Jason Timpf reacts to Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics' dominant 126-110 Game 2 win over Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, and the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Jason breaks down the game's biggest highlights, Brown and Tatum's big nights, Haliburton's injury, and more of his main takeaways ahead of Game 3 in Indiana.
Timeline (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)
04:00 - Pacers-Celtics Reaction
09:35 - Celtics attacked Tyrese Haliburton
17:00 - Jaylen Brown goes off
19:40 - What's next for Pacers?
21:35 - Game 3 Predictions
24:20 - NBA Mailbag
#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. We're this close to crowning a new NBA champ,
and with the action heating up on the court, it's
even hotter. At DraftKings sports Book, an official sports betting
partner of the NBA. There's only so many games left,
and Draftking Sportsbook has you covered with same game parlays,
live betting odds, boosts in so much more. Don't miss
out or you'll have to wait until next NBA season
(00:21):
to place your bets. It's super easy for first timers
to get started. Try betting on something simple like picking
a team to win. Go to the Draftking Sportsbook app,
select your squad, and place your first bet. It's that simple.
The championship odds right now as we head into the
conference finals according to DraftKings, Boston's at minus one point fifty,
the Timberwolves at plus two to seventy five, the Mavericks
(00:41):
at plus five hundred, and the Indiana Pacers a long
shot at plus twenty five hundred. New to DraftKings, listen up.
New customers can get a no sweat bet up to
fifteen hundred bucks. Just deposit at least five bucks and
you'll get a bonus bet back equal to your first
bet if it doesn't hit alough the DraftKings sportsbook gap
now and use code hoops that's h oops. That's code
(01:05):
hoops for new customers to get a no sweat bet
up to fifteen hundred bucks if your first bet doesn't
hit 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
(01:26):
hope and why to four six seven three sixty nine.
In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling called eight
eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or
visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of
Boothill Casino and resort In Kansas twenty one plus age
varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. One no sweat bet
(01:47):
per new customer issued as one bonus bet based on
amount of initial losing bet. Bonus bets expire one hundred
and sixty eight hours after issuance. See DKNG dot co
slash bball for l eligibility, wagering and deposit restrictions. Terms
and responsible gambling resources. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight.
(02:16):
You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Oh, all of
you guys are having a great week so far. We're
gonna get an instant reaction in for Eastern Conference Finals
Game two as Boston goes up to oh On the
Indiana Pacers. Gonna break that game down from the perspective
of both teams, and then we're gonna do a mail
bag at the end of the show today. So drop
as many questions as you guys like. Let's have some fun,
Let's go all over the place, drop some questions in
(02:37):
the chat, and Paul, our producer, is gonna text them
over to me and we'll do a mail bag at
the tail end of the show. You guys know the
Joe before we get started. Subscribe to a brand of
YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason Lts. You guys
don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed where
if you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, then keep
dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments. We can keep
hitting them throughout the rest of the postseason. Last not
(02:59):
at least before started. I want to talk to you
guys about game time. They've got an amazing ticket buying experience.
I had a great experience with them earlier this year
as I went to McHale Center to watch the University
of Arizona men's basketball team play. Got a last minute seat,
got a great deal. I knew exactly what I was
getting myself into when I showed up. That's the best
part about the experience. There's no hidden pricing. They've all
in pricings. You know exactly what you're paying when you
(03:20):
go to check out. You get a good picture of
what your seat looks like before you show up to
the arenas. You know what your money's getting you, and
it's not convoluted. You can check out in as few
as two taps. It's fun watching games on TV, but
nothing beats being there in person to see these guys,
and nothing beats intense, high stakes basketball. So get out
to the arena to see these guys. See Anthony Edwards,
C Tyres Halliburton, see Luka, Dancid, c Jason Tatum. Make
(03:43):
sure you guys get out there and check it out.
They also have things like flash deals and zone deals.
I like the Zone deal idea. You just pick a section,
game Time chooses the seats for you within that section.
You get extra savings. Take the guesswork out of buying
professional basketball tickets with game Time. Download the game Time app,
created account and use code Hoops for twenty dollars off
your first purchase terms apply again, create an account, redeem
(04:05):
code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. Download game
Time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So Celtics won this game with defense.
In my opinion, it kind of went more or less
like I expected it too. After watching the film from
Game one again, as I talked about, I thought in
(04:27):
Game one that Boston kind of got outplayed and specifically
just wasn't sharp on the defensive end in a bunch
of different phases. We went over a film session yesterday
where I kind of showed you guys, the Specifics just
really struggling with communication and execution in their switches. So
anytime Indiana would just run multiple interchanges, you know, and
(04:47):
they Indiana go's fast. I showed some examples in the
film session were like in a four second span or
in a six second span, they'd get to like three
or four d double handoffs, or like three or four
different cuts and screens in different interchanges, right, And like
Boston just wasn't very sharp there. And then the second
piece of it was the pick and roll. They really
really struggled handling Tyres Halliburton and Miles Turner in pick
(05:09):
and roll.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And so one of the things I talked about was,
they get this win in the win column, but they're
also gonna get embarrassed when they go look at the film.
And so they should come into game two with the
requisite level of energy and just kind of passion to
rectify that situation.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And Like, it was a little rough in the first
quarter tonight, specifically when it came to handling the switches,
but then they settled down. They had this awesome defensive
run to start the second quarter. In particular, in that run,
that twenty to zero run that spanned the end of
the first quarter into the early second quarter, they went
from down twenty seven to twenty two to up forty
(05:45):
two to twenty seven. And in that span, Indiana was
trying to attack their switching by just throwing the ball
down to the post. And their guards were holding up
in the posts, they were fronting the posts and forcing turnovers.
They were getting out in transition. Jalen Brown was just
unbelievable during that run. He was unbelievable in the entire game.
And you know, there were a couple points where the
Pacers kind of made little runs, but Boston seemed to
(06:07):
be in control throughout. Was very, very different than Game
one in the sense that I thought Boston just like
actually asserted themselves thoroughly outplayed Indiana in one in a
very impressive fashion. Remember the specifics that we talked about
were communicating and executing switches better, which they did a
much better job. The second piece was the pick and
roll piece, right, So the direction that Joe Mizula went,
(06:30):
which I thought was fascinating. He actually went with Jaylen
Brown on Miles Turner instead of Jason Tatam, although Jason
Tatum also spent time on Miles Turner during the game,
and then they went with Horford on Siakam. And what
was fascinating about that is it put all of the
scoring pressure on Siakam both in pick and roll and
in their switching situations. The main reason why is Boston
ran a lot of centerless lineups in this game by
(06:53):
virtue of the wrist injury to Luke Cornett. It was
a lot of like the four starters plus but with
Horford off the floor and there'd be Ohheber set in there, right,
or they did some with Sam Hauser as well, but
a lot of these like small groups where they did
a lot of switching. And in those groups that again,
(07:13):
when you look at Indiana, when Indiana is healthy, and
when I mean healthy, I mean like the Tyrese Haliburton
that we saw at the beginning of the season. They
have two guys that can beat switches, right, because Siakam
can beat switches and Tyrese Haliburton can beat switches. But
Tyrese his first step just isn't as quick since he's
had his hamstring injury. Was kind of starting to get
it back, and then it seems like he might have
(07:34):
aggravated it tonight, which is obviously frustrating if you're a
Pacers fan. But because Siakam is literally their only matchup
attacking forward that can do damage to switches, it just
puts all of the scoring pressure on Pascal Siakam, both
in ball screens and when they'd go to their switching attack,
and for the most part they did find in ball screens.
There were a couple of pick and pop threes that
(07:56):
Pascal Siakam hit in the early third quarter, but other
than that, like they kind of had that under wraps
right and so like. As a result, it turned into
a lot of trying to attack in isolation situations. Like
I said, the Pacers really tried to force the ball
into the post, especially in that first half, and they
just couldn't get any anything going. Siakam was the one
guy that they were able to get going. And don't
(08:17):
get me wrong, he had an awesome game. He cooked
everybody in the post with you know, short little face
up jumpers, turnaround jumpers, quick driving moves to the basket.
Like Siakam had an amazing night. But the flip side
is is because of the fact that you had Horford
on Siakam and you had Turner with a wing on him,
and because of the fact that they went to so
many centerless lineups, it was just a lot of that
(08:40):
type of ISO attack. It kind of removed the Haliburton
ball screen from the equation. And he was also kind
of unaggressive in this game. Which part of that I
think was the switching. Part of that was probably whatever
was going on with this hamstring. But even though Siakam
went off, you pretty much held everyone else in check and.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Got out of that with the win.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
And again I want to shout out specifically Derek White,
Drew Holiday, and Oh shaper Set, especially in that twenty
zero run there that spanned the late first and early second.
Those guys all held up really really well against massive
size mismatches in the post and it was a big
part of how they got so many stops in this game.
So smart adjustments from Joe Mizzoula in going small and
(09:23):
putting a keeping Horford on Siakam throughout and then two
just better execution in their switches led to a much
better defensive performance and a comfortable win for Boston. On
the offensive end, literally everything was built around attacking Tyre's Halliburton.
The vast majority of action that Boston ran in this
game was two man game with either one of the
(09:45):
J's and one of the guards, meaning Derek White or
Drew Holliday. Right when the guards were on the ball,
it was about getting Tyre's Halliburton to try to navigate
over the screen and contain a guy like Derek White
or Drew Holiday on the drive right, spend most of
the time on Derek White. There was a sequence in
the third quarter that I thought best demonstrated this, right.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Both of them were. One of them was on the
left wing.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I think one was at the top of the key
if I remember correctly, but it was Derek White ball
handler Tatum setting the screen. Nie Smith is on Tatum, right.
Nie Smith doesn't want us switch off of Tatum. Haliburton's
chasing over the top because Derek White's an excellent three
point shooter and he can't just duck underneath the pick.
He's been torching people with that for that all postseason, right,
So on the boss grin on the left wing, Nie
(10:29):
Smith kind of lunges and throws a token little you know,
kind of like a dig down at at Derek White.
But then he recovers back to Tatum, and so as
Haliburton's chasing over the top, Derek White just easily gets
all the way downhill and gets a layup. Very next possession,
they run the exact same thing.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
This time.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Nee Smith is thinking, I gotta help because Derek White
just got a layup, so he sinks down into the
lane and they effectively double team Derek White. Derek White
pitches it back to Jason Tatum, there's a close out
from the wing. Tatum toasts that guy off the dribble,
gets in the lane and dunks it. Like essentially, you're
damned if you do damned if you don't, if you're
aaron Ne Smith, because you didn't help Derek White got
(11:06):
a layup, you did help Jason Tatum got a dunk,
and so like that's kind of the predicament that they're
in there with Tyree's Halliburton on Derek White. And then
when the Wings had the ball, so like it like
think of that as like an inverted ball screen, right,
So you have a forward essentially running a ball screen
with a guard setting the screen. If Halliburton hedged, they
would just try to drag the hedge out as far
(11:28):
as they could so that it was a tough close out,
and then Derek White or Drew Holliday would slip out
of it to the top of the key and they
get wide open catch and shoot threes out of it.
Jaylen Brown generated a couple of threes for Derek White
that way, Tatum generated some threes that way too. They
just did a really nice job dragging that hedge out.
And then if they didn't drag the hedge, like if
they just switched. So like if if Halliburton showed on
(11:51):
that hedge and then whoever was guarding the forward, whether
it was aaron Ne Smith or Andrew Nemhard recovers and
just stays home and just stays home and switches on
to Derek White or jew Holiday, then Tatum would just
kind of methodically back Tyres Aliburton down into that fifteen
foot area and just get to those short range jumpers
that he can make. And obviously he made a got
(12:13):
going in that third quarter stretch. Tatum had a rough
start to this game but had a good finish at
the end. But like that was really the gist of it.
Everything for Boston centered around attacking Tyree's Halliburton, either in
ball screens where he was guarding the guard or in
inverted ball screens where he had to hedge, and they
just really don't have an answer for that. And that's
a big part of Tyre's Aliburton's passivity in this game, right,
(12:34):
Like you're just you're wearing them out. You're just wearing
them out by making them work on the defensive end
the entire game. In general, I just thought the Celtics
had a really good offensive night in terms of aggression
towards the rim and decision making when they got there.
That Like again, like I said at the beginning, they
got out played in Game one and won. Anyway, that's
not what happened tonight. The Celtics took care of busit
light up to their potential and they outclassed the Pacers
(12:57):
as they should. They're a better team, and they took
a two zero lead. Jalen Brown was just, I thought,
just a wrecking ball athlete in this game. He was
flying around everywhere on defense. He had good on ball possessions.
He was jumping passing lanes and getting out in transition,
running his lane in transition. In general, he was flat
(13:18):
out toasting people off the dribble and getting into the
lane and drawing multiple bodies and throwing kickout passes. He
did it in like just straight iso situations. He did
it a lot of work in semi transition. He had
this like double crossover move. I think it was on
Siakam along the left wing when he got all the
way into the basket, he grabbed a couple of offensive rebounds.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
He had to play early where Aaron E.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Smith was trying to box him out, but he's just
smaller and not as strong, and Jalen just kind of
swum around the baseline, got in there and got a
little hook shot off in the lane. Again, I thought
he was the primary driving force of a lot of
Boston success tonight, and he was the guy that was
really running the offensive end of that twenty zero run.
We talked a lot about the guards and the job
they did on defense, but Jalen Brown was unbelievable on
(14:00):
offense during that twenty zero run. I thought he just
completely dominated this basketball game on both ends of the floor.
So tip of the cap to him. And again they
needed it because Jason Tatum had a little bit of
a rough night until the end and Jaylen Brown more
than made up for it. And then lastly, Derek White
his ability to run those ball screens with the jas
and that means like duck under the pick, hit the
(14:21):
pull up three, chase over the top, get downhill, either
make decisions or get all the way to the rim
and finish that. In his ability to run those inverted
ball screens where he could set a good pick and
then pop to the three point line and quickly get
his feet set and shoot or make decisions out of
it driving the closeout. That is just a huge asset
to this offense. It felt like every single three he
hit tonight was huge in terms of the momentum situations
(14:42):
in the game. Really really impressive performance from Boston on
both ends of the floor on the Indiana front. So
Boston has basically solved your offense by virtue of putting
all of the onus on Siakam to score. That's what
we talked about earlier, right, Like in he has to
score it because Horford's in a drop, they're for pressuring
(15:03):
the rim, and Siakam's popping out to the three point line, right, So,
like he's got to hit those pick and pop threes.
He's got to find a way to score if if
Horford recovers to him on the roll, right, and then
when they go to when Boston goes small and they
switch everything, He's the one guy who can consistently get
quality shots against size mismatches in straight iso situations, right. So,
(15:24):
like it's a testament to how important his addition was.
And that's why I love the trade at the time,
Like I love the idea of like a offensive initiating
like playmaker in addition to a matchup attacking forward or
a matchup attacking anything.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Like that's even why like Kyrie irving alongside Luka Dancics, right,
because Luca can be the engine of the offense and
generate all these quality shots, but Kyrie, like he can
just he can just go get a bucket, right, and
he can attack specific matchups and just create something out
of nothing. Same kind of thing with Jamal Murray and
Nikola Jokich. Jokich is the offensive engine. He runs everything,
and then you've got this guy that can go get
(15:59):
a bucket right, And so Siakam is kind of amounted
to that for Indiana. But it's the reality of the
limitations of this version of Halliburton, which is back before
he heard his hamstring at the beginning of the season,
I thought he was pretty good beating switches, and it's
because he just was so good the long strides. He
had a lot of like scooping layups where he'd like
beat someone off the dribble and then kind of take
(16:20):
like a little bit of a wide route and go
up high. He was really good with the floaters, but
he's just not getting downhill as easily in this playoff
run as he did before his injury. And so again
that's the ultimate version of this team. If the Pacers
are gonna achieve something greater in the future, it's got
to be both of them. It's got to be Halliburton
at this like peak version of himself as like a
(16:41):
scoring playmaker, and then to Pascal Siakam as that matchup
attacking Forard. Heading back to Indiana, I think they can
get one based on the strength of their chaotic ball
and player movement and the crazy pace that they play
at and the home crowd. Like India's unefeated at home
in this playoff run right now, but Boston is undefeated
on the road too, and so like if Boston doesn't relax,
(17:02):
which by the way, they have a tendency to when
they get a lead, but like, if Boston doesn't relax,
like this thing could be over in four, I'm gonna
go ahead and stick. I'm gonna go with Boston in
five for right now, just simply because I do think
Indiana has the ability to get one at home on
the strength of their home crowd. But this could very
easily be over in four games. Deeply concerning that Tyres
(17:24):
Halliburton's hamstring has flared up again because they just have
no shot without him. All right, let's get to the
mail bag before we get out of here tonight. If
Haliburton is out, are you worried about Boston facing a
much tougher team in the finals after coasting through the East.
Here's the thing, this is the beauty of a seven
(17:44):
game series. So like, yeah, there's something to be said
about an adjustment if they go from I mean, the
main thing is just you're gonna be going up against
a much better defensive team. Like Cleveland did not have
the wings to throw at Tatum and Brown, right, Like
Indiana doesn't really either, Like Aaron E. Smith does a
good job, but he's kind of undersized, right. Like, same
(18:07):
thing goes for that first round matchup against the Miami Heat.
Like with Jimmy Butler out, they just didn't really have
like the wing athleticism to hang with the Jay's right,
So like it'll be an adjustment when they get to
the finals and all of a sudden, it's you know,
Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards, or it's PJ. Washington and
Derek Jones junior. Like you're definitely stepping up a level
(18:29):
in competition. I mean, I don't even think Celtics fans
would be crazy enough to think that that any of
these three teams they've played or as good as some
of these teams out in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
That said, like Boston's also on that level.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Like throughout it all, like there's multiple things are true,
Like has Boston had an easy path through the postseason?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Is the Eastern Conference substantially weaker than the Western Conference, Yes,
But Boston is also a Dame good basketball team who's
every bit as good, if not better than those teams
in the Western Conference. So like will there be adjustment, Sure,
but that's the whole purpose of a seven game series.
And also, like you get rewarded for your success in
the regular season, Like there was some of its luck,
(19:09):
Like I thought if you ranked the top five teams
in the East, the other four after Boston all ended
up in the other side of the bracket, so they
only had to face one of those teams, which is
good fortune. Sure, but like you got that by virtue
of the success you had in the regular season. Same
thing goes with the home court advantage piece of it, because,
like let's say it's an adjustment, but you also have
(19:30):
home court and home court in the NBA Finals. Whoever
comes out of the West, it's gonna be a lot
of guys who have never played in the finals. Whereas
for Boston, Derek White's been there, Jason Tatum's been there,
Jalen Brown's been there, Al Horford's been there. They've got
a lot of guys that have been there before. So,
like I would argue the home court piece and then
them having finals experience, while the outside of Kyrie Irving,
(19:53):
you're just not getting that out of the out of
the Western Conference piece of it. I think that that
Boston is gonna be fine in that regard, Like I
don't think it's gonna come down to Boston adjusting necessarily.
I do think that that could be a factor, but
I think it's more likely just going to come down
to is Boston going to reach their ceiling? Are they
gonna have good decision making on offense? Are they gonna
bring consistent defensive effort? Is Jason Tatum gonna be able
(20:16):
to go toe to toe with whoever the best player
is that comes out of that Western Conference team. Like,
if Jason Tatum runs into a Luka Doncic, let's say
I think Luka Doncis is the second best player in
the world. Is Tatum gonna be able to win that
matchup the way that he badly lost, Like because he
badly lost that matchup against Steph two years ago, right, So,
Like though, those are the things that I think are
going to play a much bigger role for Boston than
(20:37):
the adjustment period. Do you think that part of Tatum's
inconsistency on offense is that he doesn't have a reliable
spot that he is comfortable with, for example, the Jokich
houk shot or the SGA mid range. So I think
that most of this just comes down to approach for
Jason Tatum. And what I mean by that is, like,
I actually do think that Tatum is capable of getting
(20:59):
to a consistent spot on the floor where he can
be profoundly efficient consistently on a possession by possession basis.
For me, that's the block, Like I would love to
see Tatum just work off the right block, cleared side,
like that be his like go to spot on the
floor to operate that That's what I'm hoping for him
in the in the long run, I think that part
(21:21):
of his skill development has been overly focused on tough
shot making. And the thing with tough shot making is
there's real value in it. There really is. I'm not
gonna sit here and pretend like it doesn't matter, like
and it's come through for Jason Tatum in a lot
of big ways over the year.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
I remember I remember him hitting a.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Huge right shoulder fade away from like twenty feet to
ice the Bucks in Game six of the twenty twenty
two Eastern Conference Semifinals. Like he's gone to tough shot
making in situations that have come through for him, and
there is value. But to me, the value of tough
shot making is rescue possessions, meaning like there's five seconds
on the shot clock and I just need to get
something up late game situations where it's like we're you know,
(21:59):
we're within you know, fifteen seconds left and I need
to get a shot, or like they're switching everything and
we're not getting anything open in our ball and player movement,
so I just need to be able to get to
my spot and knock down a shot like those those
are coverage beaters too, Like if you're going against a
drop coverage and a guy dies on the pick, Like, yeah,
you need to be able to hit a pull up jumper.
But like Tatum just leans on him too much, Like
(22:21):
it's it's pull up jump shots makeup damn near half
of his shot diet.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
And that's a problem.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
That's that to me is that is leaving meat on
the bone, that is playing away from your strengths, you
know what I mean, Like Tatum, I know this is
a this kind of is a strange comp because Lebron
and Jason Tatum are very different players. But like Lebron
developed an over the top shot making game, but his
best trait was he was bigger and stronger and more
athletic than everybody, right, And so like the vast majority
(22:48):
of Lebron's work was done in athleticism based plays, whether
it was transition attacks, attacking out of the post, you know,
like getting downhill and ball screens, and then Lebron would
use pull up shot as like a as like basically
a ceiling razor. And that's kind of what I want
to see Jason Tatum do now. I think he'll need
a little bit more pull up shot making because he's
not the straight line. He's not as like quick off
(23:12):
the off the first step as Lebron James was, obviously,
but Jason Tatum is one of the biggest and strongest
forwards in the league. He has the ability to guard
centers in the post. He can demolish players with size mismatches,
and so for me, it's just about kind of tilting
some of his shot selection, like taking it from like
if you just take two or three of those possessions
(23:32):
a game where you take a pull up jumper and
you turn those into physically aggressive moves towards the basket,
that to me will dramatically increase his consistency on the
offensive end. But again, like when we have these conversations,
I think it's important to remind ourselves that Jason Tatum
is a Swiss army knife that does a lot of
really useful things for a basketball team. And this is
(23:53):
not one of those things where it's like, oh, his
jumper's not falling tonight, so now he's useless.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
That's not what it is. It's just he is. He plays.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
He's into more inconsistency by relying too much on his
jump shot when he's not particularly good at it, and
like outside of like a month spanning late December to
January this year, he was a bad pull up shooter.
He so, like it's not a huge surprise that I
think my microphone might have just crapped out. Again, let's see,
(24:21):
we're okay. But like outside of like outside of that
like month month and a half there, Like he's he's
a bad pull up shooter. So it's not a surprise
that like he gets into these situations and they're more inconsistent, right,
But like in terms of like where I think his
spot will be in the long run, again, I think
it's in that right block cleared side trying to go
to work using his size advantages. Would you ever take
(24:44):
a coaching job for a college program or the NBA?
I would never take a college job just because, like
a couple of things, if if you are an assistant
at the college level, you almost like a good portion
of your workload becomes like clerical work. It's a lot
of like checking on the kids' grades, like recruiting visits,
scouting visit like things along those lines. It's a lot
(25:06):
of that kind of stuff, and obviously as a head
coach there's a lot of that kind of responsibility as well,
especially on the recruiting side, right, And like, for me,
like I love basketball, I want to focus on basketball.
So like, to me, college doesn't really satisfy that specific need.
I think there would be just too much non basketball
related side of the business. I would love to coach
in the NBA one day, but it's just completely unrealistic.
(25:29):
Coaching is very much a fraternity. Everyone is very like
it's it's so in order to get into that side
of the business, you have to like take some job
in a film room somewhere and just grind and grind
and grind and maybe just maybe you'll get an opportunity
to be an assistant somewhere one day, or maybe you'll
have some sort of connection, but like chances are like,
as much as I'd love that opportunity, it's just unrealistic
(25:51):
and so it's not something that I plan on. But
to answer the question, if the Charlotte Hornets called me
tomorrow and was like, hey, do you want a position
as one of our end of the bench assistants, I'd
be like, fuck, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Just because for me, I just like nothing as much
as I love talking about the game, nothing beats the competitiveness.
Nothing beats like being in a locker room, being with
those guys and trying to achieve the ultimate goal and
going after a championship of whatever type it is. But again,
it's unrealistic, so it's not something I plan on. What's
the biggest difference between this series and the Knick series
for the Pacers where the Knicks also went up to
(26:23):
I'll keep it really simple. Boston's a much, much, much
better basketball team. Would Darius Garland be a good fit
for the Lakers? I let's just I'm gonna put it
this way. I saw this moving around today. To me,
Austin Reeves is like ninety ninety five percent the basketball
player that Darius Garland is. You could argue he's a
(26:44):
better playoff player, and he costs a tiny fraction as much,
and he's already on the roster. So like to me,
any sort of deal for Garland would require the aggregation
of salaries and sending out too many good players. I
think the Lakers would get worse, So I fly don't
like that kind of deal. Who would guard Jalen Brown
for the MAVs or the Wolves. So I think what
(27:07):
they would probably do if it was Dallas is I
think we'd see PJ. Washington on Jason Tatum, and then
I think we'd see Derek Jones Junior on Jalen Brown.
But I could see that matchup getting moved around quite
a bit. Kyrie Irving has defended guards so well in
this postseason run that I think that Kyrie, you could
(27:28):
handle probably the Derek White assignment right, And then I
think they probably try to hide Luka Doncic on Drew Holliday,
and they probably used Drew Holliday a lot as a screener.
The thing is, this is the problem with Boston, and
this is one of the reasons why like everyone, you know,
like everyone keeps writing off Boston and saying the Western
teams are better, and like I may pick the Western
Conference team, but like whoever comes out of that the West, Like,
(27:50):
even if I do pick them, it's like a fifty
five to forty five kind of thing. Like I think
Boston is damn good, and I might end up picking Boston.
I'm not sure. We'll see when we get to that point.
But one of the main reasons why is because Boston
just presents massive matchup problems for everybody. Like it's kind
of like the Tyre's Haliburton piece, Like you're you're putting
Tyres Haliburt on Derek White. You have to put him
on Derek White because Drew Halliday will punish him in
(28:12):
the post, and like you can handle the Derek White
problem with more team based concepts, but like that's just
the problem. Derek White's freaking amazing and you're putting Tyres
Albert on him because you just have no choice. And
like that's just the reality of the predicament that Boston
puts you in because they have so many damn good
basketball players, you know, like they have four dudes making
over thirty million, and it's not like, oh, they're on
(28:32):
bad contracts. They all deserve to be making at least
that much. And then Derek White is the one guy
who doesn't, and he probably deserves to make thirty thirty
five million a year based on what he does on
both ends of the floor. So like Boston just super
super talented, and those are the problems that they can
those are the predicaments that they can put you in.
In terms of the Timberwolves. My guess is that they
(28:53):
probably put Jayden McDaniels on Jason Tatum and Anthony Edwards
on Jaln Brown. But again it's the same kind of thing.
I think you'd see some interchangeability there. That would be
an interesting series for the Karl Anthony Towns kind of
fit in terms of the matchups. And I wonder how
often the Wolves would have to go small and put
Nikhil Alexander Walker on the floor. Did players get Did
players used to get this much shit for poor performances
(29:15):
in just one game or is it happening more now
with more exposure in today's NBA. I've noticed this in
general over the years with Twitter. Everybody wants to take
victory laps or admit they're wrong after one game, which
is like absolutely crazy to me. I mean, even just
in the last round. Let's see, like Dallas lost Game
one and won the series. Denver lost Game one and
(29:38):
led by twenty in Game seven in the second half, Right,
what was the.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Need?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
The Knicks went up two oh and the Pacers ended
up winning that series. So like in general, when it
comes to the postseason, like I am a big believer
and like no matter what you think, don't react to
anything until you've seen multiple games and you've seen all
the adjustments. Like let's say Indiana wins Game one without
that you know, crazy Jalen Brown shot. It's like you
could be like, oh my gosh, they can't guard pick
(30:06):
and roll, and it's like, actually, they were able to
come up with some adjustments in literally one game to
be able to mitigate a lot of the issues, just
a lot, like just take Cornette out of the rotation,
although he Missoula was forced to, but like, take Cornette
out of the rotation, put Horford on Siakam and all
of a sudden, like you're just in a better position, right,
So like another one too, Like I went back and
looked through the film and Minnesota I thought, played one
(30:27):
of their worst defensive games of the postseason against Dallas
in Game one, and so like, I just think that
we see a more desperate Minnesota defensive effort in Game two,
and I think Minnesota ties the series. And so now
who knows, Like Dallas is in commanding position and they
very well might end up winning. But in general, I
just don't understand the overreacting, and especially when it comes
to the individual players. Like my thing is like I
(30:51):
think criticism without praise is empty, and praise without criticism
is empty. Right, So, like I have to be critical
of Ant for the way he played in Game one
one because I'm also the guy that praises him heavily
when he plays well, right, like I have. It's just
like with Jason Tatum. I've been very critical of Jason
Tatum over the years, but like, he was awesome in
Game one in so many different ways aside from the
(31:13):
shot making. And it's like to me, like, I have
my biases. I do. I'm not gonna sit here and
lie to you, Guys, I emotionally, as a fan root
for the Lakers. Right on a non emotional level, I
have players that I'm a fan of and players that
I don't like particularly well, right Like, for instance, Luca
is one of those guys.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
I've never been a huge Luca fan.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
There's some things about his game that bother me, the
way he constantly complains that the refs bothers me. Sometimes
the twenty five thirty dribble possessions into an iso. I
watched a game in the regular season this year. I
want to say it was against the Pacers where where
Luca literally got the opening tip and ran four consecutive
straight ISOs without passing the basketball to start the game.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
And it's like, there are part there are.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Things about that that as just as a basketball fan,
I'm not a huge fan of. But at this time,
like I try, I genuinely do try to fight against
those things and to try to be as objective as
I possibly can. My thing is like, I'm not gonna
lie to you and say that I'm, you know, perfectly unbiased.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I have my biases, I have my likes, I have
my dislikes. I'm just gonna try like hell to do
the best job that I can I do. To put
it simply, I take this job very seriously. The fact
that you guys actually come to me and listen to
my analysis, that you actually care about my opinion, I
take that as a as a huge compliment, and I
take that responsibility seriously. I want to make sure that
I do this job the way that it's supposed to
(32:34):
be done. I'm not perfect. I'm gonna fuck up a lot.
I say stupid shit sometimes. What was the one I
had at the beginning of the last round where I
said the Lakers might be. The h that the Wolves
have is the same, the same chance to beat Denver
as the Lakers do, Like the Lakers did, Like that
was stupid. I make mistakes like that's That's kind of
just how it goes. But I'm gonna just do the
best I can and we'll see. I feel like I'm
better at it than I was a few years ago,
(32:55):
and hopefully I keep getting better at it over the years.
Tatum Garner's so much attention from defenses, do you think
this opens up Brown for games like this? So to
put it simply, like there are usually aggressive coverages lined
up for the other team's best star, and there's usually
traditional coverages lined up for any sort of supporting star. So,
(33:16):
for instance, take Minnesota, like Anthony Edwards is getting high
drop coverage, double team and ISOs like he saw a
ton of that against Denver, a little bit of a
little bit of it in Game one against Dallas where
they're like really loaded up and digging down into driving
lanes high drop like Ant's coming off of those ball
screens and settling. He's not being as agg aggressive as
he needs to be. But so much of it has
to do with the coverages. Right when it comes to
(33:41):
like the gameplan piece of it, then you look at
Karl Anthony Towns and it's like, yeah, they will throw
the occasional double team to him in the post. But
like when they run Hoorn's chest and you know Ant
dribbles off the cat on the left elbow and cat
comes off of Nazor or Rudy Gobert on the right
elbow and they throw the ball to him, they're not
double team him or trapping him like he's he's getting
(34:02):
traditional coverages, meaning he's getting the same coverages that every
other team gets, right, And like a lot of that
is or every other player I should say gets, And
so a lot of that is like Jylen Brown is
going to have a certain different level of difficulty than
Jason Tatum.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
That's a fact, right.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
And Like if if Boston ever did trade Jalen Brown,
like let's say four years from now they do, or
let's say they have like another disappointing loss two years
in a row and then and then they end up
trading Jalen Brown, I don't think they will. I think
Jaylen Brown will be a Celtic for a long time.
But if Jalen Brown goes to a team and is
the best player on the team, his entire perspective on
the game will change. Instead of getting the Aaron E.
(34:40):
Smith point of attack assignment, like he's like right now,
he's getting Andrew Nemhard right, Like instead of Tatum getting
Aaron E. Smith, Like if he was the best player
on a team, maybe he gets Aaron E. Smith for
the entire game, you know, like and he has success
against Aaron E.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Smith too.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I'm not trying to say you can't, but like, let's
say it like the Minnesota assignment, Like, if they end
up having to leave a lesser defender on one of
the jas, who are.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
They gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
They're gonna do it on Jaln Brown, right, So like
there is some reality to like the to being lower
in the pecking order and that making things easier. But again,
as I used to always say with Jamal Murray, in
my opinion, when it comes to basketball, your value is
your value to your team. And regardless of what theoretical
situation where Jalen Brown is on some other team and
(35:23):
he's getting tougher coverages, Yeah, we can talk about that
in terms of ranking players, but I'm Boston. He is
the number two, and so he does get favorable matchups,
and he does get favorable coverages, and so he does
get to cook. And that's just the reality of his
impact on this team. Would the Celtics fare better against
the Wolves or the MAVs? Oh, that's interesting, I would say, man,
(35:50):
that is a really that's a really interesting question to
kind of think of, to kind of talk through it.
The I think that the MAVs are a little bit
more of a load up offense, whereas the Wolves are
a little bit more of a stay home offense. And
the big part of that is the Wolves have better
defensive personnel down the roster. The mass are really good defenders.
Derek Jones Junior is an excellent defender. That rim protectors
(36:11):
are excellent defenders.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
PJ.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Washington has done a nice job in this postseason run.
But like Minnesota can go to lineups where they have
like Rudy Gobert on the damn floor with Nikil Alexander
Walker and Anthony Edwards and Jana McDaniels, and they just
have like, like just unbelievable defensive personnel everywhere, and so
they can do what they did to the Suns which
is like stay home off the ball and try to
make you play one on one or two on two.
And so I think Minnesota is a defense is more
(36:34):
capable of making Boston's offense struggle. But I also think
that I think that Dallas's offense is better than Minnesota's,
and so, like I think, I think there would be
different strengths and weaknesses and challenges for both matchups. I
would man, that is that's a really good question. I'm
sorry that I don't have a better answer for you
at this point, but we will definitely get into it
(36:57):
once we get further into the Western Conferent Finals. I
really want to see how the Wolves defense bounces back
tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Again.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I thought they were really bad in Game one, and
I'm just curious to see if they just come out
and throw just a hilacious defensive punch and how Dallas
responds to it. Do you think this t Wolves team
is like the twenty twenty two Celtics, an ascending superstar
and dominant team defense that's actually a really good comp
A lot of people don't like Celtics fans you probably remember,
(37:24):
but like a lot of people around the league think
of this Boston team as as like kind of the
same type of team as the twenty twenty two Celtics,
and I very much don't like to me, the twenty
twenty two Celtics were not as good offensively, but they
were just they were a team who hung their hat
on the defensive end of the floor. I saw the
twenty twenty two Celtics throw some of the craziest defensive
(37:47):
punches for entire games that I had seen from teams
in recent NBA history. Like to me, that twenty twenty
two Celtics team wasn't as talented as this Celtics team,
but like this Celtics team is almost a victim of
their own talent in the sense that they can oscillate
an effort, they can be inconsistent, and like the twenty
twenty two Celtics, they just played so damn hard every
(38:08):
single night. It really came down to some bad rim
decisions hurting their transition defense, and then Jason Tatum just
kind of fell apart in the finals, and that was
really the only things that went wrong for them. Someone
wants to know my thoughts on Joe Missoula. Here's the
thing I think Joe like, but what drives me crazy
with Joe Miszula is just the entire offensive approach from Boston,
(38:31):
where there's very little hierarchy. There's very there's very like
quick decisions. There's a lot of like settling. There's a
lot of like let's just find uh, like run up
the floor on quick action and take a take a
three within like without even getting like a paint touch.
There's a lot of like inconsistent offensive approach from Joe Mizula,
and like, you know what's I talked about this a
(38:52):
lot with Darvin Ham. Like to me, one of the
most important elements of a head coach in the NBA
is possessioned by a possession accountabil What I mean by
that is like deeply valuing every single possession and building
the habits that will carry you in the NBA finals
because or in the NBA playoffs, because once you get
to this point where you need to win sixteen games
in two months, so much of it comes down to
(39:14):
like like execution and avoiding mistakes and like not having
these two three minute stretches where you lose your damn mind.
And like one of the characteristics that is that is
really like kind of uh encapsulated this Boston team over
the last two years under Joe Mazula is a lack
of value of the individual possession and extended stretches where
(39:34):
they lose sight of their identity and play down to
their and play down to their competition, and so like,
to me, that is on Joe Mizoula, and like when
you focus too much on the big picture and like
our overarching shot value and all those different kinds of things,
Like to me that that that fails to drive home
the bigger picture topic of what you're gonna need when
(39:57):
you place the best when you play the best teams
down the line. So, for instance, let's say you end
up playing Minnesota in the finals, Like, that's gonna be
a tough series, and in that series, you need Jason
Tatum to be awesome because a lot of the stuff
that Boston does offensively rue guys like Drew Holliday, through
guys like Derek White, through guys like Al Horford, a
(40:19):
lot of that is gonna work at a much lower
level of effectiveness against Minnesota's defense and so or even
Dallas's defense, and so so much of it is gonna
come down to, like Tatum's gonna have to take the
reins of the offense, and so like part of it
to me is like I would I wish that Joe
Miszula had done more work over the course of the
season at just kind of building out at least some
(40:41):
sense of hierarchy. That's not to say that you don't
want Jason Tatum to get the ball moving around and
keep everybody involved. And for the record, I think he's
awesome at that, and I think that's why he's such
a perfect fit for this team. But like, I do
think that there's just been a little bit of a
lack of accountability in terms of their consistency of defensive
effort and their consistency of offensive execution. And I do
that to Joe Mizoula, so like not my favorite NBA coach,
(41:03):
But at the end of the day, like I don't
think he's going to be the main driving force of
whatever this outcome is in this postseason run. It's gonna
come down to the players. They have the talent. I
don't think I think it's unfair to put any sort
of blame on Joe Mizoula, even if I'm not necessarily
a fan of his coaching style. Would you rest Porzingis
to the finals. Now, yeah, there's just no reason not to.
(41:25):
Unless Porzingis strictly wants to come back so that he
can build his rhythm and conditioning, then that's fine. But
like you certainly don't bring him back unless he feels
one hundred ready to play. Has Minnesota faced a defense
with the tools that Boston has, Yes, they're facing it
right now. The main reason why is, like Boston, they
(41:46):
Boston is not super athletic at the center position. Al
Horford's a good positional defender, and christophs Porzingis is a
good rim protector when he's in a deep drop coverage.
But Porzingis is not overly quick and can struggle sometimes
when he has to come out to the level of
the screen Lively and Lively and Gafford are both like
(42:08):
really really athletic centers. And so I think that I
think that Minnesota has I think that Minnesota has a
like Dallas, excuse me, Dallas. I think Dallas has better
rim protection than Boston does. But Boston's perimeter defense personnel
is outrageous. And like when you go one through four,
(42:30):
only Minnesota can can say that they have I think
better defensive players on the perimeter than Boston does. Like
having Drew Holiday and Derek White, by the way I
talked about it tonight, like they held up in post
up mismatches extensively in this game. They can guard bigger players,
they can guard smaller players. Derek White's one of the
best shot blocking guards in the league. Jalen Brown can
(42:51):
be this deeply profoundly impactful defensive athlete. Jason Tatum obviously,
as we've talked about so many times over this playoff run,
is this deeply profoundly impactful athlete. So like, I don't
think Minnesota is faced at defense that has Boston's perimeter personnel,
But I think Dallas between the Derek Jones junior on
the ball and those centers, those super athletic centers around
(43:12):
the rim, I think Dallas has had a little bit
better rim protection. But you're right, I mean I think
Boston's I think Boston's defense would give Minnesota some issues.
And by the way, Porzingis would be a massively important
part of that series, and they most likely would run
a deep drop coverage to try to keep Porzingis at
the rim to continue to shut things off from and
kind of the way that Dallas has all right, guys.
(43:32):
That is all I have for tonight. As always, a
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. No show
tomorrow morning. We're just gonna run this mail bag as
a breakout. I have a scheduling conflict, so I'm actually
unavailable during the day tomorrow, but the mailbag will be
up as a breakout, and then I will be back
tomorrow evening after the final buzzer of Games two of
the Western Conference Finals.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
I will see you guys. Then the volume
The volume. We're this close to crowning a new NBA champ,
and with the action heating up on the court, it's
even hotter. At DraftKings sports Book, an official sports betting
partner of the NBA. There's only so many games left,
and Draftking Sportsbook has you covered with same game parlays,
live betting odds, boosts in so much more. Don't miss
out or you'll have to wait until next NBA season
(00:21):
to place your bets. It's super easy for first timers
to get started. Try betting on something simple like picking
a team to win. Go to the Draftking Sportsbook app,
select your squad, and place your first bet. It's that simple.
The championship odds right now as we head into the
conference finals according to DraftKings, Boston's at minus one point fifty,
the Timberwolves at plus two to seventy five, the Mavericks
(00:41):
at plus five hundred, and the Indiana Pacers a long
shot at plus twenty five hundred. New to DraftKings, listen up.
New customers can get a no sweat bet up to
fifteen hundred bucks. Just deposit at least five bucks and
you'll get a bonus bet back equal to your first
bet if it doesn't hit alough the DraftKings sportsbook gap
now and use code hoops that's h oops. That's code
(01:05):
hoops for new customers to get a no sweat bet
up to fifteen hundred bucks if your first bet doesn't
hit 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
(01:26):
hope and why to four six seven three sixty nine.
In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling called eight
eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or
visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of
Boothill Casino and resort In Kansas twenty one plus age
varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. One no sweat bet
(01:47):
per new customer issued as one bonus bet based on
amount of initial losing bet. Bonus bets expire one hundred
and sixty eight hours after issuance. See DKNG dot co
slash bball for l eligibility, wagering and deposit restrictions. Terms
and responsible gambling resources. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight.
(02:16):
You're at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Oh, all of
you guys are having a great week so far. We're
gonna get an instant reaction in for Eastern Conference Finals
Game two as Boston goes up to oh On the
Indiana Pacers. Gonna break that game down from the perspective
of both teams, and then we're gonna do a mail
bag at the end of the show today. So drop
as many questions as you guys like. Let's have some fun,
Let's go all over the place, drop some questions in
(02:37):
the chat, and Paul, our producer, is gonna text them
over to me and we'll do a mail bag at
the tail end of the show. You guys know the
Joe before we get started. Subscribe to a brand of
YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason Lts. You guys
don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed where
if you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, then keep
dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments. We can keep
hitting them throughout the rest of the postseason. Last not
(02:59):
at least before started. I want to talk to you
guys about game time. They've got an amazing ticket buying experience.
I had a great experience with them earlier this year
as I went to McHale Center to watch the University
of Arizona men's basketball team play. Got a last minute seat,
got a great deal. I knew exactly what I was
getting myself into when I showed up. That's the best
part about the experience. There's no hidden pricing. They've all
in pricings. You know exactly what you're paying when you
(03:20):
go to check out. You get a good picture of
what your seat looks like before you show up to
the arenas. You know what your money's getting you, and
it's not convoluted. You can check out in as few
as two taps. It's fun watching games on TV, but
nothing beats being there in person to see these guys,
and nothing beats intense, high stakes basketball. So get out
to the arena to see these guys. See Anthony Edwards,
C Tyres Halliburton, see Luka, Dancid, c Jason Tatum. Make
(03:43):
sure you guys get out there and check it out.
They also have things like flash deals and zone deals.
I like the Zone deal idea. You just pick a section,
game Time chooses the seats for you within that section.
You get extra savings. Take the guesswork out of buying
professional basketball tickets with game Time. Download the game Time app,
created account and use code Hoops for twenty dollars off
your first purchase terms apply again, create an account, redeem
(04:05):
code Hoops. That's Hops for twenty dollars off. Download game
Time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So Celtics won this game with defense.
In my opinion, it kind of went more or less
like I expected it too. After watching the film from
Game one again, as I talked about, I thought in
(04:27):
Game one that Boston kind of got outplayed and specifically
just wasn't sharp on the defensive end in a bunch
of different phases. We went over a film session yesterday
where I kind of showed you guys, the Specifics just
really struggling with communication and execution in their switches. So
anytime Indiana would just run multiple interchanges, you know, and
(04:47):
they Indiana go's fast. I showed some examples in the
film session were like in a four second span or
in a six second span, they'd get to like three
or four d double handoffs, or like three or four
different cuts and screens in different interchanges, right, And like
Boston just wasn't very sharp there. And then the second
piece of it was the pick and roll. They really
really struggled handling Tyres Halliburton and Miles Turner in pick
(05:09):
and roll.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And so one of the things I talked about was,
they get this win in the win column, but they're
also gonna get embarrassed when they go look at the film.
And so they should come into game two with the
requisite level of energy and just kind of passion to
rectify that situation.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And Like, it was a little rough in the first
quarter tonight, specifically when it came to handling the switches,
but then they settled down. They had this awesome defensive
run to start the second quarter. In particular, in that run,
that twenty to zero run that spanned the end of
the first quarter into the early second quarter, they went
from down twenty seven to twenty two to up forty
(05:45):
two to twenty seven. And in that span, Indiana was
trying to attack their switching by just throwing the ball
down to the post. And their guards were holding up
in the posts, they were fronting the posts and forcing turnovers.
They were getting out in transition. Jalen Brown was just
unbelievable during that run. He was unbelievable in the entire game.
And you know, there were a couple points where the
Pacers kind of made little runs, but Boston seemed to
(06:07):
be in control throughout. Was very, very different than Game
one in the sense that I thought Boston just like
actually asserted themselves thoroughly outplayed Indiana in one in a
very impressive fashion. Remember the specifics that we talked about
were communicating and executing switches better, which they did a
much better job. The second piece was the pick and
roll piece, right, So the direction that Joe Mizula went,
(06:30):
which I thought was fascinating. He actually went with Jaylen
Brown on Miles Turner instead of Jason Tatam, although Jason
Tatum also spent time on Miles Turner during the game,
and then they went with Horford on Siakam. And what
was fascinating about that is it put all of the
scoring pressure on Siakam both in pick and roll and
in their switching situations. The main reason why is Boston
ran a lot of centerless lineups in this game by
(06:53):
virtue of the wrist injury to Luke Cornett. It was
a lot of like the four starters plus but with
Horford off the floor and there'd be Ohheber set in there, right,
or they did some with Sam Hauser as well, but
a lot of these like small groups where they did
a lot of switching. And in those groups that again,
(07:13):
when you look at Indiana, when Indiana is healthy, and
when I mean healthy, I mean like the Tyrese Haliburton
that we saw at the beginning of the season. They
have two guys that can beat switches, right, because Siakam
can beat switches and Tyrese Haliburton can beat switches. But
Tyrese his first step just isn't as quick since he's
had his hamstring injury. Was kind of starting to get
it back, and then it seems like he might have
(07:34):
aggravated it tonight, which is obviously frustrating if you're a
Pacers fan. But because Siakam is literally their only matchup
attacking forward that can do damage to switches, it just
puts all of the scoring pressure on Pascal Siakam, both
in ball screens and when they'd go to their switching attack,
and for the most part they did find in ball screens.
There were a couple of pick and pop threes that
(07:56):
Pascal Siakam hit in the early third quarter, but other
than that, like they kind of had that under wraps
right and so like. As a result, it turned into
a lot of trying to attack in isolation situations. Like
I said, the Pacers really tried to force the ball
into the post, especially in that first half, and they
just couldn't get any anything going. Siakam was the one
guy that they were able to get going. And don't
(08:17):
get me wrong, he had an awesome game. He cooked
everybody in the post with you know, short little face
up jumpers, turnaround jumpers, quick driving moves to the basket.
Like Siakam had an amazing night. But the flip side
is is because of the fact that you had Horford
on Siakam and you had Turner with a wing on him,
and because of the fact that they went to so
many centerless lineups, it was just a lot of that
(08:40):
type of ISO attack. It kind of removed the Haliburton
ball screen from the equation. And he was also kind
of unaggressive in this game. Which part of that I
think was the switching. Part of that was probably whatever
was going on with this hamstring. But even though Siakam
went off, you pretty much held everyone else in check and.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Got out of that with the win.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
And again I want to shout out specifically Derek White,
Drew Holiday, and Oh shaper Set, especially in that twenty
zero run there that spanned the late first and early second.
Those guys all held up really really well against massive
size mismatches in the post and it was a big
part of how they got so many stops in this game.
So smart adjustments from Joe Mizzoula in going small and
(09:23):
putting a keeping Horford on Siakam throughout and then two
just better execution in their switches led to a much
better defensive performance and a comfortable win for Boston. On
the offensive end, literally everything was built around attacking Tyre's Halliburton.
The vast majority of action that Boston ran in this
game was two man game with either one of the
(09:45):
J's and one of the guards, meaning Derek White or
Drew Holliday. Right when the guards were on the ball,
it was about getting Tyre's Halliburton to try to navigate
over the screen and contain a guy like Derek White
or Drew Holiday on the drive right, spend most of
the time on Derek White. There was a sequence in
the third quarter that I thought best demonstrated this, right.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Both of them were. One of them was on the
left wing.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I think one was at the top of the key
if I remember correctly, but it was Derek White ball
handler Tatum setting the screen. Nie Smith is on Tatum, right.
Nie Smith doesn't want us switch off of Tatum. Haliburton's
chasing over the top because Derek White's an excellent three
point shooter and he can't just duck underneath the pick.
He's been torching people with that for that all postseason, right,
So on the boss grin on the left wing, Nie
(10:29):
Smith kind of lunges and throws a token little you know,
kind of like a dig down at at Derek White.
But then he recovers back to Tatum, and so as
Haliburton's chasing over the top, Derek White just easily gets
all the way downhill and gets a layup. Very next possession,
they run the exact same thing.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
This time.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Nee Smith is thinking, I gotta help because Derek White
just got a layup, so he sinks down into the
lane and they effectively double team Derek White. Derek White
pitches it back to Jason Tatum, there's a close out
from the wing. Tatum toasts that guy off the dribble,
gets in the lane and dunks it. Like essentially, you're
damned if you do damned if you don't, if you're
aaron Ne Smith, because you didn't help Derek White got
(11:06):
a layup, you did help Jason Tatum got a dunk,
and so like that's kind of the predicament that they're
in there with Tyree's Halliburton on Derek White. And then
when the Wings had the ball, so like it like
think of that as like an inverted ball screen, right,
So you have a forward essentially running a ball screen
with a guard setting the screen. If Halliburton hedged, they
would just try to drag the hedge out as far
(11:28):
as they could so that it was a tough close out,
and then Derek White or Drew Holliday would slip out
of it to the top of the key and they
get wide open catch and shoot threes out of it.
Jaylen Brown generated a couple of threes for Derek White
that way, Tatum generated some threes that way too. They
just did a really nice job dragging that hedge out.
And then if they didn't drag the hedge, like if
they just switched. So like if if Halliburton showed on
(11:51):
that hedge and then whoever was guarding the forward, whether
it was aaron Ne Smith or Andrew Nemhard recovers and
just stays home and just stays home and switches on
to Derek White or jew Holiday, then Tatum would just
kind of methodically back Tyres Aliburton down into that fifteen
foot area and just get to those short range jumpers
that he can make. And obviously he made a got
(12:13):
going in that third quarter stretch. Tatum had a rough
start to this game but had a good finish at
the end. But like that was really the gist of it.
Everything for Boston centered around attacking Tyree's Halliburton, either in
ball screens where he was guarding the guard or in
inverted ball screens where he had to hedge, and they
just really don't have an answer for that. And that's
a big part of Tyre's Aliburton's passivity in this game, right,
(12:34):
Like you're just you're wearing them out. You're just wearing
them out by making them work on the defensive end
the entire game. In general, I just thought the Celtics
had a really good offensive night in terms of aggression
towards the rim and decision making when they got there.
That Like again, like I said at the beginning, they
got out played in Game one and won. Anyway, that's
not what happened tonight. The Celtics took care of busit
light up to their potential and they outclassed the Pacers
(12:57):
as they should. They're a better team, and they took
a two zero lead. Jalen Brown was just, I thought,
just a wrecking ball athlete in this game. He was
flying around everywhere on defense. He had good on ball possessions.
He was jumping passing lanes and getting out in transition,
running his lane in transition. In general, he was flat
(13:18):
out toasting people off the dribble and getting into the
lane and drawing multiple bodies and throwing kickout passes. He
did it in like just straight iso situations. He did
it a lot of work in semi transition. He had
this like double crossover move. I think it was on
Siakam along the left wing when he got all the
way into the basket, he grabbed a couple of offensive rebounds.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
He had to play early where Aaron E.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Smith was trying to box him out, but he's just
smaller and not as strong, and Jalen just kind of
swum around the baseline, got in there and got a
little hook shot off in the lane. Again, I thought
he was the primary driving force of a lot of
Boston success tonight, and he was the guy that was
really running the offensive end of that twenty zero run.
We talked a lot about the guards and the job
they did on defense, but Jalen Brown was unbelievable on
(14:00):
offense during that twenty zero run. I thought he just
completely dominated this basketball game on both ends of the floor.
So tip of the cap to him. And again they
needed it because Jason Tatum had a little bit of
a rough night until the end and Jaylen Brown more
than made up for it. And then lastly, Derek White
his ability to run those ball screens with the jas
and that means like duck under the pick, hit the
(14:21):
pull up three, chase over the top, get downhill, either
make decisions or get all the way to the rim
and finish that. In his ability to run those inverted
ball screens where he could set a good pick and
then pop to the three point line and quickly get
his feet set and shoot or make decisions out of
it driving the closeout. That is just a huge asset
to this offense. It felt like every single three he
hit tonight was huge in terms of the momentum situations
(14:42):
in the game. Really really impressive performance from Boston on
both ends of the floor on the Indiana front. So
Boston has basically solved your offense by virtue of putting
all of the onus on Siakam to score. That's what
we talked about earlier, right, Like in he has to
score it because Horford's in a drop, they're for pressuring
(15:03):
the rim, and Siakam's popping out to the three point line, right, So,
like he's got to hit those pick and pop threes.
He's got to find a way to score if if
Horford recovers to him on the roll, right, and then
when they go to when Boston goes small and they
switch everything, He's the one guy who can consistently get
quality shots against size mismatches in straight iso situations, right. So,
(15:24):
like it's a testament to how important his addition was.
And that's why I love the trade at the time,
Like I love the idea of like a offensive initiating
like playmaker in addition to a matchup attacking forward or
a matchup attacking anything.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Like that's even why like Kyrie irving alongside Luka Dancics, right,
because Luca can be the engine of the offense and
generate all these quality shots, but Kyrie, like he can
just he can just go get a bucket, right, and
he can attack specific matchups and just create something out
of nothing. Same kind of thing with Jamal Murray and
Nikola Jokich. Jokich is the offensive engine. He runs everything,
and then you've got this guy that can go get
(15:59):
a bucket right, And so Siakam is kind of amounted
to that for Indiana. But it's the reality of the
limitations of this version of Halliburton, which is back before
he heard his hamstring at the beginning of the season,
I thought he was pretty good beating switches, and it's
because he just was so good the long strides. He
had a lot of like scooping layups where he'd like
beat someone off the dribble and then kind of take
(16:20):
like a little bit of a wide route and go
up high. He was really good with the floaters, but
he's just not getting downhill as easily in this playoff
run as he did before his injury. And so again
that's the ultimate version of this team. If the Pacers
are gonna achieve something greater in the future, it's got
to be both of them. It's got to be Halliburton
at this like peak version of himself as like a
(16:41):
scoring playmaker, and then to Pascal Siakam as that matchup
attacking Forard. Heading back to Indiana, I think they can
get one based on the strength of their chaotic ball
and player movement and the crazy pace that they play
at and the home crowd. Like India's unefeated at home
in this playoff run right now, but Boston is undefeated
on the road too, and so like if Boston doesn't relax,
(17:02):
which by the way, they have a tendency to when
they get a lead, but like, if Boston doesn't relax,
like this thing could be over in four, I'm gonna
go ahead and stick. I'm gonna go with Boston in
five for right now, just simply because I do think
Indiana has the ability to get one at home on
the strength of their home crowd. But this could very
easily be over in four games. Deeply concerning that Tyres
(17:24):
Halliburton's hamstring has flared up again because they just have
no shot without him. All right, let's get to the
mail bag before we get out of here tonight. If
Haliburton is out, are you worried about Boston facing a
much tougher team in the finals after coasting through the East.
Here's the thing, this is the beauty of a seven
(17:44):
game series. So like, yeah, there's something to be said
about an adjustment if they go from I mean, the
main thing is just you're gonna be going up against
a much better defensive team. Like Cleveland did not have
the wings to throw at Tatum and Brown, right, Like
Indiana doesn't really either, Like Aaron E. Smith does a
good job, but he's kind of undersized, right. Like, same
(18:07):
thing goes for that first round matchup against the Miami Heat.
Like with Jimmy Butler out, they just didn't really have
like the wing athleticism to hang with the Jay's right,
So like it'll be an adjustment when they get to
the finals and all of a sudden, it's you know,
Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards, or it's PJ. Washington and
Derek Jones junior. Like you're definitely stepping up a level
(18:29):
in competition. I mean, I don't even think Celtics fans
would be crazy enough to think that that any of
these three teams they've played or as good as some
of these teams out in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
That said, like Boston's also on that level.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Like throughout it all, like there's multiple things are true,
Like has Boston had an easy path through the postseason?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Is the Eastern Conference substantially weaker than the Western Conference, Yes,
But Boston is also a Dame good basketball team who's
every bit as good, if not better than those teams
in the Western Conference. So like will there be adjustment, Sure,
but that's the whole purpose of a seven game series.
And also, like you get rewarded for your success in
the regular season, Like there was some of its luck,
(19:09):
Like I thought if you ranked the top five teams
in the East, the other four after Boston all ended
up in the other side of the bracket, so they
only had to face one of those teams, which is
good fortune. Sure, but like you got that by virtue
of the success you had in the regular season. Same
thing goes with the home court advantage piece of it, because,
like let's say it's an adjustment, but you also have
(19:30):
home court and home court in the NBA Finals. Whoever
comes out of the West, it's gonna be a lot
of guys who have never played in the finals. Whereas
for Boston, Derek White's been there, Jason Tatum's been there,
Jalen Brown's been there, Al Horford's been there. They've got
a lot of guys that have been there before. So,
like I would argue the home court piece and then
them having finals experience, while the outside of Kyrie Irving,
(19:53):
you're just not getting that out of the out of
the Western Conference piece of it. I think that that
Boston is gonna be fine in that regard, Like I
don't think it's gonna come down to Boston adjusting necessarily.
I do think that that could be a factor, but
I think it's more likely just going to come down
to is Boston going to reach their ceiling? Are they
gonna have good decision making on offense? Are they gonna
bring consistent defensive effort? Is Jason Tatum gonna be able
(20:16):
to go toe to toe with whoever the best player
is that comes out of that Western Conference team. Like,
if Jason Tatum runs into a Luka Doncic, let's say
I think Luka Doncis is the second best player in
the world. Is Tatum gonna be able to win that
matchup the way that he badly lost, Like because he
badly lost that matchup against Steph two years ago, right, So,
Like though, those are the things that I think are
going to play a much bigger role for Boston than
(20:37):
the adjustment period. Do you think that part of Tatum's
inconsistency on offense is that he doesn't have a reliable
spot that he is comfortable with, for example, the Jokich
houk shot or the SGA mid range. So I think
that most of this just comes down to approach for
Jason Tatum. And what I mean by that is, like,
I actually do think that Tatum is capable of getting
(20:59):
to a consistent spot on the floor where he can
be profoundly efficient consistently on a possession by possession basis.
For me, that's the block, Like I would love to
see Tatum just work off the right block, cleared side,
like that be his like go to spot on the
floor to operate that That's what I'm hoping for him
in the in the long run, I think that part
(21:21):
of his skill development has been overly focused on tough
shot making. And the thing with tough shot making is
there's real value in it. There really is. I'm not
gonna sit here and pretend like it doesn't matter, like
and it's come through for Jason Tatum in a lot
of big ways over the year.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
I remember I remember him hitting a.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Huge right shoulder fade away from like twenty feet to
ice the Bucks in Game six of the twenty twenty
two Eastern Conference Semifinals. Like he's gone to tough shot
making in situations that have come through for him, and
there is value. But to me, the value of tough
shot making is rescue possessions, meaning like there's five seconds
on the shot clock and I just need to get
something up late game situations where it's like we're you know,
(21:59):
we're within you know, fifteen seconds left and I need
to get a shot, or like they're switching everything and
we're not getting anything open in our ball and player movement,
so I just need to be able to get to
my spot and knock down a shot like those those
are coverage beaters too, Like if you're going against a
drop coverage and a guy dies on the pick, Like, yeah,
you need to be able to hit a pull up jumper.
But like Tatum just leans on him too much, Like
(22:21):
it's it's pull up jump shots makeup damn near half
of his shot diet.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
And that's a problem.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
That's that to me is that is leaving meat on
the bone, that is playing away from your strengths, you
know what I mean, Like Tatum, I know this is
a this kind of is a strange comp because Lebron
and Jason Tatum are very different players. But like Lebron
developed an over the top shot making game, but his
best trait was he was bigger and stronger and more
athletic than everybody, right, And so like the vast majority
(22:48):
of Lebron's work was done in athleticism based plays, whether
it was transition attacks, attacking out of the post, you know,
like getting downhill and ball screens, and then Lebron would
use pull up shot as like a as like basically
a ceiling razor. And that's kind of what I want
to see Jason Tatum do now. I think he'll need
a little bit more pull up shot making because he's
not the straight line. He's not as like quick off
(23:12):
the off the first step as Lebron James was, obviously,
but Jason Tatum is one of the biggest and strongest
forwards in the league. He has the ability to guard
centers in the post. He can demolish players with size mismatches,
and so for me, it's just about kind of tilting
some of his shot selection, like taking it from like
if you just take two or three of those possessions
(23:32):
a game where you take a pull up jumper and
you turn those into physically aggressive moves towards the basket,
that to me will dramatically increase his consistency on the
offensive end. But again, like when we have these conversations,
I think it's important to remind ourselves that Jason Tatum
is a Swiss army knife that does a lot of
really useful things for a basketball team. And this is
(23:53):
not one of those things where it's like, oh, his
jumper's not falling tonight, so now he's useless.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
That's not what it is. It's just he is. He plays.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
He's into more inconsistency by relying too much on his
jump shot when he's not particularly good at it, and
like outside of like a month spanning late December to
January this year, he was a bad pull up shooter.
He so, like it's not a huge surprise that I
think my microphone might have just crapped out. Again, let's see,
(24:21):
we're okay. But like outside of like outside of that
like month month and a half there, Like he's he's
a bad pull up shooter. So it's not a surprise
that like he gets into these situations and they're more inconsistent, right,
But like in terms of like where I think his
spot will be in the long run, again, I think
it's in that right block cleared side trying to go
to work using his size advantages. Would you ever take
(24:44):
a coaching job for a college program or the NBA?
I would never take a college job just because, like
a couple of things, if if you are an assistant
at the college level, you almost like a good portion
of your workload becomes like clerical work. It's a lot
of like checking on the kids' grades, like recruiting visits,
scouting visit like things along those lines. It's a lot
(25:06):
of that kind of stuff, and obviously as a head
coach there's a lot of that kind of responsibility as well,
especially on the recruiting side, right, And like, for me,
like I love basketball, I want to focus on basketball.
So like, to me, college doesn't really satisfy that specific need.
I think there would be just too much non basketball
related side of the business. I would love to coach
in the NBA one day, but it's just completely unrealistic.
(25:29):
Coaching is very much a fraternity. Everyone is very like
it's it's so in order to get into that side
of the business, you have to like take some job
in a film room somewhere and just grind and grind
and grind and maybe just maybe you'll get an opportunity
to be an assistant somewhere one day, or maybe you'll
have some sort of connection, but like chances are like,
as much as I'd love that opportunity, it's just unrealistic
(25:51):
and so it's not something that I plan on. But
to answer the question, if the Charlotte Hornets called me
tomorrow and was like, hey, do you want a position
as one of our end of the bench assistants, I'd
be like, fuck, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Just because for me, I just like nothing as much
as I love talking about the game, nothing beats the competitiveness.
Nothing beats like being in a locker room, being with
those guys and trying to achieve the ultimate goal and
going after a championship of whatever type it is. But again,
it's unrealistic, so it's not something I plan on. What's
the biggest difference between this series and the Knick series
for the Pacers where the Knicks also went up to
(26:23):
I'll keep it really simple. Boston's a much, much, much
better basketball team. Would Darius Garland be a good fit
for the Lakers? I let's just I'm gonna put it
this way. I saw this moving around today. To me,
Austin Reeves is like ninety ninety five percent the basketball
player that Darius Garland is. You could argue he's a
(26:44):
better playoff player, and he costs a tiny fraction as much,
and he's already on the roster. So like to me,
any sort of deal for Garland would require the aggregation
of salaries and sending out too many good players. I
think the Lakers would get worse, So I fly don't
like that kind of deal. Who would guard Jalen Brown
for the MAVs or the Wolves. So I think what
(27:07):
they would probably do if it was Dallas is I
think we'd see PJ. Washington on Jason Tatum, and then
I think we'd see Derek Jones Junior on Jalen Brown.
But I could see that matchup getting moved around quite
a bit. Kyrie Irving has defended guards so well in
this postseason run that I think that Kyrie, you could
(27:28):
handle probably the Derek White assignment right, And then I
think they probably try to hide Luka Doncic on Drew Holliday,
and they probably used Drew Holliday a lot as a screener.
The thing is, this is the problem with Boston, and
this is one of the reasons why like everyone, you know,
like everyone keeps writing off Boston and saying the Western
teams are better, and like I may pick the Western
Conference team, but like whoever comes out of that the West, Like,
(27:50):
even if I do pick them, it's like a fifty
five to forty five kind of thing. Like I think
Boston is damn good, and I might end up picking Boston.
I'm not sure. We'll see when we get to that point.
But one of the main reasons why is because Boston
just presents massive matchup problems for everybody. Like it's kind
of like the Tyre's Haliburton piece, Like you're you're putting
Tyres Haliburt on Derek White. You have to put him
on Derek White because Drew Halliday will punish him in
(28:12):
the post, and like you can handle the Derek White
problem with more team based concepts, but like that's just
the problem. Derek White's freaking amazing and you're putting Tyres
Albert on him because you just have no choice. And
like that's just the reality of the predicament that Boston
puts you in because they have so many damn good
basketball players, you know, like they have four dudes making
over thirty million, and it's not like, oh, they're on
(28:32):
bad contracts. They all deserve to be making at least
that much. And then Derek White is the one guy
who doesn't, and he probably deserves to make thirty thirty
five million a year based on what he does on
both ends of the floor. So like Boston just super
super talented, and those are the problems that they can
those are the predicaments that they can put you in.
In terms of the Timberwolves. My guess is that they
(28:53):
probably put Jayden McDaniels on Jason Tatum and Anthony Edwards
on Jaln Brown. But again it's the same kind of thing.
I think you'd see some interchangeability there. That would be
an interesting series for the Karl Anthony Towns kind of
fit in terms of the matchups. And I wonder how
often the Wolves would have to go small and put
Nikhil Alexander Walker on the floor. Did players get Did
players used to get this much shit for poor performances
(29:15):
in just one game or is it happening more now
with more exposure in today's NBA. I've noticed this in
general over the years with Twitter. Everybody wants to take
victory laps or admit they're wrong after one game, which
is like absolutely crazy to me. I mean, even just
in the last round. Let's see, like Dallas lost Game
one and won the series. Denver lost Game one and
(29:38):
led by twenty in Game seven in the second half, Right,
what was the.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Need?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
The Knicks went up two oh and the Pacers ended
up winning that series. So like in general, when it
comes to the postseason, like I am a big believer
and like no matter what you think, don't react to
anything until you've seen multiple games and you've seen all
the adjustments. Like let's say Indiana wins Game one without
that you know, crazy Jalen Brown shot. It's like you
could be like, oh my gosh, they can't guard pick
(30:06):
and roll, and it's like, actually, they were able to
come up with some adjustments in literally one game to
be able to mitigate a lot of the issues, just
a lot, like just take Cornette out of the rotation,
although he Missoula was forced to, but like, take Cornette
out of the rotation, put Horford on Siakam and all
of a sudden, like you're just in a better position, right,
So like another one too, Like I went back and
looked through the film and Minnesota I thought, played one
(30:27):
of their worst defensive games of the postseason against Dallas
in Game one, and so like, I just think that
we see a more desperate Minnesota defensive effort in Game two,
and I think Minnesota ties the series. And so now
who knows, Like Dallas is in commanding position and they
very well might end up winning. But in general, I
just don't understand the overreacting, and especially when it comes
to the individual players. Like my thing is like I
(30:51):
think criticism without praise is empty, and praise without criticism
is empty. Right, So, like I have to be critical
of Ant for the way he played in Game one
one because I'm also the guy that praises him heavily
when he plays well, right, like I have. It's just
like with Jason Tatum. I've been very critical of Jason
Tatum over the years, but like, he was awesome in
Game one in so many different ways aside from the
(31:13):
shot making. And it's like to me, like, I have
my biases. I do. I'm not gonna sit here and
lie to you, Guys, I emotionally, as a fan root
for the Lakers. Right on a non emotional level, I
have players that I'm a fan of and players that
I don't like particularly well, right Like, for instance, Luca
is one of those guys.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
I've never been a huge Luca fan.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
There's some things about his game that bother me, the
way he constantly complains that the refs bothers me. Sometimes
the twenty five thirty dribble possessions into an iso. I
watched a game in the regular season this year. I
want to say it was against the Pacers where where
Luca literally got the opening tip and ran four consecutive
straight ISOs without passing the basketball to start the game.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
And it's like, there are part there are.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Things about that that as just as a basketball fan,
I'm not a huge fan of. But at this time,
like I try, I genuinely do try to fight against
those things and to try to be as objective as
I possibly can. My thing is like, I'm not gonna
lie to you and say that I'm, you know, perfectly unbiased.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I'm not.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I have my biases, I have my likes, I have
my dislikes. I'm just gonna try like hell to do
the best job that I can I do. To put
it simply, I take this job very seriously. The fact
that you guys actually come to me and listen to
my analysis, that you actually care about my opinion, I
take that as a as a huge compliment, and I
take that responsibility seriously. I want to make sure that
I do this job the way that it's supposed to
(32:34):
be done. I'm not perfect. I'm gonna fuck up a lot.
I say stupid shit sometimes. What was the one I
had at the beginning of the last round where I
said the Lakers might be. The h that the Wolves
have is the same, the same chance to beat Denver
as the Lakers do, Like the Lakers did, Like that
was stupid. I make mistakes like that's That's kind of
just how it goes. But I'm gonna just do the
best I can and we'll see. I feel like I'm
better at it than I was a few years ago,
(32:55):
and hopefully I keep getting better at it over the years.
Tatum Garner's so much attention from defenses, do you think
this opens up Brown for games like this? So to
put it simply, like there are usually aggressive coverages lined
up for the other team's best star, and there's usually
traditional coverages lined up for any sort of supporting star. So,
(33:16):
for instance, take Minnesota, like Anthony Edwards is getting high
drop coverage, double team and ISOs like he saw a
ton of that against Denver, a little bit of a
little bit of it in Game one against Dallas where
they're like really loaded up and digging down into driving
lanes high drop like Ant's coming off of those ball
screens and settling. He's not being as agg aggressive as
he needs to be. But so much of it has
to do with the coverages. Right when it comes to
(33:41):
like the gameplan piece of it, then you look at
Karl Anthony Towns and it's like, yeah, they will throw
the occasional double team to him in the post. But
like when they run Hoorn's chest and you know Ant
dribbles off the cat on the left elbow and cat
comes off of Nazor or Rudy Gobert on the right
elbow and they throw the ball to him, they're not
double team him or trapping him like he's he's getting
(34:02):
traditional coverages, meaning he's getting the same coverages that every
other team gets, right, And like a lot of that
is or every other player I should say gets, And
so a lot of that is like Jylen Brown is
going to have a certain different level of difficulty than
Jason Tatum.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
That's a fact, right.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
And Like if if Boston ever did trade Jalen Brown,
like let's say four years from now they do, or
let's say they have like another disappointing loss two years
in a row and then and then they end up
trading Jalen Brown, I don't think they will. I think
Jaylen Brown will be a Celtic for a long time.
But if Jalen Brown goes to a team and is
the best player on the team, his entire perspective on
the game will change. Instead of getting the Aaron E.
(34:40):
Smith point of attack assignment, like he's like right now,
he's getting Andrew Nemhard right, Like instead of Tatum getting
Aaron E. Smith, Like if he was the best player
on a team, maybe he gets Aaron E. Smith for
the entire game, you know, like and he has success
against Aaron E.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Smith too.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I'm not trying to say you can't, but like, let's
say it like the Minnesota assignment, Like, if they end
up having to leave a lesser defender on one of
the jas, who are.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
They gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
They're gonna do it on Jaln Brown, right, So like
there is some reality to like the to being lower
in the pecking order and that making things easier. But again,
as I used to always say with Jamal Murray, in
my opinion, when it comes to basketball, your value is
your value to your team. And regardless of what theoretical
situation where Jalen Brown is on some other team and
(35:23):
he's getting tougher coverages, Yeah, we can talk about that
in terms of ranking players, but I'm Boston. He is
the number two, and so he does get favorable matchups,
and he does get favorable coverages, and so he does
get to cook. And that's just the reality of his
impact on this team. Would the Celtics fare better against
the Wolves or the MAVs? Oh, that's interesting, I would say, man,
(35:50):
that is a really that's a really interesting question to
kind of think of, to kind of talk through it.
The I think that the MAVs are a little bit
more of a load up offense, whereas the Wolves are
a little bit more of a stay home offense. And
the big part of that is the Wolves have better
defensive personnel down the roster. The mass are really good defenders.
Derek Jones Junior is an excellent defender. That rim protectors
(36:11):
are excellent defenders.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
PJ.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Washington has done a nice job in this postseason run.
But like Minnesota can go to lineups where they have
like Rudy Gobert on the damn floor with Nikil Alexander
Walker and Anthony Edwards and Jana McDaniels, and they just
have like, like just unbelievable defensive personnel everywhere, and so
they can do what they did to the Suns which
is like stay home off the ball and try to
make you play one on one or two on two.
And so I think Minnesota is a defense is more
(36:34):
capable of making Boston's offense struggle. But I also think
that I think that Dallas's offense is better than Minnesota's,
and so, like I think, I think there would be
different strengths and weaknesses and challenges for both matchups. I
would man, that is that's a really good question. I'm
sorry that I don't have a better answer for you
at this point, but we will definitely get into it
(36:57):
once we get further into the Western Conferent Finals. I
really want to see how the Wolves defense bounces back
tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Again.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I thought they were really bad in Game one, and
I'm just curious to see if they just come out
and throw just a hilacious defensive punch and how Dallas
responds to it. Do you think this t Wolves team
is like the twenty twenty two Celtics, an ascending superstar
and dominant team defense that's actually a really good comp
A lot of people don't like Celtics fans you probably remember,
(37:24):
but like a lot of people around the league think
of this Boston team as as like kind of the
same type of team as the twenty twenty two Celtics,
and I very much don't like to me, the twenty
twenty two Celtics were not as good offensively, but they
were just they were a team who hung their hat
on the defensive end of the floor. I saw the
twenty twenty two Celtics throw some of the craziest defensive
(37:47):
punches for entire games that I had seen from teams
in recent NBA history. Like to me, that twenty twenty
two Celtics team wasn't as talented as this Celtics team,
but like this Celtics team is almost a victim of
their own talent in the sense that they can oscillate
an effort, they can be inconsistent, and like the twenty
twenty two Celtics, they just played so damn hard every
(38:08):
single night. It really came down to some bad rim
decisions hurting their transition defense, and then Jason Tatum just
kind of fell apart in the finals, and that was
really the only things that went wrong for them. Someone
wants to know my thoughts on Joe Missoula. Here's the
thing I think Joe like, but what drives me crazy
with Joe Miszula is just the entire offensive approach from Boston,
(38:31):
where there's very little hierarchy. There's very there's very like
quick decisions. There's a lot of like settling. There's a
lot of like let's just find uh, like run up
the floor on quick action and take a take a
three within like without even getting like a paint touch.
There's a lot of like inconsistent offensive approach from Joe Mizula,
and like, you know what's I talked about this a
(38:52):
lot with Darvin Ham. Like to me, one of the
most important elements of a head coach in the NBA
is possessioned by a possession accountabil What I mean by
that is like deeply valuing every single possession and building
the habits that will carry you in the NBA finals
because or in the NBA playoffs, because once you get
to this point where you need to win sixteen games
in two months, so much of it comes down to
(39:14):
like like execution and avoiding mistakes and like not having
these two three minute stretches where you lose your damn mind.
And like one of the characteristics that is that is
really like kind of uh encapsulated this Boston team over
the last two years under Joe Mazula is a lack
of value of the individual possession and extended stretches where
(39:34):
they lose sight of their identity and play down to
their and play down to their competition, and so like,
to me, that is on Joe Mizoula, and like when
you focus too much on the big picture and like
our overarching shot value and all those different kinds of things,
Like to me that that that fails to drive home
the bigger picture topic of what you're gonna need when
(39:57):
you place the best when you play the best teams
down the line. So, for instance, let's say you end
up playing Minnesota in the finals, Like, that's gonna be
a tough series, and in that series, you need Jason
Tatum to be awesome because a lot of the stuff
that Boston does offensively rue guys like Drew Holliday, through
guys like Derek White, through guys like Al Horford, a
(40:19):
lot of that is gonna work at a much lower
level of effectiveness against Minnesota's defense and so or even
Dallas's defense, and so so much of it is gonna
come down to, like Tatum's gonna have to take the
reins of the offense, and so like part of it
to me is like I would I wish that Joe
Miszula had done more work over the course of the
season at just kind of building out at least some
(40:41):
sense of hierarchy. That's not to say that you don't
want Jason Tatum to get the ball moving around and
keep everybody involved. And for the record, I think he's
awesome at that, and I think that's why he's such
a perfect fit for this team. But like, I do
think that there's just been a little bit of a
lack of accountability in terms of their consistency of defensive
effort and their consistency of offensive execution. And I do
that to Joe Mizoula, so like not my favorite NBA coach,
(41:03):
But at the end of the day, like I don't
think he's going to be the main driving force of
whatever this outcome is in this postseason run. It's gonna
come down to the players. They have the talent. I
don't think I think it's unfair to put any sort
of blame on Joe Mizoula, even if I'm not necessarily
a fan of his coaching style. Would you rest Porzingis
to the finals. Now, yeah, there's just no reason not to.
(41:25):
Unless Porzingis strictly wants to come back so that he
can build his rhythm and conditioning, then that's fine. But
like you certainly don't bring him back unless he feels
one hundred ready to play. Has Minnesota faced a defense
with the tools that Boston has, Yes, they're facing it
right now. The main reason why is, like Boston, they
(41:46):
Boston is not super athletic at the center position. Al
Horford's a good positional defender, and christophs Porzingis is a
good rim protector when he's in a deep drop coverage.
But Porzingis is not overly quick and can struggle sometimes
when he has to come out to the level of
the screen Lively and Lively and Gafford are both like
(42:08):
really really athletic centers. And so I think that I
think that Minnesota has I think that Minnesota has a
like Dallas, excuse me, Dallas. I think Dallas has better
rim protection than Boston does. But Boston's perimeter defense personnel
is outrageous. And like when you go one through four,
(42:30):
only Minnesota can can say that they have I think
better defensive players on the perimeter than Boston does. Like
having Drew Holiday and Derek White, by the way I
talked about it tonight, like they held up in post
up mismatches extensively in this game. They can guard bigger players,
they can guard smaller players. Derek White's one of the
best shot blocking guards in the league. Jalen Brown can
(42:51):
be this deeply profoundly impactful defensive athlete. Jason Tatum obviously,
as we've talked about so many times over this playoff run,
is this deeply profoundly impactful athlete. So like, I don't
think Minnesota is faced at defense that has Boston's perimeter personnel,
But I think Dallas between the Derek Jones junior on
the ball and those centers, those super athletic centers around
(43:12):
the rim, I think Dallas has had a little bit
better rim protection. But you're right, I mean I think
Boston's I think Boston's defense would give Minnesota some issues.
And by the way, Porzingis would be a massively important
part of that series, and they most likely would run
a deep drop coverage to try to keep Porzingis at
the rim to continue to shut things off from and
kind of the way that Dallas has all right, guys.
(43:32):
That is all I have for tonight. As always, a
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. No show
tomorrow morning. We're just gonna run this mail bag as
a breakout. I have a scheduling conflict, so I'm actually
unavailable during the day tomorrow, but the mailbag will be
up as a breakout, and then I will be back
tomorrow evening after the final buzzer of Games two of
the Western Conference Finals.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
I will 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.