Mobley Wins DPOY and the Cavs Go Up 2-0

Justin and Carter are joined by Jeff Nomina to help react to Evan Mobley winning Defensive Player of the Year. Discussing why the award was deserved, and why his defense still seems to get underrated by some. From there they dive into the Cavs Game 2 win over the Miami Heat and what it could mean for the rest of the series. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This crowd rises to its meaning. What Carl slam it? Oh,
Carl left wing reball.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Perfect, Darlin lock pop, then HELLI block the shot at
the rim?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
How with the left hand and of fowl.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to Chase Doown Podcast, part of the Caves Media family.
I'm your host, Justin Rowan. The Chase Doown is presented
by Fubo, the officials 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. The Cleveland Cavaliers are two and zero against
the Miami Heat and Evan Mobley is your defensive Player

(00:38):
of the Year. It is defensive player of the Year,
not podcaster of the Year. The voters did right by
our guy. And joining me today is my co host,
Carter Rodriguez. Carter, how you doing, buddy?

Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm doing great, feels great.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
You know, justice was done at the award level. You
know I said I wouldn't care about awards ever again,
and I'm such a liar, such a fraud. I really
wanted this for Evan. I feel like he really earned it.
I didn't want bad faith stuff to take away his accomplishment,
you know, uh, you know, for his second major award

(01:14):
nomination of his career. And it just feels really good
that he was rewarded.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
It feels great to see him rewarded. I can hear
you know you talked about how you didn't want to
care about awards again, I can hear how much you
care in your voice. Here you're cracking up and speaking
of your voice. We have brought in reinforcements front of
the podcast making his return. Jeff Nomina. Jeff, how you doing.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Buddy, wonderful? I can be the tide Jerome, I can
I can jump in here. You know when the two
when the two when the two stars get a little
beat up and try to fill in.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
So also very excited about.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I can see, I can see, yeah, I can see
on your YouTube are trying to fill in and you're
filling in the wrong lane. My guy, you got to
stay in the middle of the camera. It is I'm
I'm super excited to see mobiley win, you know, Defensive
Player of the Year. Jared Allen obviously talked about how
the Cavs play ethical hoops, and I think one thing

(02:08):
that doesn't get talked about enough when we talk about
Evan Mobley is he plays ethical defense. Right. So many
times when we see the elite defenders in the league,
think of you know, lou dor Draymond Green, some of
the other guys that deserve mention in this conversation and
deserve votes. A lot of the time we talk about
how their reputation has allowed them to get away with

(02:30):
some stuff, right, Like, you know, that's probably a foul
on a lot of other guys. There's a lot of holding,
there's a lot of shoving. There's a lot of little
things they do to trick the rules and to give
themselves an advantage. On the defensive end, Mobiley plays about
as clean defensively as you could expect anyone. Really. You know,

(02:50):
half of his blocks could be classified as steals because
he's keeping it in play. He's you know, sending it
to teammates. He's not somebody that is putting elbows into guys.
His ability to recover when he does lose, you know,
that first step is almost second to none in the NBA.
He's just a complete freak on the defensive end, And

(03:12):
I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
And it's kind of fun because it feels like at
the beginning of his career he was so toolsy and
you know, had all these splash plays. But I remember
early on where like I think Jarrett is like still
like the best conductor for the defense. This is like
rookie year Evan, and then last year it is like,

(03:36):
oh they're drawn even Like it feels like, you know,
Evan's gotten there at the same level, and now it's
the splash plays and the communication and the preventing plays
from even happening, and kind of being able to make
every single play, every part of the floor. Like I
just feel like he's really gone up another level every

(03:59):
single year. Not just in terms of his physicality. Obviously
he's much stronger, much more capable of guarding in the
post than he was as a rookie, but his understanding
of the game has just gone up and up and up.
He was a savant when he came in, and even
savants have room to grow. I gotta ask you, guys,
because I was just thinking about this because we've never

(04:19):
said it out loud. I don't think on this podcast
at least, is Evan the best defensive player in the
history of the Cavaliers franchise?

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Oh my goodness, no, I'm you go first answer that one.
I need a mariny with that.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
I'm trying to think back like old old you know,
to the to the Nan seniors or l Ron Harper's,
you know, trying to think back to those days, but
in like the kind of the modern era.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
He has to be right.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, I believe, you know, I can't think I should
have done some research. I wasn't expecting to get hit
with this question, but I feel like he's the first
to win defensive players.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
He is the first Cavalier to ever win.

Speaker 4 (04:57):
Doesn't account if your defense is your offense.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
That's a great, great question. You know. The thing is,
I feel like there were years that Lebron deserved to
win Defensive Player of the Year. I think he was
insanely impact.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Those best in the league defenses. He absolutely was.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
And as much as that, as much as I believe that,
you know, in my heart and soul and that he
was deserving of being Defensive Player of the Year, just
you know, was going up against Dwight Howard and other
really deserving candidates. I just think your ability to impact
the game as a big man defensively exceeds anything you
can really do on the perimeter. And the other thing

(05:40):
that always just comes to mind is how immediately Evan
Mobley transformed the Cavs defense. Because the Caves did have
Jared Allen for quite a bit of that year, you know,
the the year prior to him being drafted, and Jared
obviously had a very large impact on defense. I think
he's someone that deserves all defensive can you know he
deserves honestly, he deserves to make one of those teams.

(06:01):
He probably won't just because of how good Mobile is.
But I think the way that Mobley transformed what was
the bottom of the league defense into a perennial fantastic
defense I'm always in the top ten, particularly great when
he's on the court. That's something that not a lot
of players can do. And that's also not something that

(06:21):
you ever really expect from young players. You expect there
to be a prolonged learning curve for defensive big men,
and that just wasn't there for Mobile or you know,
the things he had to learn were more nuanced things
rather than making his game actually impactful on that end
rather than having those splash plays.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, I think I'm willing to say it. I really
do think he might. I don't think I've watched a
player and just thought, like, this guy has no defensive
flaws quite like I've watched Evan. You know, I think
he is. I think he is the the best defensive

(07:01):
player in the history of the franchise, at least of
my adult life. I think Lebron is probably number two,
which goes to show how insane Lebron was early in
his career. And like, maybe maybe if I had just
lived you know, two thousand and eight Lebron and then

(07:21):
lived this year's Mobley, it would be a little closer.
But like, I just feel like to your point, Evan
immediately came in and created a defensive identity for the team.
And it's crazy to think how many all time Cavs
greats are on this roster right now. But you know,

(07:45):
Mobley does continue to jump to the top of a
lot of lists.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, And it's not like there's a shortage of great
defensive players in cas history either, right, that a lot
of them we didn't get to watch because we're young.
And that disclaimer needs to be thrown on here. But
when you talk about it's like Larry Nann Senior and
even seeing you know, what Brad Doherty and those guys
would do in their heyday. I can't really, you know,
comment the same way. But this is the first time

(08:09):
that you've had that.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Tape.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
Unfortunately it was not I. I'm going to be honest
about where my strengths and weaknesses are. That's probably one
of my blind spots. But this is, you know, the
first to get that national recognition. Now, were you a
little worried that, you know, the the Draymond push, the
media push, the voting odds. Where were you at kind
of throughout this process because I was so fired up.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
I was so fired up when it first happened, and
then like recently it felt like a kind of calm
back down. But I I was like to the point
where I didn't want Draymond whin no matter what.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
Like I was almost okay with anyone, like anyone.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
But Draymond's stance for a little while, because just begging
for it on a podcast felt too sad of a reason.

Speaker 4 (08:50):
To give it to someone.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
It really did. And the tricky thing with these awards
is it does feel like going into some seasons, they've
been prede determined to some extent, or at least there's
a very strong narrative to start the year. I think
back to the last three years really, coming into every season,
they're like, Okay, well this is the year Luca's going
to win MVP, and he's done things to get himself

(09:13):
out of that conversation, whether you know it's some thing's
on court or missing you know, the number of games,
or just playing in a league with Nick Jokic, which
can have that effect. But I think to Peyton Pritchard
in six Man of the Year, like that seemed predetermined.
But before the year even started, it didn't really matter
what ty Jerome did this season. There was already so

(09:33):
much momentum and he was such a heavy favorite coming
into the year that it really felt like that there
wasn't proper consideration given to anybody else. And it kind
of felt that way with Wemby coming into this season
and a lot of people, you know, when I listened
to national podcasts, they'll talk about how you know Wemby
was going to win this award. It was a foregone conclusion,

(09:55):
and you know, this is some sort of consult you know,
consolation prize. One thing I want to point out on
February thirteenth, when Wemby you know, played his last game
and had to leave with the blood clots, the San
Antonio Spurs had a one to ten defensive rating with
him on the court, and the defense was five point
four points better with him on the court. When Mobli

(10:18):
was on the court for the Cavs, they had a
one oh six point eight defensive rating and the defense
was six point three points better with Mobley on the
court versus off. And I think it's really important to
note that that off sample size is with Jared Allen,
who is in all NBA, you know, an all defensive candidate,
playing there, rather than Zach Collins and whoever else the

(10:40):
Spurs had coming in off the bench, Mobley was having
a larger on off impact than even Victor Wembanyama. And
that's not to say that Wemby wasn't, you know, deserving candidate,
or that there wouldn't have been an argument for why
he should win. But I think people weren't really looking
at the numbers the same way because if you're arguing,
you know that Wemby's dragging the spurs to to some

(11:02):
great defense. He wasn't he wasn't having as large of
an impact as Mobley, and I felt prior to that
situation Mobley deserved to be in the conversation a lot
more than he was at the time.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Bro I couldn't agree more. I And it's a weird
spot in you know, a discourse argument to not be
like Wimby's bad defense, that's not what we're saying. No,
and or that it's a bad pick to say that
he was going to be the defensive player of the year.
But like the degree to which the conversation just seemed

(11:34):
over didn't make sense to me at all. Didn't make
sense to me with Pritchard, Like and it just feels
like we kind of pick and choose our spots on
when we're going to really lock in on opening up
the discourse versus shutting it down. And Yeah, I think
I think MOBILEI is not a by default defensive player

(11:57):
of the Year. I think he was the best offense
player in basketball this year.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. And you know, it's frustrating
some awards. I think, you know, when it comes to
clutch Player of the Year, Darius Finishing sixth is absurd
when he was the most efficient clutch time scorer. It
was one of the highest you know clutch scores for
points per game and all that kind of stuff. I

(12:23):
can understand that. I can understand voters not you know,
giving as much thought to it. But Defensive Player of
the Year that's prestigious. Man, Like there are you know,
contract incentives, which you know, congratulations the mostly for hitting those.
I think, you know, that's one of the benefits of
what the Cavs did at the deadline to get under
the luxury tax for this season and stop that repeater

(12:44):
clock from starting. He got basically a really really good
team all locked up for future years and you don't
have to really worry about this. You don't have to
worry about these guys getting accolades. So I think they're
in a great position. But Defensive Player of the Year,
that's an award that that deserves proper you know, consider
when it comes to the voting.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
It felt a bit like Wemby's physical skills to just
kind of outweigh everything else you talked about Mobile coming in.
It's sort of a levant and not understanding and not
that Wemby's a slouch on that end, but it's nical
attributes are just still overpowering, and it felt like people
just kind of saw that and went straightforward. We're not
kind of taking into the full account of everything. Mobiy

(13:23):
dug out there that getting captured by just being massive
and blocking.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
Shots in this stand.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, big, big shouts to do you r guy Evan.
It's cool seeing them get this kind of recognition. It's
cool seeing you know, Kenny in the front runner for
Coach of the Year. And you know, I do think
it's reflective of the expectations of this roster. You know,
you have the Coach the Year, you have an All

(13:50):
NBA First Team candidate, and Donovan Mitchell, you have the
defensive Player of the Year. Like, you know, like these
there's a reason this team is in the title pick
because of all of these contributions up and down the roster.
A third place in fourth place and sixth man of
the Year. Like as much as like and I'm certainly

(14:11):
guilty of this, as much as we've kind of cried,
you know, foul of the way the award races have
finished at the top and in the way the narratives
have kind of gone, like you can't say that the
guys haven't been well represented at every level, you know, like, yeah,
almost every major award, the Cavs are going to finish

(14:33):
in the top five to four in some former fashion.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, I think Donovan's going to be a top five
finalist for you know, MVP and deserving. So I think
he's going to be a first team All NBA guy.
It takes, you know, it takes a lot of very
talented individuals to be as good as the Cleveland Cavaliers,
and I think we saw that once again in Game two.
Game two. Eric Spolstra is one of the most infamous

(14:57):
things in basketball. He always finds a way to see
those games. That's where the Boston Celtics were, you know,
got caught on their home court last year against Miami
in the first round against a worse Miami roster frankly
because it was still no Jimmy Butler, but there was
no Davion Mitchell and there was no Andrew Wiggins. You know,
they always seemed to find ways to win those games.

(15:19):
And you know, to to start Game two, Miami came
out really had the intensity high. I thought they played
a terrific game to start the game and then the
Cavs kept their composure. It was a big defensive play
from Jared Allen spiking the ball to Darius Garland to
get that you know, transition a law up to Donovan Mitchell.
I thought gave a lot of life to the team.

(15:40):
That the crowd started getting back into it. It was
loud as hell e Rocket Arena. It was really really
good to see the Cavs respond in that way. But
then we saw Miami do their own responding. Cavs got
up by nineteen. Miami made their own run and really
made a game of it. It was concerning. It was
concerning to to see Miami do that, just given their

(16:01):
history of finding ways to steal those games on the road.
But for the Calves to once again, as you know,
the best clutch team in the regular season, come away
with a clutch win against the Heat, I thought they
did a very good job of averting disaster in that scenario.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, Je, if you go first, I got some thoughts,
but I want to hear what you Oh, you want
to hear what you get to say first.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
I've been super impressed with Miami because I feel like
both games the Calves have had stretches or played well
in a way that in the regular season put teams
away almost immediately, you know, that Cavalanche last game and
the first game just start to finish.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
I thought they played pretty well.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
We normally see those games get out of hand, and
I thought Miami really clawed and fought back in it
in a way that.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
It was almost jarring.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
We're so used to just like you know, seeing the
CPJA and Luke Travers and the guys come in halfway
through the fourth because we've.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
Got a twenty five point lead.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
So I won't say it's concerning, but it was just
it was imprected that Miami was doing that really in
for a fight for this whole series, and you know,
kudos to them because they're not doing it and I
don't mean this is a slot like Slator, but like
they're not doing it based on like matching his talent
for talent, right, They're doing it and in pretty impressive ways.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, I rewatched the game today. I actually jumped in
and listened to the Dunker Spot boys do a live
rewatch and breakdown film. And it's always funny, you know,
justin you are of the two of us, always the
one that's like I like having time to digest the game.
I like a rewatch, and I'm always like, let's just

(17:35):
get the reactions, let's get takes off, you know. And
I do feel like last night's game was one that
really I benefited a lot from rewatching, especially the first quarter,
where I left the first eight minutes of that game
thinking the Cavs played sloppy, unfocused, didn't play their best ball.

(17:57):
They played fine, they just weren't making you know, and
Miami was hitting a couple tough ones. And Miami got
to a lead because, you know, not on not because
the Cavs process was so poor, just because Miami was
playing just a little bit better. So that did kind
of change the way I felt about the game. I

(18:17):
left last night kind of feeling, well, they started bad,
it kind of ended bad. In the middle was good,
and I kind of left it being like they played
three really focused quarters and in the fourth they started
speeding up, taking quick shots instead of working. Yeah, kind

(18:40):
of looking for the home run ball a little bit
too much. And that did meaningfully change the way I
felt about the game.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, I agree with you. You know, it was a
travel day for me, so I got my rewatching and
you know, Pard, I'm glad. I'm glad you are seeing
the benefits of putting in that extra work here. You're
you're like, you're like that athlete that just finally started
lifting weights, and I was like, man, this is really
helping my game here. Man, that was a disgusted look

(19:07):
on your face, and you don't have the beard to
hide it anymore. I had to get that shot in.
It's always too much fun to bug you, and now
I'm not in person to do that. But I honestly
thought that the Cavs came out with a lot of
focus on the defensive end. I thought they were really
making hustle plays. I felt that in Game one as well,
But I thought there was another level to how they

(19:28):
played defensively for the majority of this game. The slippage
began when they were up nineteen. I think they thought
they put Miami away and they started to kind of
have a few more lapses right. There were miscommunications leaving
guys open that they didn't intend to. Like, you look
at some of the Miami's open shots, and ten of

(19:49):
their wide open shots so far in the series have
been bam out of bio, which the Cavs are completely
content to allow him to take wide open threes. He
is two of ten so far for the series. That's
been paying off. But I think back to the fourth
quarter where Darius unnecessarily helped on Damn rolling to the
hoop and left Haywood high Smith wide open in the corner.

(20:10):
That's not someone that you want to leave open as
a shooter. You didn't need to help their Jarrett was
in the position to do that. There were other breakdowns
like that, and you know, it really was a perfect
storm because the Caves in the first half they went
seven to ten on their wide open threes. In the
second half, they went two of eight on those wide
open threes. Miami actually was almost as hot. In the

(20:30):
first half. They were seven of eleven on their wide
open threes and they were six to ten in the second.
So they are shooting wide open threes at just a
crazy clip in terms of how well they're converting. I
think you know, you see a team with a losing
record in the regular season and you may not notice that, Hey,
Miami was actually the third best team in terms of
percentage on converting wide open threes in the regular season,

(20:52):
So you know, they were at forty one percent for
the regular season. Calves were best in the league at
forty two percent, so not far off. So they might
be a little over their skis, but this is a
team that can convert those looks. And I agree with
what you said, Carter. I think offensively, the Cavs got
a little too rush. I thought they were little isolation heavy.

(21:12):
It did feel like it was a perfect mix of
circumstances where there were factors within and outside of their
control down the stretch. I don't think, you know, I
think they got some bad fifty to fifty calls that
didn't go their way. It seemed they got a little
frustrated with that.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
They signed Kenny with the challenge though, oh man, our guy.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
He had two incredibly high SaaS highlights in that game,
and I enjoyed both of them. They were terrific. But
you know, there were things that didn't go their way
from that standpoint. They didn't hit their open threes, and
then their process got worse, as you mentioned, Carter, with
you know, more isolation and rushing a little bit when
it came to getting those threes up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
I mean, but this is kind of one of those
games where it's so nice to have Donovan Mitchell on
your roster, Like he just I mean, he hit four threes,
I want to say, in the in the fourth quarter,
just really uglyad it up for them, And like that
is so different to me than the fifty point game

(22:20):
against Orlando last year, where I mean, and I don't
want to take anything away from that fifty point game.
He was amazing in that game, but it was it's
the difference between you know, break glass in case of emergency, like, hey,
we need a few superstar plays here, just get us there.
We need something to get us over the hump, versus

(22:42):
like building the whole plane out of that. Yeah, you know,
like we kind of got it both ways in this
game where you have the second quarter cavalanche where the
balls humming eleven threes in the quarter. We'll talk about that,
I'm sure more in depth, but like then you also
have the all right, we've kind of lost our way.

(23:03):
We need someone just to rely on to get us
over the hump the rest of the way, and they
were able to get that. Like it just feels like
if you and if the three of us were talking about,
like what did we want the Donovan Mitchell experience to
be isn't this game exactly what it is?

Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, shot selection too, I don't feel like he's forcing them.
He's not disrupting rhythm to try to get to those shots.
That feels like he found his his He's really picking
his spots well, not disrupting other things well, understanding when
he needs to try to come in and do that,
which I think has been very helpful as well.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, it was terrific and you know, the impressive thing
and this is one of those reasons why you know,
as a fan you want Donovan to keep shooting. It
wasn't shooting particularly well going into that fourth quarter. I
think he was down at like thirty five percent. Basically
he had hit his threes well to that point, but
everything else on the interior wasn't really working. And you know,

(23:59):
he had the nice little running back finishes where he
brings the ball up over his shoulder and hits the floater.
He hit the threes just really really came through in
the clutch, And that's exactly what you want from him, right.
You want to see that composure, you want to see
that killer mentality. Calvs are fortunate to have two guards
at really excel in those situations, and Donovan did a

(24:21):
terrific job there. It was. You know, it was a
really productive day for Donovan, Evan, and Darius. I thought
all three of them were very, very solid in this game.
Darius didn't have the threes dropping, but still had an
efficient game. You know, twenty one points on fourteen shots.
Helped a little bit by the by those late free throws,

(24:43):
but you know, nine assists to one turnover, that's terrific
to see. He made sure that it stayed one turnover
with a ridiculous hustle play to save that ball from
going out of bounds.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
Now, sure he lost the ball, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
I know, that's you know, it have been a turnover,
that's how you save it. But you know, I thought
he had a very very good game and just some
of those outside shots can drop. And then Evan Mobley man,
like we talk about how the Cavs are leaving Bam
out of bio wide open mobiley, you can't leave them
open at all from three like he has taking those

(25:18):
shots incredibly confidently. And it's kind of funny looking at
how many years we've always heard, you know, BAM's going
to add a three pointer to his game. This is
going to be the year. I know I brought it
up last season, but Mobley had hit more threes last
year than Bam had in his entire career. And then
you know, he goes and plays a couple games for

(25:38):
Team USA and people automatically believe that Bam was going
to add a three to his game, whereas with Evan
Mobley we wrote off the possibility of hitting threes. You
know when the kas would struggle is you know, where
is the ceiling with him? Offensively? He is just such
a more dynamic player on that end. And you know,
we debated handle versus three point show the man at

(26:01):
it both coming into this year.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
I'm impressed with how confident and well he's taking the puss.
You see a lot of guys who maybe have you know,
success in the regular season hitting wide open ones in
the playoffs hit and you know, they're either left on
an island or there's a little bit more pressure and
they're not able to nail those. And he is stepping
right into him and knocking him down. It's not a
he's not hitting a high percentage on you know, low
volume were super easy shot. Like he's going in there

(26:25):
and he's hit he's hitting good shots and it just
changes the map completely.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, I think his uh, his offense. I feel like
we haven't had a great game from Evan yet on
the offensive side of the floor, you know, not a
tremendous amount of playmaking or or you know, just like
he hasn't had like that takeover stretch yet, but like
the floor has been really high. I think in both games,

(26:51):
even though he only had nine points in Game one,
I thought he did his job perfectly fine and that
was just a byproduct of the three. I mean, your
three three guards score thirty points apiece. Basically, your bigs
aren't gonna have a lot of time or an opportunity
to score. So I think he's been great on that end.
And then defensively, I just think he's been freaking fantastic,

(27:16):
so many plays where he just suddenly shuts off a
play from happening altogether, knows when to attack, knows when
to leave maam and go help. The rim protection has
been really great. If I have one quibble, it's the
defensive rebounding hasn't been great.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
They got beat up pretty bad on the offensive glass
in the fourth quarter, and you know, he only had
five defensive boards in this game. In the last game
he had I want to say, like five or six.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
Of any a half last game, right, and no rebound.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Yeah, he had only had four. He only had four,
So you know, we're not He's not cleaning the glass
super well. And I don't think think it's because he's
just getting switched out onto guards every possession. But he's
also wrestling a bear in Pam out of Bayos, So
I don't know. Mostly I've been really really happy with
Evans game.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yeah, and part of that. Sorry to cut you off there,
but one thing I wanted to mention that fourth quarter
was there was a stretch there where Miami was getting
offensive rebounds, and I thought part of that was just
a product of being too small. We had Sam Merrill
at small ford and Isaac Okorro at the four. I
think Ty Jerome was out there with another guard, and
we gave up a few opportunities there. There were times

(28:34):
where you know, Sam and Isaac were both really competing
to get the defensive rebound and they just weren't large
enough for it, right, Like Sam would get a hand
on it and the Miami player was still coming down
with it just because they were bigger in that stretch.
I think Miami is a team that you can go
small against, but I thought that was a kind of

(28:54):
an extended stretch where they were just a little bit
too small. Kenny switch things up a little bit, subbing
Evan out for for Jared and bringing in Max strus
for for Sam Merrill, but Mobile didn't get the benefit
from that. And I think there are tweaks that you
could potentially make here to round that out. But I
think some of it is the overall ecosystem. Right, it's

(29:16):
never or it's very rarely when it comes to defense
rebounding about the one on one matchups, it really is
a team effort to secure those rebounds.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah, it's it's just a thing worth keeping an eye on.
Miami hasn't been great on the offensive glass neither game,
so it's not like a big problem or anything. But
Miami is also not that good at that, so I
don't know, just the thing to keep an eye on.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
And then do you think it limits his offense a
little bit and not getting the defensive so much of
his offense is bringing the ball up, getting a man
of going to the bathket and using his length, So I.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
Do think two of his best two of his best
non three plays where the Coast to Coast plays right.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
So without those rebounds, you know, it's just it's harder
to get him going and finding that momentum.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
That's a really good point because you know he's really
expanded his game like that. That goes back to that point,
whether it's you know, the three point shot, the handle,
he's able to hit, the mid range shot, he's obviously
terrific at finishing at the rim, and to your point,
he can get those defensive rebounds and turn that into
a coast to coast opportunity. When you can score in
that many different ways, it really opens up opportunities for you.

(30:24):
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Speaker 1 (30:44):
I I was gonna take us, can I take him
minute to give Sam Merrill some Flowers, Yeah, go for it.
I feel like post All Star Break, I was someone
who I mean, I don't think I win super aggressive
with it, but like reading between the lines, I was

(31:04):
someone who's like with the way the roster changed after
picking up DeAndre, it's a lot of minutes for Samo
the three. I don't know about that. I'm worried about
being a little too small, you know, maybe you know
I was advocating for more Isaac minutes. This has been
a unbelievable sam Merril series so far. He is hitting

(31:25):
his shots, he is doing all the little things. He's
moving the ball, he's rebounding, he is being left on
Tyler Hero one on one and doing a great job
fighting over screens, staying connected, allowing the cabs defensive shell
to remain in place, like and if there's one thing

(31:45):
the Cabs have done really well on defense, just haven't
left their shell for two games, really, and a lot
of that has to get You have to give a
lot of credit to the point of attack defenders. And
if you were to tell me, Kenny's gonna put Sam
on Hero a lot when he's on the floor, like
as the primary guy, not a guy that gets switched

(32:06):
on to him, but that's just his assignment and he'll
do a good job. Like damn, what a win. And
Sam gets I think we need to really give him
his flowers because he's giving them way better playoff minutes
than I was expecting.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, no, no, what has your impression been of what
Sam's done so far in this series?

Speaker 3 (32:29):
Yeah, it's just another weapon. It's another way to lose
enough to defense. And you know, having these guys that
can hang even if they're at like a physical disadvantage
is so damn helpful. Like I don't want to pivot
off of Sam, but you know, I think we've seen
the same thing h Darius, where even if he's got
a side that the vantage he's playing top, he's saying
he's doing an assignment, he's not needing as much help

(32:51):
and and it just allowed them to do so much
more at your point on not having to leave their shelf,
but not having to overact and having to overhelp or
do anything. And you know, we're talking about being small
on the boards, but they're not feeling them defensive end,
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah, And the funny byproduct of having Sam as the
primary defender on Tyler hero is. Tyler's kind of tested
the waters there of can I gain an advantage here?
And if he wasn't the primary defender, you're bringing in
whoever Sam is guarding as the screener on that set
and looking to get a switch there, whereas now it's
straight up isolation Tyler heroes probing for a bit doesn't

(33:27):
gain an advantage. They're not bringing in a screener to
you know, muck things up and confuse things defensively. The
Calves just managed to burn, you know, ive six seconds
of a twenty four second shot clock in an isolation
situation where they haven't had to rotate as well. So
when you have guys that hold up that well in
those situations, it makes a big, big difference. And you know,

(33:49):
we joked about, you know, the the parallels between Sam
Marril and Duncan Robinson in terms of how they're used offensively,
how they generate fire drills on the defensive end of
the floor, a big difference between the two. Sam holds
up much better defensively when the Cavs attack Duncan Robinson
when they put him in actions when they're you know,
running their double drags and things that they do to

(34:13):
get guys like Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson in those actions.
There's miscommunications, there's breakdowns, there's failures to navigate the screens.
That has not been the case with Darius Garland, with Sam, Marilyn,
some of these other guys on the perimeter, they've done
a really, really good job of navigating those scenarios.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Well, last thing I'll say about Sam and we can
move on to other topics. The other thing that him
holding up so well on the defensive end of the
floor has done for them is you don't have to
take anything off the floor. Like, if Sam wasn't doing
all those jobs as well as he was doing them,
I would be sitting here thinking, Okay, do they need

(34:54):
to give Isaac Moore run to improve the defensive toughness
of their lineups? And are they is the offense going
to be able to deal with that drop off in
shooting from Sam to Isaac? And instead you just don't
have to worry about it. You could just say we'll
just play Sam until the defense stops, you know, becomes

(35:15):
a problem. Yeah, And and like so he just gets
a lot of credit for being a guy who is
additive and isn't taking anything off the table for them
right now.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, I agree, and I think looking at the stats
so far in this series, I think they're shooting regression
that's due for both of these teams. I don't think
the Cavs are going to shoot that well from three
for an entire series. I don't think Miami's going to
shoot that well from three for an entire series. Kas
currently have a one thirty three offensive rating and a
one to sixteen point five defensive rating. I'd say you

(35:45):
can almost knock off like seven points from both of
those numbers just to account for shooting, you know, regression.
I feel like the defense has been better than the results,
and the offense has been a little better than the process,
just with how well they're shooting overall. But you know,
they've done a really really good job. I feel overall defensively,

(36:07):
there was that slippage in the fourth quarter, but for
the most part, I feel really good about how they're
playing on that end. It's just going to come down
to cleaning up some of those little things in the margin,
right whether it's making sure you're securing those defensive rebounds,
making sure there aren't those miscommunications and you keep your
foot on the gas when you have, you know, the lead.

(36:28):
That's gonna be really important because this Miami team never quits.
I actually thought it was really interesting that Donald Mitchell
spoke to that about how this is probably good for
them in terms of the health of the series overall,
that they had to win the way they did, rather
than you know, Game two against Orlando last year, which
was a laugh or just like Game one, and they
weren't really expecting the punch that they ended up getting

(36:50):
thrown in Game three. You're going to expect that now
with the Miami heat, and I think that puts them
in a better position to go up three to zero
in the series and learn from their mistakes of last season.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Not only are they going to expect the CounterPunch, I
also think they have tape. They have a fourth quarter
of tape till that and go, okay, guys, this good tape,
this bad tape, you know, like and there is value
in that, you know, we always say it autopsy's nice.
Having a dead body to look at gives you something.

(37:20):
So if you get to have that without losing, all
the better, you know, And I'm not saying it's like
it's awesome that the Cabs didn't have a great fourth
quarter against Miami. It's obviously you'd rather them just win
every game by twenty, but like there is value in
they had to they kind of lost their's way for
a minute. Yep, And now the staff has something to

(37:43):
really like, you know, a counterbalance really for what they've
done so well through two games. I want to ask
you this, Non because you are a fellow angster. We
got happy, happy, go lucky lad over there who just
never worries about anything. How relieved are you that the

(38:07):
offense has been this good? One thirty seven point five
offensive rating game one one, twenty eight point seven in
game two. How relieved are you that against a top
ten defense, the Cavs are scoring with relative ease.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Uh, It's incredible because I think we all have a
lot of scars from two years ago, especially, but even
Orlando and stuff last year, you know where things got
bogged down. So there's always that little kind of question
of the regular season was great, we were a monster,
but when it starts happening, when you start having to
bolster on the other side, schemon for you, and when
you start you know, the bullets start flying it's going

(38:44):
to happen, and.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
It is so reassuring that we're seeing it.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
I mean, the Guards that has been incredible, you know,
I still being able to do that in game one
with absolutely incredible. Darius being this good has been incredible.
Doubt and finding his moments and still having the.

Speaker 4 (38:56):
Hit of the Superman Cave has been incredible. So it is.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
Reassuring going forward, right I'd love to see them. There's
just now creative were shooting like fifty percent from left game,
but do you feel like they're a little bit perimeter
heavy right now? Like the bigs are are not getting
ahold And I understand Bam and Wear a tough matchups,
but even Mobley had but ten shots and six of
them were three's last game, Like, we are not getting
into paint a whole lot.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Do you know Our buddy and former editor in chief
at Fear the Sword, Conrad brought this to our attention
in one of our many group chats to discuss the Calves.
But if you look at the frequency in terms of
how many shots the Calves took at the Rim, Game
two against Miami was their lowest of the season. It
was nine point three percent. Game one was their fourth

(39:43):
lowest of the season at fourteen point six percent. So
out of eighty four games, the number one and number
four lowest frequency games in terms of shots at the
rim have come in the playoffs. When you look at
the regular season, the median kind of frequency for the
calves of rim shots is about so you're getting you know,

(40:03):
you're You've cut that down to a third, And I
do feel like, particularly in Game one, I thought they
did a really good job of getting into the teeth
of the paint. I thought they were really getting downhill
at will. Maybe just a lot of those turned into
kickouts for three pointers as the Miami Heat defense scrambled.
But I do feel like there are opportunities available, and

(40:25):
in particular, I feel like there is, you know, some
low hanging fruit when it comes to getting Jared Allen
involved offensively, because I feel like when they have he's delivered,
like he's been efficient in this series. He's been great
on both ends of the court. I think that they
could do more to get some easier buckets there because
there is going to be that shooting regression in this series,

(40:46):
and one of the ways you can counteract that is
by getting those high quality shots at the rim that
they were able to convert all season long at a
really well good rate.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Yeah, I mean, ideally you want the balance, but like
there is also it's hard to ask them to get
to the rim too much when things are going this well,
you know, when the three point shots are following the
way they are, and that is I do feel like
they're generating with the exception of the zone possessions, where
it is a lot more side to side passing, which

(41:18):
you know, more power to them. I don't think Miami
can play zone against this team consistently. I think the
shooting talent's just too high. But I think they are
getting downhill enough that I'm not like, I don't feel
like they're playing Celtics ball here, I guess is the
crux of the of the tree I'm marking up. So
it's like, overall, I'm not that worried about the shot profile.

(41:42):
I think a lot of that's just going to even
out as Miami starts saying we got to stop the threes,
like we gotta do whatever we can, and then you know,
then the rumble downhill is going to start coming for
the for the team, and that's I don't actually care
how we get to our one thirty offensive rating as

(42:02):
long as it's coming with a team's trying to take
something away, so they do the other things so well
that they try to take that away and then open
up the thing that they were trying to take away
in the first place.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Like, for me, do you agree with what I said
though about getting Jared more involved? Because I don't feel
like Miami's doing anything to take him away, Like mam
is getting the mobile assignment, whether it's kellel Ware or
you know, Andrew Wiggins, that's power forward. I feel like
you can create an advantage there. We're just not even
probing to find out if we can create one. In
my opinion, I just.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
I've always felt like Jared is a symptomatic thing, you know,
like like he just gets his stuff within the flow,
and like I think that if things are bogging down,
they should try to do that. But if things aren't
bogging down, I just don't see a ton of need
to change what they're doing. I do wonder if kellel

(42:59):
Ware is gonna get taken out of the series soon.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
Maybe that's why we're not doing it. We're trying to
keep him on the court.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
I just you know, he's uh, And I wonder if
that all change things a little bit, where you know,
Bam as a roamer does make it a little harder
for the two bigs to just operate with impunity. So like,
I don't I don't know, I'm just not that pressed.
And if I see more quarters like in game two

(43:31):
where it was like twenty five points, twenty four points,
twenty eight points, okay, sure let's start tweaking things, but
for now I'm generally okay with it.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Fun fact, no break the tie here. Who's your favorite child?
Carter and myself? Where do you fall in the sound debate?

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Well, I mean I kind of set this up with
the other shot fifty percent, so it teams are crazy
to be like they were they taking too many threes.
But I do think when things got bogged down court
your point, like they should be opening up other things.

Speaker 4 (44:00):
Don't think they were going to the other things.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
I think they kind of got fair doc, you know,
in that same rhythm where they couldn't break out of that.
So that's what I want to see, the ability to
pivot when it stops working, you know, to your point,
like the shooting Russian is going to happen.

Speaker 4 (44:13):
Should that open things up? Yeah, but they still have
to do it, They still have to pivot.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
And I said this post came last night of just
like I do think your brain kind of breaks when
you hit eleven threes in the quarter and you kind
of forget how to do any other way because it
feels so good to play that way that, you know,
I think it's hard when you do pull off playing
that style to kind of rEFInd your footing. So it's

(44:41):
fair and I think, like always, you represent a healthy
middle of the two arguments. I do want to ask, yeah,
real quick, what do you think the Cavs offensive rating
was in the second quarter?

Speaker 2 (44:54):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (44:55):
One sixty five, Jeff, that was insane.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
One seventy nine point.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Oh my goodness. We both went low wooing of ninety.
It's pretty cool that the Cavs have, you know, the
number one and number two highest you know, scoring quarters
from from a three point perspective. And you know, do
you think at some point we got two really good
Kenny Atkinson sideline moments on camera? Do you think during

(45:25):
the second quarter there was one that was missed where
he turned and looked at Tamari Carroll and was like, remember, way.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
More fun on this side.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Yeah, it's it's much much more fun when this is
not happening to us. Do you do you guys feel
like that happened?

Speaker 4 (45:37):
We need a Kenny cam game three.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
We just need like just like the picture of the
picture kind of thing, like just Teddy the whole time.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
I love the idea of a Kenny Cam. I need
picture in picture the entire time that I'm a great proposal.
We absolutely need to do that. I did find it
to be interesting. One of the things we talked about
pregame was do the Cavs emphasize getting out of transition
a little more? Do they push the pace after stops?
And I felt like they certainly did in this game.

(46:05):
Game two was played seven possessions faster than Game one.
Was up to ninety four point five. In terms of
blistering ninety four, you know, it was it was still
you don't playoff basketball, but quicker.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Than twenty percent increase and there's still like thirty percent
lower than regular season league average.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, and I looked into it, I was like, it
was the fourth quarter considerably slower. Not really, it was
a ninety two pace you expected to slow down a
little bit overall, ninety four for the first half, ninety
five for the second half, so it was a pretty
you know, consistent pace throughout. But I did find that
to be interesting that the Cats were getting out in transition.

(46:49):
They were pushing. Obviously, you know those transition threes that
lunatics like Max Strews, Sam Marril and Ti Jerome take
are are going to help boost those numbers. But I
do think that it's important because you want to find
ways to combat the variance game. With Miami, I think
there is a lot of intention from their side to

(47:09):
slow things down, to limit the number of possessions, because
if both teams are getting you know, one hundred and
ten possessions, if that's what the games played at, you're
not going to be susceptible to variants there. You're not
going to be able to score as consistently as the
Cavs are. There's just too many opportunities for you to
make mistakes. Is Miami, I think that this is done

(47:30):
with intent, and when we talk about pace, it really
does take two to tango.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
Yeah, it's interesting Miami is going to try to drag
things down. I do think, you know, the full court
pressure from both teams is also tracking things down, you know,
Palla Larson picking up Tie Jerome ninety four feet and
by the way, who had Ti Jerome gets trapped at

(47:58):
half court on their bingo card?

Speaker 2 (48:02):
You know, the fourth quarter in the second half just
occupied so much of my brain. I had forgot about
that until the rewatch. What a sign of respect. That
is something that Peyton Pritchard is not going to see
in the playoffs where you get hard trapped and blitz
at half court. They're just throwing bodies and bodies and
bodies of Ti Jerome to get it out of his hands.

(48:25):
That is nuts on a team with Darius Garland and
Donovan Mitchell the guard to that faces that is the
guy coming in off the bench. That's unbelievable. But it
just goes to show you how much Miami fears what
he can do. And a lot of those minutes are
coming with those second unit lineups right where Miami doesn't
feel as confident with who they have on the floor. Defensively,

(48:46):
it makes sense that they basically take a kitchen sink
approach to stop another Ti Cavalanche.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Well, Ty had a bad game, which is the funny thing.
You know, it goes two of eight shorts, a bunch
of floaters, but still and it's just plus ten just
because of his general vibe, man in general, tiness, general times.
You know, had a much better game off the bench.
Our boy, DeAndre Hunter a big part of that second
quarter of Cavalanche. Yeah, what do you think about him?

Speaker 4 (49:15):
Yeah, it's nice having you know, he and Maxley.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
I think of the two guys Well and Sam who
just pull immediately and don't need a lot of space
to do it. And I think that's that just opens
up so much. And you've got guys who aren't scared
to take you one inch of space and try to
get a shot up. And I think that having another
one guy his side especially that can help space out
and do that just changes.

Speaker 4 (49:38):
They're just impossible to guard, like just impossible.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
To do anything. Yeah, it's I was happy to see
DeAndre hit those shots. How do you guys feel about
how he's played defensively? Because I haven't felt him in
a big way defensively. Maybe you know some of that
is Miami doesn't really have perimeter initiators like Andrew Wiggins
is looking to create for himself, and even at that,

(50:03):
there's some limits to what he can do. But then
I looked at their.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
Numbers have lined up that much either, Yeah, And then I.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Looked at the numbers. The Cavs have a ninety two,
you know, defensive rating. With DeAndrea on the floor, it's
one of the biggest on off, you know, in the
positive differentials on the team. I just hadn't felt it
a whole lot. But maybe this is me picking nets right,
But I think him hitting shots offensively and getting on
track and playing with the confidence he did it was

(50:32):
a really nice sign to see. And our guy Isaac
hit is only three of the night as well, so
that was also a good sign.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
I thought. I think DeAndre has been pretty good physically.
He's been fighting when he gets switches, fighting for boards.
He had one where he was kind of hand fighting
with khlaue Ware and got the ball on a rebound.
You know, I wouldn't say I feel like he's been,
you know, a top six, top seven guy for them,

(51:00):
but like just goes to speak to the luxuries of
this roster where DeAndre has just been okay. He wasn't
good in game one, I guess, but even in Game
two he was just okay. But like was still meaningfully
part of swinging the game. So I don't know, he
hasn't had his like, he hasn't had his playoff moment

(51:20):
yet by any means, But like the fact that it
doesn't really matter is pretty nice.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Yeah, And you know, we talked about whether or not
we'd see more of those kind of end of bench guys.
You didn't see a whole lot more of them. DeAndre
obviously got a little more burn than he had in
Game one. I was happy to see o'coro hit his
only three of the game. But it's funny, it almost
felt like a flip from Game one where I thought

(51:47):
korl was doing a lot of little things. In Game one,
I thought his defense was very strong. It was not
strong in Game two.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Davian cooked him like three times.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
Yeah, and that was a big part of that Miami run.
And you know, Daveon Mitchell is not someone that normally
has that kind of juice off the bounce. I don't
I'm not used to seeing Isaac kind of get caught
in those spots. I think he can certainly play better,
but it was just one.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
Of those so far in the series, by the way,
I did not expect to be sick Mitchell, like, I
just did not well, I was going to the series.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
I was not circling him like I'm gonna be mad
at that guy for a couple of games, Like this
is just he's frustrating. He's been it's been great.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Yeah, it just stood out to me because I think
back to even you know, previous playoff games. You know,
basically the struggles that Isaac has had in the playoffs
never really come on the defensive end. Like he's been
really good in that Knick series. He gave them good
minutes on that end against Orlando and Boston, He's given
them good minutes on that end. So for him to
have you know, a couple possessions where he wasn't on

(52:49):
and he was a step slow really stood out because
that that was a decent part of that Miami run, right,
They were getting some pretty good looks in the lineup.
Where where was he and Donovan out there? So just
one of those things that I wanted to note. One
of the things Zach Lolatch you brought up on his
podcast is that he'd like to see a little bit
more time for the cast starters together when it comes

(53:12):
to the playoffs. I looked into it on how often
those guys play together. In terms of the core four.
In the regular season, it's fourteen minutes per game, which
is nuts that that's where it's at. In the playoffs,
it's up to seventeen. Miami doesn't really have, you know,
a core lineup in the same way, but I think
the closest thing to it would be the Bam hero

(53:32):
In Wiggins combo. They're playing about twenty one minutes per game,
so about four minutes per game more than the Cavs
core four. Do you agree with that assessment? Where do
you guys kind of come out in terms of the
minute load for the Cavs most important players.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
I just kind of feel like they've got to lose
minutes more. They've got to have lineups that aren't working
consistently before I'm gonna ask Kenny to change anything. You know,
I think if you started the playoffs, I would have said, yeah,
I'd like to see them go down to nine just
to make sure everyone gets these reps. But like they're

(54:08):
getting so like, okay, you could take Isaac and Dean
sixteen minutes, reapportion those to the core, give them more run.
I thought Dean was awesome defensively in his six minutes,
just wrestling bam Atibaio every position up and down the floor,
you know, just making heady plays. I think Isaac needs

(54:31):
that run from a confidence perspective. So it's like, yeah,
you could do that. Those are your two lowest minute guys.
Sixteen minutes isn't very much. You just take those shifts,
reapportion them to the starters, and you know, still no
one's going to be much higher than thirty five. But like,
is it worth it right now?

Speaker 3 (54:50):
I say no, Yeah, And what you're learning about the
other guys is valuable, right, Like, I don't know what
more minutes from the starters out the series was in trouble,
Like if we were we're you know, if we're struggling
and down, yeah, I'd be calling for it. But right
now we're learning more about you know, we just talked
about Sam for a while, Like that's great to learn.
We need to see that, we need to understand.

Speaker 4 (55:09):
What's happening when we put those guys in.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
So yeah, I'm not worried about it now, but it's
to my earlier point, like you have to see you
want them to do it when it's time to do
it to make that pivot, like if we are in trouble, yeah,
I think that's the lever hole.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
But right now about it, Yeah, and you know, breaking
those numbers down just a little further, thirteen of those
minutes per game are coming with Max Trus three minutes
per game with DeAndre Hunter as kind of the fifth
guy between the core four. Those minutes have come to
close out first half so far that that seems to
be the rotation Kenny's using. I'd be interested to see,

(55:41):
you know, if DeAndre can get some run with those
guys in you know, the second half at all, if
that is a potential closing lineup. That hasn't been the
way that he's gone with it. But for the most part,
I'm fine with it. Right Like, let's not where the
guys out this early in the playoffs. If there's ways
that you can still come to keep their minutes down
and manage things, that's important because you never know when

(56:04):
a freak play can happen, right like Darius to look like,
with two minutes to go, after blowing a defensive assignment,
tried to respond with the closeout and I think he
may have stepped on a fans foot on the sideline.
It was limping pretty hard to end the game. You
want to avoid those situations, right, Like, that's the flip
side of what we were saying. We're happy that they

(56:26):
did face the test and they get some film of
things not going well. You having those guys out there
laden games opens up the possibility that something like that
can happen. So you know, it's obviously a good thing
that there's two games or two days off between these games.
Hopefully you know, everything's fine with Darius. But for the
most part, I'm pretty okay with how the Core four

(56:49):
has been deployed because I just don't think there's been
a need to kind of crank up into that twenty
minute per game range.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
Yeah, they're very very good.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
That's uh.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
We've already seen Spolster blink and that was the only
other thing I really wanted to hit on was we
saw Spolster make adjustments right away. He takes Alec Burks
out of the rotation who started game one, takes Kyle
Anderson out of the rotation, plays Jovich and Larsen. Any

(57:21):
thoughts on those moves on whether they I think I
think they're probably in that positive I think Yovich gave
them very good minutes, even though he didn't shoot well
Like it does feel like Spolster really wanted this one
right away. He took big swings immediately, and I.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
Think those swings are here to say. I think that's
probably Miami's best foot forward. But you know, going back
to what you said, we have film now of Miami's adjustment.
We have we know what it looks like when it's
working well, and it wasn't enough to get the win, Like,
I think that really bodes well for the ability to

(58:02):
wrap this up in short order. Right Like, I feel
pretty good going into Game three. I think that's going
to be, you know, the most important game of the
Series's game threes often are I think if there's one
that Miami would get, I kind of expect it to
be for because that's kind of the more traditional gentleman suite.
But you know, if the Cavs can take care of

(58:22):
business in Game three in Miami, an early game, we
know how the Cavs struggling in afternoon games so far
this season, that that would be impressive, man, Because yes,
this team had a losing record for the year, but
they did finish the year strong. They had a lot
of weird things that went on in terms of the
Jimmy Butler situation. And I think that this unit working

(58:44):
as a collective is a little better than the record,
And we talked about it going in right. The reason
we wanted the Miami Heat versus Orlando, Atlanta or Chicago
was because we felt that they were going to test
them right. We felt that this is a team that
has a ton of playoff experience. We have a ton
of respect for Eric Spolstra. I believe that Bammutabio is

(59:07):
probably the best best big man defender that we're going
to see in the playoffs. Kristaps Porzingis might bother guys
a little more because of his length, but BAM's the
better overall defender. I think that there there's a lot
of valuable lessons that we can learn from this series,
even though Miami is at a talent deficit.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
I gotta say I said this to you at dinner
before the game that I thought Miami's best shot at
us was last night.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
You know it's JUSO game to.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Game two, Spo. It's the the first set of like, okay,
they actually had some tape to grind. Did two days off.
They had a Cavs team who probably felt like gods
after Game one and and in a weird game where
you have three players take an unusual percentage of your shots,

(59:57):
like could be a weird rhythm thing, and and the
Calves came out in you know, one by nine, and like,
obviously there's always the game four letdown. But in terms
of the competitive portion of the series, I do think
the Calves are in really really good shape. I told
you before at dinner, it was like, I don't know,

(01:00:19):
I think we might lose this one, you know, And
I still felt good about Calves in five even if
they did lose this one. But after passing that test,
I do think I'm I'm ready to commit Calves in four.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
I'm so proud of you. We didn't get a serious
prediction from you. Obviously, this becomes a little easier when
Calves have half of the wins they need to win
this series. Or where are you at, how do you
think these games in Miami are going to go?

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
I'm gonna do Calves in four. I think, you know,
to your point, they've made some moves. It was incremental
improvement for them, but it wasn't a solved.

Speaker 4 (01:00:53):
It wasn't.

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
It wasn't something that is going to causes major issues
moving forward. You know, it might incremental anything to happen
in the game, but I think Cavs.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
Is more Hell yeah, I absolutely love to see it.
We will be going live postgame after Game three in Miami.
Really really excited to see how the Calves deal with
you know, whatever adjustments Miami still has in the bag.
Right We know that they are a proud team. They're
going to play with desperation. Can the Calves come out
expecting that and do what needs to be done to

(01:01:24):
take a commanding three to zero series lead. We will
find out. Big thanks to everyone tuning in live on YouTube.
I know we're going up against the NFL Draft, so
a little bit of a tough situation, but you know,
mobily defensive Player of the Year. We had to do it.
We had to let them know, so big thanks to
you guys. Make sure you like and subscribe. Click that
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(01:01:45):
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Make sure you guys are staying safe out there. Until
next time, go Calves skiing sha