits from that because
Speaker 1: what it does is he's always been a pretty helpful cutter,
Speaker 1: and now he's asked to do it a lot as
Speaker 1: just part of the function of the offense. He's asked
Speaker 1: to do a lot more screening than I felt like
Speaker 1: he did last year. And when he catches the ball
Speaker 1: on the move. The skill stuff matters less. He doesn't
Speaker 1: have to beat someone off the dribble. He just has
Speaker 1: to go on a straight line and kick it where
Speaker 1: it needs to go or go up with it. And
Speaker 1: the three I think does look a little bit better
Speaker 1: after getting that extra time off, which is nice. But
Speaker 1: what's nice is I think he's been helpful in all
Speaker 1: four games he's played since he's returned without needing to
Speaker 1: be a particularly high volume three point shooter. Yeh yeah.
Speaker 2: And you know he's getting some of those events stats.
Speaker 2: He's creating second chance opportunities just by fighting for the ball.
Speaker 2: And I think again, some of that is tied to
Speaker 2: play in as a guard, where it's not his responsibility
Speaker 2: to run back and transition and take away the corner. Right,
Speaker 2: He is a little bit more freedom to do that
Speaker 2: because so frequently when teams, say a big man into
Speaker 2: the possession, they're handing it off to the guard and
Speaker 2: that little bit of time buys you the ability to
Speaker 2: crash the glass. He's getting some awesome blocks. He had
Speaker 2: a big, big one on Jalen Brown. He had a
Speaker 2: crucial time. He blocked a jump shot today. Like he
Speaker 2: is just he's looking more kind of athletic and explosive
Speaker 2: than I even recalled. And I just feel like, even
Speaker 2: though the stats aren't jumping off the page, I really
Speaker 2: really feel his impact and I just feel like this
Speaker 2: is a version of Icycle Coral that can make a
Speaker 2: difference for this team come to postseason.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I do think it's the first time that
Speaker 1: I felt like him in a low minutes role. You know,
Speaker 1: he's playing, you know, between fourteen to twenty a game
Speaker 1: right now. Yep. It's the first time where it's like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I hope he hits the three because otherwise we've wasted
Speaker 1: twelve minutes of offense. Yep. You know, I feel like
Speaker 1: he's just like he's able to join the game in
Speaker 1: a flow a little bit better than he has even
Speaker 1: though he's not playing a tremendous amount of minutes. Yep.
Speaker 2: Yep, four of eight from three these last couple of games.
Speaker 2: You know, he had a very very timely one against
Speaker 2: Boston that was great to see. Just really really happy
Speaker 2: with that last little bit of news. But before we
Speaker 2: wrap this up, the Calves announced today that J. T.
Speaker 2: Thor has been waived no longer on a two way
Speaker 2: contract and Nakwon. Tomlin has been rewarded for his strong
Speaker 2: strong play. I was a little surprised to see thor
Speaker 2: Waived talked about how, you know, just given the fact
Speaker 2: that he has NBA experience, I thought that he would
Speaker 2: be the most prepared. But when you look at those
Speaker 2: G League stats, there's no denying that Tomlin.
Speaker 1: Has helped performed him so far this season. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think there's a little bit of that. You know, Tomlin
Speaker 1: is clearly the higher upside project. And with two ways,
Speaker 1: you're not looking to like, you know, have a single
Speaker 1: war in a sack single. You know, you're you know,
Speaker 1: you know, a sackfly. You're looking for singles, doubles and triples,
Speaker 1: and I do think Tomlin has a much higher percentage
Speaker 1: shot of being that. You know, he's still so early
Speaker 1: on his NBA journey, in his basketball journey journey, frankly,
Speaker 1: that he feels like, you know, getting him on a
Speaker 1: multi year deal seems really wise. You know, you know
Speaker 1: how I feel about two ways you cycle them, And
Speaker 1: I think you know, the team kind of saw they
Speaker 1: they saw enough of JT to be like, hey, here's
Speaker 1: where we think your ceiling is. Here's where our short
Speaker 1: term opportunity is, it's just not the best fit and
Speaker 1: instead went with another upside play and Tomlin, who you know,
Speaker 1: I think if you were say who is the best
Speaker 1: shot of being on the roster three years from now,
Speaker 1: Tomlin or Thora, I would certainly picked Tomlin and uh,
Speaker 1: I'm glad to see him get rewarded with a little
Speaker 1: bit more secure, a little bit more investment from the team.
Speaker 1: It does open the question of are they going to
Speaker 1: fill that fifteenth roster spot before the playoffs because I
Speaker 1: think both me and you thought Jake Thor might be
Speaker 1: that guy, and now now I have no clip.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought it was very possible that one of
Speaker 2: the two way guys we're going to get that spot.
Speaker 2: It will be interesting to see they have, you know,
Speaker 2: some options with what they can do there. The buyout
Speaker 2: deadline has now passed, so any players bought out after
Speaker 2: March first are not playoff eligible. So we have an
Speaker 2: idea of who's available in the buyout market, We have
Speaker 2: an idea of who's available in the free agency market.
Speaker 2: Do they look at someone like Mobamba, who I believe
Speaker 2: is you know, playing with a G League team but
Speaker 2: not signed Birmingham. I think he just signed with Yeah,
Speaker 2: so you know, there's an opportunity there. It'll be interesting
Speaker 2: to see what they do with that spot. But I
Speaker 2: do think you're correct in assuming that because Thor is waived,
Speaker 2: I don't think we're going to see a two way promotion.
Speaker 1: I just.
Speaker 2: Hey, I guess you could still see that and then
Speaker 2: Thora is signed to a two way again. But I
Speaker 2: just feel like, from a procedural standpoint, the smart money's
Speaker 2: probably on that not being the case.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what, I'm curious are they going to fill it
Speaker 1: at all? You know, I hope they do. I hope
Speaker 1: they find someone they think that they can that can help.
Speaker 1: I would love to see a big especially in the
Speaker 1: wake of waiting for DeAndre Hunter and adding Javonte Green.
Speaker 1: But we'll see. We'll see what they end up doing.
Speaker 1: You know, if whoever they sign ends up playing, we're
Speaker 1: probably in a healthy amount of trouble. But help Dante
Speaker 1: Jones helped us win the NBA Championships, so who knows.
Speaker 2: Hey, you know, it might just mean that we are
Speaker 2: up forty because that could certainly happen with how damn
Speaker 2: good this team has been. Even when it comes to
Speaker 2: the first round of the playoffs, so I think, you know,
Speaker 2: it's terrific the fact that we're on a ten game
Speaker 2: winning streak. When you look at that schedule coming out
Speaker 2: of the All Star Break, you said, you got the ringer.
Speaker 2: That's you know, that's tough teams. You're going to be
Speaker 2: tested in that stretch. They answered the bell in all
Speaker 2: of those They once again showed that they can come
Speaker 2: back multiple times. This team has grit, it has resilience,
Speaker 2: it has the ability to go out there and beat Boston.
Speaker 2: It's just going to be whether or not they are
Speaker 2: ready to do that this season. And you know, you
Speaker 2: can't take these opportunities for granted. Man No and I
Speaker 2: we we asked if that Boston game was the last
Speaker 2: really important game of the season for this team, and
Speaker 2: I still kind of do think that. And now it's
Speaker 2: going to be a matter of, really, what are they
Speaker 2: gonna do. They've got sixteen games in March. This is
Speaker 2: a dense month of basketball to play during a stretch
Speaker 2: where they have all but locked up the one seed
Speaker 2: in the Eastern Conference. And you know, it's hard to
Speaker 2: motivate yourself in a you know that to be an
Speaker 2: okay see team that you know when you put all
Speaker 2: the percentages together, it's not a tremendous chance that you'll
Speaker 2: be playing them in the finals, you know, just based
Speaker 2: on her like probability and odds. So I just I
Speaker 2: wonder how they how they treat this. How are guys
Speaker 2: going to get rest? Are guy's gonna be sharp?
Speaker 1: Is ken? He gonna do some weird stuff to because
Speaker 1: he's got this huge runway to play around with ideas,
Speaker 1: and God knows, the man probably likes to tinker. So
Speaker 1: it's going to be an interesting month of Cavs basketball
Speaker 1: coming up, even if the wins and losses maybe get
Speaker 1: a little less important. I mean, I'll still care a
Speaker 1: lot because I really want him to get to sixty seven.
Speaker 1: But uh, you know it will be a motivation challenge
Speaker 1: as well. I'm sure.
Speaker 2: Well listen to your good friend justin We're getting to
Speaker 2: sixty seven, don't you worry.
Speaker 1: The beautiful thing is I think I'm there now, by
Speaker 1: the way, no matter I'm with you, no.
Speaker 2: Matter what path we take, I think it still happens.
Speaker 2: Because this team has so much depth. You put Craig
Speaker 2: Porter Junior out there, he looks great. You put you know,
Speaker 2: Jalen Tyson has given them good minutes. I think probably,
Speaker 2: you know, if someone made the horrible decision to make
Speaker 2: me a coach, I think the way that I would
Speaker 2: approach this is, Hey, if we've got back to backs,
Speaker 2: I'm capping our our starters minutes twenty eight for one
Speaker 2: of these and the other one prepared to play real minutes.
Speaker 2: I'm going to try to ramp your minutes up, but
Speaker 2: I'm going to be strategic with this. We're going twelve
Speaker 2: these games. These ones were treating as dress rehearsals. I
Speaker 2: think that they have the depth and the flexibility to
Speaker 2: do that. Continue to manage, you know, any injuries and
Speaker 2: guys getting banged up, be cautious in those spots and
Speaker 2: just use it to experiment further. Right, Like, you might
Speaker 2: not play a Boston or okay see, but you're going
Speaker 2: to play a honest You're going to play the Knicks.
Speaker 2: You're going to have opportunities to try out some stuff
Speaker 2: against very good players and very good teams.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be fun, man, Oh, Cavs, go Calves.
Speaker 2: It is going to be fun. It's always fun talking
Speaker 2: to you, buddy. It's always fun going live. Thanks to
Speaker 2: everyone that tune in live on YouTube. Make sure you
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Speaker 2: Sure you guys have stayed safe out there. Until next time, Kay,