Jason Timpf reacts to Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers' 118-94 win over Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Jason breaks down film from the game and explains how Boston’s lack of identity on offense and lazy defense lost them this game. After tying the series at 1, do the Cavs have a legit shot at knocking off the Eastern Conference favorites? #Volume #Herd
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All right, welcome to him tonight here at the volume.
Happy Friday, everybody, hope all if you guys have had
a great week so far. Gonna get into the two
games from last night. Took the off last night. I
just hung out with my wife, got to relax for
a little bit before we get back into the grind.
Gonna hit just Celtics Calves in this video, just for
times sake. As soon as I'm done recording this, I'm
gonna turn around and record or start watching MAVs Thunder
(02:12):
and do the analysis for it. But this one had
taken me a little while. I wanted to get it
out before I started covering the next game. So just
hitting Calves Celtics in this game is the or in
this video, as the Calves tie the series, dominating the
Celtics after falling down to an early nine point deficit,
pretty much blowing them out the rest of the way,
and now we're headed back to Cleveland with the series
tied at one. You guys are the job before we
(02:32):
get started. Subscribe to the brand new YouTube channels. You
don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys, don't miss you announcements.
Don't forget about a podcast feed where we get your
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questions and those YouTube comments. We can keep hitting them
throughout the rest of the postseason. So let's talk some basketball.
Tell me if you've heard this before. Boston had a
cold jump shooting night and then their offense completely fell
(02:53):
apart because they don't really have another way to consistently
consistently score unless they're making jump shots, so they lost.
Boston got zero points seven to three points per jump shot.
In the game obviously really bad. They did shoot well
when they were open. They were five for twelve and
wide open threes, it's forty two percent. Cleveland just did
a good job of chasing them off the line and
contesting jumpers and playing them into their worst tendencies. They
(03:17):
took twenty one pull up jump shots in the game,
only made five of them. That was zero point five
to seven points per shot. A lot of the same
stuff that you're accustomed to seeing from Boston. As we
talked about all season, their success pretty much is determined
by jump shot variants on a night in, night out basis.
They were twenty seventh in points in the paint per
(03:37):
game in the regular season. That is dead last among
the remaining playoff teams in this field. I was kind
of doing some digging through the data and just go
into NBA dot com, go to the little miscellaneous tab
and click and sort all the playoff teams by points
by points in the paint, and you will see there's
a pretty solid connection between the teams that are remaining
(03:58):
in this field and the teams have been eliminated. The teams.
Most of the teams that are remaining are high in
the in the upper echelon in points in the paint
among playoff teams. It's been just a consistent theme, especially
in this super physical playoff environment. It's just harder to
make jump shots when teams are allowed to foul more
and the games are just more physical, more intense, and
Boston has tied a lot of their success to those results,
(04:21):
and they just don't have a counter when shots are
aren't falling other than to just take more of them
and hope they go in. Now, the upside is real.
I want to be clear. They're one point one to
three points per jump shot. Was their efficiency with those
in the regular season that was number one in the NBA, right,
So they are the best jump shooting team in the NBA.
They just lean into it so heavily that the variance
(04:41):
can be a problem. They can get hot too, and
they can blow you out in a matter of minutes.
And like, no matter who they play, if they win
this series and they continue to move on, even if
they end up in a series where they lose at
some point in the future. Again, let's say they lose
to Minnesota. Wouldn't be surprised if there's two or three
games in that series. Where Boston just gets super in
insanely hot from three in wins. That's always a big
(05:03):
part of their upside. It just also has a downside
that comes with it. And again, these are teams that
they're way better than, Like, they're way more talented than Cleveland,
and they are like just there's a chasm in talent
difference between them and that Miami Heat team. And even
in those matchups, the variants can be an issue. We're
gonna get more into Boston and just kind of their
(05:23):
brand of basketball later on, but again that was the primary,
you know, kind of variance in this game. Boston couldn't
make a jump shot, couldn't score outside of that, and Cleveland,
you know, just kind of leaned into that momentum, got
a bunch of big shot shot making nights from some
key guys. We'll go into that here in just a minute.
So the flow of the game, Celtics got out to
an early nine point lead, kind of started to chip
(05:43):
away in the late first quarter. Big thing I was
noticing on film Karis Lavert and Evan Mobley, We're really
picking on Sam Hauser and Luke Cordnett. Now the houser
Cornett lineups throughout the postseason up until last night were
mostly good defensively, And I do think that those guys
do their jobs, but it's less about like how good
they are within the game plan of doing their jobs,
(06:04):
and more about do stars feel comfortable against them? And
the reality is is even though Howser slides his feet
and he gets good contests, like when Karis Lavert saw him,
he felt comfortable dribbling against him. When Donovan Mitchell saw him,
he felt comfortable dribbling against him. It was a different
level of comfort and ability to get to their spots
than it was when they face a Derek White or
(06:24):
a Tatum or a Brown or a Drew Holliday. So
like that, the Calves were just going way out of
their way to attack those two in action in that
late first quarter run. It immediately stood out to me
and it became a trend later on in the game,
which we'll get to as we talked about the Celtics
started missing shots. You know, they were hitting early. Al
Horford did a couple threes. They were hitting early when
they went up fourteen to five. But the Calves go
(06:47):
on a big run, riding that two man game with
Lavert and Mobley, who by the way, had his best
games scoring in as a role man of this postseason.
We'll get more into that in a minute. But the
Calves going a big run. They go up thirty to
twenty one. Then the celt come back in, their main
guys come back in and they reassert control. We basically
go into halftime tied, but in that early third quarter,
(07:07):
Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland catch a little heater. They
make five threes in the first seven minutes. They build
that first little bit of margin. Obviously Boston still missing
the Garland threes in particular felt huge because he didn't
do much scoring elsewhere in the game. Calves go up
by eleven points. Then we go into that late third
quarter stretch and exactly like what happened at the end
of the first quarter, incomes Cornett and Hauser. The Cavs
(07:30):
go right back to attacking them, and a big part
of that was Donovan Mitchell did not come out of
the game. He stayed in the game during that portion
and he was going right at Sam Hauser. He ended
up drawing a foul in a three point shot against
Derek White. He had to pull up three in Sam
Hawser's face. He had that bomb, that buzzer beater like
step back three that he hit on Jason Tatum to
(07:52):
send it into the fourth quarter. And then early in
the fourth quarter he hit that banking shot kind of
coming off of that screening action towards the top of
the key that he made, and then the game was
basically over. They were up by sixteen with like, you know,
nine minutes left and it was over, and they went
on to blow it open from there. But really it
came down to a critical hot streak from Darius Garland
and Donovan Mitchell in the early third quarter, some really
(08:15):
good matchup attacking from Karris Lavert in that late first
quarter against that Howser Cornett duo, and then Mitchell kind
of stepping into that Lavert as well, but Mitchell stepping
into that in the in the second half, and then
as long as Boston wasn't able to kind of keep
up with them with their three point shooting, they kind
of lost control of the rope and the game was over.
(08:35):
I can't say enough about Donovan Mitchell. He's been the
best player in this series so far. That's gonna be
the biggest thing that that kaz fans are going to
be leaning on for optimism. Like Jason Tatum, We're gonna
get to him in more detail in a minute. Just
not having a good playoffs, He's playing limited competition, just
not having a good playoffs. And Donovan Mitchell has been
one of the best players in the league in this
(08:56):
postseason run and consistently has just had his foot down
on gas doing everything he can to generate offense for
a team that has struggled to generate offense in this
postseason run. He just smelled blood in the water in
that second half, and he went after it and got
a big win for the Cavs on the road. I
don't even know. I think we all kind of have
to reevaluate Donovan Mitchell as a playoff player after this
(09:19):
playoff run because he's shown a resiliency against against really
heavy defensive coverages that has been super, super impressive. Evan
Mobley playoff career high twenty one points great on the
role against Sam Houser. He scored six points on the
role in this game, most he's had in a game
in this postseason run. I hited three at the top
of the key in that first quarter run that kind
of helped them spark and most importantly, he was incredible defensively.
(09:40):
I'm gonna show you guys some examples when we get
to the film, but like he does a really good
job when he has to leave his band to help
of being super active with his hands to get deflections.
And again, like when you double team and you don't
get a deflection and you allow an easy kickout pass,
that's when you end up in the problematic four on threes.
When you're actually really active when you're with your hand
and you can either one force a turnover or two
(10:02):
get a deflection that slows down the pass that gives
your team a better chance to rotate on the back end.
It's one of the most important parts of help and
recover defense is you've got to pressure the ball and
make those kickout passes difficult. Mobley was just unbelievable in
this game. Darius Garland, like I said, that little three
point shooting Runnie had early in the third quarter vital
(10:22):
to the Cavs getting this one. And then Karris Lavert
just you know, he's one of those guys that he
kind of has a little bit of that like Dejonte Murray,
like high hesitation, ability to beat people off the dribble
and get to spots closer towards the rim. Has that
good chemistry with Mobley in the ball screen. Hit a
couple of big mid range pull up jump shots as well,
big time game from Karis Lavert. Moving on to Boston,
(10:47):
they got smacked. The guy outscored one thirteen to eighty
after going up fourteen to five. That's getting thirty pieced
on your home floor by a team that, in terms
of the talent differentially, you should have swept. So this
is obviously an ugly look. Now, is Boston gonna lose
the series? I don't think so. Cleveland might go home
and kind of ride the energy and the belief that
(11:09):
they have from this game and they might get another one.
But I think Boston's gonna win this series in five
or six games. But it's just a bizarre brand of basketball.
Their shot selection is flat out dump Al Horford ninety
seconds into the game, takes like a trailing twenty five
foot or off the move, hadn't made a shot yet,
just decided I'm shooting this drifting, you know, like quick
(11:31):
stop in Pop three in transition early in the shot
clock made absolutely no sense. There's a random possession in
the first half for Jalen Brown just early in the
shot clock, shoots a contested step back three at the
top of the key. There's a random Drew Holiday post
up where he takes a left shoulder fade along the
baseline early in the shot clock. Jason Tatum settling for
super difficult pull up jump shots in ISO, even though
(11:54):
he continues to not be able to make them at
a high clip. Then every time he gets into traffic,
instead of going up and taking bassketball shots, he just
sticks his arm out and just throws throw him up
like that and throw some bizarre shot up at the
rim that has a small chance of going in. It
is unbelievably bizarre and like there's no real hierarchy, you
know how in Cleveland it's like we're running everything through
(12:16):
Donovan Mitchell. Tatum doesn't have that luxury. If he misses
one or two shots, they just go in a different
direction and another guy goes it's my turn. Now. Like
Donovan Mitchell, he misses one or two shots in a row,
he's just gonna go down and take the third one
until he gets into a rhythm. There's a clear hierarchy
and order of operations offensively for Cleveland and really for
most teams in the league. For Boston, it's like just
(12:37):
it's just vibes, man, It's just do whatever the hell
you want on the offensive end of the floor. And
most importantly, they are not consistently engaged on the defensive end.
They have a great defensive fastball. They do, but they
don't throw it until they feel some sort of desperation
or like if they drop a game, but it's not
programmed into their basketball character. Derek White is really the
(12:59):
only I see that like on a night in and
night out. Basis really brings it on the defensive end
of the floor. And like that's a fundamental difference between
what they were under emy Udoka. Like under emay Udoka,
they were way less dependent on three point shooting. They
were ninth in three point attempts per game that year.
They were taking about two and a half year or
(13:20):
threes per game. In the postseason, they were seventeenth in
points in the paint. This team is twenty seventh in
points in the paint, so substantially higher percentage of their
offense in the paint, substantially lower percentage of their offense
from the three point line, much better balance in that
twenty twenty two season, But by far the biggest difference
emy Udoka baked into them a toughness and a commitment
(13:43):
to the defensive end that they just have not had
since then. That twenty twenty two team, when they beat Brooklyn,
that was one of the best defensive efforts I've seen
from a playoff team in this era. That is a
ceiling that they just have not been able to get to.
And yes, I get it, they don't have chrisops Zingis
right now, and they don't have the Robert Williams kind
of rim protection they had in that season. But even
(14:04):
on the perimeter, Tatum and Brown, all those guys were
so much more engaged consistently on the perimeter defensively. That team, Like, literally,
if you gave me this roster with the identity of
that team, better balance in their shot selection, a more
clear hierarchy running through Jason Tatum, in a much better
commitment to the defensive end of the floor, I think
(14:25):
they would be guaranteed to win the title. They have
the most talent. I would feel so much more confident
in their abilities to do this. If that was the
breakdown of their basketball approach. But that's not it. There's
no hierarchy. They lean heavily into spamming three point shots
and difficult pull up jump shots, and they defend when
(14:47):
they feel like it. And you know the crazy thing
is they might just win the damn championship anyway, because
that's how talented they are. I actually think they match
up pretty well with Minnesota, certainly better than the Western
Conference teams, because they have so much shooting that they
can space them out and kind of mitigate some of
the size advantages that Minnesota brings to the table. They
also have so much ball handling that if you're pressuring
(15:11):
the hell out of the basketball with Jaden McDaniels and
Anthony Edwards and even with your centers, you can just
find one of your guards to bring the ball out
the floor against the Mike Conley or one of the
Jay's is gonna have to be guarded by a Karl
Anthony Towns, you can bring the ball up the floor
against him. Like Boston has real advantages because they have
incredible personnel, and they very well might hoist the Larry
(15:32):
O'Brien Trophy in June. Playing this garbage ass brand of basketball.
It's crazy. Like a lot of people think I hate
the Celtics because I am a Lakers fan, but I'm
not really a Lakers fan. I root for the Lakers
because I'm a Lebron James fan. I have nothing against
the Celtics. I really liked that twenty twenty two Boston
Celtics team. This is this specific brand of basketball under
(15:55):
Joe Missoula is so unlikable to me, and it's just
every time I'm watching them, I just am completely blown
away at the complete lack of regard for the value
of every possession on either end of the floor. And
if there's anything to be said about the talent advantage,
it is a curse in the sense that I think,
especially in that Eastern Conference where it's so weak, especially
(16:18):
after you get past the top few teams, that you
could win sixty sixty five games with this roster while
playing an iffy brand of basketball, Like I believe if
Boston played in the West, they probably would have more
commitment to the defensive end of the floor and a
little bit more value on each possession. But they've been
allowed to kind of play this brand because of that
(16:38):
week's schedule out East, and like, again, it just might
not even matter. They might just win the damn thing anyway.
But like I can just say personally as someone who
has covered this team all year, like every time I
watch them play, I'm like, are what are what are
we doing here? Like what I'm watching game one and
it's like Jason Tatum is the best player on the
(16:58):
team right and a top ten player in the NBA,
and he's basically standing around watching Jalen Brown go to work,
And like I get it, Like all of these guys
are capable. Derek White is capable of running the offense
for an entire game, so is Tatum, so is Jalen Brown.
Drew Holliday is capable of doing it as a secondary
shot creator. But it would make way more sense to
bake this down into a simpler hierarchy and have guys
(17:21):
play smaller roles. It's so equal opportunity, it's so just
based on vibes that everyone kind of feels the leeway
to hijack a possession. And when everyone has the leeway
to hijack a possession, nobody's in rhythm. And that's probably
the last that's the last thing I'm gonna say about
this and then we'll move on to the film. Like,
when you have hierarchy, it is much easier to stay
(17:42):
in a rhythm when everyone can hijack a possession. There
is no consistency in where you're getting your touches, what
you're doing with your touches, where you're getting your off
ball catches, what you're doing with your off ball catches.
There's no consistency there, and so no one can really
get into a groove when each game just fundamentally looks different.
When you watch Cleveland, they play the same damn way
(18:05):
every game. On offense, Here comes Donovan Mitchell. He's gonna
run twenty five pick and rolls tonight, you know, Like
Darius Garland's gonna be aggressive when Mitchell's off the floor,
and when Mitchell's tired, they'll they'll run some thing Garland.
But you know what you're getting, Okay, Karris Lavert came
into the game. He's gonna spam ball screens, Like you understand,
(18:26):
a very clear hierarchy with Cleveland and with Denver, and
with Minnesota and with all of these guys that Boston
just doesn't have. Every Boston game looks different and when
it cooks, it cooks like when there's there's an upside
to that too. I want to be clear, when you
play equal opportunity, there is an upside where like when
all the pieces kind of click in simultaneously, it's like,
(18:49):
holy shit, all five guys are in rhythm. Now they
can't guard us, and we just put up one hundred
and forty two points. Right. But the flip side is
sometimes none of the pieces fit and then it just
completely falls apart. And like I again, I'm not concerned
about Boston. I feel the exact same way about them
that I did before the postseason, Like am I gonna pick?
(19:11):
If if Minnesota or Denver gets out of the West
and lines up with Boston, I will probably pick them
over Boston simply because they have such a clear basketball
identity that they're more likely to reach their ceiling than
Boston is Consistently. That said, I would still give Boston
a very good chance to win that series against both
of them, and it wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
I absolutely think this team can hoist the trophy, but
(19:33):
even in that context, it feels like they're underachieving on
a night in a night out basis it feels like
they're leaving meat on the bone with this bizarre ass
brand of basketball. Again, I give Cleveland a good chance
to get one in Cleveland, just simply because winning this
game gives you a certain amount of belief and the
crowd will have a certain energy that might not have
been there if you were down two coming home. And
(19:54):
so I do think Cleveland has a chance to get
one at home. But I still think Boston is gonna
win the series in five or six games. All I
have for this particular video, I'll be back in a
few hours with MAVs Thunder. I will see you guys.
Then the volume
The volume. The NBA playoffs are heating up, and so
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(01:52):
All right, welcome to him tonight here at the volume.
Happy Friday, everybody, hope all if you guys have had
a great week so far. Gonna get into the two
games from last night. Took the off last night. I
just hung out with my wife, got to relax for
a little bit before we get back into the grind.
Gonna hit just Celtics Calves in this video, just for
times sake. As soon as I'm done recording this, I'm
gonna turn around and record or start watching MAVs Thunder
(02:12):
and do the analysis for it. But this one had
taken me a little while. I wanted to get it
out before I started covering the next game. So just
hitting Calves Celtics in this game is the or in
this video, as the Calves tie the series, dominating the
Celtics after falling down to an early nine point deficit,
pretty much blowing them out the rest of the way,
and now we're headed back to Cleveland with the series
tied at one. You guys are the job before we
(02:32):
get started. Subscribe to the brand new YouTube channels. You
don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on
Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys, don't miss you announcements.
Don't forget about a podcast feed where we get your
podcasts under Hoops tonight and then keep dropping mail bag
questions and those YouTube comments. We can keep hitting them
throughout the rest of the postseason. So let's talk some basketball.
Tell me if you've heard this before. Boston had a
cold jump shooting night and then their offense completely fell
(02:53):
apart because they don't really have another way to consistently
consistently score unless they're making jump shots, so they lost.
Boston got zero points seven to three points per jump shot.
In the game obviously really bad. They did shoot well
when they were open. They were five for twelve and
wide open threes, it's forty two percent. Cleveland just did
a good job of chasing them off the line and
contesting jumpers and playing them into their worst tendencies. They
(03:17):
took twenty one pull up jump shots in the game,
only made five of them. That was zero point five
to seven points per shot. A lot of the same
stuff that you're accustomed to seeing from Boston. As we
talked about all season, their success pretty much is determined
by jump shot variants on a night in, night out basis.
They were twenty seventh in points in the paint per
(03:37):
game in the regular season. That is dead last among
the remaining playoff teams in this field. I was kind
of doing some digging through the data and just go
into NBA dot com, go to the little miscellaneous tab
and click and sort all the playoff teams by points
by points in the paint, and you will see there's
a pretty solid connection between the teams that are remaining
(03:58):
in this field and the teams have been eliminated. The teams.
Most of the teams that are remaining are high in
the in the upper echelon in points in the paint
among playoff teams. It's been just a consistent theme, especially
in this super physical playoff environment. It's just harder to
make jump shots when teams are allowed to foul more
and the games are just more physical, more intense, and
Boston has tied a lot of their success to those results,
(04:21):
and they just don't have a counter when shots are
aren't falling other than to just take more of them
and hope they go in. Now, the upside is real.
I want to be clear. They're one point one to
three points per jump shot. Was their efficiency with those
in the regular season that was number one in the NBA, right,
So they are the best jump shooting team in the NBA.
They just lean into it so heavily that the variance
(04:41):
can be a problem. They can get hot too, and
they can blow you out in a matter of minutes.
And like, no matter who they play, if they win
this series and they continue to move on, even if
they end up in a series where they lose at
some point in the future. Again, let's say they lose
to Minnesota. Wouldn't be surprised if there's two or three
games in that series. Where Boston just gets super in
insanely hot from three in wins. That's always a big
(05:03):
part of their upside. It just also has a downside
that comes with it. And again, these are teams that
they're way better than, Like, they're way more talented than Cleveland,
and they are like just there's a chasm in talent
difference between them and that Miami Heat team. And even
in those matchups, the variants can be an issue. We're
gonna get more into Boston and just kind of their
(05:23):
brand of basketball later on, but again that was the primary,
you know, kind of variance in this game. Boston couldn't
make a jump shot, couldn't score outside of that, and Cleveland,
you know, just kind of leaned into that momentum, got
a bunch of big shot shot making nights from some
key guys. We'll go into that here in just a minute.
So the flow of the game, Celtics got out to
an early nine point lead, kind of started to chip
(05:43):
away in the late first quarter. Big thing I was
noticing on film Karis Lavert and Evan Mobley, We're really
picking on Sam Hauser and Luke Cordnett. Now the houser
Cornett lineups throughout the postseason up until last night were
mostly good defensively, And I do think that those guys
do their jobs, but it's less about like how good
they are within the game plan of doing their jobs,
(06:04):
and more about do stars feel comfortable against them? And
the reality is is even though Howser slides his feet
and he gets good contests, like when Karis Lavert saw him,
he felt comfortable dribbling against him. When Donovan Mitchell saw him,
he felt comfortable dribbling against him. It was a different
level of comfort and ability to get to their spots
than it was when they face a Derek White or
(06:24):
a Tatum or a Brown or a Drew Holliday. So
like that, the Calves were just going way out of
their way to attack those two in action in that
late first quarter run. It immediately stood out to me
and it became a trend later on in the game,
which we'll get to as we talked about the Celtics
started missing shots. You know, they were hitting early. Al
Horford did a couple threes. They were hitting early when
they went up fourteen to five. But the Calves go
(06:47):
on a big run, riding that two man game with
Lavert and Mobley, who by the way, had his best
games scoring in as a role man of this postseason.
We'll get more into that in a minute. But the
Calves going a big run. They go up thirty to
twenty one. Then the celt come back in, their main
guys come back in and they reassert control. We basically
go into halftime tied, but in that early third quarter,
(07:07):
Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland catch a little heater. They
make five threes in the first seven minutes. They build
that first little bit of margin. Obviously Boston still missing
the Garland threes in particular felt huge because he didn't
do much scoring elsewhere in the game. Calves go up
by eleven points. Then we go into that late third
quarter stretch and exactly like what happened at the end
of the first quarter, incomes Cornett and Hauser. The Cavs
(07:30):
go right back to attacking them, and a big part
of that was Donovan Mitchell did not come out of
the game. He stayed in the game during that portion
and he was going right at Sam Hauser. He ended
up drawing a foul in a three point shot against
Derek White. He had to pull up three in Sam
Hawser's face. He had that bomb, that buzzer beater like
step back three that he hit on Jason Tatum to
(07:52):
send it into the fourth quarter. And then early in
the fourth quarter he hit that banking shot kind of
coming off of that screening action towards the top of
the key that he made, and then the game was
basically over. They were up by sixteen with like, you know,
nine minutes left and it was over, and they went
on to blow it open from there. But really it
came down to a critical hot streak from Darius Garland
and Donovan Mitchell in the early third quarter, some really
(08:15):
good matchup attacking from Karris Lavert in that late first
quarter against that Howser Cornett duo, and then Mitchell kind
of stepping into that Lavert as well, but Mitchell stepping
into that in the in the second half, and then
as long as Boston wasn't able to kind of keep
up with them with their three point shooting, they kind
of lost control of the rope and the game was over.
(08:35):
I can't say enough about Donovan Mitchell. He's been the
best player in this series so far. That's gonna be
the biggest thing that that kaz fans are going to
be leaning on for optimism. Like Jason Tatum, We're gonna
get to him in more detail in a minute. Just
not having a good playoffs, He's playing limited competition, just
not having a good playoffs. And Donovan Mitchell has been
one of the best players in the league in this
(08:56):
postseason run and consistently has just had his foot down
on gas doing everything he can to generate offense for
a team that has struggled to generate offense in this
postseason run. He just smelled blood in the water in
that second half, and he went after it and got
a big win for the Cavs on the road. I
don't even know. I think we all kind of have
to reevaluate Donovan Mitchell as a playoff player after this
(09:19):
playoff run because he's shown a resiliency against against really
heavy defensive coverages that has been super, super impressive. Evan
Mobley playoff career high twenty one points great on the
role against Sam Houser. He scored six points on the
role in this game, most he's had in a game
in this postseason run. I hited three at the top
of the key in that first quarter run that kind
of helped them spark and most importantly, he was incredible defensively.
(09:40):
I'm gonna show you guys some examples when we get
to the film, but like he does a really good
job when he has to leave his band to help
of being super active with his hands to get deflections.
And again, like when you double team and you don't
get a deflection and you allow an easy kickout pass,
that's when you end up in the problematic four on threes.
When you're actually really active when you're with your hand
and you can either one force a turnover or two
(10:02):
get a deflection that slows down the pass that gives
your team a better chance to rotate on the back end.
It's one of the most important parts of help and
recover defense is you've got to pressure the ball and
make those kickout passes difficult. Mobley was just unbelievable in
this game. Darius Garland, like I said, that little three
point shooting Runnie had early in the third quarter vital
(10:22):
to the Cavs getting this one. And then Karris Lavert
just you know, he's one of those guys that he
kind of has a little bit of that like Dejonte Murray,
like high hesitation, ability to beat people off the dribble
and get to spots closer towards the rim. Has that
good chemistry with Mobley in the ball screen. Hit a
couple of big mid range pull up jump shots as well,
big time game from Karis Lavert. Moving on to Boston,
(10:47):
they got smacked. The guy outscored one thirteen to eighty
after going up fourteen to five. That's getting thirty pieced
on your home floor by a team that, in terms
of the talent differentially, you should have swept. So this
is obviously an ugly look. Now, is Boston gonna lose
the series? I don't think so. Cleveland might go home
and kind of ride the energy and the belief that
(11:09):
they have from this game and they might get another one.
But I think Boston's gonna win this series in five
or six games. But it's just a bizarre brand of basketball.
Their shot selection is flat out dump Al Horford ninety
seconds into the game, takes like a trailing twenty five
foot or off the move, hadn't made a shot yet,
just decided I'm shooting this drifting, you know, like quick
(11:31):
stop in Pop three in transition early in the shot
clock made absolutely no sense. There's a random possession in
the first half for Jalen Brown just early in the
shot clock, shoots a contested step back three at the
top of the key. There's a random Drew Holiday post
up where he takes a left shoulder fade along the
baseline early in the shot clock. Jason Tatum settling for
super difficult pull up jump shots in ISO, even though
(11:54):
he continues to not be able to make them at
a high clip. Then every time he gets into traffic,
instead of going up and taking bassketball shots, he just
sticks his arm out and just throws throw him up
like that and throw some bizarre shot up at the
rim that has a small chance of going in. It
is unbelievably bizarre and like there's no real hierarchy, you
know how in Cleveland it's like we're running everything through
(12:16):
Donovan Mitchell. Tatum doesn't have that luxury. If he misses
one or two shots, they just go in a different
direction and another guy goes it's my turn. Now. Like
Donovan Mitchell, he misses one or two shots in a row,
he's just gonna go down and take the third one
until he gets into a rhythm. There's a clear hierarchy
and order of operations offensively for Cleveland and really for
most teams in the league. For Boston, it's like just
(12:37):
it's just vibes, man, It's just do whatever the hell
you want on the offensive end of the floor. And
most importantly, they are not consistently engaged on the defensive end.
They have a great defensive fastball. They do, but they
don't throw it until they feel some sort of desperation
or like if they drop a game, but it's not
programmed into their basketball character. Derek White is really the
(12:59):
only I see that like on a night in and
night out. Basis really brings it on the defensive end
of the floor. And like that's a fundamental difference between
what they were under emy Udoka. Like under emay Udoka,
they were way less dependent on three point shooting. They
were ninth in three point attempts per game that year.
They were taking about two and a half year or
(13:20):
threes per game. In the postseason, they were seventeenth in
points in the paint. This team is twenty seventh in
points in the paint, so substantially higher percentage of their
offense in the paint, substantially lower percentage of their offense
from the three point line, much better balance in that
twenty twenty two season, But by far the biggest difference
emy Udoka baked into them a toughness and a commitment
(13:43):
to the defensive end that they just have not had
since then. That twenty twenty two team, when they beat Brooklyn,
that was one of the best defensive efforts I've seen
from a playoff team in this era. That is a
ceiling that they just have not been able to get to.
And yes, I get it, they don't have chrisops Zingis
right now, and they don't have the Robert Williams kind
of rim protection they had in that season. But even
(14:04):
on the perimeter, Tatum and Brown, all those guys were
so much more engaged consistently on the perimeter defensively. That team, Like, literally,
if you gave me this roster with the identity of
that team, better balance in their shot selection, a more
clear hierarchy running through Jason Tatum, in a much better
commitment to the defensive end of the floor, I think
(14:25):
they would be guaranteed to win the title. They have
the most talent. I would feel so much more confident
in their abilities to do this. If that was the
breakdown of their basketball approach. But that's not it. There's
no hierarchy. They lean heavily into spamming three point shots
and difficult pull up jump shots, and they defend when
(14:47):
they feel like it. And you know the crazy thing
is they might just win the damn championship anyway, because
that's how talented they are. I actually think they match
up pretty well with Minnesota, certainly better than the Western
Conference teams, because they have so much shooting that they
can space them out and kind of mitigate some of
the size advantages that Minnesota brings to the table. They
also have so much ball handling that if you're pressuring
(15:11):
the hell out of the basketball with Jaden McDaniels and
Anthony Edwards and even with your centers, you can just
find one of your guards to bring the ball out
the floor against the Mike Conley or one of the
Jay's is gonna have to be guarded by a Karl
Anthony Towns, you can bring the ball up the floor
against him. Like Boston has real advantages because they have
incredible personnel, and they very well might hoist the Larry
(15:32):
O'Brien Trophy in June. Playing this garbage ass brand of basketball.
It's crazy. Like a lot of people think I hate
the Celtics because I am a Lakers fan, but I'm
not really a Lakers fan. I root for the Lakers
because I'm a Lebron James fan. I have nothing against
the Celtics. I really liked that twenty twenty two Boston
Celtics team. This is this specific brand of basketball under
(15:55):
Joe Missoula is so unlikable to me, and it's just
every time I'm watching them, I just am completely blown
away at the complete lack of regard for the value
of every possession on either end of the floor. And
if there's anything to be said about the talent advantage,
it is a curse in the sense that I think,
especially in that Eastern Conference where it's so weak, especially
(16:18):
after you get past the top few teams, that you
could win sixty sixty five games with this roster while
playing an iffy brand of basketball, Like I believe if
Boston played in the West, they probably would have more
commitment to the defensive end of the floor and a
little bit more value on each possession. But they've been
allowed to kind of play this brand because of that
(16:38):
week's schedule out East, and like, again, it just might
not even matter. They might just win the damn thing anyway.
But like I can just say personally as someone who
has covered this team all year, like every time I
watch them play, I'm like, are what are what are
we doing here? Like what I'm watching game one and
it's like Jason Tatum is the best player on the
(16:58):
team right and a top ten player in the NBA,
and he's basically standing around watching Jalen Brown go to work,
And like I get it, Like all of these guys
are capable. Derek White is capable of running the offense
for an entire game, so is Tatum, so is Jalen Brown.
Drew Holliday is capable of doing it as a secondary
shot creator. But it would make way more sense to
bake this down into a simpler hierarchy and have guys
(17:21):
play smaller roles. It's so equal opportunity, it's so just
based on vibes that everyone kind of feels the leeway
to hijack a possession. And when everyone has the leeway
to hijack a possession, nobody's in rhythm. And that's probably
the last that's the last thing I'm gonna say about
this and then we'll move on to the film. Like,
when you have hierarchy, it is much easier to stay
(17:42):
in a rhythm when everyone can hijack a possession. There
is no consistency in where you're getting your touches, what
you're doing with your touches, where you're getting your off
ball catches, what you're doing with your off ball catches.
There's no consistency there, and so no one can really
get into a groove when each game just fundamentally looks different.
When you watch Cleveland, they play the same damn way
(18:05):
every game. On offense, Here comes Donovan Mitchell. He's gonna
run twenty five pick and rolls tonight, you know, Like
Darius Garland's gonna be aggressive when Mitchell's off the floor,
and when Mitchell's tired, they'll they'll run some thing Garland.
But you know what you're getting, Okay, Karris Lavert came
into the game. He's gonna spam ball screens, Like you understand,
(18:26):
a very clear hierarchy with Cleveland and with Denver, and
with Minnesota and with all of these guys that Boston
just doesn't have. Every Boston game looks different and when
it cooks, it cooks like when there's there's an upside
to that too. I want to be clear, when you
play equal opportunity, there is an upside where like when
all the pieces kind of click in simultaneously, it's like,
(18:49):
holy shit, all five guys are in rhythm. Now they
can't guard us, and we just put up one hundred
and forty two points. Right. But the flip side is
sometimes none of the pieces fit and then it just
completely falls apart. And like I again, I'm not concerned
about Boston. I feel the exact same way about them
that I did before the postseason, Like am I gonna pick?
(19:11):
If if Minnesota or Denver gets out of the West
and lines up with Boston, I will probably pick them
over Boston simply because they have such a clear basketball
identity that they're more likely to reach their ceiling than
Boston is Consistently. That said, I would still give Boston
a very good chance to win that series against both
of them, and it wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
I absolutely think this team can hoist the trophy, but
(19:33):
even in that context, it feels like they're underachieving on
a night in a night out basis it feels like
they're leaving meat on the bone with this bizarre ass
brand of basketball. Again, I give Cleveland a good chance
to get one in Cleveland, just simply because winning this
game gives you a certain amount of belief and the
crowd will have a certain energy that might not have
been there if you were down two coming home. And
(19:54):
so I do think Cleveland has a chance to get
one at home. But I still think Boston is gonna
win the series in five or six games. All I
have for this particular video, I'll be back in a
few hours with MAVs Thunder. I will see you guys.
Then the volume
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