April 20, 2025 • 33 mins
Justin and Carter react live from Rocket Arena to discuss the Cavs Game 1 win against the Miami Heat! Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yN2y73... Please Note: The opinions expressed by The Chase Down podcast are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of the Cleveland Cavaliers or its Basketball Operations staff, parent company, or partners.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
At this browd rises to its feet.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
What Carls slandered home?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Are left wing free ball?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Perfect?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Botly pop that haven't blocked the shot of the rim?
How with the left head and a bow? Welcome to
the Chase Down Podcast, part of the Caves media family.
I'm your host, Justin Rowan. The Chase Doown is presented
by Fubo, the official streaming partner of the Calves. Watch
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(03:16):
Slash Calves. The Cleveland Cavaliers take Game one against the
Miami Heat. The Heat found a way to stick around,
make it a tight game. At times, a couple runs,
a couple little pushes there, but the Calves always managed
to maintain a healthy distance between them. So much fun
to see the Calves take Game one. Carter, how you doing?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You know they might have maintained a healthy distance, but
I didn't maintain a healthy connection with my voice.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It's no, you truly didn't, and I'm not maintaining a
healthy distance from you either. If I sound like hell
in Game two. It is one hundred percent your fault.
But the Calves did their own part in almost making
me sound like hell in this game. It was terrific
to see them, you know, find that groove look like
themselves offensively an offensive rating of over a hundred and
thirty seven in their you know, debut of the twenty
(04:03):
twenty five playoffs. That was one of the big things
that we wanted to see. You identified that two podcasts
ago where you said I want to see, you know,
a one eighteen type offensive output here. They kind of
exceeded your expectations by about twenty points.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Well, yeah, I just wanted to see the offense not
drop off. You know, I wanted to see them get
to run the kind of stuff that we've seen them
run all year. You know, I wanted to see them. Look,
I mean to put it simply, like they were in
control of the game, and like, at no point do
I feel like Miami had control of the game. Like,
(04:38):
even when they made their runs, I feel like, at
the end of the day, it was still very much
a Cavaliers game.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yeah, it really did. It felt like a Cavs game.
They got to the spots they wanted to get to
And that was one thing that I noticed really early
on Miami wasn't coming up to the level when they
were setting screens there, Darius had many opportunities to attack
them in a drop. They really hunted Tyler Hero more
than I even expected. And the interesting thing about the
(05:06):
way that the Cavs did hunt Tyler Hero, it wasn't
just guard to guard screens to you know, get the
mismatch and attack them one on one. Sometimes that was
the case. I think we did see a lot of
guard to guard screening throughout the night, but also would
flow into the pick and roll right like you would
generate that advantage. You generate the mismatches, get the switches
(05:27):
you want, and then use that as a means to
defeed Jarrett, tofeed Evan rolling to the basket, or even
to find you know, cutters coming along the baseline.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I mean, they didn't really have to feed Evan and
Derrett though in fairness, I mean, Hi goes absolutely ballistic.
We'll talk about him a lot. Twenty eight points on
fifteen shots on him and puts up thirty on nineteen,
and Darius puts up twenty seven on seventeen like and
no point did the heat sell out to stop the
(05:58):
Guards while they were attacking to Tyler Hero and the Calves,
We're more than happy to continue torching him.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, and you know, Miami really didn't send a lot
of help either, Like once the Caves were able to
generate that advantage with Hero, I think Miami kind of recognizes, Hey,
we're gonna have to play this pretty straight up. Like
we do have the zone as an option here, but
for the most part, we're going to have to play
a lot of one on one defense. We're gonna have
to trust our guys because whether it's Ti Jerome, whether
(06:26):
that's Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, whether it's the Biggs Max Struce,
everyone's able to make the right play and find someone
when you create those advantages. So if you are having
so much trouble containing the point of attack that you
need to send help to to you know, bail out
Tyler Hero and to blitz into trap, the Cavs are
going to hurt you a lot in those spots. And
(06:48):
you know, I understand that that's the approach for game one.
We'll see if Eric Sposter takes that same approach going
into game two. We know that he is a master
of adjustments, and he's going to be dissecting this game tape,
particularly with two days off between these games. It'll be
interesting to see if they go to the adjustments earlier
than we expected, which typically Game three is that adjustment game.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, a twenty point loss will do that, though, where
you know, I felt like, again, the Caves really controlled
this game. Even when Miami was keeping it clos early.
They were shooting over fifty percent from three, The Calves
weren't hitting well, and like it just kind of felt
like a matter of time before the dam broke. And
I mean, I just don't think Miami had a lot
(07:33):
of answers, and like, I think the meanest thing you
could say about the game plan was that you didn't
really feel bam aut Obio's presence on defensive end.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
No, you didn't feel him on the defensive end. I
thought he had a very strong offensive game. He generated
the majority of Miami second chance opportunities in this game.
It felt like he had really nice timing for those misshots.
He definitely won that kind of one on one battle
with Evan Mobley, not that they were going at each
other a whole lot, but he outplayed Mobile. I think
(08:04):
it's fair to say That's something I'm going to keep
an eye on going into Game two, is do the
Cavs find other ways to get Evan going. But like
you said, there wasn't really a necessity to feed the
bigs because of how well the Guards were playing, and
I really enjoyed that. It was almost like they took
turns to some extent where Donovan really kind of had
it going. Early. I thought he did a terrific job
(08:25):
of setting the tone that man knows how to play
to a crowd. He understands the importance of a moment,
whether it was when he fought for the jump ball,
anytime he could get those energy plays.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well shivered and Duncan Robinson.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Right, and he plays to the crowd in all of
those moments, and I thought he did a terrific job
from a leadership standpoint. But then second and third quarters,
I thought Darius had some of the most timely baskets.
The playmaking was incredibly strong, really really really good playoff
game from him, and then ty Jerome decided to put
(08:59):
them my Ami heat away, which he has done all
season long. He has been terrific coming in off the bench,
and fun fact for you. I saw this from Calves notes.
This is the first time in Cleveland Cavalier's playoff history
that three players have scored over twenty seven points in
a game.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Really, that's pretty wild. You know, They've had some great trios.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
They really have. And to make that even more impressive,
Donovan was the least efficient of the bunch, shooting almost
fifty eight percent. Darius shot fifty nine percent, tie up
to sixty three percent. That's you know, that's an underrated
thing that we probably didn't talk about enough in this series.
I never want to go too negative in you know,
playoff coverage, and particularly when we're talking about other teams.
(09:41):
I like focusing on what teams do well and how
the Cavs can counteract that. But there really aren't a
lot of spots to hide Tyler Herro in this series,
particularly when the Cavs are able to go to these
two and three guard lineups, you know, without being punished.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And also the fact that Miami really only has Bam
means that you're able to run pick and roll with
whoever isn't there, Yeah, and you're able to bring you know,
Haywood high Smith up to the action. And like I
just felt like they kind of just could push whatever
button they wanted and they were just able to I
(10:18):
don't know, it just didn't feel like Miami really ever
made the Calves do anything on that end of the floor.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yeah, And you know, I thought the same was true
for Killel, where I thought that the Calves did a
lot of things to get him into the action and
to generate advantages there. I did not have, you know,
a big game. He just had that kind of one
book back dunk, which was impressive, don't get me wrong,
But you know, I thought that whether it was Tyler Herro,
(10:47):
whether it was where on the interior, I don't know
how Miami ends up defending the Calves. And that goes
back to what we talked about pregame, which is if
the Calves are able to play their game, if they
are able to generate offense that the way that we've
seen all season, and Miami keep up offensively. They had
such a you know, Miami had such a good shooting night.
(11:08):
I know, late game, garbage time, they jacked up some
threes and brought that percentage down to forty one percent,
but they were hovering around fifty percent pretty much the
whole game while still trailing by nearly ten points or more.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah, it was. It was a good shot variance game
for Miami, which is like the worst thing you could say.
You know, Hero hit a couple of ridiculous ones, Wiggins
started the game with a couple of tough ones, you know.
Davion Mitchell, absolutely, I think the number that actually might
matter just as much as the thirty one attempts. Like,
(11:42):
they weren't really able to get their half court going
in any meaningful way on the offensive end either.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, they really struggled to keep up to the Cats offensively.
And you know, we talked about over the last month
and a half of the season there was a bit
of a shooting slump with I, Jerome, Darius Garland, and Mitchell.
We saw Ty come back from some time off and
look explosive again. He was hitting his shots, you know.
Towards the end of the season, as the Cavs actually
(12:08):
got to stay home a little bit, we saw Darius
have some good performances to close out the year. We
saw Donovan have some good performances to close out the year.
This week off, did those guys as much good as
we were hoping for and you know, I think we
talk about what the three guard configurations can do offensively
and how they were able to generate offense so well,
(12:29):
but I think a big part of why they are
able to stick with those lineups and you know, really
lean in on the offensive end of the floor is
because of how well those guys were playing defensively. Darius
Garland took those assignments against Tyler Hero and really performed
well in those spots. Hero hit one incredibly tough three there,
but Darius did a good job of staying straight up,
(12:52):
you know, forcing them into tough shots. He didn't you know,
he didn't reach in and foul. Donovan was diving for
loose ball's playing hard defense. Tied did a good job
and Sam Merrill as well. Sam didn't have a huge
impact on the scoreboard, going to a four from three,
but he really played well defensively. I thought his footwork
(13:12):
was terrific. I thought he did a good job of
bodying up on Tyler Herrero and some of those other
guys on the perimeter, and really, you know, he made
it easy for Kenny to continue to trust him with
more minutes throughout the game.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I think if anything, there was a kind of a
revelation of Miami is kind of short on players who
played bullyble like Giro can't isn't going to like go
through your chest. Wiggins doesn't really want to do that,
you know, and then it's just like Bam hitting tough
jumpers and like if Donovan or Sam or Darius have
(13:46):
a problem, it's when guys can kind of power through them.
And it didn't really feel like Miami had the personnel
to want to play that way.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
And that's not something you can just do out of nowhere,
right like you're you can't all of a sudden decide
I'm going to be that player that gets into the
dirty areas and does the dirty work, right Like, you
kind of have to always be geared towards that. That's
not a flip switch that you can flip. And you
know what, sometimes I don't want to go into the
dirty areas and do that extra work, which is why
I rely on things like zoom Ai Companion, because only
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Speaker 2 (14:27):
Justin can we just talk more about Ty? I mean,
what a debut for him in the playoffs, a proof
of concept for his style of play for this team,
and he really closed them out.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah. You know, sometimes when you watch a player, you know,
for a full season, you get the vibe that this
is someone that lives for these kinds of moments, but
you don't know it until you see it. And you know,
Ty Jerome absolutely lives for these kinds of moments. Going
ten to fifteen from the field, he was terrific tonight.
The confidence he plays with, and you know some of
(15:05):
those shots you see it on TV, you understand, you
see the metrics that say he has one of the
toughest shot difficulties in the league, but some of these shots,
watching them live, you just are like wow, Like he
is not he doesn't have a lot of space to
work with, but he's still getting that flower off and
he's hitting it with consistency. He is never going to
shy away from those open three point opportunities. If you're
(15:27):
playing drop against him, he is going to kill you.
The confidence that he plays with it's infectious. And when
you have a three headed monster, when you are able
to keep Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell out there together
and then sub and Ti Jerome, so you always have
two dynamic guards out there, that's something special. And you know,
congratulations to him. He is named the finalist for six
(15:47):
Man of the Year. But in my opinion, it'd be
a travesty if this guy doesn't win it. I don't
think anybody has been better coming off the bench this season.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, just what I keep going back to is he
changes the flow of the cabs. He is not a
part of the machine. He is like, uh, he is
like an extra like turbo mode for the machine, you know.
And just the confidence, the difficulty of the shots, the
foul drawing, the physicality, no one pretty literally like jumped
(16:19):
on a heat player and forced to turn over, which
you know, probably could have called that a foul, but
you know whatever, it just felt like a total a
total tie game.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Yeah right, I'm not going to complain about a fifty
to fifty call that went our away because there were
plenty that didn't. I actually thought they did a really
good job of keeping their composure in those moments I
think there were some of those that you know, certainly
felt as if they could have gone the other direction,
but they didn't let any of that break them. I
honestly thought they did a really good job of dictating
(16:52):
terms here. Like I thought they brought the physicality to Miami,
and that's not always the case. They won the offensive
rebound battle, they won the over battle. And one of
the things that you know, you mentioned to me when
we were watching the game is you really like how
they were picking them up full court and at.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Least, you know, start the game right away.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Really to dictate terms right. And that doesn't mean you're
always going to play full court pressure, but if you're
at least pressuring the inbound a little bit, it changes
how comfortable they are bringing the ball up right, like
you're just knocking them out of rhythm just a little bit.
And I thought they did a really really good job
of dictating terms on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Well, Darius said it right off the rip, like in
this postgame interview, like he felt like their physicality is
what helped them win the game. And like a big
thing about the playoffs is hitting first, like you're gonna
get hit. It's gonna be tough, but like you have
to dictate the physicality battle, and like I thought they
(17:52):
did a great job of that. I mean, this is
a team that played no full press all year. Yeah,
it's not an accident that they started Game one of
the playoffs doing that.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah. And you know, we asked before the game, are
there going to be little wrinkles that Kenny's been keeping
in his back pocket? Is there little things that he's
going to do in the postseason that we didn't see
in the regular season. I think that's one of those things.
But honestly, if we are going to have a discussion
about the Cavs dictating terms about you know, the physicality
that they played with, I think one guy that deserves
(18:23):
a ton of credit is Jared Allen.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
I thought he was making all of those fifty to
fifty plays that you want to see, the way that
he was hunting for offensive rebounds. He got six of
them on the night that play in transition where Ban
had a breakaway dunk and he met him at the
rim and blocked the hell out of him. Jared, I thought,
really came to play And this is just again another
one of those reminders I think people think about two
(18:46):
years ago. They forget that this man average seventeen and
fourteen last year against the Orlando Magic, but before you know,
suffering the broken rib and even playing you know, through
some pain there. While he was playing, I thought Jared
was absolutely terrific to and I really really felt his
presence out there.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, I mean he was phenomenal. Six offensive rebounds, three steals,
like a lot of like straw that broke the camel's
back plays from him tonight.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Hm, yeah, there really was. And I thought he had
active hands too, where even you know, he has three steals,
but I feel like there are two or three other
possessions where he got the hand in there, started to
disrupt things, you know, it caused a little bit of
hand fighting. Maybe Darius comes in and gets the steel
ultimately or someone else. I just thought the activity level
(19:35):
was at a really really high level, and I'm just
going to be curious to see. We know that Miami's
going to look at this. They're going to look for
opportunities to make adjustments. I don't know what they can
do to really change what the Cats were doing with
their guards, but if they start selling out and trying
things and say Okay, maybe we're going to force the
Bigs to beat us. I'm really interested to see how
(19:58):
quickly we just to take advantage of that, because that, honestly,
that feels like the CounterPunch that's coming at some point
this season where Evan Mobley and Jared Allen are going
to need to be the guys that are leading us
in some scoring for portions of the game.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I just feel like, if your solution to the Cavs
is two on the ball, that's not a good solution.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, I just can't think of, you know, a whole
lot of other options. And you know, this is not
to be disrespectful, but this is kind of the dynamic
when you're talking about a one versus eight playoff match
ten one verse ten. You're You're right, you are correct
to point that out.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I do still think Miami is going to put a
scare in them at some point this series. I think
that the Cavs can respond to that. What I saw
tonight really confirmed a lot of what I was thinking
heading into the series, which is that the Cavs are
looking to make a statement. I saw Chris Fiedor publish
an article where the guys were talking about how they
watched the OKAC game earlier, they saw what they did,
(20:59):
how they made a statement as the number one seed,
and felt like they needed to go out and make
a statement. I feel they did that. You know, they
put Miami away in the fourth quarter. The one thing
that I'm kind of keeping an eye on, and you know,
we would like to see them clean up, is how
they close quarters in this game often. You know, in
the final minutes of the first, second and third quarter
(21:19):
they got outscored by about five points there, you know,
almost each time, Yeah, had another fifteen points to the score.
It's a laugher much much earlier.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yeah, And I think there's definitely stuff to clean up.
You know. There were some times where they got over
their skis on the offense. They tried some really tight
corridor passing, though they only had seven turnovers, so not
too much at the end of the day. But yeah,
I mean, and some of that is noisy, you know,
(21:48):
like the first half ends with Hero hitting a ridiculous three. Yeah,
and you know they go in a little baby six
zero run to make the game, you know, in contact. Yeah,
but I was glad to see. I don't think it
ever got closer than seven in the second half, there
was even with those little dips, there was a pretty
sustained effort.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah, and never felt like they got panicked. I think
it might have come down to six, you know, when
the Miami cut into it. It didn't feel like, oh,
the next shot coming from the Cavs was something that
was forced, right. It didn't feel like, you know, they
they're panicked, and oh, we need to get something up,
we need to extend this lead. Felt like they were
(22:29):
just still running their offense, playing with confidence, playing with composure.
And I don't think that was always the case. Going
back to the playoffs. I think this team at times
could have been rattled and they didn't allow the situation
to get the best of them.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, we haven't talked at all about the team's leading scorer,
and Donovan Mitchell really and I thought his composure was really,
really strong. I felt like almost every shot attempt he
took was the right kind of shot. He took, like
one pull up three I did in love when Evin
had a mismatch and was posting. Other than that, I
(23:03):
felt like his rim attacks were so on point. It's
always a treasure watching him in person. You know, the
way he moves just is another level of special in
the room. And I just thought he had complete command
of the offense tonight.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, he really did. You know, only two of nine
from the three point range. I agree with you. I
thought most of them were all very good looks. A
big part of when you're dealing with the score. As
good as Donovan Mitchell is, you don't want him to ever,
you know, pull it back right. I would rather him
taking one or two shots that's maybe a little bit ambitious,
(23:41):
rather than being passive, because he's someone that can get
hot in a hurry. And you know, discussing how the
Cats were able to get to the rim at will
and how they were able to take advantage of Miami,
I thought nobody did a better job of that than Donovan.
Some of the layup finishes that he had were out
of this world good. The body composure, we had an
MJ moment. Not only did he have an MJ moment,
(24:03):
he tied Michael Jordan for the most thirty point most
consecutive thirty point games to start a series with seven.
So you know, when the Caves advanced to the next round,
which they will, trust me, I'm not going to shy
away from that. We'll see if he can break MJ's record.
I have full confidence that he is able to do that,
and he'll once again have the opportunity to do that
(24:23):
at home with the Kavs being the number one seed
in the East. But I agree with you. I thought
the composure, the leadership was all what you would expect
from Donovan Mitchell, and that's really what we've seen all
season long.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
It just feels like he has settled into exactly what
the team needs him to do on and off the court.
He is someone that has, you know, learned from his experiences,
learned from his mistakes, learned from the playoff series that
didn't go his way, And it's just another level of
maturity because I think back to Game one against New
(24:58):
York that was his best scoring game of the series,
but it didn't feel as connected. And maybe that was
you know, the teammates not being ready for the moment
in that game and him, you know, putting the team
on his shoulders. But just the way that he empowers everyone,
the way that he gets everybody involved, there's just another
level of maturity in basketball. Like you that I think
(25:19):
he's gotten his game to and that's exactly what they
need if they want to contend.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah, I just feel like with Donovan, he's just kind
of my poster child for like, basketball is not about
the bag. The bag is important, don't get me wrong,
but like his growth as a player has almost nothing
to do with the way he dribbles, shoots, passes. It's
just his understanding of the game.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, Like he's that passing ability was always there, but
the way he access is it. The way you know,
he finds guys, the vision that's improved. And I think
one of the most important things and one of the
most impressive things about Donovan Mitchell it this is a
guy that was drafted to a fifty win team. This
is a guy that has had success every single individual season,
(26:07):
and he has been really good in each of those seasons.
It would be really easy for him to look back
on some of those years and say I did my part.
Like I'm an efficient scorer, I'm one of the highest
scoring playoff performers in the history of the NBA. Everyone
else needs to get in line, they need to support
what I'm doing here, but that has never been the
(26:29):
way that he approaches them. Donovan looks at every single
game and looks to see what he can do better.
He tries to improve his overall game. And I think
his understanding that we are going to accomplish the goals
that I want to accomplish if we are moving as
a collective, if we are doing this as a team,
(26:50):
and I think, you know, you take a gamble when
you go all in for a superstar, when you trade
all those draft picks to bring in someone like Donovan Mitchell.
They could not have envisioned this working out better than
it has. He has been exactly what this team has needed.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, just a general proof of concept for this roster construction.
So much so, many great contributions up and down on
him and obviously leading the way. But how about like
Darius Garland putting up twenty seven points, I've assist three rebounds,
and we barely talk about it. Like three years ago,
(27:28):
we would have been like the first twenty minutes about Darius. Yep.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
I mean, I'm always willing to go twenty minutes about Darius.
I certainly could tonight. I really thought he played a
terrific game. As I said, I thought he carried them
a lot in that second and third quarter where he
really set the tone. He hit really timely buckets. I
was impressed by his defense. You know, I think you're
(27:54):
right where this is almost unremarkable because we have come
to expect this. This is what you have seen from
Darius throughout the season. And yeah, he had the run
in March light like so many others on this team.
But he finished the season strong, and you know, he's
off to a strong start when it comes to the
playoffs and the deal.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
By the way, I cannot believe he was not nominated
for a Clutch Player of the Year.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
You know, when you have the most clutch wins out
of any player in the NBA, when you do it
more efficiently than any player, you just you shouldn't even
be in the top three, right Like that's that's that's how.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
This works, absolutely, buddy. I do want to take it
to kind of the other side of the coin. You know,
most things went great in this game. Two things didn't
go so well. You know, both DeAndre Hunter and Isaac
o quorroh four combined for an oh of eight day
not neither really imprinted themselves much on the game. Any
(28:51):
concerns there with how they played.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
You know, no big concerns because we understand that this
is a one game sample. Both of those guys go go.
In this game, Isaac, it looked a little more rushed,
I thought DeAndre. A couple of those takes probably are
some of the would fall in the category of those
fifty to fifty calls that I thought could have gone
their way. Isaac. You know, he rushed the first three
(29:15):
point shot from the corner, hit the side of the backboard.
There was one other that I thought was a good look,
but some of the other ones, it just looked like
he was forcing it. That's gonna be something to keep
an eye on, because you know, he has struggled with
that three point shot. I thought there were stretches where
he was doing other things well. In the first quarter,
he had that offensive rebound where he tracked that down
(29:35):
from the three point line, a couple of hustle plays.
I found it interesting that Eric Spolzer would sub Tyler
Hero out when Isaac was coming in. I don't know
if that is, you know, correlation or causation, but I'm
going to keep an eye on it. But the most
interesting thing about that is Coral struggles DeAndre struggles. Both
(29:56):
of them end up being basically eighth and ninth in
the rotation. Can really only went nine deep. Dean Waite
only played six minutes, and I think two of that
came in garbage time. He did exactly what he said
he was going to do. He played the hot hands.
DeAndre and Isaac struggle. We see Sam Merrill play more.
Sam Merril plays well in the defensive end. He continues
(30:17):
to get opportunities out there and chances to make an
impact on the offensive end. I expect Kenny to do that,
But what I want to keep an eye on is
and the bench have a better performance with the except
Ty Jerome was obviously terrific and that's going to really
boost those bench numbers. But sam Merril was the only
other bench player to make a shot. He went two
(30:38):
to four. They're going to need more from DeAndre Hunter,
from you know, Sam Merril, and obviously Isaac Okor.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Conversely, I think it was easy not to need that
much from them on a night where everyone else is
doing an okay job on Hero. He's not going to
go seven for eighteen every game of the series. With
Sam and Darius and Donovan switching on to him. There
are going to be games where you need DeAndre and
(31:04):
Isaac out there and you need to play the more
minutes just to just to get stops.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Yeah, I think that's a fair point. But you know,
in Deandre's case in particular, I want to see him
earn more minutes out there because I think he's going
to be so important to them, particularly later on in
the playoffs. I thought it was interesting that, you know,
Kenny went to DeAndre with the core for earlier in
the game. I think they got some first half minutes together. Man,
(31:35):
he's just he needs to have more of an impact, right,
And you know, I understand what you're saying. They were
more than capable of defending the Miami Heat as is,
but he is two way scor. He's someone that can
really get going. And you know, if DeAndre Hunter joins
the party here, you're going to feel really really good.
You're going to be in a great position to sweep.
(31:56):
So for me, he takeaways going into game two. Can
we get more balanced than scoring where it's not just
Ty Jerome having a heroic effort, And can Evan mobilely
get going a little bit more because we're really going
to need him later later in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, I mean like fifty plus of the Cavs eighty
eight shots for those three guards. I don't think Spoe
will let you like fun all so many attempts in
the three guys who are killing you again.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Well, we're going to see what happens in game two.
I'm excited about it. We will be previewing game two.
I think the only thing more tired than Tyler Hero
right now is your voice, So we'll get you out
of here. We appreciate everyone tuning in live on YouTube.
Make sure you guys like and subscribe. Click that notification
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(32:47):
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cats
At this browd rises to its feet.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
What Carls slandered home?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Are left wing free ball?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Perfect?
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Botly pop that haven't blocked the shot of the rim?
How with the left head and a bow? Welcome to
the Chase Down Podcast, part of the Caves media family.
I'm your host, Justin Rowan. The Chase Doown is presented
by Fubo, the official streaming partner of the Calves. Watch
over three hundred and fifty channels of live sports and TV,
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(03:16):
Slash Calves. The Cleveland Cavaliers take Game one against the
Miami Heat. The Heat found a way to stick around,
make it a tight game. At times, a couple runs,
a couple little pushes there, but the Calves always managed
to maintain a healthy distance between them. So much fun
to see the Calves take Game one. Carter, how you doing?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
You know they might have maintained a healthy distance, but
I didn't maintain a healthy connection with my voice.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It's no, you truly didn't, and I'm not maintaining a
healthy distance from you either. If I sound like hell
in Game two. It is one hundred percent your fault.
But the Calves did their own part in almost making
me sound like hell in this game. It was terrific
to see them, you know, find that groove look like
themselves offensively an offensive rating of over a hundred and
thirty seven in their you know, debut of the twenty
(04:03):
twenty five playoffs. That was one of the big things
that we wanted to see. You identified that two podcasts
ago where you said I want to see, you know,
a one eighteen type offensive output here. They kind of
exceeded your expectations by about twenty points.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Well, yeah, I just wanted to see the offense not
drop off. You know, I wanted to see them get
to run the kind of stuff that we've seen them
run all year. You know, I wanted to see them. Look,
I mean to put it simply, like they were in
control of the game, and like, at no point do
I feel like Miami had control of the game. Like,
(04:38):
even when they made their runs, I feel like, at
the end of the day, it was still very much
a Cavaliers game.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yeah, it really did. It felt like a Cavs game.
They got to the spots they wanted to get to
And that was one thing that I noticed really early
on Miami wasn't coming up to the level when they
were setting screens there, Darius had many opportunities to attack
them in a drop. They really hunted Tyler Hero more
than I even expected. And the interesting thing about the
(05:06):
way that the Cavs did hunt Tyler Hero, it wasn't
just guard to guard screens to you know, get the
mismatch and attack them one on one. Sometimes that was
the case. I think we did see a lot of
guard to guard screening throughout the night, but also would
flow into the pick and roll right like you would
generate that advantage. You generate the mismatches, get the switches
(05:27):
you want, and then use that as a means to
defeed Jarrett, tofeed Evan rolling to the basket, or even
to find you know, cutters coming along the baseline.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I mean, they didn't really have to feed Evan and
Derrett though in fairness, I mean, Hi goes absolutely ballistic.
We'll talk about him a lot. Twenty eight points on
fifteen shots on him and puts up thirty on nineteen,
and Darius puts up twenty seven on seventeen like and
no point did the heat sell out to stop the
(05:58):
Guards while they were attacking to Tyler Hero and the Calves,
We're more than happy to continue torching him.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, and you know, Miami really didn't send a lot
of help either, Like once the Caves were able to
generate that advantage with Hero, I think Miami kind of recognizes, Hey,
we're gonna have to play this pretty straight up. Like
we do have the zone as an option here, but
for the most part, we're going to have to play
a lot of one on one defense. We're gonna have
to trust our guys because whether it's Ti Jerome, whether
(06:26):
that's Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, whether it's the Biggs Max Struce,
everyone's able to make the right play and find someone
when you create those advantages. So if you are having
so much trouble containing the point of attack that you
need to send help to to you know, bail out
Tyler Hero and to blitz into trap, the Cavs are
going to hurt you a lot in those spots. And
(06:48):
you know, I understand that that's the approach for game one.
We'll see if Eric Sposter takes that same approach going
into game two. We know that he is a master
of adjustments, and he's going to be dissecting this game tape,
particularly with two days off between these games. It'll be
interesting to see if they go to the adjustments earlier
than we expected, which typically Game three is that adjustment game.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, a twenty point loss will do that, though, where
you know, I felt like, again, the Caves really controlled
this game. Even when Miami was keeping it clos early.
They were shooting over fifty percent from three, The Calves
weren't hitting well, and like it just kind of felt
like a matter of time before the dam broke. And
I mean, I just don't think Miami had a lot
(07:33):
of answers, and like, I think the meanest thing you
could say about the game plan was that you didn't
really feel bam aut Obio's presence on defensive end.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
No, you didn't feel him on the defensive end. I
thought he had a very strong offensive game. He generated
the majority of Miami second chance opportunities in this game.
It felt like he had really nice timing for those misshots.
He definitely won that kind of one on one battle
with Evan Mobley, not that they were going at each
other a whole lot, but he outplayed Mobile. I think
(08:04):
it's fair to say That's something I'm going to keep
an eye on going into Game two, is do the
Cavs find other ways to get Evan going. But like
you said, there wasn't really a necessity to feed the
bigs because of how well the Guards were playing, and
I really enjoyed that. It was almost like they took
turns to some extent where Donovan really kind of had
it going. Early. I thought he did a terrific job
(08:25):
of setting the tone that man knows how to play
to a crowd. He understands the importance of a moment,
whether it was when he fought for the jump ball,
anytime he could get those energy plays.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well shivered and Duncan Robinson.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Right, and he plays to the crowd in all of
those moments, and I thought he did a terrific job
from a leadership standpoint. But then second and third quarters,
I thought Darius had some of the most timely baskets.
The playmaking was incredibly strong, really really really good playoff
game from him, and then ty Jerome decided to put
(08:59):
them my Ami heat away, which he has done all
season long. He has been terrific coming in off the bench,
and fun fact for you. I saw this from Calves notes.
This is the first time in Cleveland Cavalier's playoff history
that three players have scored over twenty seven points in
a game.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Really, that's pretty wild. You know, They've had some great trios.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
They really have. And to make that even more impressive,
Donovan was the least efficient of the bunch, shooting almost
fifty eight percent. Darius shot fifty nine percent, tie up
to sixty three percent. That's you know, that's an underrated
thing that we probably didn't talk about enough in this series.
I never want to go too negative in you know,
playoff coverage, and particularly when we're talking about other teams.
(09:41):
I like focusing on what teams do well and how
the Cavs can counteract that. But there really aren't a
lot of spots to hide Tyler Herro in this series,
particularly when the Cavs are able to go to these
two and three guard lineups, you know, without being punished.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And also the fact that Miami really only has Bam
means that you're able to run pick and roll with
whoever isn't there, Yeah, and you're able to bring you know,
Haywood high Smith up to the action. And like I
just felt like they kind of just could push whatever
button they wanted and they were just able to I
(10:18):
don't know, it just didn't feel like Miami really ever
made the Calves do anything on that end of the floor.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Yeah, And you know, I thought the same was true
for Killel, where I thought that the Calves did a
lot of things to get him into the action and
to generate advantages there. I did not have, you know,
a big game. He just had that kind of one
book back dunk, which was impressive, don't get me wrong,
But you know, I thought that whether it was Tyler Herro,
(10:47):
whether it was where on the interior, I don't know
how Miami ends up defending the Calves. And that goes
back to what we talked about pregame, which is if
the Calves are able to play their game, if they
are able to generate offense that the way that we've
seen all season, and Miami keep up offensively. They had
such a you know, Miami had such a good shooting night.
(11:08):
I know, late game, garbage time, they jacked up some
threes and brought that percentage down to forty one percent,
but they were hovering around fifty percent pretty much the
whole game while still trailing by nearly ten points or more.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah, it was. It was a good shot variance game
for Miami, which is like the worst thing you could say.
You know, Hero hit a couple of ridiculous ones, Wiggins
started the game with a couple of tough ones, you know.
Davion Mitchell, absolutely, I think the number that actually might
matter just as much as the thirty one attempts. Like,
(11:42):
they weren't really able to get their half court going
in any meaningful way on the offensive end either.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, they really struggled to keep up to the Cats offensively.
And you know, we talked about over the last month
and a half of the season there was a bit
of a shooting slump with I, Jerome, Darius Garland, and Mitchell.
We saw Ty come back from some time off and
look explosive again. He was hitting his shots, you know.
Towards the end of the season, as the Cavs actually
(12:08):
got to stay home a little bit, we saw Darius
have some good performances to close out the year. We
saw Donovan have some good performances to close out the year.
This week off, did those guys as much good as
we were hoping for and you know, I think we
talk about what the three guard configurations can do offensively
and how they were able to generate offense so well,
(12:29):
but I think a big part of why they are
able to stick with those lineups and you know, really
lean in on the offensive end of the floor is
because of how well those guys were playing defensively. Darius
Garland took those assignments against Tyler Hero and really performed
well in those spots. Hero hit one incredibly tough three there,
but Darius did a good job of staying straight up,
(12:52):
you know, forcing them into tough shots. He didn't you know,
he didn't reach in and foul. Donovan was diving for
loose ball's playing hard defense. Tied did a good job
and Sam Merrill as well. Sam didn't have a huge
impact on the scoreboard, going to a four from three,
but he really played well defensively. I thought his footwork
(13:12):
was terrific. I thought he did a good job of
bodying up on Tyler Herrero and some of those other
guys on the perimeter, and really, you know, he made
it easy for Kenny to continue to trust him with
more minutes throughout the game.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I think if anything, there was a kind of a
revelation of Miami is kind of short on players who
played bullyble like Giro can't isn't going to like go
through your chest. Wiggins doesn't really want to do that,
you know, and then it's just like Bam hitting tough
jumpers and like if Donovan or Sam or Darius have
(13:46):
a problem, it's when guys can kind of power through them.
And it didn't really feel like Miami had the personnel
to want to play that way.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
And that's not something you can just do out of nowhere,
right like you're you can't all of a sudden decide
I'm going to be that player that gets into the
dirty areas and does the dirty work, right Like, you
kind of have to always be geared towards that. That's
not a flip switch that you can flip. And you
know what, sometimes I don't want to go into the
dirty areas and do that extra work, which is why
I rely on things like zoom Ai Companion, because only
(14:14):
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help you do the rest, like automatically taking notes, answering
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Speaker 2 (14:27):
Justin can we just talk more about Ty? I mean,
what a debut for him in the playoffs, a proof
of concept for his style of play for this team,
and he really closed them out.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yeah. You know, sometimes when you watch a player, you know,
for a full season, you get the vibe that this
is someone that lives for these kinds of moments, but
you don't know it until you see it. And you know,
Ty Jerome absolutely lives for these kinds of moments. Going
ten to fifteen from the field, he was terrific tonight.
The confidence he plays with, and you know some of
(15:05):
those shots you see it on TV, you understand, you
see the metrics that say he has one of the
toughest shot difficulties in the league, but some of these shots,
watching them live, you just are like wow, Like he
is not he doesn't have a lot of space to
work with, but he's still getting that flower off and
he's hitting it with consistency. He is never going to
shy away from those open three point opportunities. If you're
(15:27):
playing drop against him, he is going to kill you.
The confidence that he plays with it's infectious. And when
you have a three headed monster, when you are able
to keep Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell out there together
and then sub and Ti Jerome, so you always have
two dynamic guards out there, that's something special. And you know,
congratulations to him. He is named the finalist for six
(15:47):
Man of the Year. But in my opinion, it'd be
a travesty if this guy doesn't win it. I don't
think anybody has been better coming off the bench this season.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, just what I keep going back to is he
changes the flow of the cabs. He is not a
part of the machine. He is like, uh, he is
like an extra like turbo mode for the machine, you know.
And just the confidence, the difficulty of the shots, the
foul drawing, the physicality, no one pretty literally like jumped
(16:19):
on a heat player and forced to turn over, which
you know, probably could have called that a foul, but
you know whatever, it just felt like a total a
total tie game.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Yeah right, I'm not going to complain about a fifty
to fifty call that went our away because there were
plenty that didn't. I actually thought they did a really
good job of keeping their composure in those moments I
think there were some of those that you know, certainly
felt as if they could have gone the other direction,
but they didn't let any of that break them. I
honestly thought they did a really good job of dictating
(16:52):
terms here. Like I thought they brought the physicality to Miami,
and that's not always the case. They won the offensive
rebound battle, they won the over battle. And one of
the things that you know, you mentioned to me when
we were watching the game is you really like how
they were picking them up full court and at.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Least, you know, start the game right away.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Really to dictate terms right. And that doesn't mean you're
always going to play full court pressure, but if you're
at least pressuring the inbound a little bit, it changes
how comfortable they are bringing the ball up right, like
you're just knocking them out of rhythm just a little bit.
And I thought they did a really really good job
of dictating terms on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Well, Darius said it right off the rip, like in
this postgame interview, like he felt like their physicality is
what helped them win the game. And like a big
thing about the playoffs is hitting first, like you're gonna
get hit. It's gonna be tough, but like you have
to dictate the physicality battle, and like I thought they
(17:52):
did a great job of that. I mean, this is
a team that played no full press all year. Yeah,
it's not an accident that they started Game one of
the playoffs doing that.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah. And you know, we asked before the game, are
there going to be little wrinkles that Kenny's been keeping
in his back pocket? Is there little things that he's
going to do in the postseason that we didn't see
in the regular season. I think that's one of those things.
But honestly, if we are going to have a discussion
about the Cavs dictating terms about you know, the physicality
that they played with, I think one guy that deserves
(18:23):
a ton of credit is Jared Allen.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
I thought he was making all of those fifty to
fifty plays that you want to see, the way that
he was hunting for offensive rebounds. He got six of
them on the night that play in transition where Ban
had a breakaway dunk and he met him at the
rim and blocked the hell out of him. Jared, I thought,
really came to play And this is just again another
one of those reminders I think people think about two
(18:46):
years ago. They forget that this man average seventeen and
fourteen last year against the Orlando Magic, but before you know,
suffering the broken rib and even playing you know, through
some pain there. While he was playing, I thought Jared
was absolutely terrific to and I really really felt his
presence out there.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah, I mean he was phenomenal. Six offensive rebounds, three steals,
like a lot of like straw that broke the camel's
back plays from him tonight.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Hm, yeah, there really was. And I thought he had
active hands too, where even you know, he has three steals,
but I feel like there are two or three other
possessions where he got the hand in there, started to
disrupt things, you know, it caused a little bit of
hand fighting. Maybe Darius comes in and gets the steel
ultimately or someone else. I just thought the activity level
(19:35):
was at a really really high level, and I'm just
going to be curious to see. We know that Miami's
going to look at this. They're going to look for
opportunities to make adjustments. I don't know what they can
do to really change what the Cats were doing with
their guards, but if they start selling out and trying
things and say Okay, maybe we're going to force the
Bigs to beat us. I'm really interested to see how
(19:58):
quickly we just to take advantage of that, because that, honestly,
that feels like the CounterPunch that's coming at some point
this season where Evan Mobley and Jared Allen are going
to need to be the guys that are leading us
in some scoring for portions of the game.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I just feel like, if your solution to the Cavs
is two on the ball, that's not a good solution.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, I just can't think of, you know, a whole
lot of other options. And you know, this is not
to be disrespectful, but this is kind of the dynamic
when you're talking about a one versus eight playoff match
ten one verse ten. You're You're right, you are correct
to point that out.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I do still think Miami is going to put a
scare in them at some point this series. I think
that the Cavs can respond to that. What I saw
tonight really confirmed a lot of what I was thinking
heading into the series, which is that the Cavs are
looking to make a statement. I saw Chris Fiedor publish
an article where the guys were talking about how they
watched the OKAC game earlier, they saw what they did,
(20:59):
how they made a statement as the number one seed,
and felt like they needed to go out and make
a statement. I feel they did that. You know, they
put Miami away in the fourth quarter. The one thing
that I'm kind of keeping an eye on, and you know,
we would like to see them clean up, is how
they close quarters in this game often. You know, in
the final minutes of the first, second and third quarter
(21:19):
they got outscored by about five points there, you know,
almost each time, Yeah, had another fifteen points to the score.
It's a laugher much much earlier.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yeah, And I think there's definitely stuff to clean up.
You know. There were some times where they got over
their skis on the offense. They tried some really tight
corridor passing, though they only had seven turnovers, so not
too much at the end of the day. But yeah,
I mean, and some of that is noisy, you know,
(21:48):
like the first half ends with Hero hitting a ridiculous three. Yeah,
and you know they go in a little baby six
zero run to make the game, you know, in contact. Yeah,
but I was glad to see. I don't think it
ever got closer than seven in the second half, there
was even with those little dips, there was a pretty
sustained effort.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah, and never felt like they got panicked. I think
it might have come down to six, you know, when
the Miami cut into it. It didn't feel like, oh,
the next shot coming from the Cavs was something that
was forced, right. It didn't feel like, you know, they
they're panicked, and oh, we need to get something up,
we need to extend this lead. Felt like they were
(22:29):
just still running their offense, playing with confidence, playing with composure.
And I don't think that was always the case. Going
back to the playoffs. I think this team at times
could have been rattled and they didn't allow the situation
to get the best of them.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, we haven't talked at all about the team's leading scorer,
and Donovan Mitchell really and I thought his composure was really,
really strong. I felt like almost every shot attempt he
took was the right kind of shot. He took, like
one pull up three I did in love when Evin
had a mismatch and was posting. Other than that, I
(23:03):
felt like his rim attacks were so on point. It's
always a treasure watching him in person. You know, the
way he moves just is another level of special in
the room. And I just thought he had complete command
of the offense tonight.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, he really did. You know, only two of nine
from the three point range. I agree with you. I
thought most of them were all very good looks. A
big part of when you're dealing with the score. As
good as Donovan Mitchell is, you don't want him to ever,
you know, pull it back right. I would rather him
taking one or two shots that's maybe a little bit ambitious,
(23:41):
rather than being passive, because he's someone that can get
hot in a hurry. And you know, discussing how the
Cats were able to get to the rim at will
and how they were able to take advantage of Miami,
I thought nobody did a better job of that than Donovan.
Some of the layup finishes that he had were out
of this world good. The body composure, we had an
MJ moment. Not only did he have an MJ moment,
(24:03):
he tied Michael Jordan for the most thirty point most
consecutive thirty point games to start a series with seven.
So you know, when the Caves advanced to the next round,
which they will, trust me, I'm not going to shy
away from that. We'll see if he can break MJ's record.
I have full confidence that he is able to do that,
and he'll once again have the opportunity to do that
(24:23):
at home with the Kavs being the number one seed
in the East. But I agree with you. I thought
the composure, the leadership was all what you would expect
from Donovan Mitchell, and that's really what we've seen all
season long.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
It just feels like he has settled into exactly what
the team needs him to do on and off the court.
He is someone that has, you know, learned from his experiences,
learned from his mistakes, learned from the playoff series that
didn't go his way, And it's just another level of
maturity because I think back to Game one against New
(24:58):
York that was his best scoring game of the series,
but it didn't feel as connected. And maybe that was
you know, the teammates not being ready for the moment
in that game and him, you know, putting the team
on his shoulders. But just the way that he empowers everyone,
the way that he gets everybody involved, there's just another
level of maturity in basketball. Like you that I think
(25:19):
he's gotten his game to and that's exactly what they
need if they want to contend.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah, I just feel like with Donovan, he's just kind
of my poster child for like, basketball is not about
the bag. The bag is important, don't get me wrong,
but like his growth as a player has almost nothing
to do with the way he dribbles, shoots, passes. It's
just his understanding of the game.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, Like he's that passing ability was always there, but
the way he access is it. The way you know,
he finds guys, the vision that's improved. And I think
one of the most important things and one of the
most impressive things about Donovan Mitchell it this is a
guy that was drafted to a fifty win team. This
is a guy that has had success every single individual season,
(26:07):
and he has been really good in each of those seasons.
It would be really easy for him to look back
on some of those years and say I did my part.
Like I'm an efficient scorer, I'm one of the highest
scoring playoff performers in the history of the NBA. Everyone
else needs to get in line, they need to support
what I'm doing here, but that has never been the
(26:29):
way that he approaches them. Donovan looks at every single
game and looks to see what he can do better.
He tries to improve his overall game. And I think
his understanding that we are going to accomplish the goals
that I want to accomplish if we are moving as
a collective, if we are doing this as a team,
(26:50):
and I think, you know, you take a gamble when
you go all in for a superstar, when you trade
all those draft picks to bring in someone like Donovan Mitchell.
They could not have envisioned this working out better than
it has. He has been exactly what this team has needed.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, just a general proof of concept for this roster construction.
So much so, many great contributions up and down on
him and obviously leading the way. But how about like
Darius Garland putting up twenty seven points, I've assist three rebounds,
and we barely talk about it. Like three years ago,
(27:28):
we would have been like the first twenty minutes about Darius. Yep.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
I mean, I'm always willing to go twenty minutes about Darius.
I certainly could tonight. I really thought he played a
terrific game. As I said, I thought he carried them
a lot in that second and third quarter where he
really set the tone. He hit really timely buckets. I
was impressed by his defense. You know, I think you're
(27:54):
right where this is almost unremarkable because we have come
to expect this. This is what you have seen from
Darius throughout the season. And yeah, he had the run
in March light like so many others on this team.
But he finished the season strong, and you know, he's
off to a strong start when it comes to the
playoffs and the deal.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
By the way, I cannot believe he was not nominated
for a Clutch Player of the Year.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
You know, when you have the most clutch wins out
of any player in the NBA, when you do it
more efficiently than any player, you just you shouldn't even
be in the top three, right Like that's that's that's how.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
This works, absolutely, buddy. I do want to take it
to kind of the other side of the coin. You know,
most things went great in this game. Two things didn't
go so well. You know, both DeAndre Hunter and Isaac
o quorroh four combined for an oh of eight day
not neither really imprinted themselves much on the game. Any
(28:51):
concerns there with how they played.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
You know, no big concerns because we understand that this
is a one game sample. Both of those guys go go.
In this game, Isaac, it looked a little more rushed,
I thought DeAndre. A couple of those takes probably are
some of the would fall in the category of those
fifty to fifty calls that I thought could have gone
their way. Isaac. You know, he rushed the first three
(29:15):
point shot from the corner, hit the side of the backboard.
There was one other that I thought was a good look,
but some of the other ones, it just looked like
he was forcing it. That's gonna be something to keep
an eye on, because you know, he has struggled with
that three point shot. I thought there were stretches where
he was doing other things well. In the first quarter,
he had that offensive rebound where he tracked that down
(29:35):
from the three point line, a couple of hustle plays.
I found it interesting that Eric Spolzer would sub Tyler
Hero out when Isaac was coming in. I don't know
if that is, you know, correlation or causation, but I'm
going to keep an eye on it. But the most
interesting thing about that is Coral struggles DeAndre struggles. Both
(29:56):
of them end up being basically eighth and ninth in
the rotation. Can really only went nine deep. Dean Waite
only played six minutes, and I think two of that
came in garbage time. He did exactly what he said
he was going to do. He played the hot hands.
DeAndre and Isaac struggle. We see Sam Merrill play more.
Sam Merril plays well in the defensive end. He continues
(30:17):
to get opportunities out there and chances to make an
impact on the offensive end. I expect Kenny to do that,
But what I want to keep an eye on is
and the bench have a better performance with the except
Ty Jerome was obviously terrific and that's going to really
boost those bench numbers. But sam Merril was the only
other bench player to make a shot. He went two
(30:38):
to four. They're going to need more from DeAndre Hunter,
from you know, Sam Merril, and obviously Isaac Okor.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Conversely, I think it was easy not to need that
much from them on a night where everyone else is
doing an okay job on Hero. He's not going to
go seven for eighteen every game of the series. With
Sam and Darius and Donovan switching on to him. There
are going to be games where you need DeAndre and
(31:04):
Isaac out there and you need to play the more
minutes just to just to get stops.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Yeah, I think that's a fair point. But you know,
in Deandre's case in particular, I want to see him
earn more minutes out there because I think he's going
to be so important to them, particularly later on in
the playoffs. I thought it was interesting that, you know,
Kenny went to DeAndre with the core for earlier in
the game. I think they got some first half minutes together. Man,
(31:35):
he's just he needs to have more of an impact, right,
And you know, I understand what you're saying. They were
more than capable of defending the Miami Heat as is,
but he is two way scor. He's someone that can
really get going. And you know, if DeAndre Hunter joins
the party here, you're going to feel really really good.
You're going to be in a great position to sweep.
(31:56):
So for me, he takeaways going into game two. Can
we get more balanced than scoring where it's not just
Ty Jerome having a heroic effort, And can Evan mobilely
get going a little bit more because we're really going
to need him later later in the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Yeah, I mean like fifty plus of the Cavs eighty
eight shots for those three guards. I don't think Spoe
will let you like fun all so many attempts in
the three guys who are killing you again.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Well, we're going to see what happens in game two.
I'm excited about it. We will be previewing game two.
I think the only thing more tired than Tyler Hero
right now is your voice, So we'll get you out
of here. We appreciate everyone tuning in live on YouTube.
Make sure you guys like and subscribe. Click that notification
bell so you know when we're going live. If you're
listening via podcast and you want to support us, leave
(32:47):
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