April 22, 2024 • 27 mins
Sarah talks with NBA senior writer John Schuhmann about his first ever NBA Playoff Power Rankings. They breakdown a key stat from every playoff series through Game 1. Knicks vs. Sixers, Lakers vs. Nuggets, Mavs vs. Clippers, Pelicans vs. Thunder, Pacers vs. Bucks, Celtics vs. Heat, Magic vs. Cavs and Suns vs. Thunder.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome in to NBA Pulse, to production of iHeartRadio in
the NBA. I'm Sarah Coustack, NBA analyst for the Yes Network,
and today is Monday, April twenty second and from our
extraordinary core group of NBA journalists were joined now by
NBA dot Com senior writer John Schuman. It is a
excellent start to the week. For the first time at
(00:22):
we love your power rankings so much so this made
my week for the first time ever. You've got a
playoff power rankings topping that list the number one team
the Boston Celtics, number two, Denver Nuggets, number three, Minnesota Timberwolves,
number four. Okay, see in number five. Rounding out the
top five, it's the Los Angeles Clippers. But as always
(00:42):
with your power rankings, you've got great, great nuggets on
all teams now still in the playoffs, and you'll be
doing this for each round. And the first round got underway.
Shoot for the first time since twenty thirteen. In the
opening game of the first round, all the home teams
took care of business. I know we should never own
react to game ones, although it always feels like it's
(01:05):
telling point. Sometimes throughout the course of a series, but
it was fun to watch, fun to see, and then
you got some nuggets on each of these games that
took place. But let's begin where you were at at
the Garden number two team in the Eastern Conference in
New York Knicks UH win one eleven, one O four
against the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. As I mentioned she
(01:25):
you were there, you saw it. What was your what
was your biggest takeaway? And I do want to ask
you about the Joel Embiid factor in this one, which
I don't know if there is much certainty of how
we'll see that continue to play out. But what was
some of your biggest takeaways in what shifted this game
and could potentially impact the series for these teams.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, it was a It was a roller coaster game
in Game one, with the Sixers dominating the first and
third quarters and the Knicks dominating the second and the fourth.
But throughout the game, I'll say this, the if you
look at half court offense like half court execu the
Sixers win. But fast break points we're twenty seven to
eleven in favor of the Knicks, and second chance points
(02:07):
were twenty six to eight in favor of the Knicks,
and that's I mean, that's your game right there. I mean,
we saw it last year where the Knicks dominated the
glass against Cleveland, and they come in in Game one
of the first round against a different opponent and they
dominate the glass again. They had twenty three offensive rebounds.
The Sixers had twenty four defensive rebounds. So that tells you,
(02:28):
like right there, like the Sixers just absolutely have to
rebound better going forward. And yeah, and you know, the
Embiid experience was a Roula coaster in itself. You know,
he I thought he played okay, and then obviously at
the end of the second quarter, he has the highlight
(02:49):
of the night tossing the ball off the glass to himself,
throwing a dunk on top of ogn Andobi. But then
he lands on his left leg, the the leg that
he had miniscus meniscus repair on a couple months ago.
He immediately grabs that left knee and falls to the grounds,
(03:11):
goes to the locker room, and obviously, for most of
us think, okay, well that's it. He's done for the
night at least and maybe possibly for the series. But amazingly,
he comes back out just a couple of minutes I
think before the start of the second half, and he plays,
you know, most of the second half, and he still
played okay, you know, to me, it seemed like he
(03:36):
was settling too much for jumpers, like he wasn't himself.
I thought he had some good post touches, and when
he did catch the ball somewhat close to the basket,
I think the Sixers were in good shape. I just
I think there was just too many of his catches
came twenty five feet from the basket where he's catching
(03:57):
the ball beyond the three point line. And then at
that point, given the sort of shape that he's in
and that he's not one hundred percent, I think it's
just too much work for him to get to the basket.
And so therefore he's taking a lot of jumpers, and
he did not shoot well from the perimeter. I think
he was eight for twenty two overall. But at the
(04:20):
same time, now let's go back, like, the Sixers were
a plus fourteen and his minutes on the floor, So
even though he did settle for a bunch of jumpers,
they won those minutes fairly well. And now here's the
problem Number two is they were a minus twenty one
(04:41):
in less than twelve minutes with them beat off the floor.
And we've seen this in playoffs past, where the Sixers
just get absolutely destroyed when he goes to the bench,
and it's a big problem. And I think that's problem
number two.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, in the bench. I mean the difference in the
bench between what the Knicks were able to do. And
you don't always see that with a Tom Thibodeaux team
or a Knicks team. But how the bench contributed for
the next was. I mean Miles McBride obviously a big,
big game. I think Boyan Bogdanovic became that factor that
you anticipated with the trade of just a veteran experience
(05:18):
who's been in a ton of big postseason games and
just in general big games, professional games throughout the course
of his career. Jalen Brunson surprisingly did not shoot that well,
but you looked at what Josh Hart did and the
critical parts of that, I too think, Yeah, just Philadelphia
needing more from their reserve. MAXI was awesome, But the
(05:39):
rest of the reserves and other players what they do
about that? And you mentioned it the offensive rebounds, I mean,
their first shot defense against the Knicks was solid, but
the offensive rebounds, the Knicks just absolutely commanded them, and
the turnovers were such an issue, allowing the Knicks to
have so many runouts. So yeah, it's gonna be interesting
to watch and won the health Joel Embiid, But to
(06:01):
just how both teams kind of settle into things and
if there's anything Nick Nurse, we talked a lot about
that change and that shift in that head coaching position,
how much he can factor in as this series continues.
On the late game on Saturday Night was the Denver
Nuggets the Los Angeles Lakers. You know, there was a
(06:21):
lot of looking at this series in the Lakers winning
that first playing game of just it being a tough
matchup to have to face the Denver Nuggets and Grew,
are we calling your joker? Grew?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Now?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Did you see this shoe? Did you see the whole despicable?
Despicable me, I'm not entirely familiar with with all the
things that are happening in that framework, but yeah, Nikola
Yokitch was just tremendous, as were the Nuggets. One fourteen,
one oh three was the final score. I'm not sure
if that was really indicative of the way the game
went Lebron James and Anthony Davis couldn't really have asked
(06:57):
much more out of them, but complimentary pieces just weren't
necessarily there. And this looks like it's just gonna be
a tough go for the Lakers.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah. I mean, they've lost their last nine games against
the Nuggets when you include the sweep in the Western
Conference finals last year. So my number for this one
is that the the Nuggets have averaged fifty eight point
five points in the paint on sixty one point three
(07:25):
percent shooting over their four games against the Lakers this year.
Both of those are the highest mark for West any
Western Conference opponent against the Lakers the seasons. You know,
the Lakers Anthony Davis is a defensive Player of the
Year candidate. You know, he is one of the best
interior defenders in the league. He is, you know, big
(07:49):
and bouncy and timely. You know, he's among the leaders
in blocks blocks per thirty six minutes. But in the
regular season, the Lakers allowed one hundred and twenty six
points per one hundred possessions against the Nuggets when Davis
was on the floor. That's a very high number, and
it's it was his highest sort of on court number
(08:12):
against any opponent Western or Eastern Conference in the regular season,
and it was even higher in Game one of the
of this series. So it's it's not only you know
that the Nuggets just have their number, the Lakers number,
but they dominate the Lakers where the Lakers are used
to dominating themselves, which is inside, right, like the Nuggets
(08:34):
are you know, the Lakers are usually you know, they
were i think last in the league and three point differential,
meaning that their opponents made more a lot more threes
than they did, and so they win inside and with
defense and the late the Nuggets are the opponent that
they that were sort of three point shooting means the least,
(08:55):
and an opponent that can dominate the Lakers inside.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
That's fair fascinating, that's really fascinating. To that point, the
Nuggets were able to balance that as well of still
winning the battle at the three point line and knocking
down a good amount from deep, something that the Lakers
weren't necessarily able to do and other than get into
the free throw line more. Yeah, it really was Denver
(09:19):
in a lot of those spots. What about the Suns
and Timberwolves game Minnesota one twenty to ninety five win.
It was commanding, and this is after seeing the Suns
just take care of this Minnesota team throughout the course
of the regular season. So I don't know if this
necessarily should come as a surprise, but I will say
(09:40):
to me that that decisive of a win, the personality
of Anthony Edwards just all over the place in just
how he was able to be such an incredible version
of himself. And then the Timberwolves defense looking tremendous against
the Sun's team that showed up how we've seen them
show up in some moments are out the course of
the season, just trying to put the pieces together. What
(10:02):
did you take away from from this one?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, I think you know. Even though home teams were
eight to no, there were a couple of games that
were surprises. This was one of them, especially the fact
that the Wolves won by twenty five. But the kind
of amazing thing is that they won by twenty five
even though their starting lineup was outscored by eight points
in it's fourteen minutes together on the floor, So that
(10:28):
means they were up plus thirty three in about thirty
four minutes with at least one reserve on the floor.
Now that includes a little bit of garbage time. I
think they were plus three in garbage time basically when
like the third stringer guys were on the floor. But
that obviously that's a huge performance, you know, like going
(10:48):
back to the Knicks, that's a huge performance from the
Wolves bench. And we know that nasried is a six
Man the Year finalist, but I don't I think that's
sort of one under underrated part of the Wolf season
this year is that they had, like if you aggregate
you know how well they play with reserves on the floor.
(11:10):
They had the second ranked bench in the league, behind
only that of the Celtics, who are obviously the best
team in the league statistically by a wide margin, and
the Suns bench actually ranked eighteenth. So I don't think
we you know, we don't think, you know, starters versus
reserves necessarily in this series. But I think the bench
(11:32):
is a huge advantage for Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, and even saying that, like Nosrid, you mentioned Nikhil
Alexander Walker, who Chris Finch had when he was an
assistant in New Orleans at the early part of his career.
But for him to come away with eighteen points go
seven to twelve from the field. Yeah, there's there's also
just a lot of players. Even the numbers didn't show it,
but whether you're popping in you know, a Kyle andersoner
(11:59):
that have been around or they've just been around playoff basketball.
The earlier game of the day, the Orlando Magic and
Cleveland Cavaliers. I do think this was another one, at
least for me, I was very intrigued to see what
would happen. And again, the lack of overreaction for game
one is something that I think we're always reminded of.
(12:22):
But the Cleveland Cavaliers just looked ready to go, and
they dominated Orlando Magic looked like that young, youthful team
that had not been there before ninety seven eighty three
win by the Cavs there at home. What stood out
to you when this one?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Well, I mean I think we knew before this series
started that it would be the ugliest offensive series of
the eight right, just because it's two good defensive teams
and two not so great offensive teams. So the number
for me, like the Magic shot eighteen for forty, which
is forty five percent in the paint. Now, what's crazy
(12:58):
is that four teams actually shot worse than that. In
these eight game ones in the paint. The league average
is fifty seven percent in the paint, So if you're
shooting less than fifty, that's pretty bad. And Number one,
that's a credit to Cleveland's defense. I mean, they have
Evan Mobley and Jared Allen in the middle, and yes,
teams are gonna shoot poorly in the paint against them.
(13:20):
You could say the same thing about the Magic. They're
a great paint defense as well. But I think that
the thing with me is that you know, we know
that the Magic are a poor perimeter shooting team. They
were twenty seventh in mid range field goal percentage, they
were twenty fourth and three point percentage, they were twenty
fifth and three point rate, you know, the percentage of
their shots that came from three point range. So if
(13:40):
they can't finish in the paint as well, then they're
in real trouble, you know. So they've got to find
some offense somehow, and you know, they've got to get
Palo bon Caro and Franz Wagner downhill somehow. They've got
to be able to force some turnover, more turnovers so
they can get some transition buckets because if they're in
(14:03):
the half court and they're you know, unable to sort
of you know, we know they're a bad shooting team
from the outside. You know, they've got to find ways
to score inside and score more efficiently inside. So forty
five percent in the shooting and the pain is just
not going to cut it.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
No, And it just felt like though there was no room,
like any time they tried to do any to your
point about no outside shooting, there was nowhere to go,
and you're looking at Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. Offensively,
was a big night for Donovan mitchell I felt like
he was able to take over in those areas and
for the magic guys that they have at some moments
(14:41):
relied upon to knock down some three point shots or
at least provide a little bit of the offensive, offensive
punch or push, like Cole Anthony off the bench really struggled,
couldn't hit a shot nor a three. It was Jalen
Suggs had been a little bit better throughout the course
of the season shooting threes, and for him it was
(15:02):
a big struggle. Gary Harris, so some of those players
that at moments it's like if they can hit then
at least it will it will spread things out a
little bit. Just could not do that.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And it's a good point about Mitchell. I mean, he
had a very subpar sort of post All Star break
where he missed I think nineteen games and then shot
poorly over the ones he played. I think he shot
a little bit better over the last couple of games
that he played in, But for him to have as
much bounce as he seemed to have in that in
game one and score thirty points, I mean that's a huge,
(15:34):
huge development I think for the Cavs, like because it
was a real struggle for the most part down the stretch.
And he has now scored thirty points or more in
twenty one of his forty five playoff games, which is
pretty amazing. Like I was at MSG the other day
and I asked the person sitting next to me, It's like,
(15:56):
how many games do you think how many playoff games
do you think Donovan Mitchell has scored at least thirty
points in his career? And they were like, oh, no, eleven, twelve,
And I was like, no, it's twenty one. Like that's
a huge that's amazing. He is a playoff performer I'll
see that.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
That's what you want to see and you need all right,
We're going to take a quick break and come back
with all of the games taking place yesterday. Welcome back
to me, Paul Sarahkustak, joined by the great John Schuman,
and we had a fun Sunday. Let's start with the
(16:32):
nail bier down the stretch, the Yokahoma City Thunder beating
the Pelicans ninety four ninety two. CJ. McCollum in the
Pels with a shot to potentially win it at the end.
What'd you take away from this one?
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, let's talk about the end. I mean the Pelicans
were three for eleven, including one for six on clutch shots,
clutch shots being any of the shots that they took
with the score within five in the last five minutes.
You know, it came it came down to that. You know,
they were, you know, the low seed that had the
best shot of winning. McCollum's three pointer was you know,
(17:07):
within the cylinder. It hit off the heel in the rent.
But if that goes in, you know, that's a that's
you know, it's obviously there's a huge difference between being up,
one down one zero and being down one zero. And
but it ties back to the regular season. The Pelicans
ranked twenty sixth in clutch offense one hundred and one
point five points per one hundred clutch possessions. That's bad.
(17:31):
They were fourteen and fifteen in games that were within
five points in the last five minutes. That's not good.
But it tells you though that this is you know, statistically,
this is better than much better than an eight seed.
I mean the you know, the Pelicans were forty nine
and thirty three in the regular season, but they had
(17:52):
the point differential, the fourth best point differential in the
Western Conference of a team that was fifty four and
twenty eight. Right, so they the statistically they were a
better team than their records said. But because they struggled
in close games, you know, they finish in the play
in and then they get the eight seed and you know,
(18:14):
obviously in a tough spot, especially without Zion Williams.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, and just the point of you know, game one
is how that can impact for protecting your home court
for a Thunder team that early on looked like they
were getting their first taste and it maybe taking a while.
That difference of coming away with a win obviously could
and very much be significant in how the rest of
(18:38):
things play out. The Milwaukee Bucks took care of home
court without Giannis Dedeta Koumbo. It was dame time. Thirty
five points for him and Chris Middleton. Those are the
two factors of the guys that you need to really perform,
and they certainly did. Middleton with twenty three and ten.
And on the side of the Pacers short of Pascal Siakam,
which they brought him there for and he had a
(19:00):
big one thirty six and thirteen, the Pacers just did
not have it. One O nine ninety four Milwaukee win.
What about that game?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah, I think the headline, especially after halftime, was Damian Lillard.
But really, if you look at it, the story is
the other end of the floor. I mean, the Pacers
had the second ranked offense in the league this season.
The Bucks were not a very good defensive team, you know,
it's basically their you know, worst defensive team in the
last five or six years. But in this game was
(19:33):
it was the second time all season that the Pacers
scored less than a point per possession, and the first
time was November first, their fourth game of the season.
So they have not been this bad offensively in basically
five and a half months. And the one thing that
set out to me is Tyres Haliburton. He had a
usage rate of eleven point four percent, which is basically
(19:55):
the percentage of possessions that he ends with a field
goal attempt or a trip to the line or a turnover,
and that eleven point four percent was his lowest lowest
usage rate in one hundred and fifty one career games
with the Pacers. So basically, Tyrese Haliburton was as little
of a factor in this game as he's been in
(20:17):
any game that he's played with the Indiana Pacers. And so, yeah,
I think credit to the box number one, But to
going forward into game two, the the Pacers need to
figure a way to sort of unlock their their star
point guard.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, no doubt. You cut off the head of the
snake and it changes everything. Clippers Dallas Mavericks. A resounding
win at home for the Clippers and a very excited
Steve Ballmer that you saw throughout the course of the game.
One or nine ninety seven. Kawhi Leonard did not play,
but it was probably one of the worst perhaps we've
(20:54):
seen out of the Dallas Mavericks, and they're obviously you
need to dealing with a lot. Dave. Derek Lively, the
second hit, lost his mother at the funeral this week,
and there's a lot happening that I do think in
some regards you take into context. But yeah, it was
just a very very tough, tough start for the Mavericks,
got down big and just didn't feel like it was
(21:16):
really going to be their day. What do you take
away from this one?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, we mentioned the magic shooting in the paint. The
MAVs were one of those teams that shot worse than
the Magic in the paint. They were sixteen for thirty
eight in the paint in this game. And you mentioned
the first half. They scored thirty points on forty eight
possessions in the first half. That was the fifth least
(21:41):
efficient half for any team in any game this season.
And that if you count like all the games, all
the hals and two teams in each half, that's four
nine and seventy two total halves of basketball. And this
was the fifth least efficient offensive formance in any half
for any game in any game this season. So yeah,
(22:07):
if you go back to it, the MAVs were you know, cruising,
you know, going into the end of the season. They
went sixteen and two down the stretch, and then the
last two games, you know, this Clippers MAVs matchup was locked.
In the last two games they rested Kyrie Irving and
and Luka Doncic. They sort of took their foot off
(22:29):
the gas, and it's like it's like they couldn't get
the bus moving again until until game until.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
The second card is not starting quite as quickly.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah, so, but their their second half was remarkably efficient. Now,
I'm sure the Clippers took their foot off the gas
a little bit, especially you know, defensively. So who knows
if we'll have any carryover from the if you know,
from the second half of Game one to the first
half of Game two. If there is, that's great for
the MAVs because you know, they still have a chance
(22:58):
to steal home court advantages. I think this was the
the you know I talked about, you know how, there
were still some surprising results even though the home team
won all eight games, and I guess this probably just
didn't The result was probably the most surprising because Kawhi
Leonard was out for the Clippers and because the MAVs
had been playing so well over the last five or
(23:18):
six weeks.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yeah, and you said it though, sometimes just restarting that
in rather than you know, the last thing you want
to do is be easing into a playoff. But it
looked that way. And James Harden we've seen him have
even last year with Philadelphia. Really Joe ell Embiid wasn't
playing a really big game one he had another one
of that Vizza Zubats was incredible, and Daniel Gafford, who
(23:40):
had been so good after that trade, just just didn't
have it. So yeah, so this is likely going to
be a tighter series than what we saw out of
that game. But that was a commanding win. Fourth Clippers
out of the gate. The last game that we are
getting to the Boston Celtics a one to fourteen ninety
four win against the Miami Heat. Miami Heat playing without
(24:02):
Jimmy Butler is obviously a very, very big factor in
the Celtics. You're number one team in your playoff power rankings.
Certainly certainly looked like it.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, So my number for this one is that the
Celtics scored twenty four points in the paint. That was
their lowest total of the last two seasons and tied
for the third fewest for a winning team in any
game this season. Twenty four points in the paint is
not a lot, but they were twenty two for forty nine,
forty five percent from three point range. For those forty
(24:35):
nine attempt they only attempted eighty two field goals totals,
so forty nine out of eighty two is sixty percent.
So they took sixty percent of their shots from three
point range. Now, like, you know, it's not I don't
want to say that this. You know, the Celtics are
dependent on the three, because they're not. You know, they
they take first of all, they take good three pointers.
(24:56):
They have just you know, the best drive and kick
game in those league. And the other thing is they
had the best record in the league when not shooting
when shooting below the league average from three point range. Right,
It's one of the things I like to sort of
look at, is how a team shoots when it shoots
the league average or better from three versus when it
doesn't shoot the league average for better three. And the
(25:18):
Celtics had the best record in both cases. Right, they
had the best record when they shot well from deep.
They had the best record when they didn't shoot well
from deep. So and part of that is they have
a great defense as well, right, so they can survive
a not so great shooting night because they're elite defensively,
but also just because they can get to the line,
they can get to you know, the free throw line,
(25:39):
they can get to the paint if they need to.
So yeah, I'll be curious. The Peak did not play
a lot of zone in this game. I think probably
because it was such a blowout early. I mean, they
were down fourteen to nothing that maybe they didn't want
to sort of waste you know, the zone on a
game that was, you know, probably going to be impossible
(26:03):
to win anyway. So we'll see if there's more zone.
I think the Celtic there was I want to say
seven or eight nine possessions of zone, and the Celtics
did pretty well against it. But we saw a lot
of zone in this series and the Conference finals last year,
and the Celtics were terrible against it, like really really
bad against the zone in the Conference finals last year.
So I assume we're going to see more of it.
(26:25):
I don't know if that's going to help much I
think this is obviously a big mismatch with Jimmy Butler out,
and just how good the Celtics are were this season,
and obviously they also have Kristaps Porzingis and there's nobody
in the league who's better at shooting over top of
a zone than that guy.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Yeah, that it certainly makes it tough, tough to put
up any type of a contest. She as always, we
appreciate you, We appreciate your time in checking out your
first ever playoff power rankings. All the good stuff on
all these teams and all these series certainly helpful as
we continue to watch these plays out Until next time, We'll.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
See you soon, all right, Sarah. Thanks.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
NBA Pulse with Sarah Custack is a production of the
NBA and iHeartRadio. Please rate, review, and subscribe on the
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome in to NBA Pulse, to production of iHeartRadio in
the NBA. I'm Sarah Coustack, NBA analyst for the Yes Network,
and today is Monday, April twenty second and from our
extraordinary core group of NBA journalists were joined now by
NBA dot Com senior writer John Schuman. It is a
excellent start to the week. For the first time at
(00:22):
we love your power rankings so much so this made
my week for the first time ever. You've got a
playoff power rankings topping that list the number one team
the Boston Celtics, number two, Denver Nuggets, number three, Minnesota Timberwolves,
number four. Okay, see in number five. Rounding out the
top five, it's the Los Angeles Clippers. But as always
(00:42):
with your power rankings, you've got great, great nuggets on
all teams now still in the playoffs, and you'll be
doing this for each round. And the first round got underway.
Shoot for the first time since twenty thirteen. In the
opening game of the first round, all the home teams
took care of business. I know we should never own
react to game ones, although it always feels like it's
(01:05):
telling point. Sometimes throughout the course of a series, but
it was fun to watch, fun to see, and then
you got some nuggets on each of these games that
took place. But let's begin where you were at at
the Garden number two team in the Eastern Conference in
New York Knicks UH win one eleven, one O four
against the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. As I mentioned she
(01:25):
you were there, you saw it. What was your what
was your biggest takeaway? And I do want to ask
you about the Joel Embiid factor in this one, which
I don't know if there is much certainty of how
we'll see that continue to play out. But what was
some of your biggest takeaways in what shifted this game
and could potentially impact the series for these teams.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, it was a It was a roller coaster game
in Game one, with the Sixers dominating the first and
third quarters and the Knicks dominating the second and the fourth.
But throughout the game, I'll say this, the if you
look at half court offense like half court execu the
Sixers win. But fast break points we're twenty seven to
eleven in favor of the Knicks, and second chance points
(02:07):
were twenty six to eight in favor of the Knicks,
and that's I mean, that's your game right there. I mean,
we saw it last year where the Knicks dominated the
glass against Cleveland, and they come in in Game one
of the first round against a different opponent and they
dominate the glass again. They had twenty three offensive rebounds.
The Sixers had twenty four defensive rebounds. So that tells you,
(02:28):
like right there, like the Sixers just absolutely have to
rebound better going forward. And yeah, and you know, the
Embiid experience was a Roula coaster in itself. You know,
he I thought he played okay, and then obviously at
the end of the second quarter, he has the highlight
(02:49):
of the night tossing the ball off the glass to himself,
throwing a dunk on top of ogn Andobi. But then
he lands on his left leg, the the leg that
he had miniscus meniscus repair on a couple months ago.
He immediately grabs that left knee and falls to the grounds,
(03:11):
goes to the locker room, and obviously, for most of
us think, okay, well that's it. He's done for the
night at least and maybe possibly for the series. But amazingly,
he comes back out just a couple of minutes I
think before the start of the second half, and he plays,
you know, most of the second half, and he still
played okay, you know, to me, it seemed like he
(03:36):
was settling too much for jumpers, like he wasn't himself.
I thought he had some good post touches, and when
he did catch the ball somewhat close to the basket,
I think the Sixers were in good shape. I just
I think there was just too many of his catches
came twenty five feet from the basket where he's catching
(03:57):
the ball beyond the three point line. And then at
that point, given the sort of shape that he's in
and that he's not one hundred percent, I think it's
just too much work for him to get to the basket.
And so therefore he's taking a lot of jumpers, and
he did not shoot well from the perimeter. I think
he was eight for twenty two overall. But at the
(04:20):
same time, now let's go back, like, the Sixers were
a plus fourteen and his minutes on the floor, So
even though he did settle for a bunch of jumpers,
they won those minutes fairly well. And now here's the
problem Number two is they were a minus twenty one
(04:41):
in less than twelve minutes with them beat off the floor.
And we've seen this in playoffs past, where the Sixers
just get absolutely destroyed when he goes to the bench,
and it's a big problem. And I think that's problem
number two.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, in the bench. I mean the difference in the
bench between what the Knicks were able to do. And
you don't always see that with a Tom Thibodeaux team
or a Knicks team. But how the bench contributed for
the next was. I mean Miles McBride obviously a big,
big game. I think Boyan Bogdanovic became that factor that
you anticipated with the trade of just a veteran experience
(05:18):
who's been in a ton of big postseason games and
just in general big games, professional games throughout the course
of his career. Jalen Brunson surprisingly did not shoot that well,
but you looked at what Josh Hart did and the
critical parts of that, I too think, Yeah, just Philadelphia
needing more from their reserve. MAXI was awesome, But the
(05:39):
rest of the reserves and other players what they do
about that? And you mentioned it the offensive rebounds, I mean,
their first shot defense against the Knicks was solid, but
the offensive rebounds, the Knicks just absolutely commanded them, and
the turnovers were such an issue, allowing the Knicks to
have so many runouts. So yeah, it's gonna be interesting
to watch and won the health Joel Embiid, But to
(06:01):
just how both teams kind of settle into things and
if there's anything Nick Nurse, we talked a lot about
that change and that shift in that head coaching position,
how much he can factor in as this series continues.
On the late game on Saturday Night was the Denver
Nuggets the Los Angeles Lakers. You know, there was a
(06:21):
lot of looking at this series in the Lakers winning
that first playing game of just it being a tough
matchup to have to face the Denver Nuggets and Grew,
are we calling your joker? Grew?
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Now?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Did you see this shoe? Did you see the whole despicable?
Despicable me, I'm not entirely familiar with with all the
things that are happening in that framework, but yeah, Nikola
Yokitch was just tremendous, as were the Nuggets. One fourteen,
one oh three was the final score. I'm not sure
if that was really indicative of the way the game
went Lebron James and Anthony Davis couldn't really have asked
(06:57):
much more out of them, but complimentary pieces just weren't
necessarily there. And this looks like it's just gonna be
a tough go for the Lakers.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah. I mean, they've lost their last nine games against
the Nuggets when you include the sweep in the Western
Conference finals last year. So my number for this one
is that the the Nuggets have averaged fifty eight point
five points in the paint on sixty one point three
(07:25):
percent shooting over their four games against the Lakers this year.
Both of those are the highest mark for West any
Western Conference opponent against the Lakers the seasons. You know,
the Lakers Anthony Davis is a defensive Player of the
Year candidate. You know, he is one of the best
interior defenders in the league. He is, you know, big
(07:49):
and bouncy and timely. You know, he's among the leaders
in blocks blocks per thirty six minutes. But in the
regular season, the Lakers allowed one hundred and twenty six
points per one hundred possessions against the Nuggets when Davis
was on the floor. That's a very high number, and
it's it was his highest sort of on court number
(08:12):
against any opponent Western or Eastern Conference in the regular season,
and it was even higher in Game one of the
of this series. So it's it's not only you know
that the Nuggets just have their number, the Lakers number,
but they dominate the Lakers where the Lakers are used
to dominating themselves, which is inside, right, like the Nuggets
(08:34):
are you know, the Lakers are usually you know, they
were i think last in the league and three point differential,
meaning that their opponents made more a lot more threes
than they did, and so they win inside and with
defense and the late the Nuggets are the opponent that
they that were sort of three point shooting means the least,
(08:55):
and an opponent that can dominate the Lakers inside.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
That's fair fascinating, that's really fascinating. To that point, the
Nuggets were able to balance that as well of still
winning the battle at the three point line and knocking
down a good amount from deep, something that the Lakers
weren't necessarily able to do and other than get into
the free throw line more. Yeah, it really was Denver
(09:19):
in a lot of those spots. What about the Suns
and Timberwolves game Minnesota one twenty to ninety five win.
It was commanding, and this is after seeing the Suns
just take care of this Minnesota team throughout the course
of the regular season. So I don't know if this
necessarily should come as a surprise, but I will say
(09:40):
to me that that decisive of a win, the personality
of Anthony Edwards just all over the place in just
how he was able to be such an incredible version
of himself. And then the Timberwolves defense looking tremendous against
the Sun's team that showed up how we've seen them
show up in some moments are out the course of
the season, just trying to put the pieces together. What
(10:02):
did you take away from from this one?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, I think you know. Even though home teams were
eight to no, there were a couple of games that
were surprises. This was one of them, especially the fact
that the Wolves won by twenty five. But the kind
of amazing thing is that they won by twenty five
even though their starting lineup was outscored by eight points
in it's fourteen minutes together on the floor, So that
(10:28):
means they were up plus thirty three in about thirty
four minutes with at least one reserve on the floor.
Now that includes a little bit of garbage time. I
think they were plus three in garbage time basically when
like the third stringer guys were on the floor. But
that obviously that's a huge performance, you know, like going
(10:48):
back to the Knicks, that's a huge performance from the
Wolves bench. And we know that nasried is a six
Man the Year finalist, but I don't I think that's
sort of one under underrated part of the Wolf season
this year is that they had, like if you aggregate
you know how well they play with reserves on the floor.
(11:10):
They had the second ranked bench in the league, behind
only that of the Celtics, who are obviously the best
team in the league statistically by a wide margin, and
the Suns bench actually ranked eighteenth. So I don't think
we you know, we don't think, you know, starters versus
reserves necessarily in this series. But I think the bench
(11:32):
is a huge advantage for Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, and even saying that, like Nosrid, you mentioned Nikhil
Alexander Walker, who Chris Finch had when he was an
assistant in New Orleans at the early part of his career.
But for him to come away with eighteen points go
seven to twelve from the field. Yeah, there's there's also
just a lot of players. Even the numbers didn't show it,
but whether you're popping in you know, a Kyle andersoner
(11:59):
that have been around or they've just been around playoff basketball.
The earlier game of the day, the Orlando Magic and
Cleveland Cavaliers. I do think this was another one, at
least for me, I was very intrigued to see what
would happen. And again, the lack of overreaction for game
one is something that I think we're always reminded of.
(12:22):
But the Cleveland Cavaliers just looked ready to go, and
they dominated Orlando Magic looked like that young, youthful team
that had not been there before ninety seven eighty three
win by the Cavs there at home. What stood out
to you when this one?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Well, I mean I think we knew before this series
started that it would be the ugliest offensive series of
the eight right, just because it's two good defensive teams
and two not so great offensive teams. So the number
for me, like the Magic shot eighteen for forty, which
is forty five percent in the paint. Now, what's crazy
(12:58):
is that four teams actually shot worse than that. In
these eight game ones in the paint. The league average
is fifty seven percent in the paint, So if you're
shooting less than fifty, that's pretty bad. And Number one,
that's a credit to Cleveland's defense. I mean, they have
Evan Mobley and Jared Allen in the middle, and yes,
teams are gonna shoot poorly in the paint against them.
(13:20):
You could say the same thing about the Magic. They're
a great paint defense as well. But I think that
the thing with me is that you know, we know
that the Magic are a poor perimeter shooting team. They
were twenty seventh in mid range field goal percentage, they
were twenty fourth and three point percentage, they were twenty
fifth and three point rate, you know, the percentage of
their shots that came from three point range. So if
(13:40):
they can't finish in the paint as well, then they're
in real trouble, you know. So they've got to find
some offense somehow, and you know, they've got to get
Palo bon Caro and Franz Wagner downhill somehow. They've got
to be able to force some turnover, more turnovers so
they can get some transition buckets because if they're in
(14:03):
the half court and they're you know, unable to sort
of you know, we know they're a bad shooting team
from the outside. You know, they've got to find ways
to score inside and score more efficiently inside. So forty
five percent in the shooting and the pain is just
not going to cut it.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
No, And it just felt like though there was no room,
like any time they tried to do any to your
point about no outside shooting, there was nowhere to go,
and you're looking at Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. Offensively,
was a big night for Donovan mitchell I felt like
he was able to take over in those areas and
for the magic guys that they have at some moments
(14:41):
relied upon to knock down some three point shots or
at least provide a little bit of the offensive, offensive
punch or push, like Cole Anthony off the bench really struggled,
couldn't hit a shot nor a three. It was Jalen
Suggs had been a little bit better throughout the course
of the season shooting threes, and for him it was
(15:02):
a big struggle. Gary Harris, so some of those players
that at moments it's like if they can hit then
at least it will it will spread things out a
little bit. Just could not do that.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And it's a good point about Mitchell. I mean, he
had a very subpar sort of post All Star break
where he missed I think nineteen games and then shot
poorly over the ones he played. I think he shot
a little bit better over the last couple of games
that he played in, But for him to have as
much bounce as he seemed to have in that in
game one and score thirty points, I mean that's a huge,
(15:34):
huge development I think for the Cavs, like because it
was a real struggle for the most part down the stretch.
And he has now scored thirty points or more in
twenty one of his forty five playoff games, which is
pretty amazing. Like I was at MSG the other day
and I asked the person sitting next to me, It's like,
(15:56):
how many games do you think how many playoff games
do you think Donovan Mitchell has scored at least thirty
points in his career? And they were like, oh, no, eleven, twelve,
And I was like, no, it's twenty one. Like that's
a huge that's amazing. He is a playoff performer I'll
see that.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
That's what you want to see and you need all right,
We're going to take a quick break and come back
with all of the games taking place yesterday. Welcome back
to me, Paul Sarahkustak, joined by the great John Schuman,
and we had a fun Sunday. Let's start with the
(16:32):
nail bier down the stretch, the Yokahoma City Thunder beating
the Pelicans ninety four ninety two. CJ. McCollum in the
Pels with a shot to potentially win it at the end.
What'd you take away from this one?
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, let's talk about the end. I mean the Pelicans
were three for eleven, including one for six on clutch shots,
clutch shots being any of the shots that they took
with the score within five in the last five minutes.
You know, it came it came down to that. You know,
they were, you know, the low seed that had the
best shot of winning. McCollum's three pointer was you know,
(17:07):
within the cylinder. It hit off the heel in the rent.
But if that goes in, you know, that's a that's
you know, it's obviously there's a huge difference between being up,
one down one zero and being down one zero. And
but it ties back to the regular season. The Pelicans
ranked twenty sixth in clutch offense one hundred and one
point five points per one hundred clutch possessions. That's bad.
(17:31):
They were fourteen and fifteen in games that were within
five points in the last five minutes. That's not good.
But it tells you though that this is you know, statistically,
this is better than much better than an eight seed.
I mean the you know, the Pelicans were forty nine
and thirty three in the regular season, but they had
(17:52):
the point differential, the fourth best point differential in the
Western Conference of a team that was fifty four and
twenty eight. Right, so they the statistically they were a
better team than their records said. But because they struggled
in close games, you know, they finish in the play
in and then they get the eight seed and you know,
(18:14):
obviously in a tough spot, especially without Zion Williams.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, and just the point of you know, game one
is how that can impact for protecting your home court
for a Thunder team that early on looked like they
were getting their first taste and it maybe taking a while.
That difference of coming away with a win obviously could
and very much be significant in how the rest of
(18:38):
things play out. The Milwaukee Bucks took care of home
court without Giannis Dedeta Koumbo. It was dame time. Thirty
five points for him and Chris Middleton. Those are the
two factors of the guys that you need to really perform,
and they certainly did. Middleton with twenty three and ten.
And on the side of the Pacers short of Pascal Siakam,
which they brought him there for and he had a
(19:00):
big one thirty six and thirteen, the Pacers just did
not have it. One O nine ninety four Milwaukee win.
What about that game?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah, I think the headline, especially after halftime, was Damian Lillard.
But really, if you look at it, the story is
the other end of the floor. I mean, the Pacers
had the second ranked offense in the league this season.
The Bucks were not a very good defensive team, you know,
it's basically their you know, worst defensive team in the
last five or six years. But in this game was
(19:33):
it was the second time all season that the Pacers
scored less than a point per possession, and the first
time was November first, their fourth game of the season.
So they have not been this bad offensively in basically
five and a half months. And the one thing that
set out to me is Tyres Haliburton. He had a
usage rate of eleven point four percent, which is basically
(19:55):
the percentage of possessions that he ends with a field
goal attempt or a trip to the line or a turnover,
and that eleven point four percent was his lowest lowest
usage rate in one hundred and fifty one career games
with the Pacers. So basically, Tyrese Haliburton was as little
of a factor in this game as he's been in
(20:17):
any game that he's played with the Indiana Pacers. And so, yeah,
I think credit to the box number one, But to
going forward into game two, the the Pacers need to
figure a way to sort of unlock their their star
point guard.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, no doubt. You cut off the head of the
snake and it changes everything. Clippers Dallas Mavericks. A resounding
win at home for the Clippers and a very excited
Steve Ballmer that you saw throughout the course of the game.
One or nine ninety seven. Kawhi Leonard did not play,
but it was probably one of the worst perhaps we've
(20:54):
seen out of the Dallas Mavericks, and they're obviously you
need to dealing with a lot. Dave. Derek Lively, the
second hit, lost his mother at the funeral this week,
and there's a lot happening that I do think in
some regards you take into context. But yeah, it was
just a very very tough, tough start for the Mavericks,
got down big and just didn't feel like it was
(21:16):
really going to be their day. What do you take
away from this one?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yeah, we mentioned the magic shooting in the paint. The
MAVs were one of those teams that shot worse than
the Magic in the paint. They were sixteen for thirty
eight in the paint in this game. And you mentioned
the first half. They scored thirty points on forty eight
possessions in the first half. That was the fifth least
(21:41):
efficient half for any team in any game this season.
And that if you count like all the games, all
the hals and two teams in each half, that's four
nine and seventy two total halves of basketball. And this
was the fifth least efficient offensive formance in any half
for any game in any game this season. So yeah,
(22:07):
if you go back to it, the MAVs were you know, cruising,
you know, going into the end of the season. They
went sixteen and two down the stretch, and then the
last two games, you know, this Clippers MAVs matchup was locked.
In the last two games they rested Kyrie Irving and
and Luka Doncic. They sort of took their foot off
(22:29):
the gas, and it's like it's like they couldn't get
the bus moving again until until game until.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
The second card is not starting quite as quickly.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Yeah, so, but their their second half was remarkably efficient. Now,
I'm sure the Clippers took their foot off the gas
a little bit, especially you know, defensively. So who knows
if we'll have any carryover from the if you know,
from the second half of Game one to the first
half of Game two. If there is, that's great for
the MAVs because you know, they still have a chance
(22:58):
to steal home court advantages. I think this was the
the you know I talked about, you know how, there
were still some surprising results even though the home team
won all eight games, and I guess this probably just
didn't The result was probably the most surprising because Kawhi
Leonard was out for the Clippers and because the MAVs
had been playing so well over the last five or
(23:18):
six weeks.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yeah, and you said it though, sometimes just restarting that
in rather than you know, the last thing you want
to do is be easing into a playoff. But it
looked that way. And James Harden we've seen him have
even last year with Philadelphia. Really Joe ell Embiid wasn't
playing a really big game one he had another one
of that Vizza Zubats was incredible, and Daniel Gafford, who
(23:40):
had been so good after that trade, just just didn't
have it. So yeah, so this is likely going to
be a tighter series than what we saw out of
that game. But that was a commanding win. Fourth Clippers
out of the gate. The last game that we are
getting to the Boston Celtics a one to fourteen ninety
four win against the Miami Heat. Miami Heat playing without
(24:02):
Jimmy Butler is obviously a very, very big factor in
the Celtics. You're number one team in your playoff power rankings.
Certainly certainly looked like it.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, So my number for this one is that the
Celtics scored twenty four points in the paint. That was
their lowest total of the last two seasons and tied
for the third fewest for a winning team in any
game this season. Twenty four points in the paint is
not a lot, but they were twenty two for forty nine,
forty five percent from three point range. For those forty
(24:35):
nine attempt they only attempted eighty two field goals totals,
so forty nine out of eighty two is sixty percent.
So they took sixty percent of their shots from three
point range. Now, like, you know, it's not I don't
want to say that this. You know, the Celtics are
dependent on the three, because they're not. You know, they
they take first of all, they take good three pointers.
(24:56):
They have just you know, the best drive and kick
game in those league. And the other thing is they
had the best record in the league when not shooting
when shooting below the league average from three point range. Right,
It's one of the things I like to sort of
look at, is how a team shoots when it shoots
the league average or better from three versus when it
doesn't shoot the league average for better three. And the
(25:18):
Celtics had the best record in both cases. Right, they
had the best record when they shot well from deep.
They had the best record when they didn't shoot well
from deep. So and part of that is they have
a great defense as well, right, so they can survive
a not so great shooting night because they're elite defensively,
but also just because they can get to the line,
they can get to you know, the free throw line,
(25:39):
they can get to the paint if they need to.
So yeah, I'll be curious. The Peak did not play
a lot of zone in this game. I think probably
because it was such a blowout early. I mean, they
were down fourteen to nothing that maybe they didn't want
to sort of waste you know, the zone on a
game that was, you know, probably going to be impossible
(26:03):
to win anyway. So we'll see if there's more zone.
I think the Celtic there was I want to say
seven or eight nine possessions of zone, and the Celtics
did pretty well against it. But we saw a lot
of zone in this series and the Conference finals last year,
and the Celtics were terrible against it, like really really
bad against the zone in the Conference finals last year.
So I assume we're going to see more of it.
(26:25):
I don't know if that's going to help much I
think this is obviously a big mismatch with Jimmy Butler out,
and just how good the Celtics are were this season,
and obviously they also have Kristaps Porzingis and there's nobody
in the league who's better at shooting over top of
a zone than that guy.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Yeah, that it certainly makes it tough, tough to put
up any type of a contest. She as always, we
appreciate you, We appreciate your time in checking out your
first ever playoff power rankings. All the good stuff on
all these teams and all these series certainly helpful as
we continue to watch these plays out Until next time, We'll.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
See you soon, all right, Sarah. Thanks.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
NBA Pulse with Sarah Custack is a production of the
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