Jason Timpf reacts to Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks' Game 3 matchup with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Jason breaks down the biggest highlights from the game and shares his major takeaways ahead of Game 4. #volume #herd
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The NBA playoffs are heating up, and so is the
action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of
the NBA with same game parlays, live betting odds, boosts,
and so much more. Don't miss out as the NBA
postseason winds down, so lots of great odds for the
second round. If you still think the Nuggets are gonna
come back and beat the Timberwolves, you can get them
right now at plus one oh five. Thunder MAVs starts
(00:27):
here shortly, and if you like the MAVs to win
that series, you can get them at minus one oh five.
And if you're new to DraftKings, you gotta check this out.
New customers bet five bucks to get one hundred and
fifty in bonus bets. Instantly download the DraftKings Sportsbook app
now and use code hoops that's h oops, that's code
hoops for new customers to get one hundred and fifty
(00:49):
in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only
on DraftKings. The Crown is yours gambling problem called one
eight hundred Gambler or in West Virginia, visit www dot
one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New York, call
eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope
and why to four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut,
(01:11):
help us available for problem gambling call eight eight eight
seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
CCPG dot org.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
in Kansas twenty one plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void
in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight
hours after issuance. See dkang dot co slash bball for
eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right,
(01:52):
welcome to him tonight. You're at the volume heavy Friday.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Everybody up.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
All you guys are having a great week so far.
Earlier today we hit Celtics Cavs already did that break
down this video just doing MAVs Thunder. You guys know
the joke before we get started. Subscribe to a brandw
YouTube channels you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys
don't miss you announcement still forget about my podcast for
you wherever you get podcasts under Hoops tonight. Keep dropping
mailback questions in the YouTube comments so that we can
(02:17):
keep hitting mailbags are at the rest of the postseason.
Also tonight, going live after the final buzzer of Nuggets Timberwolves,
a game I'm very excited for, so much on the
line for both teams, Very very excited to get into that.
We're gonna be hitting both games live on YouTube after
the final buzzer of Nuggets Wolves. All right, let's talk
MAVs Thunder. So complete reversal of Game one in so
(02:38):
many different ways, much tighter whistle. Game one, the Thunder
shot twenty eight free throws, Shay shot thirteen. Game two,
the Thunder only shoots seventeen and Shae only shoots six,
So huge swing towards Dallas and just the overall amount
of physicality. Dallas did get to the free throw line
quite a bit, but they were bringing a lot more
physical force to the table. I thought they were the
(02:59):
more physically aggressive team throughout reversal.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
From Game one. Jump shooting swings heavily towards Dallas.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Oklahoma City gets one point one zero points per jump
shot in game one, Dallas only gets zero point nine
to eight. Game two, Oklahoma City gets zero point nine
to eight. Dallas gets one point three zero points per
jump shot, massive difference.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Right PJ.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Washington hits seven threes. Luka Doncic finally gets his pull
up three point shot going. He hits five of them.
Josh Green hits three threes. Tim Hardway Junior, who's been
broke all postseason, finally hits a couple of threes at
a huge and one. In the second half, they finally
get going. Right Oklahoma City ten for thirty, another huge
swing towards Dallas. Rebounding In game one, Oklahoma City grabbed
(03:42):
thirty nine percent of their own misses fifty four percent
of all available rebounds, so dominant rebounding performance from Oklahoma
City in game one. In Game two, Dallas grabs thirty
one point four percent of their own misses and fifty
two point five percent of all available rebounds. They win
the offensive last twelve to eight, and they win second
chance points fourteen to eight. So now again not nearly
(04:05):
as dominated as Oklahoma City was in game one, but
Dallas does win the physical battle in game two. They
can do much better still, but they won the physical
battle in game two and anytime you do that on
the road, especially against an energetic crowd like that and
a young athletic team, that's impressive. So another huge swing
towards Dallas turnovers. A huge part of Oklahoma City's identity
(04:25):
as a defense is to play passing lanes, be aggressive,
force turnovers, get out in transition. In Game one, Dallas
turns the ball over sixteen times and gives up twenty
two points to the Thunder off of those turnovers. Game two,
Dallas only has ten turnovers and they only allow eleven
points off of those turnovers. Another huge swing towards Dallas
generating close out opportunities. Remember in game one I talked
(04:47):
about how the Dallas was now generating open opportunities for
guys to attack close outs. They only had eighteen spot
up opportunities in game one. They generated thirty one spot
up opportunities in game two. Both Luca and Kyrie I
thought did a magnet magnificent job reading the game, identifying
that the role players were feeling comfortable and making those
kickout passes hunting looks for them to keep them in
(05:09):
rhythm throughout the game. So all of that amounted all
of those swings.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Again, the.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Much tighter whistle, the jump shooting, the rebounding, the turnovers
generating close out opportunities, all these things swing heavily towards Dallas,
and that amounts to a game that the MAVs basically
controlled throughout. Okay, see he made some runs, they would
bring it back to getting close. They briefly took a
lead in the early third quarter, but Dallas led the
entire first half, and from five point fifty six left
(05:35):
in the third quarter they led the rest of the way,
dominant win for Dallas to steal home court advantage and
head back home for Game three. Luka doncic I thought
that was his best game of the playoffs so far.
Hyper Efficient finally got a step back.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Three going early.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Hit a big one late two in a ball screen
where Dork got kind of caught on the screen. He
dragged the screen defender out, hit him with a little
step back on the left wing and knocked it down
as a big shot in the game. A lot of
really good skip passes to shooter, especially early in the
game he was doing a beautiful job hunting PJ. Washington,
and then a really good defensive game, and it was
the whole team. The whole team was just do an
(06:12):
amazing job chasing shooters off the line, being on a
string in rotation, competing on the ball, forcing turnovers, getting out.
They did a great job, but Luca in particular did
a great job. We're gonna come over, We're gonna cheat.
We usually wait till the end to do film, but
I only have two clips from this game. I wanted
to show you guys an example of the type of
closing out that Dallas was doing. So let's take a
(06:33):
look over here at the screen for a second. Let's
take a look at these rotations from Dallas. So again,
we're gonna start with Shae on Kyrie. We're gonna get
a ball screen with Chet slips out of it early.
Now we're in a high drop right, Really nice tag
here from PJ. Washington. Take away the role. This skip
pass is just a really difficult pass to make, so
(06:54):
it's not really an opening quick rotate back out of it,
nothing's open, there's no advantage. Then we're gonna get a
Jaylen Williams screen. This is gonna end in a switch,
and then in the switch there's a little bit of
a hesitation. Watch Kyrie though close out hard take away
the shot. Stay low in a stance. Now Aaron Wiggins
(07:15):
is open. Derek Jones Junior close out hard chase him
off the line. Now PJ. Washington steps up. Look at
the location of everybody. Everyone's in position to close out.
Daniel Gafford is inside position on Dort. Dnca is in
position to rotate. We get to skip pass from Jalen
Williams over to Chat. Now watch Luca. Look at where
Luca is. Look at where the ball is going. Watch
(07:36):
this defensive play from Luca screaming out to the corner.
We even get a brush screen from Dort here and
he like agilely steps around Dort as Dort just kind
of gets in the way and Luke ends up blocking
the three point shot on the seven foot whatever seven
foot two, seven foot three inch tall Chat holmegrin So
just again, the defensive effort was there for the entire team,
(07:58):
but Luca, I thought. I thought that was Luca's best
game of the postseason in terms of total shot creation,
controlling the feel and pace of the game, commitment to
the defensive end of the floor. Again, I understand He's
had bigger scoring nights, but I thought this overall was
Luca's best game of the postseason so far. I was
talking about after Game one. I know he's banged up,
but he just has to find a way to impact
(08:20):
winning at a higher level. And he was even more
banged up in this game. Hurt his tooth at a
player kase I Walls kind of tripped him up in transition.
It looked like he tweaked his ankle. Super banged up,
but he just found away. He just found a way
to help his team get the way. Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I absolutely loved this game from Kyrie.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Only took eight shots, but this to me is actually
one of Kyrie's greatest strengths and one of the most
important things for any basketball player, especially young basketball players
out here. This is one of the most important things
for you to learn how to do, which is like,
you know the expression read the room, like identify what's
happening in a social situation and act accordingly. I kind
of feel that in a basketball game too. It's like
(08:59):
reading the game, and this is especially important on teams
that have multiple stars. So for instance, this is something
I actually think Kyrie is better than Luca at at
this phase of his career. But Luca's young, and Luca's
gonna get better at this as he gets older. But
early on throughout the playoffs, Kyrie's been the one that's
had it going. And what have we seen Luca do,
Like he continues to kind of try to force the issue,
(09:19):
keeps taking those tough step back jumpers even though they're
not going in, and Luca's aware of it. He went
into the postgame presser during the last series and said,
I feel like I'm letting Kyrie down right now, and like,
so he's aware of what's happening. But Kyrie's got it going,
and Luca at this phase in his career still was
struggling to kind of figure out where he fit next
to Kyrie.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
As Kyrie's dominating games.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Tonight, it was very clear early on Luca had it
going right, Like, hit a short, little mid range pull
up jump shot early, hit three threes in the first
few minutes of the game, Like he just very clearly
had it going, And so Kyrie reads the room and
he goes, Luca's got it going.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
PJ.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Washington's got it going. Tim Hardaway Junior is starting to
make some plays off the bounce. Everybody else kind of
has it going and so he took more of a
passive role in the game, devoted the majority of his
effort towards the defensive end of the floor, and operated
more as a connective piece on offense. He only took
eight shots, but he had eleven assists, two steals, and
two blocks, and a bunch of really big swing plays
(10:16):
in the game. In the first half, there's a play
he gets switched on to chet Holmgrin runs up, swipes
the ball out of his hands, goes the length of
the floor. Jalen Williams tries to block him off the glass,
and he shoots a beautiful soft scoop shot up high
off the window into the basket. Given what Oklahoma City
typically gets per possession, you know, like roughly one one
point one eight points plus the two you got on
(10:37):
the other end, it's like more than a three point swing.
On that play, there was a clean strip of Sga
actually drives to the basket, just cleanly strips it off
his leg out of bounds. In the second half, there's
a play where Giddy had the ball at the top
of the key and he went full ball denial on Shay,
and Shay tried to backcut him and wn't open, Kyrie
was there, Giddy tried to force the pass, Kyrie stole
(10:58):
it through a beautiful kick head passed to Tim Hardaway,
hit him in stride for the layup. Once again, something
over a three point swing based on Oklahoma City's typical
efficiency per possession. That's a huge swing play in an
NBA playoff game. Right very next possession, there's a trap
of a ball screen on the right side and PJ.
(11:18):
Washington gets a deflection. Kyrie's all the way on the
other end of the floor and he shoots the gap
towards the right wing where the pass was intended, steals
the ball, gives it up, gets it back in transition,
then hits Tim Hardaway Junior for an and one three
on the left wing. Like Kyrie was just unbelievable as
a playmaker in this game. And I'm not talking playmakers passing.
(11:39):
I'm talking like making basketball plays just in the game,
just these various different ways, whether it's a rim contest
where he gets a block, or it's a steal here,
or a bal denial there, or a transition kick ahead there,
or a driving kick here, like he just there was
one in the early second half where he just toasted.
I think I think it was Aaron Wiggins just cleanly
(12:00):
beats Aaron Wiggins off the dribble, draws Shay and help
off of PJ.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Washington.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Just easy little scoop pass to the right corner to
PJ Washington, who's been red hot all game, and he
knocks down the corner three like just It was one
of those games that was a textbook example of the
lack of reality that exists in box score results sometimes.
I thought Kyrie was unbelievable in this game, and he
didn't put up massive box score numbers. And again, what
(12:25):
it most impressed me about it was he identified early
in the game, Hey, my co star has been struggling tonight.
He's got it going. Also, my teammates do I'm going
to change my approach in this game and do all
of this other shit with the entirety of my being
to the best that I possibly can. And he did,
And I thought he was incredible in this game. PJ
(12:49):
Washington just a beautiful two way game, had his jump
shot going. He had seven threes, like we talked about,
some tough ones too. Hit a jab step ISO three
at the top of the key in the first half.
He was brilliant defensively at two steps and a bunch
more deflections. Didn't work in the post too the natural
matchups because of the way. Okay, so he starts the game,
Jalen's on Kyrie Dorts on Luca. Right, they're putting Sga
(13:10):
on PJ. Washington, and they went to him on the
first possession of the game in the post against Shae.
I thought that was fascinating because at the end of
the game they went back to him against Shae and
he just bullied him under the rim and got an
and one. As a matter of fact, Mark Dagenel is
probably gonna have to look to maybe swap that around
and move potentially move Shae over to Derek Jones Junior,
because Derek Jones is less likely to do damage to
(13:33):
him in ISO or post up situations. He had twenty
nine points, eleven rebounds, four assists with two steals, and
was a plus thirteen.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Not a bad stat line there for PJ. Washington.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Derek Lively didn't do much in the box score, but
I thought he defended really well, had some nice possessions
in ball screens and in ISOs against Jalen Williams.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
You could tell his length was really bothering him.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Had forced a couple of nice individual ISO possessions ISO
possessions against Shae and Jalen forced into some missus. Forced
Jalen into a airball that like the like was off
like a foot to the left of the rim. Just
an example of his length and his ability to move
his feet around. And then Tim Hardaway Junior and Josh Green.
They just need those guys to hit shots, and they did.
(14:13):
Josh Green, I thought he hit a couple of huge
ones in the late first half as Oklahoma City was
starting to kind of regain control of the game on
one of their runs. And then Tim Hardaway Junior like
started off miss his first couple of shots, but he
had like a nice driving close out on the right
wing where he threw a lob to Derek Lively. I
hit a little shot in the mid range, and then
you could tell that just kind of like loosened him
up and he felt more comfortable. I ended up hitting
(14:35):
two threes, huge one late in the game. I was
running his lane in transition to just really nice game
from the role players.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Big win. You take home court advantage.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Now heading home, you really need to take advantage of
the home crowd and dominate the game physically. They won
the physical battle in game two, but not to the
extent that they're capable of. And again, the jump shooting
is real, Like you out shot the hell out of
OKC in this game, and it obviously was a bit
of an outlier expecting PJ. Washington hit seven threes a night. Right,
Oklahoma City is the second best jump shooting team in
(15:05):
the league by efficiency behind Boston. All season long, they
were deadly jump shooting team. Dallas was fourteen. So over
the course of the next five games of the series,
expecting Dallas to continue to outshoot Oklahoma City, that would
be unusual.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
That would be a flukey type of outcome. Right.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So going back, and if you're Oklaoma City, for instance,
they're going to remain confident pointing to the shooting right.
And so what you have to look at for game
three is now we have the home crowd. This is
where we have to really dominate the game physically, and
they're gonna have to win three of the next five, right,
And so I think it starts in game three by
dominating the physical battle on the Oklahoma City front. Like
I said before, they're gonna remain confident because they they're
(15:42):
gonna be able to point to some stuff with the
shooting results right still, some stuff they can clean up,
some help out of the strong side corner. A few
times in the game that they I didn't think they needed.
Their transition defense was really bad, just not getting back,
not getting matched up, lost some shooters there. Like I
said before, they're going to feel like they can shoot
better themself as well, even looking beyond the Dallas point.
(16:02):
Some young guy mistakes too, some misreads, a lot of
like challenging Dallas's rim protectors when they didn't need to
when there were open shooters, and so just being more
diligent with reading the floor. I thought it was fascinating
that Mark Dagenel build on Josh Giddy. Josh Gitty, I
want to say it was like minus twenty one and
eleven minutes or something like that, Like it was kind
of a disaster when he was out there, which part
of it was Dallas shot really well, but it also
(16:24):
is just one of those things where Dallas isn't guarding
him and he doesn't really have much value on offense
unless he has the ball in his hands and he's
not an elite defensive player, right. They started the second
half with Aaron Wiggins on the floor, so that was
their like kind of bailing on him in the starting lineup,
so to speak.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I'd consider going big though. There was a stretch there
in the first quarter.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Where they went with jay where they went with Jay
will jay Lynn Williams, i should say, and they put
him next to Chet and put him on Lively and
that allowed them to actually use Chet as a low man.
And so I want to go back over to the
film for a second because I want to show you
guys an example of what this looks like. So let
(17:03):
me pull up the screen here. So this is what
it looked like in the first quarter when they went
with a two big look. And again this look, this
look played four minutes in the game and was plus six,
so they only they've less than four minutes and they
were plus six. So this is a look I'd like
to see Mark A. Daginal go with a little bit
more in game three. So as you can see, look
at the configuration. I've got Jaylen Williams on Jaylen Williams
(17:28):
on Kyrie and Jaylen Williams on Lively. Chet is on
Derek Jones Junior, and Shay is on PJ. Washington still
and Dort is on Luca. Now, what we're looking for
here is a tech the lowman position. So typically what
this is Chet is up at the level of the screen,
and then in this situation we usually have one of
these wings, the Shay or Dort or j Dubb here
(17:52):
as the lowman and in that situation or Giddy right,
and Giddy's taller, but he's not a great athlete, right,
So like you just don't have anywhere near as much
size and athletic on the back line when you have
Chet up at the level of the screen. So in
this case, because Chet is now on the low man,
because you have Jalen Williams operating as your big man,
Derek Lively rolls to the rim. Really nice pass here
(18:14):
from Kyrie, a little rap round pass, but instead of
running into an undersized player where Lively is either gonna
dunk on him or easily be able to get a
shot off over the top.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
He's running into Chet Holmgren at the rim.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And so I think that's a that's an element, especially
as you shift to the road and you start looking
at more physical advantages starting to tilt towards Dallas. That's
a lineup that I think gives you some some different
kinds of strengths. And again, like one of the things too,
is when they went to Aaron Wiggins in that second half,
Dallas immediately started attacking Aaron Wiggins in ISO. Not that
(18:47):
Aaron Wiggins is not capable, of course, he's capable, but
it's just one of those things where like it's a
different look. It gives you a more physically imposing look.
And Jala Williams actually shot the three ball. Will He
hit a couple threes early in the game. He's the
guy that you at least kind of have to worry
about out there, right, So it's a look that I
consider going to all Right, so one one.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Sticking with my pick for now.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Still feel like Dallas is gonna get this series done
in six games. But at Oklahoma City, I think is
gonna be pointing to jump shot. Result is a big
factor for them, and they're gonna feel confident going into
Game three. All Right, guys, that's all I have for
this set of videos today. I will be back later
tonight after the final buzzer of Nuggets Wolves. I'll see
you guys, then the volume
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The NBA playoffs are heating up, and so is the
action at DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of
the NBA with same game parlays, live betting odds, boosts,
and so much more. Don't miss out as the NBA
postseason winds down, so lots of great odds for the
second round. If you still think the Nuggets are gonna
come back and beat the Timberwolves, you can get them
right now at plus one oh five. Thunder MAVs starts
(00:27):
here shortly, and if you like the MAVs to win
that series, you can get them at minus one oh five.
And if you're new to DraftKings, you gotta check this out.
New customers bet five bucks to get one hundred and
fifty in bonus bets. Instantly download the DraftKings Sportsbook app
now and use code hoops that's h oops, that's code
hoops for new customers to get one hundred and fifty
(00:49):
in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only
on DraftKings. The Crown is yours gambling problem called one
eight hundred Gambler or in West Virginia, visit www dot
one eight hundred gambler dot net. In New York, call
eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope
and why to four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut,
(01:11):
help us available for problem gambling call eight eight eight
seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
CCPG dot org.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
in Kansas twenty one plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void
in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight
hours after issuance. See dkang dot co slash bball for
eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right,
(01:52):
welcome to him tonight. You're at the volume heavy Friday.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Everybody up.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
All you guys are having a great week so far.
Earlier today we hit Celtics Cavs already did that break
down this video just doing MAVs Thunder. You guys know
the joke before we get started. Subscribe to a brandw
YouTube channels you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT so you guys
don't miss you announcement still forget about my podcast for
you wherever you get podcasts under Hoops tonight. Keep dropping
mailback questions in the YouTube comments so that we can
(02:17):
keep hitting mailbags are at the rest of the postseason.
Also tonight, going live after the final buzzer of Nuggets Timberwolves,
a game I'm very excited for, so much on the
line for both teams, Very very excited to get into that.
We're gonna be hitting both games live on YouTube after
the final buzzer of Nuggets Wolves. All right, let's talk
MAVs Thunder. So complete reversal of Game one in so
(02:38):
many different ways, much tighter whistle. Game one, the Thunder
shot twenty eight free throws, Shay shot thirteen. Game two,
the Thunder only shoots seventeen and Shae only shoots six,
So huge swing towards Dallas and just the overall amount
of physicality. Dallas did get to the free throw line
quite a bit, but they were bringing a lot more
physical force to the table. I thought they were the
(02:59):
more physically aggressive team throughout reversal.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
From Game one. Jump shooting swings heavily towards Dallas.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Oklahoma City gets one point one zero points per jump
shot in game one, Dallas only gets zero point nine
to eight. Game two, Oklahoma City gets zero point nine
to eight. Dallas gets one point three zero points per
jump shot, massive difference.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Right PJ.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Washington hits seven threes. Luka Doncic finally gets his pull
up three point shot going. He hits five of them.
Josh Green hits three threes. Tim Hardway Junior, who's been
broke all postseason, finally hits a couple of threes at
a huge and one. In the second half, they finally
get going. Right Oklahoma City ten for thirty, another huge
swing towards Dallas. Rebounding In game one, Oklahoma City grabbed
(03:42):
thirty nine percent of their own misses fifty four percent
of all available rebounds, so dominant rebounding performance from Oklahoma
City in game one. In Game two, Dallas grabs thirty
one point four percent of their own misses and fifty
two point five percent of all available rebounds. They win
the offensive last twelve to eight, and they win second
chance points fourteen to eight. So now again not nearly
(04:05):
as dominated as Oklahoma City was in game one, but
Dallas does win the physical battle in game two. They
can do much better still, but they won the physical
battle in game two and anytime you do that on
the road, especially against an energetic crowd like that and
a young athletic team, that's impressive. So another huge swing
towards Dallas turnovers. A huge part of Oklahoma City's identity
(04:25):
as a defense is to play passing lanes, be aggressive,
force turnovers, get out in transition. In Game one, Dallas
turns the ball over sixteen times and gives up twenty
two points to the Thunder off of those turnovers. Game two,
Dallas only has ten turnovers and they only allow eleven
points off of those turnovers. Another huge swing towards Dallas
generating close out opportunities. Remember in game one I talked
(04:47):
about how the Dallas was now generating open opportunities for
guys to attack close outs. They only had eighteen spot
up opportunities in game one. They generated thirty one spot
up opportunities in game two. Both Luca and Kyrie I
thought did a magnet magnificent job reading the game, identifying
that the role players were feeling comfortable and making those
kickout passes hunting looks for them to keep them in
(05:09):
rhythm throughout the game. So all of that amounted all
of those swings.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Again, the.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Much tighter whistle, the jump shooting, the rebounding, the turnovers
generating close out opportunities, all these things swing heavily towards Dallas,
and that amounts to a game that the MAVs basically
controlled throughout. Okay, see he made some runs, they would
bring it back to getting close. They briefly took a
lead in the early third quarter, but Dallas led the
entire first half, and from five point fifty six left
(05:35):
in the third quarter they led the rest of the way,
dominant win for Dallas to steal home court advantage and
head back home for Game three. Luka doncic I thought
that was his best game of the playoffs so far.
Hyper Efficient finally got a step back.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Three going early.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Hit a big one late two in a ball screen
where Dork got kind of caught on the screen. He
dragged the screen defender out, hit him with a little
step back on the left wing and knocked it down
as a big shot in the game. A lot of
really good skip passes to shooter, especially early in the
game he was doing a beautiful job hunting PJ. Washington,
and then a really good defensive game, and it was
the whole team. The whole team was just do an
(06:12):
amazing job chasing shooters off the line, being on a
string in rotation, competing on the ball, forcing turnovers, getting out.
They did a great job, but Luca in particular did
a great job. We're gonna come over, We're gonna cheat.
We usually wait till the end to do film, but
I only have two clips from this game. I wanted
to show you guys an example of the type of
closing out that Dallas was doing. So let's take a
(06:33):
look over here at the screen for a second. Let's
take a look at these rotations from Dallas. So again,
we're gonna start with Shae on Kyrie. We're gonna get
a ball screen with Chet slips out of it early.
Now we're in a high drop right, Really nice tag
here from PJ. Washington. Take away the role. This skip
pass is just a really difficult pass to make, so
(06:54):
it's not really an opening quick rotate back out of it,
nothing's open, there's no advantage. Then we're gonna get a
Jaylen Williams screen. This is gonna end in a switch,
and then in the switch there's a little bit of
a hesitation. Watch Kyrie though close out hard take away
the shot. Stay low in a stance. Now Aaron Wiggins
(07:15):
is open. Derek Jones Junior close out hard chase him
off the line. Now PJ. Washington steps up. Look at
the location of everybody. Everyone's in position to close out.
Daniel Gafford is inside position on Dort. Dnca is in
position to rotate. We get to skip pass from Jalen
Williams over to Chat. Now watch Luca. Look at where
Luca is. Look at where the ball is going. Watch
(07:36):
this defensive play from Luca screaming out to the corner.
We even get a brush screen from Dort here and
he like agilely steps around Dort as Dort just kind
of gets in the way and Luke ends up blocking
the three point shot on the seven foot whatever seven
foot two, seven foot three inch tall Chat holmegrin So
just again, the defensive effort was there for the entire team,
(07:58):
but Luca, I thought. I thought that was Luca's best
game of the postseason in terms of total shot creation,
controlling the feel and pace of the game, commitment to
the defensive end of the floor. Again, I understand He's
had bigger scoring nights, but I thought this overall was
Luca's best game of the postseason so far. I was
talking about after Game one. I know he's banged up,
but he just has to find a way to impact
(08:20):
winning at a higher level. And he was even more
banged up in this game. Hurt his tooth at a
player kase I Walls kind of tripped him up in transition.
It looked like he tweaked his ankle. Super banged up,
but he just found away. He just found a way
to help his team get the way. Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I absolutely loved this game from Kyrie.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Only took eight shots, but this to me is actually
one of Kyrie's greatest strengths and one of the most
important things for any basketball player, especially young basketball players
out here. This is one of the most important things
for you to learn how to do, which is like,
you know the expression read the room, like identify what's
happening in a social situation and act accordingly. I kind
of feel that in a basketball game too. It's like
(08:59):
reading the game, and this is especially important on teams
that have multiple stars. So for instance, this is something
I actually think Kyrie is better than Luca at at
this phase of his career. But Luca's young, and Luca's
gonna get better at this as he gets older. But
early on throughout the playoffs, Kyrie's been the one that's
had it going. And what have we seen Luca do,
Like he continues to kind of try to force the issue,
(09:19):
keeps taking those tough step back jumpers even though they're
not going in, and Luca's aware of it. He went
into the postgame presser during the last series and said,
I feel like I'm letting Kyrie down right now, and like,
so he's aware of what's happening. But Kyrie's got it going,
and Luca at this phase in his career still was
struggling to kind of figure out where he fit next
to Kyrie.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
As Kyrie's dominating games.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Tonight, it was very clear early on Luca had it
going right, Like, hit a short, little mid range pull
up jump shot early, hit three threes in the first
few minutes of the game, Like he just very clearly
had it going, And so Kyrie reads the room and
he goes, Luca's got it going.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
PJ.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Washington's got it going. Tim Hardaway Junior is starting to
make some plays off the bounce. Everybody else kind of
has it going and so he took more of a
passive role in the game, devoted the majority of his
effort towards the defensive end of the floor, and operated
more as a connective piece on offense. He only took
eight shots, but he had eleven assists, two steals, and
two blocks, and a bunch of really big swing plays
(10:16):
in the game. In the first half, there's a play
he gets switched on to chet Holmgrin runs up, swipes
the ball out of his hands, goes the length of
the floor. Jalen Williams tries to block him off the glass,
and he shoots a beautiful soft scoop shot up high
off the window into the basket. Given what Oklahoma City
typically gets per possession, you know, like roughly one one
point one eight points plus the two you got on
(10:37):
the other end, it's like more than a three point swing.
On that play, there was a clean strip of Sga
actually drives to the basket, just cleanly strips it off
his leg out of bounds. In the second half, there's
a play where Giddy had the ball at the top
of the key and he went full ball denial on Shay,
and Shay tried to backcut him and wn't open, Kyrie
was there, Giddy tried to force the pass, Kyrie stole
(10:58):
it through a beautiful kick head passed to Tim Hardaway,
hit him in stride for the layup. Once again, something
over a three point swing based on Oklahoma City's typical
efficiency per possession. That's a huge swing play in an
NBA playoff game. Right very next possession, there's a trap
of a ball screen on the right side and PJ.
(11:18):
Washington gets a deflection. Kyrie's all the way on the
other end of the floor and he shoots the gap
towards the right wing where the pass was intended, steals
the ball, gives it up, gets it back in transition,
then hits Tim Hardaway Junior for an and one three
on the left wing. Like Kyrie was just unbelievable as
a playmaker in this game. And I'm not talking playmakers passing.
(11:39):
I'm talking like making basketball plays just in the game,
just these various different ways, whether it's a rim contest
where he gets a block, or it's a steal here,
or a bal denial there, or a transition kick ahead there,
or a driving kick here, like he just there was
one in the early second half where he just toasted.
I think I think it was Aaron Wiggins just cleanly
(12:00):
beats Aaron Wiggins off the dribble, draws Shay and help
off of PJ.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Washington.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Just easy little scoop pass to the right corner to
PJ Washington, who's been red hot all game, and he
knocks down the corner three like just It was one
of those games that was a textbook example of the
lack of reality that exists in box score results sometimes.
I thought Kyrie was unbelievable in this game, and he
didn't put up massive box score numbers. And again, what
(12:25):
it most impressed me about it was he identified early
in the game, Hey, my co star has been struggling tonight.
He's got it going. Also, my teammates do I'm going
to change my approach in this game and do all
of this other shit with the entirety of my being
to the best that I possibly can. And he did,
And I thought he was incredible in this game. PJ
(12:49):
Washington just a beautiful two way game, had his jump
shot going. He had seven threes, like we talked about,
some tough ones too. Hit a jab step ISO three
at the top of the key in the first half.
He was brilliant defensively at two steps and a bunch
more deflections. Didn't work in the post too the natural
matchups because of the way. Okay, so he starts the game,
Jalen's on Kyrie Dorts on Luca. Right, they're putting Sga
(13:10):
on PJ. Washington, and they went to him on the
first possession of the game in the post against Shae.
I thought that was fascinating because at the end of
the game they went back to him against Shae and
he just bullied him under the rim and got an
and one. As a matter of fact, Mark Dagenel is
probably gonna have to look to maybe swap that around
and move potentially move Shae over to Derek Jones Junior,
because Derek Jones is less likely to do damage to
(13:33):
him in ISO or post up situations. He had twenty
nine points, eleven rebounds, four assists with two steals, and
was a plus thirteen.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Not a bad stat line there for PJ. Washington.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Derek Lively didn't do much in the box score, but
I thought he defended really well, had some nice possessions
in ball screens and in ISOs against Jalen Williams.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
You could tell his length was really bothering him.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Had forced a couple of nice individual ISO possessions ISO
possessions against Shae and Jalen forced into some missus. Forced
Jalen into a airball that like the like was off
like a foot to the left of the rim. Just
an example of his length and his ability to move
his feet around. And then Tim Hardaway Junior and Josh Green.
They just need those guys to hit shots, and they did.
(14:13):
Josh Green, I thought he hit a couple of huge
ones in the late first half as Oklahoma City was
starting to kind of regain control of the game on
one of their runs. And then Tim Hardaway Junior like
started off miss his first couple of shots, but he
had like a nice driving close out on the right
wing where he threw a lob to Derek Lively. I
hit a little shot in the mid range, and then
you could tell that just kind of like loosened him
up and he felt more comfortable. I ended up hitting
(14:35):
two threes, huge one late in the game. I was
running his lane in transition to just really nice game
from the role players.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Big win. You take home court advantage.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Now heading home, you really need to take advantage of
the home crowd and dominate the game physically. They won
the physical battle in game two, but not to the
extent that they're capable of. And again, the jump shooting
is real, Like you out shot the hell out of
OKC in this game, and it obviously was a bit
of an outlier expecting PJ. Washington hit seven threes a night. Right,
Oklahoma City is the second best jump shooting team in
(15:05):
the league by efficiency behind Boston. All season long, they
were deadly jump shooting team. Dallas was fourteen. So over
the course of the next five games of the series,
expecting Dallas to continue to outshoot Oklahoma City, that would
be unusual.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
That would be a flukey type of outcome. Right.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
So going back, and if you're Oklaoma City, for instance,
they're going to remain confident pointing to the shooting right.
And so what you have to look at for game
three is now we have the home crowd. This is
where we have to really dominate the game physically, and
they're gonna have to win three of the next five, right,
And so I think it starts in game three by
dominating the physical battle on the Oklahoma City front. Like
I said before, they're gonna remain confident because they they're
(15:42):
gonna be able to point to some stuff with the
shooting results right still, some stuff they can clean up,
some help out of the strong side corner. A few
times in the game that they I didn't think they needed.
Their transition defense was really bad, just not getting back,
not getting matched up, lost some shooters there. Like I
said before, they're going to feel like they can shoot
better themself as well, even looking beyond the Dallas point.
(16:02):
Some young guy mistakes too, some misreads, a lot of
like challenging Dallas's rim protectors when they didn't need to
when there were open shooters, and so just being more
diligent with reading the floor. I thought it was fascinating
that Mark Dagenel build on Josh Giddy. Josh Gitty, I
want to say it was like minus twenty one and
eleven minutes or something like that, Like it was kind
of a disaster when he was out there, which part
of it was Dallas shot really well, but it also
(16:24):
is just one of those things where Dallas isn't guarding
him and he doesn't really have much value on offense
unless he has the ball in his hands and he's
not an elite defensive player, right. They started the second
half with Aaron Wiggins on the floor, so that was
their like kind of bailing on him in the starting lineup,
so to speak.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I'd consider going big though. There was a stretch there
in the first quarter.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Where they went with jay where they went with Jay
will jay Lynn Williams, i should say, and they put
him next to Chet and put him on Lively and
that allowed them to actually use Chet as a low man.
And so I want to go back over to the
film for a second because I want to show you
guys an example of what this looks like. So let
(17:03):
me pull up the screen here. So this is what
it looked like in the first quarter when they went
with a two big look. And again this look, this
look played four minutes in the game and was plus six,
so they only they've less than four minutes and they
were plus six. So this is a look I'd like
to see Mark A. Daginal go with a little bit
more in game three. So as you can see, look
at the configuration. I've got Jaylen Williams on Jaylen Williams
(17:28):
on Kyrie and Jaylen Williams on Lively. Chet is on
Derek Jones Junior, and Shay is on PJ. Washington still
and Dort is on Luca. Now, what we're looking for
here is a tech the lowman position. So typically what
this is Chet is up at the level of the screen,
and then in this situation we usually have one of
these wings, the Shay or Dort or j Dubb here
(17:52):
as the lowman and in that situation or Giddy right,
and Giddy's taller, but he's not a great athlete, right,
So like you just don't have anywhere near as much
size and athletic on the back line when you have
Chet up at the level of the screen. So in
this case, because Chet is now on the low man,
because you have Jalen Williams operating as your big man,
Derek Lively rolls to the rim. Really nice pass here
(18:14):
from Kyrie, a little rap round pass, but instead of
running into an undersized player where Lively is either gonna
dunk on him or easily be able to get a
shot off over the top.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
He's running into Chet Holmgren at the rim.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And so I think that's a that's an element, especially
as you shift to the road and you start looking
at more physical advantages starting to tilt towards Dallas. That's
a lineup that I think gives you some some different
kinds of strengths. And again, like one of the things too,
is when they went to Aaron Wiggins in that second half,
Dallas immediately started attacking Aaron Wiggins in ISO. Not that
(18:47):
Aaron Wiggins is not capable, of course, he's capable, but
it's just one of those things where like it's a
different look. It gives you a more physically imposing look.
And Jala Williams actually shot the three ball. Will He
hit a couple threes early in the game. He's the
guy that you at least kind of have to worry
about out there, right, So it's a look that I
consider going to all Right, so one one.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Sticking with my pick for now.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Still feel like Dallas is gonna get this series done
in six games. But at Oklahoma City, I think is
gonna be pointing to jump shot. Result is a big
factor for them, and they're gonna feel confident going into
Game three. All Right, guys, that's all I have for
this set of videos today. I will be back later
tonight after the final buzzer of Nuggets Wolves. I'll see
you guys, then the volume
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.