May 2, 2025 • 19 mins
Jason breaks down every angle of the upcoming second round NBA playoff series between the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. He discusses Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown's ability to attack switches, the Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns pick-and-roll, which role players can be effective, and more.
#Volume
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume, blending Vice's signature dynamic storytelling with the high
octane world of sports. Vice Sports brings an exciting and
diverse range of programming that goes beyond the game. From
action pack live events to gripping behind the scenes documentaries,
to hard hitting investigative pieces and in depth profiles of athletes, coaches, teams.
(00:25):
Vice Sports captures the raw energy, drama, and passion that
makes sports truly unforgettable. Catch live events and other exclusive
sports programs only on Vice Tv. Go to vicetv dot
com to find your cable channel.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The NBA eighty two game grind is done. Now the
real fun begins. The NBA Playoffs are here and it's
time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments, and
jaw dropping plays. I can't wait. If you're looking to
make the playoffs even more exciting, DraftKings Sportsbook has you
covered as an official sports betting partner of the NBA
from the playing games all the way through to the finals.
Now's the time to back your favorite players and teams
(01:01):
as they chase glory. All season long. DraftKings has been
the go to spot for NBA player props, and that
does not stop now. Want to make your playoff experience
even more intense, try placing a bet on your favorite
player's performance. Well they drop thirty points, forty or more,
it's your call. Ready to place your first bet? Download
the DraftKings sports Book Gap. Now lock in your bets.
Let's make this playoff run unforgettable. Here's something special for
(01:22):
first timers. New DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to get
two hundred dollars in bonus bets. Instantly make it a
playoff run to remember With DraftKings, download the DraftKings Sportsbook
Gap and use code hoops. That's h oops. That's code
hoops for new customers to get two hundred dollars in
bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings.
(01:43):
The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called Way one hundred
gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight hope
and why, or text hope and Why to four six
seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help us available for
problem gambling Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven
seven seven seven or visit CCPG. Please play responsibly on
behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one
(02:05):
plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction VOYD and Ontario.
New customers only bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty
eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources,
see dkang dot co slash audio. All right, welcome to
(02:32):
hoo'son I here at the volume heavy Friday. Everybody. Hope
all of you guys are having a great end to
your week. Just a quick show today, we're gonna be
doing a brief series preview on the second round in
the Eastern Conference between the Boston Celtics and the New
York Knicks. We're gonna be talking about why Boston has
dominated this matchup throughout the year, why Boston is such
a substantial favorite, and what it looks like the tiny
(02:54):
little pathway in which the Knicks can make this into
a more competitive series. You guys know the joke before
we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You
don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter,
underscore JCNLT so you guys don't miss you announcements. Don't
forget about our podcast feed Wherever you get your podcast
and our Hoops Tonight it's also super helpful if you
leave a rating in a review on that front. Jackson's
doing great work on our social media feeds, Twitter, Instagram,
(03:14):
and Facebook. Make sure you guys follow us there. Last
not at least keepdropping mail back questions in the YouTube
comments and can keep geting to them throughout the remainder
of the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
the season series went four to oh to Boston. They
logged a one thirty offensive rating in the four games,
combined a one to thirteen defensive rating, So for those
(03:35):
of you doing the math at home, that's plus seventeen
points per one hundred possessions through four games. The Celtics
are also grabbing fifty two percent of available rebounds, so
they're winning on the glass in those matchups as well.
A couple of little bits of interesting lineup data. The
Celtics starters meaning Holiday in White, Tatum, and Brown with
Porzingis are plus fourteen net in thirty one minute the season.
(04:01):
In this matchup and with Horford instead of Porzingis their
plus forty two net in seventeen minutes with a one
sixty three offensive rating with that group. I also kind
of liked the idea. We talked a little bit about
this last night and we're going to talk about it today.
But there's a little bit more of a comfortable It's
(04:21):
Jalen Brunson, in particular, in his ball screen attack, is
more comfortable going against Porzingis than he is going against Horford,
which is a little bit of an interesting piece that
I think is reflected in that data as well. The
Knicks starters. So this is Karl Anthony Towns with Jalen Brunson,
with Josh Hart, McHale Bridges and og And and Obi
in sixty five minutes against the Celtics this year, minus
(04:43):
twenty one points per one hundred possessions, the Knick starters
have gotten just cleanly beat in this matchup. In the
regular season. The closest thing to an encouraging result for
the Knicks was their last matchup on April eighth, towards
the end of the season, a game where the Knicks
figured some stuff out. Ultimately, the Celtics were able to
send that game to overtime with the Tatum step back
(05:03):
three over og And and Obi at the top of the
key and a Chrisops Porzingis pick and pop three, a
pretty well contested one that was about twenty eight feet
away from the rim. So I don't want to call it,
you know, an easy shot, but an opening that exists
in their baseline coverage with Karl Anthony Towns on porzingis
a pick and pop at the top of the key
(05:23):
ended up ending that game. So we'll talk about what
was encouraging here in a minute, but the point is
there isn't much in the way of regular season info
that would lead us to believe the Knicks have much
of a chance here, and it reflects in the odds. Again,
all of our odds are provided by DraftKings. DraftKings has
the Celtics as a minus eight hundred favorite to win
(05:43):
the series. You'd have to bet eight hundred dollars to
win one hundred if the Celtics won the series. That's
pretty substantial for perspective. The Knicks were only about a
minus four hundred favorite to beat the Pistons before the
series started, for example. So, just like we usually do,
we're going to talk about the Celtics on offense, and
then we'll talk about the Nicks on offense before we
(06:04):
get into our pick at the tail end of the show.
So with the Celtics on offense. The Knicks in their
last game against Boston went with these matchups. They wanted
to match up strength a little bit more on Jaln Brown,
so they went with Josh Hart on Jalen Brown, o
j Anobi on Jason Tatum, Karl Anthony Towns on Chrisops Porzingis,
Jalen Brunson and Drew Holliday, and Mikhale Bridges on Derek White.
In terms of their scheme, we talked a little bit
(06:25):
about this idea of peel switching last night. The only
real thing that you need to understand in order to
get the idea of how pel switching works differently from
a regular switch is it's like it's more like a
traditional coverage in the sense that you're temporarily putting two
on the ball. But instead of imagine a pick and
pop with Porzingis slipping out of the action, instead of
(06:47):
asking Carl Towns to bail on that ball screen action
and close out to Porzingis, you're asking the guy on
the ball to bail out and close out tops Porzingis.
So couple things. It applies token back pressure. So by
keeping that two on the ball temporarily you can speed
up the ball handler and force him to make a
(07:08):
decision quicker rather than processing you in a way that
is more comfortable for him. And then two, very simply put,
your on ball defender is probably going to be faster.
So like, if it's McHale Bridges on Derek White, he's
going to be able to close out to Porzingis faster.
If it's og and Andobi on Jason Tatum, he's going
to be able to close out to Porzingis faster or
(07:29):
Horford faster. Whereas if you ask Kat to close that ground,
it's just a lot for him to ask. And it
also is a lot in terms of just energy expended
throughout the series to have Brunson and Kat throwing these
crazy closeouts throughout the series. And so that's the main
thing that you'll see in the early part of this
series is in pick and pop action. In particular, the
(07:50):
Knicks will ask the on ball defender to basically rotate back,
which essentially functions as a switch and so if their
closeouts are sharp there, it does expose them to the
switch hunting that you could see. So for instance, now
Derek White has Carl Towns on him, Jason Tatum has
Carl Towns on him, and those will be situations where
they'll look where they will look to attack. And then
(08:11):
with by the way we're gonna we're gonna talk a
little bit about way the ways that Boston can look
to specifically attack those peel switches here in a minute.
But the other piece of it is when they look
to attack Brunson, he's still looking for that classic hedge
and recover that he's been using against basically everybody in
the league. Essentially, Brunson, when his man comes in sets
(08:32):
the screen, he's going to hedge out to stop the
ball handler from turning the corner, preferably force him to
take a retreat, dribble or something away from the basket.
Then he'll recover as the on ball guy ducks underneath
and meets him on the other side of the screen.
You can force the switch there by just rescreening a
few times, and the Celtics had some success there where
like they'll call for a ball screen, Brunson will hedge,
(08:54):
the guy will come off, and they'll just rescreen, rescreen,
rescreen until Brunson inevitably has to switch because the guy
slips out of it pretty well and forces the Knicks
to react in that way the way that Boston will
look to attack. In those actions, specifically against the Peel Switches,
what worked pretty well was one creating more distance between
the ball handler and the popper. What that means is
(09:16):
if you'd imagine this guy's Tatum, this guy's Porzingis. Instead
of like creating just a tiny bit of separation in
the action, Porzingis needs to really cover ground on his
slip and Tatum needs to really drag out the action
with that initial dribble that creates a longer close out.
The longer the closeout is, the more likely it is
that the Knicks will bail and actually rotate from the
(09:37):
weak side. As soon as they rotate from the weak side,
now the skip passes wide open or the extra passes
wide open, and you're in rotation. And as we're going
to talk about, rotation is going to be death for
the Knicks against the Celtics in this series. The second
thing I noticed on film that seemed to work against
the Peel Switches, and we saw a good example of
this in crunch time of their last game, was just
(09:58):
having Porzingis roll so like obviously the natural inclination for
this Celtics team when they're running those ball screens with
Horford and Porzingis is to have them pop and they
primarily will use the dunker spot as like a spacing mechanism,
using like a guard or something like that when they're
attacking matchups, and they'll have the bigs primarily operate picking
(10:19):
and popping or spacing the floor behind the three point line. Right. Well,
if you have Porzingis roll, now you can imagine how
the peel switch is impossible. Right. So, Like, let's say
og and Andobi's guarding Tatum and Kat is guarding Porzingis,
and Kat gets involved in the screen as Porzingi sets
the screen and instead of popping, Porzingis rolls to the rim. Now,
as that guy is chasing over the top, the on
(10:41):
ball guy og and Obi chasing over the top, there's
no way for him to recover in time to a
rolling big, whereas with a pick and pop big he
might be able to throw really hard clothes out and
chase him off the line. Right. So, like they ended
up getting a really good look out of that in
crunch time of their last game, hitting poor Zingis in
the pocket as they came off of that action. The
(11:04):
other ways that I wanted to look at in terms
of ways that Boston will attack in the half court
won straight post steps of Brunson with Drew Holiday. They
went to this early in the last game. Again, Brunston's
got to hide somewhere in a traditional one on one matchup,
and they're hiding him on Drew Holiday. The specific reason
there being Derek White is a better movement shooter. So
one of the easiest ways to attack a hedge and
(11:25):
recover is to have the guard setting the screen, get
out of the action quickly pitch it back to him
while his defender is hedging. There's an opportunity for a three,
but it's usually sprinting into a three while having to
get your feet set on the move, and Derek White's
just better at that than Drew Holliday. So by putting
Brunson on Drew Holiday, you're a little less exposed to
(11:46):
him slipping out of screens and taking threes. But the
Celtics still look to attack that by having Drew Holiday
drive those closeouts, and there are lots of examples of
the Celtics getting good stuff out of Drew driving past
Jalen Brunson, but they will also just dribble the ball
off the floor and give the ball to Drew and
be like, Okay, go to work, and he'll just attack
Jalen Brunson on an island and they'll get stuff out
(12:06):
of that. They got really good stuff out of off
ball action involving both Brunson and Cat. So you can
imagine a scenario where you have you know, Jylen Brown
and Derek White and Jason Tatum kind of like in
five out spacing on the right side of the floor
where it's like, you know, Tatum's at the top of key,
Derek White's on the wing, Jaylen Brown's on the corner,
and they'll have Tatum with the ball up top and
(12:28):
they'll just literally have Carl Anthony Towns. They'll have him.
They'll have Porzingis come off of a screen where where
Drew Holliday will screen down on Carl Anthony Towns and
Carl Towns will chase Porzingis over the top and Brunson
will have to help and they'll just put two on
the ball against Porzingis and they'll just pitch it over
(12:48):
to Drew Holliday and he's wide open and he'll drive,
essentially looking to attack the knicks two worst defenders in action.
They got a wide open three for Derek White out
of an action like that in their mouth in their
last matchup. Jalen Brown also seems to like the Josh
Hart matchup for whatever reason. I think he just likes
the size and strength advantage that he has there, even
though Josh Hart's a pretty big and strong dude. But
(13:10):
they will go straight at Josh Hart in ISO and
post up situations with Jalen Brown the keys for both teams.
For the Celtics, it's really it's really as simple. This
is the dynamic of the series. For the Celtics, it's
about getting the Knicks in rotation and for the Knicks
about keeping themselves out of rotation. The Knicks are just
so good at turning a close out of any kind
into a wide open three somewhere else on the floor
(13:32):
with their crisp driving kick attack right, So like that's
the dynamic they have to keep under control. For Boston,
it's about avoiding falling into the ISO trap. So one
use Brunson as a vehicle to get the defense in
rotation by making him hedge not as a defender to
try to shoot over if you can help it, meaning
like as long as he's edging and recovering, slip out
(13:53):
of those screens quickly, ask Drew to attack off the bounce.
Have that be the entry point for your driving kick attack.
If you obsessively look at hunting Brunson in switches, I
think that's where you can get a little stagnant. But
if they do start switching with them, which there's a
version of this series where the Knicks just are like,
screw it, We're sick of giving up these driving kick threes.
We need to just switch everything to try to contain
(14:13):
the ball. That's where you have to punish Brunson enough
to make it untenable for the defense, meaning not settling
for bad pull up jump shots that end up being
a net positive for the Knicks in the big picture.
And then for the Knicks, it's about executing their game plan,
meaning they're peel switches and their regular switches, executing them
well to make sure that they don't give those natural openings.
(14:34):
If they get into rotation, they'll die a quick death.
That is the story of the series for them. Containing
the ball and staying out of rotation. With the Knicks
on offense, the Celtics are going to match up with
the Knicks and their classic Boston Celtics fashion. That means
they're going to put Jason Tatum on Karl Anthony Towns
so that they can switch any ball screens that involve
Jalen Brunson, and they're they're gonna hide chrisops Porzingis just
(14:55):
like they did in the NBA Finals last year on
the weaker above the break three point shooters. So just
like they put him on Derek Jones Junior last year
in the Conference finals or in the NBA Finals, They're
gonna put him on Josh Hart and basically be like
Josh Hart, if you want to take these wide open
pick and pop threes at the top of the key,
be our guests, right, And that's the first swing factor
(15:15):
of the series, right there, is Josh Hart being able
to beat chrisps Porzingis for helping off of him. Right.
That means Josh Hart's gonna have to take and make
above the break threes. He's gonna have to slash out
of that spot and create opportunities. He's gonna have to
rebound out of that spot. Josh Hart needs to punish
the Celtics for putting Porzingis on him. That is the
(15:36):
first big swing factor of this series. But we all
know how this goes for the Knicks. Right when they're
getting stops and they're getting out in transition, it's very
equal opportunity everyone's involved. That's where they can be scary.
But in the half court it inevitably devolves down into
brunts and attacking. In ball screens and in ISOs, Drew
does a fantastic job against him. Jalen needs to get
(15:57):
Drew off of him whenever he can. He's strong enough
to disrupt his base and quick enough to beat him
to spots. He's just one of the very best defenders
in the league. It's something that Brunson's got to avoid.
He does have a little bit of a strength advantage
against Derek White, so similar to what we talked about
yesterday with the sar Thompson. His advantage in that matchup
is strength and his low center of gravity, so hard
(16:17):
attacking moves, getting contact with that right shoulder, pull back, dribbles,
those are the ways that he can look to shed
Derek White to get some advantage. He does have some
success attacking porzingis in action a little bit less with
Al Horford, but I do think that we'll see a
lot of Brunson attacking the Celtics bigs in space whenever
he can. Horford's just better at sliding his feet. He's
(16:38):
a little bit better at like getting like sneaking shots
off against porzingis as he like ships his weight around
and gets into a position where he can't move quick
enough or contest quick enough. But the bottom line is
is this is really why the Knicks have such a
hard time in this matchup. The defensive answers that this
that the Knicks have for the Celtics are kind of flimsy, right,
(17:00):
actually require the Knicks to concede these gaps. Appeal switch
still leaves two on the ball temporarily, there are opportunities
for the Celtics to look to attack there or just
regular switches involve switching mediocre to bad defenders onto high
level dribble drive guys, and so their answers are just flimsy.
The Celtics have just so many quality answers for the
(17:22):
Knicks for what the Knicks like to do on offense. No,
That's why I'm picking the Celtics in five games. It's
just a nightmare matchup and it should honestly be the
springboard into a summer for the Knicks where they end
up making some substantial roster turnover, likely centering around to
Karl Anthony Towns trade. That's a conversation for a couple
of weeks from now. So what is the case for
(17:44):
the Knicks to win? To me, it's defense to transition,
they have to perfectly execute their defensive scheme. They need
superhuman efforts relative to their defensive talent from Karl Anthony Towns,
from Jalen Brunson, containing the ball in switches, flying around
in their hedge and recover situations, rotating when they end
up in driving kick situations. They need the Celtics to
(18:06):
fall into the trap of poor decision making, which I
think is wishful thinking, but that's something that I think
they'll need if they're gonna win the series. And then
I think the Knicks need to play at an insane
pace all series where they can take advantage of their
aggregate talent in the open court. That's when they're so
hard to deal with offensively. So when they're running up
the floor and it's Michale Bridges doing what he's doing
last night and hitting those gaps, and Ogan Ando be
(18:27):
getting clean corner threes and Karl Anthony Town's getting trailer threes.
That's where they get their higher quality shots against this
elite Boston Celtics defense. So again, lots of advantages for Boston,
picking Boston to win, very thin pathway to victory for
the Knicks. We will be covering this series throughout every
single time live on YouTube. After the final game of
(18:49):
the night, it's all I have for today, guys, or
for this morning, I should say, I will see you
guys live on YouTube after the final buzzer of Warriors
Rockets Game six. We will also be going to playbacks
after the final buzzer or after we finish our YouTube
live show. In that show, we'll be going through some film,
We'll be taking questions from the audience, bringing you guys
up on stage, doing lots of interactive stuff. So make
(19:10):
sure you guys head over there and get all situated
so that you're ready for tonight. All right, guys, that's
all we have. I will see you later tonight. What's
up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening to
and supporting Oops tonight. They would actually be really helpful
for us if you guys would take a second and
leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
you guys supporting us, but if you could take a
minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
The volume
The volume, blending Vice's signature dynamic storytelling with the high
octane world of sports. Vice Sports brings an exciting and
diverse range of programming that goes beyond the game. From
action pack live events to gripping behind the scenes documentaries,
to hard hitting investigative pieces and in depth profiles of athletes, coaches, teams.
(00:25):
Vice Sports captures the raw energy, drama, and passion that
makes sports truly unforgettable. Catch live events and other exclusive
sports programs only on Vice Tv. Go to vicetv dot
com to find your cable channel.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
The NBA eighty two game grind is done. Now the
real fun begins. The NBA Playoffs are here and it's
time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments, and
jaw dropping plays. I can't wait. If you're looking to
make the playoffs even more exciting, DraftKings Sportsbook has you
covered as an official sports betting partner of the NBA
from the playing games all the way through to the finals.
Now's the time to back your favorite players and teams
(01:01):
as they chase glory. All season long. DraftKings has been
the go to spot for NBA player props, and that
does not stop now. Want to make your playoff experience
even more intense, try placing a bet on your favorite
player's performance. Well they drop thirty points, forty or more,
it's your call. Ready to place your first bet? Download
the DraftKings sports Book Gap. Now lock in your bets.
Let's make this playoff run unforgettable. Here's something special for
(01:22):
first timers. New DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to get
two hundred dollars in bonus bets. Instantly make it a
playoff run to remember With DraftKings, download the DraftKings Sportsbook
Gap and use code hoops. That's h oops. That's code
hoops for new customers to get two hundred dollars in
bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings.
(01:43):
The Crown is yours. Gambling problem called Way one hundred
gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight hope
and why, or text hope and Why to four six
seven three six nine. In Connecticut, help us available for
problem gambling Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven
seven seven seven or visit CCPG. Please play responsibly on
behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one
(02:05):
plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction VOYD and Ontario.
New customers only bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty
eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources,
see dkang dot co slash audio. All right, welcome to
(02:32):
hoo'son I here at the volume heavy Friday. Everybody. Hope
all of you guys are having a great end to
your week. Just a quick show today, we're gonna be
doing a brief series preview on the second round in
the Eastern Conference between the Boston Celtics and the New
York Knicks. We're gonna be talking about why Boston has
dominated this matchup throughout the year, why Boston is such
a substantial favorite, and what it looks like the tiny
(02:54):
little pathway in which the Knicks can make this into
a more competitive series. You guys know the joke before
we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You
don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter,
underscore JCNLT so you guys don't miss you announcements. Don't
forget about our podcast feed Wherever you get your podcast
and our Hoops Tonight it's also super helpful if you
leave a rating in a review on that front. Jackson's
doing great work on our social media feeds, Twitter, Instagram,
(03:14):
and Facebook. Make sure you guys follow us there. Last
not at least keepdropping mail back questions in the YouTube
comments and can keep geting to them throughout the remainder
of the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So
the season series went four to oh to Boston. They
logged a one thirty offensive rating in the four games,
combined a one to thirteen defensive rating, So for those
(03:35):
of you doing the math at home, that's plus seventeen
points per one hundred possessions through four games. The Celtics
are also grabbing fifty two percent of available rebounds, so
they're winning on the glass in those matchups as well.
A couple of little bits of interesting lineup data. The
Celtics starters meaning Holiday in White, Tatum, and Brown with
Porzingis are plus fourteen net in thirty one minute the season.
(04:01):
In this matchup and with Horford instead of Porzingis their
plus forty two net in seventeen minutes with a one
sixty three offensive rating with that group. I also kind
of liked the idea. We talked a little bit about
this last night and we're going to talk about it today.
But there's a little bit more of a comfortable It's
(04:21):
Jalen Brunson, in particular, in his ball screen attack, is
more comfortable going against Porzingis than he is going against Horford,
which is a little bit of an interesting piece that
I think is reflected in that data as well. The
Knicks starters. So this is Karl Anthony Towns with Jalen Brunson,
with Josh Hart, McHale Bridges and og And and Obi
in sixty five minutes against the Celtics this year, minus
(04:43):
twenty one points per one hundred possessions, the Knick starters
have gotten just cleanly beat in this matchup. In the
regular season. The closest thing to an encouraging result for
the Knicks was their last matchup on April eighth, towards
the end of the season, a game where the Knicks
figured some stuff out. Ultimately, the Celtics were able to
send that game to overtime with the Tatum step back
(05:03):
three over og And and Obi at the top of the
key and a Chrisops Porzingis pick and pop three, a
pretty well contested one that was about twenty eight feet
away from the rim. So I don't want to call it,
you know, an easy shot, but an opening that exists
in their baseline coverage with Karl Anthony Towns on porzingis
a pick and pop at the top of the key
(05:23):
ended up ending that game. So we'll talk about what
was encouraging here in a minute, but the point is
there isn't much in the way of regular season info
that would lead us to believe the Knicks have much
of a chance here, and it reflects in the odds. Again,
all of our odds are provided by DraftKings. DraftKings has
the Celtics as a minus eight hundred favorite to win
(05:43):
the series. You'd have to bet eight hundred dollars to
win one hundred if the Celtics won the series. That's
pretty substantial for perspective. The Knicks were only about a
minus four hundred favorite to beat the Pistons before the
series started, for example. So, just like we usually do,
we're going to talk about the Celtics on offense, and
then we'll talk about the Nicks on offense before we
(06:04):
get into our pick at the tail end of the show.
So with the Celtics on offense. The Knicks in their
last game against Boston went with these matchups. They wanted
to match up strength a little bit more on Jaln Brown,
so they went with Josh Hart on Jalen Brown, o
j Anobi on Jason Tatum, Karl Anthony Towns on Chrisops Porzingis,
Jalen Brunson and Drew Holliday, and Mikhale Bridges on Derek White.
In terms of their scheme, we talked a little bit
(06:25):
about this idea of peel switching last night. The only
real thing that you need to understand in order to
get the idea of how pel switching works differently from
a regular switch is it's like it's more like a
traditional coverage in the sense that you're temporarily putting two
on the ball. But instead of imagine a pick and
pop with Porzingis slipping out of the action, instead of
(06:47):
asking Carl Towns to bail on that ball screen action
and close out to Porzingis, you're asking the guy on
the ball to bail out and close out tops Porzingis.
So couple things. It applies token back pressure. So by
keeping that two on the ball temporarily you can speed
up the ball handler and force him to make a
(07:08):
decision quicker rather than processing you in a way that
is more comfortable for him. And then two, very simply put,
your on ball defender is probably going to be faster.
So like, if it's McHale Bridges on Derek White, he's
going to be able to close out to Porzingis faster.
If it's og and Andobi on Jason Tatum, he's going
to be able to close out to Porzingis faster or
(07:29):
Horford faster. Whereas if you ask Kat to close that ground,
it's just a lot for him to ask. And it
also is a lot in terms of just energy expended
throughout the series to have Brunson and Kat throwing these
crazy closeouts throughout the series. And so that's the main
thing that you'll see in the early part of this
series is in pick and pop action. In particular, the
(07:50):
Knicks will ask the on ball defender to basically rotate back,
which essentially functions as a switch and so if their
closeouts are sharp there, it does expose them to the
switch hunting that you could see. So for instance, now
Derek White has Carl Towns on him, Jason Tatum has
Carl Towns on him, and those will be situations where
they'll look where they will look to attack. And then
(08:11):
with by the way we're gonna we're gonna talk a
little bit about way the ways that Boston can look
to specifically attack those peel switches here in a minute.
But the other piece of it is when they look
to attack Brunson, he's still looking for that classic hedge
and recover that he's been using against basically everybody in
the league. Essentially, Brunson, when his man comes in sets
(08:32):
the screen, he's going to hedge out to stop the
ball handler from turning the corner, preferably force him to
take a retreat, dribble or something away from the basket.
Then he'll recover as the on ball guy ducks underneath
and meets him on the other side of the screen.
You can force the switch there by just rescreening a
few times, and the Celtics had some success there where
like they'll call for a ball screen, Brunson will hedge,
(08:54):
the guy will come off, and they'll just rescreen, rescreen,
rescreen until Brunson inevitably has to switch because the guy
slips out of it pretty well and forces the Knicks
to react in that way the way that Boston will
look to attack. In those actions, specifically against the Peel Switches,
what worked pretty well was one creating more distance between
the ball handler and the popper. What that means is
(09:16):
if you'd imagine this guy's Tatum, this guy's Porzingis. Instead
of like creating just a tiny bit of separation in
the action, Porzingis needs to really cover ground on his
slip and Tatum needs to really drag out the action
with that initial dribble that creates a longer close out.
The longer the closeout is, the more likely it is
that the Knicks will bail and actually rotate from the
(09:37):
weak side. As soon as they rotate from the weak side,
now the skip passes wide open or the extra passes
wide open, and you're in rotation. And as we're going
to talk about, rotation is going to be death for
the Knicks against the Celtics in this series. The second
thing I noticed on film that seemed to work against
the Peel Switches, and we saw a good example of
this in crunch time of their last game, was just
(09:58):
having Porzingis roll so like obviously the natural inclination for
this Celtics team when they're running those ball screens with
Horford and Porzingis is to have them pop and they
primarily will use the dunker spot as like a spacing mechanism,
using like a guard or something like that when they're
attacking matchups, and they'll have the bigs primarily operate picking
(10:19):
and popping or spacing the floor behind the three point line. Right. Well,
if you have Porzingis roll, now you can imagine how
the peel switch is impossible. Right. So, Like, let's say
og and Andobi's guarding Tatum and Kat is guarding Porzingis,
and Kat gets involved in the screen as Porzingi sets
the screen and instead of popping, Porzingis rolls to the rim. Now,
as that guy is chasing over the top, the on
(10:41):
ball guy og and Obi chasing over the top, there's
no way for him to recover in time to a
rolling big, whereas with a pick and pop big he
might be able to throw really hard clothes out and
chase him off the line. Right. So, like they ended
up getting a really good look out of that in
crunch time of their last game, hitting poor Zingis in
the pocket as they came off of that action. The
(11:04):
other ways that I wanted to look at in terms
of ways that Boston will attack in the half court
won straight post steps of Brunson with Drew Holiday. They
went to this early in the last game. Again, Brunston's
got to hide somewhere in a traditional one on one matchup,
and they're hiding him on Drew Holiday. The specific reason
there being Derek White is a better movement shooter. So
one of the easiest ways to attack a hedge and
(11:25):
recover is to have the guard setting the screen, get
out of the action quickly pitch it back to him
while his defender is hedging. There's an opportunity for a three,
but it's usually sprinting into a three while having to
get your feet set on the move, and Derek White's
just better at that than Drew Holliday. So by putting
Brunson on Drew Holiday, you're a little less exposed to
(11:46):
him slipping out of screens and taking threes. But the
Celtics still look to attack that by having Drew Holiday
drive those closeouts, and there are lots of examples of
the Celtics getting good stuff out of Drew driving past
Jalen Brunson, but they will also just dribble the ball
off the floor and give the ball to Drew and
be like, Okay, go to work, and he'll just attack
Jalen Brunson on an island and they'll get stuff out
(12:06):
of that. They got really good stuff out of off
ball action involving both Brunson and Cat. So you can
imagine a scenario where you have you know, Jylen Brown
and Derek White and Jason Tatum kind of like in
five out spacing on the right side of the floor
where it's like, you know, Tatum's at the top of key,
Derek White's on the wing, Jaylen Brown's on the corner,
and they'll have Tatum with the ball up top and
(12:28):
they'll just literally have Carl Anthony Towns. They'll have him.
They'll have Porzingis come off of a screen where where
Drew Holliday will screen down on Carl Anthony Towns and
Carl Towns will chase Porzingis over the top and Brunson
will have to help and they'll just put two on
the ball against Porzingis and they'll just pitch it over
(12:48):
to Drew Holliday and he's wide open and he'll drive,
essentially looking to attack the knicks two worst defenders in action.
They got a wide open three for Derek White out
of an action like that in their mouth in their
last matchup. Jalen Brown also seems to like the Josh
Hart matchup for whatever reason. I think he just likes
the size and strength advantage that he has there, even
though Josh Hart's a pretty big and strong dude. But
(13:10):
they will go straight at Josh Hart in ISO and
post up situations with Jalen Brown the keys for both teams.
For the Celtics, it's really it's really as simple. This
is the dynamic of the series. For the Celtics, it's
about getting the Knicks in rotation and for the Knicks
about keeping themselves out of rotation. The Knicks are just
so good at turning a close out of any kind
into a wide open three somewhere else on the floor
(13:32):
with their crisp driving kick attack right, So like that's
the dynamic they have to keep under control. For Boston,
it's about avoiding falling into the ISO trap. So one
use Brunson as a vehicle to get the defense in
rotation by making him hedge not as a defender to
try to shoot over if you can help it, meaning
like as long as he's edging and recovering, slip out
(13:53):
of those screens quickly, ask Drew to attack off the bounce.
Have that be the entry point for your driving kick attack.
If you obsessively look at hunting Brunson in switches, I
think that's where you can get a little stagnant. But
if they do start switching with them, which there's a
version of this series where the Knicks just are like,
screw it, We're sick of giving up these driving kick threes.
We need to just switch everything to try to contain
(14:13):
the ball. That's where you have to punish Brunson enough
to make it untenable for the defense, meaning not settling
for bad pull up jump shots that end up being
a net positive for the Knicks in the big picture.
And then for the Knicks, it's about executing their game plan,
meaning they're peel switches and their regular switches, executing them
well to make sure that they don't give those natural openings.
(14:34):
If they get into rotation, they'll die a quick death.
That is the story of the series for them. Containing
the ball and staying out of rotation. With the Knicks
on offense, the Celtics are going to match up with
the Knicks and their classic Boston Celtics fashion. That means
they're going to put Jason Tatum on Karl Anthony Towns
so that they can switch any ball screens that involve
Jalen Brunson, and they're they're gonna hide chrisops Porzingis just
(14:55):
like they did in the NBA Finals last year on
the weaker above the break three point shooters. So just
like they put him on Derek Jones Junior last year
in the Conference finals or in the NBA Finals, They're
gonna put him on Josh Hart and basically be like
Josh Hart, if you want to take these wide open
pick and pop threes at the top of the key,
be our guests, right, And that's the first swing factor
(15:15):
of the series, right there, is Josh Hart being able
to beat chrisps Porzingis for helping off of him. Right.
That means Josh Hart's gonna have to take and make
above the break threes. He's gonna have to slash out
of that spot and create opportunities. He's gonna have to
rebound out of that spot. Josh Hart needs to punish
the Celtics for putting Porzingis on him. That is the
(15:36):
first big swing factor of this series. But we all
know how this goes for the Knicks. Right when they're
getting stops and they're getting out in transition, it's very
equal opportunity everyone's involved. That's where they can be scary.
But in the half court it inevitably devolves down into
brunts and attacking. In ball screens and in ISOs, Drew
does a fantastic job against him. Jalen needs to get
(15:57):
Drew off of him whenever he can. He's strong enough
to disrupt his base and quick enough to beat him
to spots. He's just one of the very best defenders
in the league. It's something that Brunson's got to avoid.
He does have a little bit of a strength advantage
against Derek White, so similar to what we talked about
yesterday with the sar Thompson. His advantage in that matchup
is strength and his low center of gravity, so hard
(16:17):
attacking moves, getting contact with that right shoulder, pull back, dribbles,
those are the ways that he can look to shed
Derek White to get some advantage. He does have some
success attacking porzingis in action a little bit less with
Al Horford, but I do think that we'll see a
lot of Brunson attacking the Celtics bigs in space whenever
he can. Horford's just better at sliding his feet. He's
(16:38):
a little bit better at like getting like sneaking shots
off against porzingis as he like ships his weight around
and gets into a position where he can't move quick
enough or contest quick enough. But the bottom line is
is this is really why the Knicks have such a
hard time in this matchup. The defensive answers that this
that the Knicks have for the Celtics are kind of flimsy, right,
(17:00):
actually require the Knicks to concede these gaps. Appeal switch
still leaves two on the ball temporarily, there are opportunities
for the Celtics to look to attack there or just
regular switches involve switching mediocre to bad defenders onto high
level dribble drive guys, and so their answers are just flimsy.
The Celtics have just so many quality answers for the
(17:22):
Knicks for what the Knicks like to do on offense. No,
That's why I'm picking the Celtics in five games. It's
just a nightmare matchup and it should honestly be the
springboard into a summer for the Knicks where they end
up making some substantial roster turnover, likely centering around to
Karl Anthony Towns trade. That's a conversation for a couple
of weeks from now. So what is the case for
(17:44):
the Knicks to win? To me, it's defense to transition,
they have to perfectly execute their defensive scheme. They need
superhuman efforts relative to their defensive talent from Karl Anthony Towns,
from Jalen Brunson, containing the ball in switches, flying around
in their hedge and recover situations, rotating when they end
up in driving kick situations. They need the Celtics to
(18:06):
fall into the trap of poor decision making, which I
think is wishful thinking, but that's something that I think
they'll need if they're gonna win the series. And then
I think the Knicks need to play at an insane
pace all series where they can take advantage of their
aggregate talent in the open court. That's when they're so
hard to deal with offensively. So when they're running up
the floor and it's Michale Bridges doing what he's doing
last night and hitting those gaps, and Ogan Ando be
(18:27):
getting clean corner threes and Karl Anthony Town's getting trailer threes.
That's where they get their higher quality shots against this
elite Boston Celtics defense. So again, lots of advantages for Boston,
picking Boston to win, very thin pathway to victory for
the Knicks. We will be covering this series throughout every
single time live on YouTube. After the final game of
(18:49):
the night, it's all I have for today, guys, or
for this morning, I should say, I will see you
guys live on YouTube after the final buzzer of Warriors
Rockets Game six. We will also be going to playbacks
after the final buzzer or after we finish our YouTube
live show. In that show, we'll be going through some film,
We'll be taking questions from the audience, bringing you guys
up on stage, doing lots of interactive stuff. So make
(19:10):
sure you guys head over there and get all situated
so that you're ready for tonight. All right, guys, that's
all we have. I will see you later tonight. What's
up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening to
and supporting Oops tonight. They would actually be really helpful
for us if you guys would take a second and
leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate
you guys supporting us, but if you could take a
minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
The volume
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.