May 7, 2025 • 37 mins
Justin and Carter react to the Cavs heartbreaking loss in Game 2 against the Indiana Pacers. Discussing what went wrong, how the Cavs were able to compete shorthanded and what lessons can be applied to the rest of the series.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This crowd rises to speaking what Carl slammed it out
car left wing free ball perfect, then he left block
the shot in the rim?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
How with the left hand and of foul. Welcome to
Chase Doown podcast, part of the Cast Media Family. I'm
your host Justin Rohan. The Chase Doown was presented by Fubo,
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(00:32):
The Cleveland Cavaliers fought all night long, but in the
end they suffered one of their most heartbreaking losses of
the last few years. Joining me today to break this
game down is my co host, Carter Rodriguez. Carter, Hey,
nobody bad? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. That hurts, man, Like that's
(00:53):
that's one of those games that you know, we when
we talk about seasons, when we look back, you know
on the good times that we have in certain years,
that's one of those kicks that really really hurts. And
I really thought that the Cavs came out and gave
an effort to be proud of. For the majority of
this night, I thought they left it all on the floor. Donovan,
(01:16):
you know, basically gave everything that he had physically. I
thought guys that struggled in Game one came out with
tremendous effort in comparison to where they were at defensively.
It seemed like they had a real opportunity to tie
this series up at one one. You get a couple
of days off, you're going to Indiana and basically having
(01:37):
a mentality of hey, we just got to get one
of these two games in Indy. Then you know it's
a best of three and we have home court once again.
But the Cavs now have more of an uphill climb
as a result of a second chance opportunity by Tyrese
Haliburn and the game winning shots that he delivered.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, I mean you have to call what is to collapse?
They were up seven with like, you know, forty five
seconds left or something like that, and and you knew,
you know, if you're if you're if you've watched enough basketball,
you know when a team is out of gas, when
they have nothing left and they are playing the clock
(02:19):
more than they're playing their opposition. You know, ah, the
inbounds plays where guys weren't even really cutting. They were
just kind of standing there, kind of shemy in their
shoulders and holding their hands up, you know, you know,
dead legs, lack of ability to shake a Pacers team
(02:44):
that has done this twice in the playoffs. Now you
through gritted teeth. You have to give them credit for
how physical and tough they were. Yep. And you know
they made every play and you know, before Halliburton shot
(03:04):
that shot, I knew the game was over. You know.
It was just one of those kind of endings that
felt preordained. You know.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I literally knew that it was going in because I
got a notification on my phone, which just I hate
that with delays. Yeah, but I thought once they got
to seven, I was like, I just don't know if
they've got this.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And that's not it's not to make an excuse, you know,
or to say like you know, like you know when
you say dead legs, like yeah, I mean and he
was playing hard too. Yep, they didn't, you know, they didn't.
It's not like you know, you look at the minutes
totals on either side of the floor and you saw
(03:54):
one team with you know, it's not like a Knicks
box score where you saw five guys with forty six
minutes and the other team all in the mid thirties,
and you go, yeah, I get why the Knicks love
ran out of gas like some extent like Indy game
and stole there, Yeah, stole their chain, yeah, to end
the game. And uh, it's uh, it's a freaking killer,
(04:18):
you know, I feel like right now, you know, And
it's interesting because in this game, it felt like the
Cavs were fighting a losing fight against time, and in
this series they're fighting a losing fight against time. Because
(04:39):
what it's more important to have won this game two
help extend the competitive portion of the series more than
it's important just to just for whatever sliver of a
chance that Darius and Evan and deonn you know, you
(05:01):
buy him a couple of days extra of healing and recovery.
And now you know, if Darius wasn't quite ready to go,
you got to be like, well, I guess just try
it in game three. You know, like if you can
even do that, you know, you like.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
This one, then you're in a position that, Okay, if
you're not able to go into game four, Like, you
really just have to get the one in Indy right,
And now you're in a position where you got to
get both right, and how do you eat an elephant
one bite at a time, right, Like you're going to
have to kind of compartmentalize and say, all right, we
got to go out and find a way to take
game three.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You take game three.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Once again, you're gonna I can't even say you have
to get greedy because you're in do it or die time.
You only have one loss to play with here. But
you have to have that kind of mentality. And the
frustrating thing is I agree with Kenny Atkinson's assessment postgame.
I thought that for the majority of this game, they
did outplay India. He said his one regret that he
(06:02):
had was that he shot in the rotation in the
second half. He felt that, you know, I didn't play enough, guys.
We ran out of gas. Not only on those inbounds
where you weren't creating separation, the same thing was happening
in the half court. And you know, the end of
the game got extended a lot with reviews, with free
throws things like that. Indiana was definitely making a point
(06:24):
the entire night that anytime they were going to foul,
they were going to make sure that you know it's
going to be a foul, right, Like Aaron Nesmith is
putting his arm around guy's necks and he's bringing them
to the ground.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
There is his leg on on the top of Donovan's
neck on one particular possession.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Like they're finishing their checks right like that. That's basically
the way that they are playing throughout the night. I
thought the Cavs did a really good job of responding
that to that for the most part. But you're right, like,
you got to find a way to get the ball
in right you're up seven seconds, or you're up seven
points with fifty eight seconds in the bone and you
(07:00):
don't get another point, you at least have to find
a way to get the ball in bounds and get
a trip to the free throw line because they're going
to be intentionally fouling and they weren't able to do that.
You absolutely have to, you know, I think there's going
to be if I had to guess, there's going to
be things that we're going to find very frustrating tomorrow.
In the last two minute report, when Pascal Siakam was
shooting his free throw. As the ball was leaving his hands,
(07:23):
Aaron Nee Smith is already at the free throw line, Like,
that's probably going to be something that's pointed out, not
something that they could review to be fair when they
reviewed that play. That's not a reviewable part of that play.
And then I think the same thing is going to
happen for Halliburn, who was in the middle of the
key before the ball touched the rim. You're not allowed
to do that. I think both of those lane violations
(07:44):
are going to be called. But you shouldn't have been
in that position where you could have got burned by
those things. And that's you know, it's a frustrating reality.
It's you know, the beauty of basketball, and it's also
the pain of basketball that what you do for forty
seven minut is a large part of the story. But
you got to play a complete forty eight and unfortunately,
(08:06):
you know, a combination of running out of gas, the
mistakes that come as a result of that and not
finding a way to to you know, get the ball
in bounds and get that trip to the free throw
line ultimately cost them.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, and I think the thing that's really crushing is
the cost of you know, you know what they spent
both in terms of their you know, their physical outputs,
but even just in terms of what they spent in
terms of the performances they got. You know, donn you know,
(08:45):
I just don't know if you can count on that
kind of Donovan performance. Again, you know, he was cramping up,
he had nothing left. He was exerting so much energy
every every single second he was on the floor. I
know he didn't have a crazy high minutes game, but
(09:07):
you know, that level of offensive output is nuts. And
like I was sitting watching it and thinking, this isn't
this isn't the Orlando series from last year where he
drops fifty in the Cavs don't top one hundred points.
And you know, I think both you and I left
(09:29):
that game going that can't be the plan, Like that
level of ball dominance can't be the plan because because
there's not enough, you know, there's not enough going on elsewhere.
And like maybe that was a little bit the case,
but like Cavs had a one to twenty five point
six offensive rating with Donovan on the floor in this game,
(09:52):
like he did elevate their offense. You know, this was
not just sponging possessions because there wasn't anyone else. He
really was magnificent tonight, and yeah, I really sorry for
him to have a game like that wasted.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, And what have we talked about so many times? Right,
when you talk about an offensive possession, if the ball
swings to you and you're open and you don't take
the shot, you are, you know, you're hurting the rest
of the offense. You're likely not getting a good shot
in that possession. It felt like with Donovan, you know,
the opportunities he had to go downhill. If he's not
(10:32):
taking the shot, if he's not you know, getting to
the rim, if he's not getting to the free throw line.
That was the best look on those possessions. The Cavs
had a really you know, a lot of success getting
into the paint, getting downhill. I think that was one
of the most encouraging things of this game. And honestly,
the one consistent thing that they've had against Indiana so
(10:53):
far is they've managed to get into the paint.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
We saw a lot of guard to guard screening, Isaac
Ocorrow in particular, getting tied Haliburn involved. Good things were
coming as a result of that. When three point opportunities
opened up, Donovan was finding the right guys. It's just
on the majority of these plays, the best possible option
was him going up and finishing. But you know, as
(11:16):
he said, that took a physical toll he I think
this is a playoff career high for him for free
throw attempts. Every single one of those attempts was earned.
Like he you know, he's hitting the ground, He's he's
being tackled by pacers right like they're making him feel
it every single time. It's you know, I look at
this game and when we were talking last night with Lima,
(11:41):
a lot of what we wanted to see and a
lot of why I felt the Cavs could come out
and win this game was what we saw. I've you know,
Donovan Mitchell stepping up as the best player. You still
have Jared Allen, who's an All Star caliber guy. He
goes for a playoff career high in terms of points.
I thought he had a very strong game. Max Strus
stepped up in the ways that you want to see.
(12:01):
Dean Wade I thought stepped up with the hustle plays
and the defense offense wasn't really there for him tonight.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
But I was.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Happy with his overall effort. Max Strus and Sam Merrill
two guys that we identified as not playing well at
the point of attack. Defensively, I thought both of them
stepped up in terms of their intensity and their physicality
on the defensive end. They got the contributions we wanted
to see. They had a real chance to win this game.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
It's just so deflating.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And you know, this is the kind of stuff when
we preview a playoff series and we say I can
see this going five or six games. This is the
type of outcome that you know typically extends the series
where you say, you know, you might have one where
things just don't go your way. Uh, you have a
weird finish. Some of it might be your fault, some
(12:51):
of it might be bad luck. But when you're in
this situation, it has the potential to do the opposite,
right because now Indiana has won two games in Cleveland
and you're facing a real uphill climb to to you know,
go on the road and extend this series.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, I mean this could be over and four that
Indi is a really really good home team. They feel
like they've got this series in the bag. They absorbed
the uh, the the the Desperation game from Cleveland and
(13:28):
h Gaves are in real trouble. You know, the fact
that none of the three injured Cavaliers were able to
go through shoot around today very very scary. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
It was reports that Darius was putting in work on
the treadmill trying to you know, do some interval training
and stuff like that. Obviously it didn't respond well enough
for him to even go out and do the pregame
shoot around, right. You know, Chris Fiedor was mentioning through
the day he the sense he got talking to Darius
was you know, go and give it a try. That's
(14:01):
you know, that's really discouraging that. Like these guys who
are all want to play, right, DeAndre said after the game, Hey,
I'm going to play for for game two. Wasn't physically
able to write like you can have the intentions you're
going to want to go out there and prove yourself.
You know, seeing the Beat reporters talking about their conversations
with Evan Mobley and how dejected he was struggling, you know,
(14:23):
to put weight on his foot, like this is this
is serious stuff, man, And I think it goes back
to what you were saying before about how this was
an opportunity to extend the series and give by them
a little bit more time. I don't know what the
likelihood of these guys being able to return in the
series is. And like, from a fan standpoint, I'm sitting here,
(14:46):
I'm bitter, Like I'm feeling bitter. I'm frustrated by that.
Like you know, I do my best to not let
that impact my analysis, but it hurts. Man, Like everything
you did everything right this season, right like, you did
everything to manage minutes, did everything you could to not
be in this position, it looked like you weren't in
(15:08):
this position. And you know, two bad landings, or really
three bad landings, because because Darius appeared, I think he
landed on a fan court side. You know, three landings
in the playoffs were enough to change your luck.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
And you know, we.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Talked about appreciating that, you know, things can change in
the blank of an eye, and you have to be
in the moment and you have to be able to
enjoy it. But as much as I'm you know, as
much as we talk about that throughout the season, I'm
convincing myself to do that at the same time, right
like I'm trying to remember to myself and reflecting on
(15:46):
it and looking back at it right now, I'm like,
I still took that for granted. I still you know, assume, hey,
we're going to be healthy for this run. We're at
least getting this year. And you know, for that to
be such a major part of the story, it's it's frustrating.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
And uh, you know, you don't get to choose how
you build your contender. You know, there's so much luck
that comes into it. You know, you don't just get
to choose to add a Lebron or whoever it may be.
But so this isn't like a criticism of the team building,
but like this is the risk of being a strength
(16:24):
in numbers. We got four, five, six guys that are
all can all help on any given night, but you
know we don't have a top one guy. We don't
have a Lebron. Like this is the challenge. This is
the reason why everyone wants a Lebron and why everyone
wants a Luca is Like, you know, like there is
(16:45):
just a you get you get two guys banged up, and.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I mean that can still happen to the one, Like
you know, Steph Curry just left the game. Lucas a
million playoff series.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
There's no one rode up the mountain. But like it
does feel, you know, it's felt often to me that
this Cavs team can you know, has that you know,
that Swiss watch quality where you know, like when everything's going,
when everything's kind of good, everything's great, but you know,
it just takes a couple of kinks and all of
a sudden it's like, oh, we got one guy, you know,
(17:21):
tis having a bad game, so we got one guy
who can run a pick and roll. Yeah, oh Evan's hurt,
Dean Wade backup center, sat Lote, you know, and like,
you know, these are all the challenges that come with
roster construction. You don't get to build a perfect team,
and you don't get to choose who gets hurt, and
(17:43):
like you can only insulate in so many spots, you know. Yeah, like,
you know, I thought they did a great job of
covering for DeAndre Hunter's absence tonight. I did not spend
a lot of possessions going damn if only DeAndre were
out here. Honestly, I thought.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
They did a great job of covering for no Evan right,
like that that's the anchor of our defense, and I
thought they did one of their best jobs at the
point of attack limiting dribbled drive penetration for Indiana, there
was a lot of times where the Pacers weren't able
to get the cas into rotation and generate the same
types of looks. I thought, you know, that.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Goes to show you.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
As much as you talk about roster construction and personnel
and your strengths offensively and defensively, a lot of it
does come down to execution and effort. And I thought
the execution and effort was absolutely there. I thought that
they had enough to go out there and win tonight.
Just frustrating to not come away with that win, right,
(18:47):
And you know, I I it's one of those that's
going to stick with you. It's really really you know,
you got to give Indiana credit for continuing to fight
throughout that game and playing themselves into a position to
capitalize on it.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
But yeah, it's it's it's up there with one of
the most painful losses in the franchise's history. It is
because of the context of what the seats this team
has been all year, you know, like, I mean, nothing
will ever top twenty eighteen Game one for me, I
was you know, I was one of those go to
(19:25):
bed miserable, wake up miserable games for me, just because
I you know, I truly felt like that Golden State
team was ready to splinter and crack, and next year
they did. I still didn't hit me that, Yeah, I know, yeah,
this is one of our biggest differentials in terms of
like my pure uncut misery after that game. But you know,
(19:48):
this is right up there and maybe worse. You know,
this is a great Vibes Cavs team who won sixty
four games, you know, that twenty eighteen team. You know,
even if someone who is on the upper end of
the respect the second Lebron era enjoyers, even even to
the bitter end, like that was not a good Vibes team.
(20:11):
That was not a team that you know, it was
a team that easily could have lost in the first round,
if you'll recall. And you know, it just feels like
we're so far away from when it from being up
by sixty against Miami, just like it's just a few
days away.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, that's that's the crazy thing, man, Like, you know.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I just I just thought I thought this team was
ready to go, you know, maybe win a title coming
off of that series. And whether it's the injuries, whether
it's the whether it's the execution down the stretch, it's
just it feels like it's slipping away a little bit.
It's not over yet by any means. You know, they
(20:54):
you know, they absolutely can come back and make this
a series, but like, who does kind of feel that
way right now sitting in a fan seat? Yeah, absolutely right,
And that's one of the things you almost forget with
how easy the Miami series was. Every loss feels like
the end of the world in the playoffs like that,
that's just the nature of the beast. Obviously, it feels
(21:17):
even worse when when you're down. Guys, we have seen
the Cavs lose two games at home in the playoffs
and come back to win a series. Now, obviously those
were different teams, but you know, you don't know what
teams are capable of until you see them in those situations, right,
And I think we're going to continue to learn more
(21:37):
and more about this team and based on what we see,
you know that that's going to continue to inform you know,
as you like to say, the lessons you're going to learn.
But I think your point about, hey, you're you're never
going to have a perfect roster. You have to you know,
you have to make the most of the talent that's
available to you.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
That's that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Man.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
You you don't you don't get to pick and choose
who's on your team. You don't get to pick and
choose outcomes. But you do get to pick and choose
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Speaker 1 (22:19):
Out see you with a somber ad read.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Know who is working happy and working hard in a
way that really warmed my heart. We touched on him before,
but I want to give a shout out to Max
Drews because if I could, if I could pick and choose,
you know, who's on this roster, I would clone a
million Max Drews's. I would build the entire plane on
Max Drews's because that guy plays hard that he worked
(22:45):
his ass off, you know, the extra possessions you talk
about Indie fouling physically and putting the lumber into guys.
Max was making you feel him out there, Like when
he was setting a screen for Tyrese, he was making
sure there was a little extra on there. He was
physical the entire night. He hit big shots. That transition
(23:06):
dunk that he had was phenomenal. I thought it was
almost a perfect Max true game, you know, not until that.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Turnover at the end throwing the ball away. Yeah, not
even that I don't really put on Max. They were
out of timeouts. He had to put the ball into play,
and as I mentioned five, you know, four Cavaliers were
sitting there being hugged and shimmying their shoulders and putting
their arm up feebly like you know, It's not like
(23:35):
he missed a wide you know, an open receiver streaking
wide open, thirty yards down the field. It was a
jump ball. He had no targets. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, And you know what I was going to say,
was not a perfect game in terms of you know,
being mistake free, but being resilient within that play, right,
Like I thought, you know, you have a little rut
there where you're not hitting threes, you step up and
you hit that big one to put the Cavs up Evan.
I just thought it was a terrific game from him.
I thought Jared really stepped up and had a great game.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
The one thing I'll.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Say about how Jared was used in this one was
at the start we were really getting some good actions
out of him out of the short role both as
a scorer, and he had three assists pretty early on
in the game. Kind of felt like we got away
from that a little bit, and I understand we were
able to get downhill a lot. The guard to guard
screening was generating a ton of good looks. Getting Tyre's
(24:30):
Halliburton into you know, action was resulting in a lot
of good looks. I just felt like that was potentially
something they could have gone to a little bit more
to see if, hey, maybe Jared has a little bit
of gas here, you know, it can finish in these spots.
Maybe kick it out for some catch and shoot threes.
Maybe that could be something that generates us some offense
(24:53):
when we're looking tired as hell out here.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
It feels so stupid to talk x's and those right now,
like it's really hard, but there is stuff, you know,
there is stuff that there is to take away. You know,
Indy didn't just magic away the Cavs offense in the
final five six minutes of that game. What they did
(25:19):
was they just started blitzing and extending their coverage further
and further and further and further away from the hoop.
You know, when they were running some of those plays,
there was you know, Alberton was showing all the way
out to damnear half court on some of these guard
guard pick and rolls, and like, I do think that's
(25:41):
where you really felt the lack of Evan and even
the lack of Darius and the lack of ty Jerome
having the worst game of his life, which we haven't
hit on yet. It's an absolute, you know, disaster performance
for him, and I think he'd probably tell you that.
But like, you know, if they've got two to three
(26:03):
guys pressuring the ball at half court in a half
court possession, you've got to provide a release valve and
attack the hoop. And I just felt like that's where
Ocoro let you down in terms of consistent ability to attack.
That's where you know, heavy legs let them down where
(26:25):
they just kind of said, Donovan, just you split it,
and you know he split it a couple of times,
but like, you know, not enough shooting, not enough, not
enough sharp decision making against that pressure. I'm sorry. You
need to be able to make the Indiana Pacers pay
(26:46):
when they're putting two on the ball at half court. Yea,
we watched the Cavs make the Miami Heat pay when
they put two on the ball at half court consistently.
And yeah, the personnel was better. Yeah, Tie was having
a great series and in this and uh, you know
he had I mean, I mean again, just a nightmare game.
(27:07):
Shorted every single floater, even the ones that were off
you know, off a good foot, not the you know,
the tide your own special, but the normal floaters for
normal guards. He was aiming them, you know, And I
just think, I think, really it, I don't want to say,
(27:27):
you know, the team collectively lost the game, obviously, yeah,
but the fact that they just couldn't count on Tie
to help at all. Two points on fourteen field goal
attempts for assists, oh, four from three. You know, when
you're down, it's tough, man like it. I mean, you
(27:48):
made you made the right choice in my opinion, because
we've tied with Lima and you're like they should start
tie because you want two ball handlers. You want to
be able to attack Indiana for multiple side to the court,
and they couldn't tonight because ty couldn't do it, you know,
and like that's I mean, it's just a bomber outcome.
(28:10):
I mean, there's so much about this this game that
you just kind of go, like you you want to
talk the excess and o's and like you're right, like
some of the pressure relieve stuff is there and you
know some ways to cover, but then so much of
this game goes down to well that sucks. Yeah, And
(28:30):
I just you know, and that's why I think they're
going to have a hard time bouncing back from this.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah, And I'm not going to pile on Tye. You
win games collectively, you lose games collectively. I know everybody,
when you have a painful loss, they look for a scapegoat,
right like they look for their pound of flesh. Whether
it's guys that weren't able to give it a go
that we're trying to play, whether it's someone that was
out there that struggled. I think every single player up
(28:55):
and down the roster, The coaching staff, all has plays,
all has moments within this game that.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
They would have back.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I'm not going to to pile on there, but I think,
you know, it does show when you reach playoff level defense,
when when you play a real team like the Indiana
Pacers that's been playing great basketball for a while now,
if you're part of that starting unit, you're going to
face another level of pressure, right, And I think what
(29:23):
they were able to do with them hard Whitney Smith,
in particular on the perimeter, just made TI feel uncomfortable. Uh.
And you know, that's a level of game planning. He's
not used to the scene in the regular season. I
think he's going to be more equipped to handle that
in Game three, whether it's coming in off the bench
or whether he's called upon to start again. But it
(29:44):
was definitely a tough night for him. And you know, Uh,
I like the fact that in this game there was
less uh soft switching than we've seen in previous matchups.
There were still some of it, but I thought for
the most part they were allowing guys to fight through screens.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
If that was there.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
The one thing I gotta say is if you are
going to switch some of these possessions, you kind of
gotta live with the results a little bit. I saw
Matt Moore was tweeting about this as well, where jaredt
is switching some of these Miles Turner pick and roll,
pick and pop situations, and then he's out there scrambling
and over helping after the fact to get back out
to Turner, and you just got to kind of live
(30:24):
with the results.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Like I you know.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
If you're giving up those shots, you gotta live with it,
because once you get into that scramble mode, if there's
a second chance opportunity, you're not going to be able
to recover from that. You have to to kind of
live with your defensive coverage and stick to it. And
if the coverage isn't working, you change up the coverage,
but you have to execute it. And the other thing
(30:48):
is from an execution standpoint, the end of quarter threes
is something that you know, just that extra ten you know,
five ten seconds of focus and effort points a game
for right now, it really is right like it's just
hey that those seconds of the quarter probably you know
that they are out there, they're going to try to
(31:08):
get that three pointer. At the end of the quarter.
They know they're going to try to kick it out
to the corners. You know that they're going to get
out and transition, They're going to find ways to leak
out and get these opportunities, little things like that. It's
the little things in the margin that you know, when
you're up fifteen or you're up eighteen, I think at
some of those opportunities doesn't feel as bad. Hey, you
(31:31):
got points to play with, but you see how it
has an effect at the end of the game, right,
And it's that kind of stuff that makes me not
dwell on, you know, struggles of someone individually like a
Ti Jerome, and focus on kind of the picture as
a whole, because it's little plays throughout the entire game
that end up to, you know, amounting to that end result.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yep, man, it's a I gotta tell you, it's it's
I you know. And by the way, this is why
it's so stupid, and I'm very guilty of this for
pre dooming, you know, because it doesn't make the loss
any easier, you know, it doesn't make it you know,
(32:20):
talking about you know, you saw some of my d
ms after it was very clear that all three of
these guys were not going to play.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
You know, the pre misery doesn't actually save you from
the postgame misery. You know, it's it's better to try
to be calm and rational and try to find the
fun in it. Because you know, I'm no, I'm in
no better shape for having prepped myself emotionally for for that,
(32:49):
for that outcome.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
And that's why, you know what, I'm not doing that
with game three because I'm sitting here, I'm like, you
know what, if the Calves go out and they win
Game three, I'm going to get excited again. I want
to say, hey, now you just got to win one
more game. And that's got to be their mentality. You
look at the postgame coaches, you look at you know,
the postgame interviews. They got an edge to them. So
(33:12):
I Kenny said, hey, you know, the locker room wasn't
sitting there dejected. They know what they need to do.
I'm going to give them, these guys the benefit of
the doubt because they showed me a lot of heart tonight.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
You know, we SHOs a lot of heart. Even in
the Celtics series last year. I went and pulled it up,
you know, and they those final games. If you box
score Hunt from that playoff series, like it looks like
they let go of the rope. You know, Boston wins
Game five by fifteen points, but like they really played
(33:44):
their ass off.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
They almost won Game four without Mitchell, without Allen, They
almost found a way to win Game four. And you know,
I hate the fact that, hey, when you're missing two
of your core members, you know, you've found a way
to almost win. Like, I hate that we're in that
situation again in the second round because we want, you know,
we want usable tape. We want to be able to
(34:06):
assess this core and you.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Know, maybe that's part of the assessment. You know, it's
all data.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah it is, and it's going to have to be.
But you know, it is frustrating to be in that situation.
But I think the fight that we've seen this team
show gives me belief that they can go out and
win Game three.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And if you.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Win game three, you have a chance to then take
Game four. And if you manage to do that, it's
a brand new series. You know, Donovan talked about how
he expects guys to be back for Friday. We'll see
if that ends up being the case. We know that
everyone's going to be giving it their their best to
try to go out there and compete. It's you know
(34:50):
what you want and what is physically possible and whether
you know what's actually in the team's best interest, you know,
because it's one thing to go out there and an
attempt to play, but are you actually going to be
a positive That's the kind of thing that the medical
staff has to assess. Well, we'll we'll see how what
what type of shape they're in on Friday, But at
(35:10):
least they have, you know, the the extra day off.
I think that's one thing that they this team sorely,
sorely needed.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you hope you see something. You hope
you see Uh you know, I I'm actually not I'm
not worried about this team's ability to play with pride,
ability to play sharp, you know, and recover. You know.
I just I uh, I know, I picked Calves in five.
(35:40):
I think if you just you know, read that headline,
you would uh be like, oh, you big idiot. You
thought this was going to be an easy series for
the Cabs, And like, you know, I really do have
so much respect. I've had a lot of respect for
this any team since before the season even started. I
thought they were a better team than their record all year,
(36:03):
and you've been consistent on that and I and I
think Rick Carlisle's, you know, a top two coach in
the NBA, and uh, they're they're not just gonna give
it to you. You're gonna have to go. You're gonna
have to take it from them, And uh, I'm just
I'm a little worried about the team's ability to muster
(36:25):
the juice to do it at this point. Yep.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
But hey, if I thought that this team could win
in five and there's five games left, it's still possible.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
You know what, we could still put that theory to
the damn test, Carter. So we'll we'll, we'll see if
they can, you know, start that road take that first
bite out of the elephant in game three. Thank you
for everyone tuning in live on YouTube. I understand that
it's late. We appreciate you guys hanging out with us.
Make sure you guys like and subscribe. Click that notification
(36:55):
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those books you won't be part chased Downs Exclusive discord
chats and NY screenshow the review to Chase downpodotgmail dot com.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
However you choose to support us, we really do appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Make sure you guys are staying safe out there until
next time you cast.
This crowd rises to speaking what Carl slammed it out
car left wing free ball perfect, then he left block
the shot in the rim?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
How with the left hand and of foul. Welcome to
Chase Doown podcast, part of the Cast Media Family. I'm
your host Justin Rohan. The Chase Doown was presented by Fubo,
the official streaming partner of the Calves. Watch over three
hundred and fifty channels of live sports and TV, including
fan Duel Sports Network without cable. There's no cost and
no commitment. Try for free at FuboTV dot com Slash Calves.
(00:32):
The Cleveland Cavaliers fought all night long, but in the
end they suffered one of their most heartbreaking losses of
the last few years. Joining me today to break this
game down is my co host, Carter Rodriguez. Carter, Hey,
nobody bad? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. That hurts, man, Like that's
(00:53):
that's one of those games that you know, we when
we talk about seasons, when we look back, you know
on the good times that we have in certain years,
that's one of those kicks that really really hurts. And
I really thought that the Cavs came out and gave
an effort to be proud of. For the majority of
this night, I thought they left it all on the floor. Donovan,
(01:16):
you know, basically gave everything that he had physically. I
thought guys that struggled in Game one came out with
tremendous effort in comparison to where they were at defensively.
It seemed like they had a real opportunity to tie
this series up at one one. You get a couple
of days off, you're going to Indiana and basically having
(01:37):
a mentality of hey, we just got to get one
of these two games in Indy. Then you know it's
a best of three and we have home court once again.
But the Cavs now have more of an uphill climb
as a result of a second chance opportunity by Tyrese
Haliburn and the game winning shots that he delivered.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, I mean you have to call what is to collapse?
They were up seven with like, you know, forty five
seconds left or something like that, and and you knew,
you know, if you're if you're if you've watched enough basketball,
you know when a team is out of gas, when
they have nothing left and they are playing the clock
(02:19):
more than they're playing their opposition. You know, ah, the
inbounds plays where guys weren't even really cutting. They were
just kind of standing there, kind of shemy in their
shoulders and holding their hands up, you know, you know,
dead legs, lack of ability to shake a Pacers team
(02:44):
that has done this twice in the playoffs. Now you
through gritted teeth. You have to give them credit for
how physical and tough they were. Yep. And you know
they made every play and you know, before Halliburton shot
(03:04):
that shot, I knew the game was over. You know.
It was just one of those kind of endings that
felt preordained. You know.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I literally knew that it was going in because I
got a notification on my phone, which just I hate
that with delays. Yeah, but I thought once they got
to seven, I was like, I just don't know if
they've got this.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And that's not it's not to make an excuse, you know,
or to say like you know, like you know when
you say dead legs, like yeah, I mean and he
was playing hard too. Yep, they didn't, you know, they didn't.
It's not like you know, you look at the minutes
totals on either side of the floor and you saw
(03:54):
one team with you know, it's not like a Knicks
box score where you saw five guys with forty six
minutes and the other team all in the mid thirties,
and you go, yeah, I get why the Knicks love
ran out of gas like some extent like Indy game
and stole there, Yeah, stole their chain, yeah, to end
the game. And uh, it's uh, it's a freaking killer,
(04:18):
you know, I feel like right now, you know, And
it's interesting because in this game, it felt like the
Cavs were fighting a losing fight against time, and in
this series they're fighting a losing fight against time. Because
(04:39):
what it's more important to have won this game two
help extend the competitive portion of the series more than
it's important just to just for whatever sliver of a
chance that Darius and Evan and deonn you know, you
(05:01):
buy him a couple of days extra of healing and recovery.
And now you know, if Darius wasn't quite ready to go,
you got to be like, well, I guess just try
it in game three. You know, like if you can
even do that, you know, you like.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
This one, then you're in a position that, Okay, if
you're not able to go into game four, Like, you
really just have to get the one in Indy right,
And now you're in a position where you got to
get both right, and how do you eat an elephant
one bite at a time, right, Like you're going to
have to kind of compartmentalize and say, all right, we
got to go out and find a way to take
game three.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You take game three.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Once again, you're gonna I can't even say you have
to get greedy because you're in do it or die time.
You only have one loss to play with here. But
you have to have that kind of mentality. And the
frustrating thing is I agree with Kenny Atkinson's assessment postgame.
I thought that for the majority of this game, they
did outplay India. He said his one regret that he
(06:02):
had was that he shot in the rotation in the
second half. He felt that, you know, I didn't play enough, guys.
We ran out of gas. Not only on those inbounds
where you weren't creating separation, the same thing was happening
in the half court. And you know, the end of
the game got extended a lot with reviews, with free
throws things like that. Indiana was definitely making a point
(06:24):
the entire night that anytime they were going to foul,
they were going to make sure that you know it's
going to be a foul, right, Like Aaron Nesmith is
putting his arm around guy's necks and he's bringing them
to the ground.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
There is his leg on on the top of Donovan's
neck on one particular possession.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Like they're finishing their checks right like that. That's basically
the way that they are playing throughout the night. I
thought the Cavs did a really good job of responding
that to that for the most part. But you're right, like,
you got to find a way to get the ball
in right you're up seven seconds, or you're up seven
points with fifty eight seconds in the bone and you
(07:00):
don't get another point, you at least have to find
a way to get the ball in bounds and get
a trip to the free throw line because they're going
to be intentionally fouling and they weren't able to do that.
You absolutely have to, you know, I think there's going
to be if I had to guess, there's going to
be things that we're going to find very frustrating tomorrow.
In the last two minute report, when Pascal Siakam was
shooting his free throw. As the ball was leaving his hands,
(07:23):
Aaron Nee Smith is already at the free throw line, Like,
that's probably going to be something that's pointed out, not
something that they could review to be fair when they
reviewed that play. That's not a reviewable part of that play.
And then I think the same thing is going to
happen for Halliburn, who was in the middle of the
key before the ball touched the rim. You're not allowed
to do that. I think both of those lane violations
(07:44):
are going to be called. But you shouldn't have been
in that position where you could have got burned by
those things. And that's you know, it's a frustrating reality.
It's you know, the beauty of basketball, and it's also
the pain of basketball that what you do for forty
seven minut is a large part of the story. But
you got to play a complete forty eight and unfortunately,
(08:06):
you know, a combination of running out of gas, the
mistakes that come as a result of that and not
finding a way to to you know, get the ball
in bounds and get that trip to the free throw
line ultimately cost them.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, and I think the thing that's really crushing is
the cost of you know, you know what they spent
both in terms of their you know, their physical outputs,
but even just in terms of what they spent in
terms of the performances they got. You know, donn you know,
(08:45):
I just don't know if you can count on that
kind of Donovan performance. Again, you know, he was cramping up,
he had nothing left. He was exerting so much energy
every every single second he was on the floor. I
know he didn't have a crazy high minutes game, but
(09:07):
you know, that level of offensive output is nuts. And
like I was sitting watching it and thinking, this isn't
this isn't the Orlando series from last year where he
drops fifty in the Cavs don't top one hundred points.
And you know, I think both you and I left
(09:29):
that game going that can't be the plan, Like that
level of ball dominance can't be the plan because because
there's not enough, you know, there's not enough going on elsewhere.
And like maybe that was a little bit the case,
but like Cavs had a one to twenty five point
six offensive rating with Donovan on the floor in this game,
(09:52):
like he did elevate their offense. You know, this was
not just sponging possessions because there wasn't anyone else. He
really was magnificent tonight, and yeah, I really sorry for
him to have a game like that wasted.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Yeah, And what have we talked about so many times? Right,
when you talk about an offensive possession, if the ball
swings to you and you're open and you don't take
the shot, you are, you know, you're hurting the rest
of the offense. You're likely not getting a good shot
in that possession. It felt like with Donovan, you know,
the opportunities he had to go downhill. If he's not
(10:32):
taking the shot, if he's not you know, getting to
the rim, if he's not getting to the free throw line.
That was the best look on those possessions. The Cavs
had a really you know, a lot of success getting
into the paint, getting downhill. I think that was one
of the most encouraging things of this game. And honestly,
the one consistent thing that they've had against Indiana so
(10:53):
far is they've managed to get into the paint.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
We saw a lot of guard to guard screening, Isaac
Ocorrow in particular, getting tied Haliburn involved. Good things were
coming as a result of that. When three point opportunities
opened up, Donovan was finding the right guys. It's just
on the majority of these plays, the best possible option
was him going up and finishing. But you know, as
(11:16):
he said, that took a physical toll he I think
this is a playoff career high for him for free
throw attempts. Every single one of those attempts was earned.
Like he you know, he's hitting the ground, He's he's
being tackled by pacers right like they're making him feel
it every single time. It's you know, I look at
this game and when we were talking last night with Lima,
(11:41):
a lot of what we wanted to see and a
lot of why I felt the Cavs could come out
and win this game was what we saw. I've you know,
Donovan Mitchell stepping up as the best player. You still
have Jared Allen, who's an All Star caliber guy. He
goes for a playoff career high in terms of points.
I thought he had a very strong game. Max Strus
stepped up in the ways that you want to see.
(12:01):
Dean Wade I thought stepped up with the hustle plays
and the defense offense wasn't really there for him tonight.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
But I was.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Happy with his overall effort. Max Strus and Sam Merrill
two guys that we identified as not playing well at
the point of attack. Defensively, I thought both of them
stepped up in terms of their intensity and their physicality
on the defensive end. They got the contributions we wanted
to see. They had a real chance to win this game.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
It's just so deflating.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And you know, this is the kind of stuff when
we preview a playoff series and we say I can
see this going five or six games. This is the
type of outcome that you know typically extends the series
where you say, you know, you might have one where
things just don't go your way. Uh, you have a
weird finish. Some of it might be your fault, some
(12:51):
of it might be bad luck. But when you're in
this situation, it has the potential to do the opposite,
right because now Indiana has won two games in Cleveland
and you're facing a real uphill climb to to you know,
go on the road and extend this series.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, I mean this could be over and four that
Indi is a really really good home team. They feel
like they've got this series in the bag. They absorbed
the uh, the the the Desperation game from Cleveland and
(13:28):
h Gaves are in real trouble. You know, the fact
that none of the three injured Cavaliers were able to
go through shoot around today very very scary. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
It was reports that Darius was putting in work on
the treadmill trying to you know, do some interval training
and stuff like that. Obviously it didn't respond well enough
for him to even go out and do the pregame
shoot around, right. You know, Chris Fiedor was mentioning through
the day he the sense he got talking to Darius
was you know, go and give it a try. That's
(14:01):
you know, that's really discouraging that. Like these guys who
are all want to play, right, DeAndre said after the game, Hey,
I'm going to play for for game two. Wasn't physically
able to write like you can have the intentions you're
going to want to go out there and prove yourself.
You know, seeing the Beat reporters talking about their conversations
with Evan Mobley and how dejected he was struggling, you know,
(14:23):
to put weight on his foot, like this is this
is serious stuff, man, And I think it goes back
to what you were saying before about how this was
an opportunity to extend the series and give by them
a little bit more time. I don't know what the
likelihood of these guys being able to return in the
series is. And like, from a fan standpoint, I'm sitting here,
(14:46):
I'm bitter, Like I'm feeling bitter. I'm frustrated by that.
Like you know, I do my best to not let
that impact my analysis, but it hurts. Man, Like everything
you did everything right this season, right like, you did
everything to manage minutes, did everything you could to not
be in this position, it looked like you weren't in
(15:08):
this position. And you know, two bad landings, or really
three bad landings, because because Darius appeared, I think he
landed on a fan court side. You know, three landings
in the playoffs were enough to change your luck.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
And you know, we.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Talked about appreciating that, you know, things can change in
the blank of an eye, and you have to be
in the moment and you have to be able to
enjoy it. But as much as I'm you know, as
much as we talk about that throughout the season, I'm
convincing myself to do that at the same time, right
like I'm trying to remember to myself and reflecting on
(15:46):
it and looking back at it right now, I'm like,
I still took that for granted. I still you know, assume, hey,
we're going to be healthy for this run. We're at
least getting this year. And you know, for that to
be such a major part of the story, it's it's frustrating.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
And uh, you know, you don't get to choose how
you build your contender. You know, there's so much luck
that comes into it. You know, you don't just get
to choose to add a Lebron or whoever it may be.
But so this isn't like a criticism of the team building,
but like this is the risk of being a strength
(16:24):
in numbers. We got four, five, six guys that are
all can all help on any given night, but you
know we don't have a top one guy. We don't
have a Lebron. Like this is the challenge. This is
the reason why everyone wants a Lebron and why everyone
wants a Luca is Like, you know, like there is
(16:45):
just a you get you get two guys banged up, and.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I mean that can still happen to the one, Like
you know, Steph Curry just left the game. Lucas a
million playoff series.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
There's no one rode up the mountain. But like it
does feel, you know, it's felt often to me that
this Cavs team can you know, has that you know,
that Swiss watch quality where you know, like when everything's going,
when everything's kind of good, everything's great, but you know,
it just takes a couple of kinks and all of
a sudden it's like, oh, we got one guy, you know,
(17:21):
tis having a bad game, so we got one guy
who can run a pick and roll. Yeah, oh Evan's hurt,
Dean Wade backup center, sat Lote, you know, and like,
you know, these are all the challenges that come with
roster construction. You don't get to build a perfect team,
and you don't get to choose who gets hurt, and
(17:43):
like you can only insulate in so many spots, you know. Yeah, like,
you know, I thought they did a great job of
covering for DeAndre Hunter's absence tonight. I did not spend
a lot of possessions going damn if only DeAndre were
out here. Honestly, I thought.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
They did a great job of covering for no Evan right,
like that that's the anchor of our defense, and I
thought they did one of their best jobs at the
point of attack limiting dribbled drive penetration for Indiana, there
was a lot of times where the Pacers weren't able
to get the cas into rotation and generate the same
types of looks. I thought, you know, that.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Goes to show you.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
As much as you talk about roster construction and personnel
and your strengths offensively and defensively, a lot of it
does come down to execution and effort. And I thought
the execution and effort was absolutely there. I thought that
they had enough to go out there and win tonight.
Just frustrating to not come away with that win, right,
(18:47):
And you know, I I it's one of those that's
going to stick with you. It's really really you know,
you got to give Indiana credit for continuing to fight
throughout that game and playing themselves into a position to
capitalize on it.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
But yeah, it's it's it's up there with one of
the most painful losses in the franchise's history. It is
because of the context of what the seats this team
has been all year, you know, like, I mean, nothing
will ever top twenty eighteen Game one for me, I
was you know, I was one of those go to
(19:25):
bed miserable, wake up miserable games for me, just because
I you know, I truly felt like that Golden State
team was ready to splinter and crack, and next year
they did. I still didn't hit me that, Yeah, I know, yeah,
this is one of our biggest differentials in terms of
like my pure uncut misery after that game. But you know,
(19:48):
this is right up there and maybe worse. You know,
this is a great Vibes Cavs team who won sixty
four games, you know, that twenty eighteen team. You know,
even if someone who is on the upper end of
the respect the second Lebron era enjoyers, even even to
the bitter end, like that was not a good Vibes team.
(20:11):
That was not a team that you know, it was
a team that easily could have lost in the first round,
if you'll recall. And you know, it just feels like
we're so far away from when it from being up
by sixty against Miami, just like it's just a few
days away.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, that's that's the crazy thing, man, Like, you know.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I just I just thought I thought this team was
ready to go, you know, maybe win a title coming
off of that series. And whether it's the injuries, whether
it's the whether it's the execution down the stretch, it's
just it feels like it's slipping away a little bit.
It's not over yet by any means. You know, they
(20:54):
you know, they absolutely can come back and make this
a series, but like, who does kind of feel that
way right now sitting in a fan seat? Yeah, absolutely right,
And that's one of the things you almost forget with
how easy the Miami series was. Every loss feels like
the end of the world in the playoffs like that,
that's just the nature of the beast. Obviously, it feels
(21:17):
even worse when when you're down. Guys, we have seen
the Cavs lose two games at home in the playoffs
and come back to win a series. Now, obviously those
were different teams, but you know, you don't know what
teams are capable of until you see them in those situations, right,
And I think we're going to continue to learn more
(21:37):
and more about this team and based on what we see,
you know that that's going to continue to inform you know,
as you like to say, the lessons you're going to learn.
But I think your point about, hey, you're you're never
going to have a perfect roster. You have to you know,
you have to make the most of the talent that's
available to you.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
That's that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Man.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
You you don't you don't get to pick and choose
who's on your team. You don't get to pick and
choose outcomes. But you do get to pick and choose
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Speaker 1 (22:19):
Out see you with a somber ad read.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Know who is working happy and working hard in a
way that really warmed my heart. We touched on him before,
but I want to give a shout out to Max
Drews because if I could, if I could pick and choose,
you know, who's on this roster, I would clone a
million Max Drews's. I would build the entire plane on
Max Drews's because that guy plays hard that he worked
(22:45):
his ass off, you know, the extra possessions you talk
about Indie fouling physically and putting the lumber into guys.
Max was making you feel him out there, Like when
he was setting a screen for Tyrese, he was making
sure there was a little extra on there. He was
physical the entire night. He hit big shots. That transition
(23:06):
dunk that he had was phenomenal. I thought it was
almost a perfect Max true game, you know, not until that.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Turnover at the end throwing the ball away. Yeah, not
even that I don't really put on Max. They were
out of timeouts. He had to put the ball into play,
and as I mentioned five, you know, four Cavaliers were
sitting there being hugged and shimmying their shoulders and putting
their arm up feebly like you know, It's not like
(23:35):
he missed a wide you know, an open receiver streaking
wide open, thirty yards down the field. It was a
jump ball. He had no targets. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, And you know what I was going to say,
was not a perfect game in terms of you know,
being mistake free, but being resilient within that play, right,
Like I thought, you know, you have a little rut
there where you're not hitting threes, you step up and
you hit that big one to put the Cavs up Evan.
I just thought it was a terrific game from him.
I thought Jared really stepped up and had a great game.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
The one thing I'll.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Say about how Jared was used in this one was
at the start we were really getting some good actions
out of him out of the short role both as
a scorer, and he had three assists pretty early on
in the game. Kind of felt like we got away
from that a little bit, and I understand we were
able to get downhill a lot. The guard to guard
screening was generating a ton of good looks. Getting Tyre's
(24:30):
Halliburton into you know, action was resulting in a lot
of good looks. I just felt like that was potentially
something they could have gone to a little bit more
to see if, hey, maybe Jared has a little bit
of gas here, you know, it can finish in these spots.
Maybe kick it out for some catch and shoot threes.
Maybe that could be something that generates us some offense
(24:53):
when we're looking tired as hell out here.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
It feels so stupid to talk x's and those right now,
like it's really hard, but there is stuff, you know,
there is stuff that there is to take away. You know,
Indy didn't just magic away the Cavs offense in the
final five six minutes of that game. What they did
(25:19):
was they just started blitzing and extending their coverage further
and further and further and further away from the hoop.
You know, when they were running some of those plays,
there was you know, Alberton was showing all the way
out to damnear half court on some of these guard
guard pick and rolls, and like, I do think that's
(25:41):
where you really felt the lack of Evan and even
the lack of Darius and the lack of ty Jerome
having the worst game of his life, which we haven't
hit on yet. It's an absolute, you know, disaster performance
for him, and I think he'd probably tell you that.
But like, you know, if they've got two to three
(26:03):
guys pressuring the ball at half court in a half
court possession, you've got to provide a release valve and
attack the hoop. And I just felt like that's where
Ocoro let you down in terms of consistent ability to attack.
That's where you know, heavy legs let them down where
(26:25):
they just kind of said, Donovan, just you split it,
and you know he split it a couple of times,
but like, you know, not enough shooting, not enough, not
enough sharp decision making against that pressure. I'm sorry. You
need to be able to make the Indiana Pacers pay
(26:46):
when they're putting two on the ball at half court. Yea,
we watched the Cavs make the Miami Heat pay when
they put two on the ball at half court consistently.
And yeah, the personnel was better. Yeah, Tie was having
a great series and in this and uh, you know
he had I mean, I mean again, just a nightmare game.
(27:07):
Shorted every single floater, even the ones that were off
you know, off a good foot, not the you know,
the tide your own special, but the normal floaters for
normal guards. He was aiming them, you know, And I
just think, I think, really it, I don't want to say,
(27:27):
you know, the team collectively lost the game, obviously, yeah,
but the fact that they just couldn't count on Tie
to help at all. Two points on fourteen field goal
attempts for assists, oh, four from three. You know, when
you're down, it's tough, man like it. I mean, you
(27:48):
made you made the right choice in my opinion, because
we've tied with Lima and you're like they should start
tie because you want two ball handlers. You want to
be able to attack Indiana for multiple side to the court,
and they couldn't tonight because ty couldn't do it, you know,
and like that's I mean, it's just a bomber outcome.
(28:10):
I mean, there's so much about this this game that
you just kind of go, like you you want to
talk the excess and o's and like you're right, like
some of the pressure relieve stuff is there and you
know some ways to cover, but then so much of
this game goes down to well that sucks. Yeah, And
(28:30):
I just you know, and that's why I think they're
going to have a hard time bouncing back from this.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yeah, And I'm not going to pile on Tye. You
win games collectively, you lose games collectively. I know everybody,
when you have a painful loss, they look for a scapegoat,
right like they look for their pound of flesh. Whether
it's guys that weren't able to give it a go
that we're trying to play, whether it's someone that was
out there that struggled. I think every single player up
(28:55):
and down the roster, The coaching staff, all has plays,
all has moments within this game that.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
They would have back.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I'm not going to to pile on there, but I think,
you know, it does show when you reach playoff level defense,
when when you play a real team like the Indiana
Pacers that's been playing great basketball for a while now,
if you're part of that starting unit, you're going to
face another level of pressure, right, And I think what
(29:23):
they were able to do with them hard Whitney Smith,
in particular on the perimeter, just made TI feel uncomfortable. Uh.
And you know, that's a level of game planning. He's
not used to the scene in the regular season. I
think he's going to be more equipped to handle that
in Game three, whether it's coming in off the bench
or whether he's called upon to start again. But it
(29:44):
was definitely a tough night for him. And you know, Uh,
I like the fact that in this game there was
less uh soft switching than we've seen in previous matchups.
There were still some of it, but I thought for
the most part they were allowing guys to fight through screens.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
If that was there.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
The one thing I gotta say is if you are
going to switch some of these possessions, you kind of
gotta live with the results a little bit. I saw
Matt Moore was tweeting about this as well, where jaredt
is switching some of these Miles Turner pick and roll,
pick and pop situations, and then he's out there scrambling
and over helping after the fact to get back out
to Turner, and you just got to kind of live
(30:24):
with the results.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Like I you know.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
If you're giving up those shots, you gotta live with it,
because once you get into that scramble mode, if there's
a second chance opportunity, you're not going to be able
to recover from that. You have to to kind of
live with your defensive coverage and stick to it. And
if the coverage isn't working, you change up the coverage,
but you have to execute it. And the other thing
(30:48):
is from an execution standpoint, the end of quarter threes
is something that you know, just that extra ten you know,
five ten seconds of focus and effort points a game
for right now, it really is right like it's just
hey that those seconds of the quarter probably you know
that they are out there, they're going to try to
(31:08):
get that three pointer. At the end of the quarter.
They know they're going to try to kick it out
to the corners. You know that they're going to get
out and transition, They're going to find ways to leak
out and get these opportunities, little things like that. It's
the little things in the margin that you know, when
you're up fifteen or you're up eighteen, I think at
some of those opportunities doesn't feel as bad. Hey, you
(31:31):
got points to play with, but you see how it
has an effect at the end of the game, right,
And it's that kind of stuff that makes me not
dwell on, you know, struggles of someone individually like a
Ti Jerome, and focus on kind of the picture as
a whole, because it's little plays throughout the entire game
that end up to, you know, amounting to that end result.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yep, man, it's a I gotta tell you, it's it's
I you know. And by the way, this is why
it's so stupid, and I'm very guilty of this for
pre dooming, you know, because it doesn't make the loss
any easier, you know, it doesn't make it you know,
(32:20):
talking about you know, you saw some of my d
ms after it was very clear that all three of
these guys were not going to play.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
You know, the pre misery doesn't actually save you from
the postgame misery. You know, it's it's better to try
to be calm and rational and try to find the
fun in it. Because you know, I'm no, I'm in
no better shape for having prepped myself emotionally for for that,
(32:49):
for that outcome.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
And that's why, you know what, I'm not doing that
with game three because I'm sitting here, I'm like, you
know what, if the Calves go out and they win
Game three, I'm going to get excited again. I want
to say, hey, now you just got to win one
more game. And that's got to be their mentality. You
look at the postgame coaches, you look at you know,
the postgame interviews. They got an edge to them. So
(33:12):
I Kenny said, hey, you know, the locker room wasn't
sitting there dejected. They know what they need to do.
I'm going to give them, these guys the benefit of
the doubt because they showed me a lot of heart tonight.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
You know, we SHOs a lot of heart. Even in
the Celtics series last year. I went and pulled it up,
you know, and they those final games. If you box
score Hunt from that playoff series, like it looks like
they let go of the rope. You know, Boston wins
Game five by fifteen points, but like they really played
(33:44):
their ass off.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
They almost won Game four without Mitchell, without Allen, They
almost found a way to win Game four. And you know,
I hate the fact that, hey, when you're missing two
of your core members, you know, you've found a way
to almost win. Like, I hate that we're in that
situation again in the second round because we want, you know,
we want usable tape. We want to be able to
(34:06):
assess this core and you.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Know, maybe that's part of the assessment. You know, it's
all data.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah it is, and it's going to have to be.
But you know, it is frustrating to be in that situation.
But I think the fight that we've seen this team
show gives me belief that they can go out and
win Game three.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And if you.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Win game three, you have a chance to then take
Game four. And if you manage to do that, it's
a brand new series. You know, Donovan talked about how
he expects guys to be back for Friday. We'll see
if that ends up being the case. We know that
everyone's going to be giving it their their best to
try to go out there and compete. It's you know
(34:50):
what you want and what is physically possible and whether
you know what's actually in the team's best interest, you know,
because it's one thing to go out there and an
attempt to play, but are you actually going to be
a positive That's the kind of thing that the medical
staff has to assess. Well, we'll we'll see how what
what type of shape they're in on Friday, But at
(35:10):
least they have, you know, the the extra day off.
I think that's one thing that they this team sorely,
sorely needed.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you hope you see something. You hope
you see Uh you know, I I'm actually not I'm
not worried about this team's ability to play with pride,
ability to play sharp, you know, and recover. You know.
I just I uh, I know, I picked Calves in five.
(35:40):
I think if you just you know, read that headline,
you would uh be like, oh, you big idiot. You
thought this was going to be an easy series for
the Cabs, And like, you know, I really do have
so much respect. I've had a lot of respect for
this any team since before the season even started. I
thought they were a better team than their record all year,
(36:03):
and you've been consistent on that and I and I
think Rick Carlisle's, you know, a top two coach in
the NBA, and uh, they're they're not just gonna give
it to you. You're gonna have to go. You're gonna
have to take it from them, And uh, I'm just
I'm a little worried about the team's ability to muster
(36:25):
the juice to do it at this point. Yep.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
But hey, if I thought that this team could win
in five and there's five games left, it's still possible.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
You know what, we could still put that theory to
the damn test, Carter. So we'll we'll, we'll see if
they can, you know, start that road take that first
bite out of the elephant in game three. Thank you
for everyone tuning in live on YouTube. I understand that
it's late. We appreciate you guys hanging out with us.
Make sure you guys like and subscribe. Click that notification
(36:55):
bell so you know when we're going live. If you're
listening to a podcasting, we I supports, leave us rating
the review, subscribe on subscribe to subscribe and help cook
those books you won't be part chased Downs Exclusive discord
chats and NY screenshow the review to Chase downpodotgmail dot com.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
However you choose to support us, we really do appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Make sure you guys are staying safe out there until
next time you cast.
Hosts And Creators
Carter Rodriguez
Justin Rowan
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