Nerd Sesh - NBA Finals Game 2 Reaction

The nerds react to Game 2 of the NBA Finals between Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis and the Boston Celtics vs. Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks.

Timestamps

00:00:23 - The pronounced talent gap between Boston and Dallas

00:11:52 - Jrue Holiday and Derrick White’s impact on Game 2

00:18:08 - Jayson Tatum vs. Jaylen Brown

00:39:12 - Luka’s performance in Game 2

00:45:15 - What can Dallas to differently the rest of the series?

#Volume #Herd

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. Oh my god, how could he do that?
What Charles Darwin? The nerves is where it's at.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome everybody back into Nerds Sash as always, I'm Carson
briber In alongside me is Logan Camden and the Boston
Celtics have taken a two to zero lead in the
NBA Finals, a much more competitive game tonight than Game one,
but a Boston win all the same. Logan, what is
your biggest takeaway at this point from this game, from

(00:46):
Boston taking this relatively commanding lead in the series.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, I mean, I've just been so surprised, Carson, to
how they've been able to dictate so convincingly defensively man,
and all the big plays that they've managed to make.
You go down to the wire here, and it's just
huge defensive play after huge defensive play. Man Derek White
has the transition block at the end. Tatum has a
clutch and you know he pokes the ball away from

(01:11):
Kyrie Irving in a clutch possession where they need a
bucket Luca, there's a turnover off a holiday ball. Pressure,
Derek White steals the ball, leads to a Holiday catch
and shoot three I think in the third quarter. In
the early fourth, KP has those consecutive chase down transition
blocks on Gafford and PJ. I know they call it
one of them back, but it's just like one after
another after another. In this game, they forced fifteen turnovers

(01:35):
and they convert those into twenty one points. Off of turnovers.
They match ten steals and five blocks. They hold Dallas
to an offensive rating of one oh five point four
And I mentioned this stat last game. In Game one,
they hold them to ninety six point seven. Dallas's offensive
rating was the sixth lowest they total. Crazier stat from
that game. They held him to nine assist Carson. I

(01:57):
know we noted that that was the lowest amount of
assist any team notched in any game this NBA season,
regular season or playoffs. And the biggest difference too, is
the fact that Boston was able to withstand a really
poor shooting night from behind the arc. And that's what
makes this a real tough pill to swallow for Dallas,
Like it just seems like they're overmatch. You have to

(02:19):
win a game like this, you have to capitalize on it.
Dallas was the number one three point shooting team in
terms of volume this season, they made the most and
they made them at the second best clip in all
of the NBA on the biggest stage. When a team
is faltering at their you know the thing that they
succeed at more than any other team in the league,
you got to capitalize on that. And they don't. Man,

(02:39):
In the first quarter, they shoot one of nine from deep.
In the first half, Boston shoots three of fifteen from deep,
and overall they go ten of thirty nine from deep.
You just got you just have to capitalize on that, man,
And you know Dallas doesn't. Boston doesn't care about the
other guys off ball for Dallas, right, They'll leave Derek
Jones Junior alone. They'll leave Pja alone, We'll leave Josh

(03:01):
Green alone, We'll leave everybody alone. Dallas can't afford to
leave anybody alone. Man, Any dribble penetration in kickout immediately
puts his defense in rotation and gets them scrambling. You
just got to win this game. If you're Dallas, Man,
it's inexcusable. You have to capitalize on a hoose shooting
performance from Boston. And that's the reality of the situation,

(03:21):
and it speaks volumes about the talent differential between these
two teams that Boston's able to win a really kind
of ugly offensive game for them by their standards.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
There's a big old talent gap here. Boston is just
overwhelming in that respect compared to Dallas. And you see
that even on their off nights offensively. As you say,
in the first half of this game, Luke and Kyrie
had thirty three points, Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum had
combined for thirteen. Boston was three to fifteen from deep.
So if you think about all of the boxes that

(03:55):
you're trying to check if you're Dallas in terms of
a Boston off night, potentially even a Boston melt on,
what is it? It's Tatum is really struggling as a
shot maker and their three point shooting is just completely off.
And Boston was up three at halftime of this game.
And that's the point where you're just kind of like,
I think we've crossed the threshold where it is just
too clear that the gap in supporting casts is too

(04:17):
significant for Dallas to overcome. And that's not to say
that everything went perfectly for Dallas, because obviously it didn't.
And as dominant as Luca especially was in the first half,
but Kyrie was quite good in that first quarter. Kyrie
then really was quite quiet in the second half of
this game, and Luca relatively was much quieter in the
second half of this game than he was in the first.

(04:39):
Dallas also was super off in terms of their three
point shooting. So if you're a MAVs fan, you might
point at all those things and say, Okay, it's not
like we played our a game either, and that's true,
but specifically when it comes to the shooting aspect of it,
the difference in Boston's off shooting night versus Dallas's is
in your confidence in the shots that they're missing. We

(04:59):
are talking about for Boston kp going oh of three
from deep on good look, Sam Howser going oh of five,
Jason Tatum missing not just pull up threes, but like
several wide open catch and shoot looks where the ball
is swung over to him. Sam goes for Jalen Brown, like,
these are really good three point shooters who are missing
shots that you know they are normally going to be
quite good at. When you look at Dallas's off shooting night,

(05:23):
Luca was really good with all of his shot making,
but from beyond the arc as well. It's PJ. Washington
going cold, which you know is always liable to happen.
It's Derek Jones, Junior, Maxi Kleeba, Josh Green. These guys
combine it to go oh of eight from deep and
not just from deep, overwhelmingly on above the break threes,
the exact sort of shots that Boston wants you taking.

(05:46):
That's where there is just a pronounced difference in the
off shooting nights between these two teams. And so even
those things going wrong for Boston, it just wasn't enough.
And honestly, you never really felt like Dallas was gonna
win this basketball game. There are just two teams that
were built in dramatically different ways logan, and we are
very much seeing the reality of that. And I know

(06:07):
there were a lot of people coming into this series
who believed in the value of having clearly the best
player on the floor in Luka Doocich. For Dallas. Coming
into this series, you would have thought two of the
three best players, certainly two of the three best offensive
players with Luca and Kyrie. Kyrie hasn't played up to
that level, which is one thing, But the other thing
is that as valuable as that sort of star power

(06:29):
is in terms of the historical precedent, you just don't
see teams like Boston. You just don't see teams that
have five top fifty players, as we've talked about, maybe
the most complete starting five that we've seen in forty
plus years in this league. When you think about how
these teams made their moves to like fill things out
over the last year, what was it for Boston Logan,

(06:49):
It was training for christophs Porzingis coming off of a
career season like clearly a star level player. It's training
for Drew Holliday, who was viewed as a star level
player and was arguably their best player in this game.
Was absolutely massive. Dallas has done an awesome job of
building out their roster. But what are they doing. They're
signing Derek Jones junior on the minimum, They're picking Derek

(07:10):
Lively twelfth. Overall, they're seeing what they can do to
use their assets that consist of Grant Williams in two
first round picks way down the line to get PJ.
Washington and Daniel Gafford from two of the worst teams
in basketball. They did a really good job putting themselves
in a position to be here. But those are two
entirely different paths and they should lead to entirely different expectations.

(07:32):
That's not in any way to take away from Boston
because they're a great, great basketball team. It's more just
a reflection on how people view this series coming into it,
because there is such a gap in supporting cast that. Yeah,
of course it's going to make more of a difference
in this series than normal because we're talking about dudes
who were picked up off the scrap heep and have
absolutely overperformed but are all legitimately flawed in their own ways,

(07:55):
versus dudes who are star level basketball players. Boston has
five of those dudes, and it's just exceedingly difficult for
me to see Dallas overcoming that.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, and coming into this series, I know you made
the take that the Celtics f und to raid it,
and I think that's exactly what happened. You're talking about
the places they came from. Boston was already a championship
level contender that just had underachieved over the past few seasons.
And what did you do to that? You added two
of the best complimentary guys in basketball who you know

(08:24):
or at this stage in their careers, just committed to
win it, you know. I mean, that's the goal. Christoph
Worzingis is coming from one of the worst organizations in sports,
the Washington Wizards. Like Drew Holliday won a title. He
knows what it takes, and those guys have committed to that.
But it's a great point. The Mavericks didn't make the
playoffs last year and had to have a dramatic mid
season turnaround. This isn't to take away anything from either

(08:46):
of these basketball teams, but yeah, and I think it's
swung too far in the other direction, man, where the
reputation of the Boston Celtics seem to you know, superseeds.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Thank you for any part of that. Where are you Logan?

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Oh yeah, yeah, dude, I told you right before the
show started. Man, the Boston Celtics. I love doing this. Man.
They make me eat a big old piece of humble pie.
It seems like every time I come on here, man,
and they prove that tonight, like it is a testament
to this group top to bottom. And I want to
hit on another big key thing that you're talking about
with the defense, right, nobody else in basketball has the

(09:22):
luxury of this many not only great players, but great defenders. Yeah,
that can one match up against any of these guys
in one on one context. But also Boston has a
luxury of playing off Luca a little more, and it's
not as dramatic as like Oklahoma City was doing, where
they were blitzing and sending two guys every single time
at the ball. They can help off a little bit

(09:45):
and the Dallas guys just can't punish them enough. Right,
Derek Jones Junior can't hit enough threes. PJ can't hit
enough threes. PJ created a little more for himself, but
can't create enough off of the advantages and right, because
with Oklahoma City, it's like three guys is getting out
of position and diverting their attention to Luca. With Boston,
it's like two tops every time.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
It's between blitzing and just helping off of bad shooters.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, and we're clearly seeing that PJ and Derrek Jones
Junior are really struggling when they aren't just spoon fed
really easy, wide open looks that are completely uncontested because
of the blitz. And that was a huge reason why
you know, Dallas was able to get through the first
three rounds of these playoffs when the defense doesn't have

(10:31):
to do that to slow down Luka Doncic, Well, we're
seeing that there's just a huge gap in the supporting cast. Man.
When you get this out of Kyrie, it's like, damn,
it just really feels like Dallas doesn't have a chance.
And I said this after the first show, but to
eke out a win, to barely win, like in this game,
Dallas is gonna have to play perfect basketball. And the

(10:51):
reality is Boston doesn't to win games. They can play
a mediocre Boston Celtics basketball game and they can win.
That's not what this is. But I'm just saying, on average,
Dallas is gonna have to play damn your flawless basketball
to win one game, to eke out a victory in Boston,
for the most part, can coast a little bit more.
And that's it just speaks to the to the massive,

(11:11):
massive talent discrepancy. And I'm a victim of that too. Man.
I thought it was gonna matter more. I thought the
the gap between Luca was gonna be more massive, between
him and Tatum and the rest of this group. The
collective has picked up the slack and where you know,
Tatum has left them short and Kyrie hasn't been as
good enough as he's needed to be. But there's a huge,
huge gap between these two teams, and that's what we've

(11:33):
seen two two games.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
And you talk about Boston not necessarily playing their best.
I think that the shooting is the clearest reflection. But
to me, it's more about the difference between the stars.
What did I say, Logan? I said, viewing this series
as Luca versus Tatum is the silliest possible way to
view this series. And I think that Tatum had an
interesting performance in this one. I think he did some

(11:55):
things very well. I think he did some other things
very poorly. But the reality is Drew Hollidays your best
basketball player in this game, and he did such a
phenomenal job of providing offensive value even when this was
an offshooting night for everybody from Boston. He actually shot
okay from beyond the arc, but not on any sort
of high volume. He was extremely efficient in the paint

(12:16):
and just has such phenomenal feel offensively. His cutting off
of Jason Tatum when he drew a second defender was excellent.
He is legitimately really good in the dunker spot, and
we saw some of that in Game one as well.
Boston just has such versatility with how they can space things,
the versatility of every player in this offense. Every guy
essentially can fill multiple roles. You see it with Drew Holliday,

(12:40):
his patience, his willingness to deal with physicality down low.
As a finisher, he's constantly catch ready. Derek White is
pretty good there too. He's not quite as comfortable finishing
around the rim, but he can get to those sort
of short range jumpers. That's a crazy weapon to have
from your guards when your wings are drawing extra attention
downhill as drivers. His clothes out attack was phenomenal in

(13:01):
this game, just so aware of these hard closeouts and
saying I'm not going to force a shot, which we
know can be an issue for the Boston Celtics historically. Right,
those sort of quick rushed catches you threes, as good
as they are, there's a difference between a good look
from deep and a forced one, and he didn't force any.
He was getting down to the rim, he was beating
Luca when he wasn't rotated over quickly enough. He had

(13:24):
a really nice finish over Daniel Gafford. He ran the
floor in transition, got a couple easy buckets there. And
what he does attacking the offensive glass is so valuable.
He has four offensive rebounds in this game, Logan eleven
rebounds overall. He's had a career rebounding season, but he
was the number two offensive rebounding point guard this regular season.
He's the number one offensive rebounding point guard in this postseason.

(13:44):
He's getting like two offensive boards a game, and then
he's always going to make the extra pass offensively, Like
he just does so many winning things. It isn't always
going to show up on the stat sheet like it
did tonight. He isn't always going to be as involved
as he was tonight. But like we're talking about him
getting you extremely efficient twenty six points, almost none of
it self created, so consistently attacking within the flow of

(14:07):
the offense. All of this while he's serving as the
primary Kyrie defender, and we know he's an all defense
level guy, like that is his calling card. It's been
really awesome to see him recast into a different role offensively,
where in Milwaukee he had to be basically your co
number two. He and Middleton could trade off Knights, but
then you have the twenty twenty two run for example,

(14:30):
where Chris Middleton isn't even out there, like there was
just too much of a burden on him. Giannis's limitations
as a clutch creator also made him like, at some
times your de facto offensive number one in those clutch situations,
and it was just too labored. It was too inefficient
for him when he is allowed to just weaponize his
elite pure catch and shooting and all of this stuff
that he does, cutting, finishing around the rim, his post

(14:52):
up play. We even see at times being this big
guard at six ' four. You just get all of
these connective benefits out of him and he's really thriving.
So we talk about the different paths in terms of
team building. KP is the deal that you look at
and you just think about the value and you're like,
oh my god, that was a highway robbery. Boston had
to pay a decent price for Drew Holiday, but it

(15:14):
was absolutely worth it. When you are in this position,
when you have been to the NBA Finals and you've
been to a handful of conference finals, it is about
making the moves that will put you over the top.
It is absolutely about committing to adding those sort of
win now impact guys, and Drew Holliday is the epitome
of a winning basketball player, especially in this role. And
I do want to give props to his backcourt mate

(15:35):
Derek White as well, because it feels like collectively they're
sort of the stars of the night. Game one, it
was all about KP when he came in and did
with his mismatch attacking and shooting and rint protection. This
game it's about Drew Holiday and Derek White, and it's
not just their raw production some of the plays they
make down the stretch. Logan, you mentioned a number of
key defensive plays from Boston, so many of those are

(15:56):
generated by these two. You have the Derek White steel
after Drew Holiday forces a deflection and sort of throws
things into chaos a bit, and then what does he do.
He finds Drew Holiday for an open three. Then you
have Drew Holiday making an effort play getting an offensive board,
finds Derek White for an open three. That gets this
lead up to thirteen, And at that point I was
kind of like, all right, this thing's over and done

(16:17):
with Boston finally hit a couple of threes. This is
a thirteen point lead with just a few minutes left,
but then Dallas is actually able to cut the deficit
just down to five. Jason Tatum dicks around a little
bit offensively, and they just leave some empty possessions on
the board, and it's Derek White who steals it with
the insane transition block on PJ. Washington. As the best
shot blocking guard in the league, that's just what he does.

(16:40):
So they're two players who epitomize winning basketball, and they
are unselfish to their cores. It doesn't need to be
a big scoring night from any one of them. They're
legitimately one of the best back courts in basketball because
of the elite defensive impact, the elite shooting, the connective playmaking.
They're one of the best back courts in basketball. And
they're the fourth and fifth best players on their own
team logan. They can for forty four points, sixteen rebounds,

(17:02):
and seven stocks in this game. That's just unfair. And
that's the difference. KP can be your hero in game one.
These two can be your hero in game two. Like
they just have an advantage in that way that Dallas
could only dream of. And that's kind of the story
of this game exactly.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
And you can get mad at Boston for it. You
can be mad at the abundance of talent that they have.
But maybe maybe you, yeah, maybe me, maybe me, I
kind of hate I kind of I kind of just
like the Boston Celtics heavily. That's it. Any one of
these guys can be their best player an individual basketball game.
Not many basketball teams can say that, Right. You look
over at Dallas. If Luca is not the unequivocally, you know,

(17:44):
best player on the court, if he is not the
best player in the court, the mass have no chance
of winning. PJ. Washington and Derek Jones Junior are not
just magically going to be the best player on the
court in a in a game for the Dallas Mavericks.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Right, And I think they probably looked at Kyrie Irvings.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Or it's gonna be Kyrie, right. Well, that's what I'm saying.
Those are the fourth and fifth guys for Dallas. Right.
There's such as such a large discrepancy now when we
are talking about hierarchy, Carson, I think there's an interesting
narrative that's been going on recently, especially after Jason Kidd's comments.
I am the first guy that is going to you know,

(18:20):
push back on Jason Tatum being crowned as like one
of the five best players in basketball. I really think
that Jason Tatum pendulum has swung way too far in
the other direction. Like I was really surprised that the
Brown Overtatum narrative developing. After Game one, we discussed on
our show, you know, is Jaylen Brown or Jason Tatum

(18:42):
the better score? And I thought that was a really
good discourse. I thought that was the you know, logical
route to go. Everybody else kind of jumped the horse
and said they took it a step further because Jason
Kidd came out and said that Jyaln's their best player.
I don't know if it was an attempt to cause
dissension or if that's just what Jason Kidd thinks, you
know whatever. Everybody kind of took the bait and ran

(19:02):
with that. And I do think the Jalen Brown's are
a better score, you know, I had that take. I
think he's been more consistent in these playoffs, and he's
been more aggressive. I prefer Brown, you know, getting downhill
to Tatum's reliance on the perimeter. But we have gone
way too far in the other direction. Man. People are
saying he's nowhere close to top five. He's not top ten.
And like, Tatum's not perfect in this game, in this

(19:25):
series overall, he's seventeen points, ten rebounds, and eight and
a half assists a night on twelve to thirty eight
from the field. That's thirty two percent overall, and he's
four or fourteen from deep. He's thirty nine, just under
twenty nine percent from deep with nine turnovers. He's not
been great offensively, but everybody has been so quick Carson
to like actually call Jason Tatum a complete bozo. I

(19:48):
mean it is, it's gotten slanderous. It's like it's libel man.
I look, man, I want to I want to clown
on Jason Tatum too, but you guys are taking it
too who far, It's not even fun anymore. I have
to be like rational with this. Man. Look, he didn't
score well. He's missing open threes, he is missing point

(20:09):
blank layups. He has been uncharacteristically bad protecting the basketball.
All of these things are true. And there is something
Carson about Tatum and the lights, and I do worry
about him. Like, I wonder if the pressure of big
games gets to him. I wonder if that it's just
a fundamental characteristic and part of the Jason Tatum experience.

(20:31):
We have a big enough sample size to wonder that.
But I'm not just gonna, you know, completely overlook all
of the great things that he does for this Boston
Celtics team. He does so many little things, you know,
that are just separate from just scoring the basketball to
putting it in the basket. He's constantly creating downhill pressure.

(20:51):
I thought Jaylen Brown and Tatum abused Luca on defense
and anybody really got in their way. It was easy.
It was just easy for them to get downhill. And
guess what Tatum shot wasn't hitting, so he started getting downhill. Great,
thank you. He was playmaking his ass off. You talk
about when Holiday cut, that's just chemistry, man. These two

(21:11):
guys are on the same wavelength and it was beautiful.
He's got the one where he draws the double one
Holiday comes in. He's got another one where he just
feeds a pinpoint pass to cutting Holiday between two defenders.
But he was consistently making great decisions. He provided elite
defense and rebounding and I just don't want to overlook

(21:31):
all of the great things that Tatum is doing because
he had another bad night shooting from the field. Like,
we're just going too far with this, man, I don't
know what's next. Is Jaln Brown a top ten player?
All of a sudden squeers? Is is Tatum not top twenty?
Is he not top twenty? Like? How long are we
gonna go? Man? Can we can we find a common ground?
Like I just I don't want to be the guy

(21:54):
defending Jason Tatum. But we've just gone way too far. Man,
we have gone way too far with the with the
Tatum slander.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
That's very big of you, Logan, because I know how
you feel about Jason Tatum. The discourse surrounding him is
going to be pretty difficult to stomach, I would imagine
if things continue as they are. And he is a
really interesting superstar, and the reason for that is that

(22:22):
there is an offensive inconsistency with him that you don't
see from almost any other top ten player. There's also
the lack of an A plus trait with him that
is pretty rare among these absolute superstars, and so that
lends itself to some of these offensive off nights where
you can just kind of look at yourself and say, Okay,
how does he stack up to these other guys within

(22:42):
the context of this performance. His playmaking was legitimately excellent,
and he has been the best of his career this
year in that respect, and I think has had a
really nice postseason overall. And he's consistently, as you say,
getting downhill in the important stretches of this game, not
necessarily to score, but putting the defense in rotation and
specifically targeting Luka Doncic man like just absolutely burning him

(23:06):
over and over again. And then he's making these layd
down pet passes. He's consistently making kickouts. He's not going
to wow you, right, He's not gonna make the sort
of supernatural reads that we see from the league's elite playmakers.
But he is doing his job. He is creating good
shots for his teammates pretty consistently. And of course, on
the other side of the ball, and defensive impact is

(23:27):
pretty much always going to be underrated when we talk
about NBA stars NBA players in general. It's just not
nearly as appreciated as ooh, look at how cool that
bucket was. Understandably so, but he's the guy who enables
their entire defensive scheme. The ability of him to guard
the fives, to hold up against them on the glass,
and to also switch on to Luka Doncic and still

(23:49):
be a quite good option guarding him like that has
prevented these lobs being spoon fed to Lively and Gafford
that we normally see. That has enabled Boston to not
have to sell out with these blitzes that we see
the couple spots when they do send to the ball
on Luca or Kyrie, they are actually allowing very easy
shots for their teammates. Like it is Jason Tatum and

(24:11):
his versatility that has allowed Boston in many ways to
defend Dallas so effectively. He's been their best defensive rebound
of this entire post season. He's been great there in
this series. But his shot micking has been very off,
like very off. He has been very inefficient as a
scorer through two games, and his finishing could absolutely be better.

(24:33):
Like we're talking about some points left on the board
in the paint around the rim as well, and in
the fourth quarter of this game, Logan I mentioned him
dicking around earlier, like you get some bad Jason Tatum misses.
He goes one of seven in the fourth quarter, and
particularly what frustrated me is I love Tatum getting downhill,
and I like him being aggressive. I like him trying

(24:53):
to draw fowls. I just thought there were a couple
spots where there was a big a rimp protector clearly
in position to just a and him vertically, and he
just kind of forced was trying to punch on people
and he got met at the rim, and so those
kind of feel like wasted possessions. But he is going
to be inconsistent offensively. He had six boneheaded turnovers in
Game one. Like this is just the Jason Tatum experience,

(25:15):
and it makes him the hardest NBA player to talk
about because he exists in such a fascinating space where
he is this very complete superstar, but he's kind of
the B plus at a lot of things superstar, right.
He doesn't have that A plus trait, and he is
more inconsistent as a scorer and offensive player. So he
inherently does stuff that's underappreciated when he's off as a

(25:38):
score the rebounding, the defensive versatility, the playmaking in a
series like this, and those performances get underrated. But then
at the same time, you have the fact that he
is the best player for the Boston Celtics, and he
is the frontman of a historically talented basketball team, a
basketball team that is topping some of the all time
charts and net rating and point differential and very likely

(26:00):
is going to march their way to an NBA title
this year. And because we have such a tendency to
conflate best player with that team's greatness, we have such
a tendency to conflate team result with individual impact that
makes him overrated at times. I saw a tweet today
which is so ridiculous. But when something has like six
thousand likes or whatever, you can't just write it off

(26:21):
and say, oh, nobody actually thinks this. And the guy said,
Jason Tatum is gonna have such a Steph curry S
career in the sense that nobody appreciates him as the
best player live at any moment. But then you look
back and you just go, wow, he's a top twelve
to top fifteen player ever. And that's where I'm just like,
what are we talking about? Because there very clearly is
a delineation between him and the top five guys who

(26:44):
concretely to me are Jokic, Jannis Luca, and be An
Sga in terms of the offensive dominance, in the offensive consistency, right,
those guys do have their overwhelming traits that just present
them with a floor on that side of the ball
that Tatum just doesn't approach, and so you can take
him out of those conversations. The Celtics being so great

(27:05):
doesn't put him in there, But at any point after that,
he's somewhere in that range. I said, coming into the playoffs,
I had him as my number nine player. If he
had a really good final series, I said, I could
see him all the way up to number six. He's
somewhere in that range. So to put him on either
side of the spectrum beyond that, to me is just wrong.
But unfortunately, I feel like that's where a significant portion

(27:27):
of people actually lie when it comes to Jason Tatum,
Like he is so polarizing and his offensive inconsistency is frustrating,
but his defensive impact, his versatility is rebounding like that
does provide a floor there. So I think most people
just end up getting Jason Tatum wrong in one way
or the other, and it lends itself to very very

(27:48):
dumb discourse. I just think this is who he is.
And that's not to say that he is going to
shoot six of twenty two going forward. To be clear,
he absolutely can play better. He could have some legitimately
awesome offensive game down the stretch. But you do know,
there's always the possibility of this, and there's the possibility
it happens in back to back games, which isn't the
case for the dudes who some people try to compare
him to. We should just all come to terms of that.

(28:09):
We should come to terms with Jason Tatum is a
top ten player. Jayson Tatum is on an amazing basketball team.
He does a bunch of stuff that allows him to
impact the game at a high level when he isn't
dominating offensively and as a score. But he also has
an inconsistency there that you have to acknowledge because it's real.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
And I think the Celtics front office realized that too.
You know, it's a big component of why you add
Holiday and porzingis to alleviate some of that pressure. I
think they recognized, all right, man, maybe this guy can't
carry the load of an offense the way we need
him to let's get on even more help. And the
one area I really do want to give Tatum credit
for growing and is as a playmaker. I mean, he

(28:48):
really collapsed and fell apart. You know, he didn't score
well in his last finals, but the biggest pitfall of
Tatum was his inability to make good decisions and playmake
And you know, just even like Bear, the load is
the number one guy creating offensively and he's completely blossomed there.

(29:08):
That has been a huge part of the growth in
his game. And so he's again I always think he's
gonna be inconsistent as a shooter, but that is real
tangible growth and again with a team that talented, his
skill set lends itself to still playing winning basketball. Because
of that, and another thing I want to hit on,
I'm waiting for Tatum to have the breakthrough game in
these finals. He knocking down everything where because the thing

(29:30):
that I keep coming back to with all of this
Tatum tape from Game one and Game two is that
he's getting to great looks, Like all of his shots
are basically open threes that he's either creating off of
the dribble or off the catch, and he's just missing
them or they're layups right at the rim, where again
he's like rimming out And I know it's gonna be
frustrating for him, it's frustrating for all of us. But

(29:51):
they're gonna fall at some point, like it's gonna balance out,
and I know that Tatum is just waiting also for
it to happen. And so yeah, I just think I
just think discourse around Tatum has gotten really dumb, and
I just I don't know, man, I it's the most
frustrating thing I think in basketball right now. And I
didn't really see this coming. But and like you make

(30:13):
the perfect comp like if you take taking him out
of this situation, he's not gonna be as impactful as
these other guys that carry bigger loads. Again, that doesn't
mean that we should just wipe away all the other
great things he does on the basketball court. And he's
a complete basketball player. He impacts every facet of the
game absolutely, And it's just it's gotten really toxic around discourse, man,

(30:34):
And I want I want to settle this and put
this one to bed.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
I appreciate you taking that stance with Jason Tatum. I
do think overall, he's probably getting more hate than deserved
right now because of what we talk about, because of
what basketball fans tend to notice and appreciate, and that's
not what he has done in this series. But there
is an expectation if you're going to be held to Okay, yeah,
this guy is one of the generational talents. This guy

(30:58):
could be the number one on number of teams and
they would win the title. Like he's in a privileged
situation where there is so much shot making around him
that he doesn't have to be that dude as a
shot maker and a score every night. And there's nothing
wrong with that. We just have to acknowledge that and
understand that because the Celtics are different from the historical

(31:18):
president and that they're probably gonna win the title without
a top five basketball player. That normally doesn't happen. But
the response to that shouldn't be oh, because they won
the title, Jason Tatum is top five. Maybe it's just, hey,
this is an exceptionally talented basketball team, one of the
best that we've ever seen in that respect. Let's appreciate
what Tatum does, but let's not get silly, goofy irrational
about it in either direction. I do want to give

(31:41):
some props to Jalen Brown as well, because I thought
this was another game where he got downhill. He again
defended well, he made some really nice kickout passes. He
had a few too many turnovers, but overall it was
a good showing and he was also putting the defense
into rotation and had more of an impact maybe than
the raw box score or the rows scoring numbers would indicate.

(32:02):
But really what stands out to me is just Boston's
consistent ability to exploit these Dallas switches and the inability
of Dallas to keep them from creating this drivel penetration
and to keep them from creating these great spot up
looks for their awesome shooters. We talked about what Jason
Tatum was doing to Luca Donstris just so consistently easily

(32:23):
getting by him off the bounce, and Boston has been
able to accomplish what Minnesota just couldn't, and that is
really target Luca on the defensive end and really make
him pay. And there's a couple of reasons for that.
Number One, there's just more dudes on Boston who are
so skilled offensively and are athletic enough to actually target Luca.

(32:43):
But more than that. To me, it is about the
comfort that you have with their playmaking and their spacing
and the level of aggregate offensive skill. Because we saw
if he got that switch with Luca, well, the paint
was gonna be loaded up right, he was gonna see help.
So it's not like he was just gonna beat him
off the balance and then yeehaw, I'm getta open look
around the rim. That wasn't the reality. He was gonna

(33:05):
have to make the necessary reads as a playmaker, and
the dudes around him were gonna need to knock down shots.
And Tatum has just been better as a playmaker. And
even though Boston wasn't making a lot of those open
threes tonight, they end up making enough of them, and
their shot quality is so good that you feel like,
over the course of the series, like things are just
gonna get a lot better for them offensively than they

(33:27):
were in this one. So that's just what's great about
this Boston offense. They have so many ways to attack,
they're so complete, and most teams can't punish these Mitch
matches in the way that Boston is built to. Like
nobody or hardly anybody has a dude like KP who
is that exceptional attacking this matches. He was the most

(33:48):
efficient post scorer in basketball this year. So Game one,
you see it in this game, even though he doesn't
play that much. And then he leaves this game hobbled,
but there are several spots where he gets that Kyrie
switch that's just an automatic bucket for him. Daniel Gafford
also is struggling to contain these dudes off the bounce
off with some of these switches. So Dallas has just
been able to trust their guys that defend well enough

(34:10):
in space, and then to trust the back line defense
to help and to take away those these looks around
the rim. And Boston is just so great at shooting
that as we anticipated, they have been a really difficult
counter in that way.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Well, Dallas has been able to load up the paint
and really settle right and dictate and win on that side.
With Boston spacing, you just can't have it like you
get that initial dribble penetration from Tatum or Jaylen Brown,
whoever it may be, and then it's like the house
is on fire, you know, uh, oh, it's gonna be
a swing swing, swing, open three. It's it's gonna be

(34:46):
really tough, man, because it's just it's a good contrast
what Dallas wants to do defensively, man, And I think
that's an interesting part. Dallas won on the defensive side
of the ball, Like that's why this team was really good.
Like LUKEA and Kyrie were going crazy offense, you know,
PJ and Derrick Jones Junior were giving you whatever. They
won on that side of the ball. And I think
that's a common theme for a lot of the teams

(35:07):
that were deep into these playoffs outside Indiana. Boston won defensively,
Minnesota one defensively, Dallas one defensively, and they got enough offense, right,
Dallas can't win defensively against Boston. That's a conclusion I'm reaching,
Like they just there's too much shooting. There's too many
guys who can put the rock on the floor. And Luca.

(35:30):
I feel for Luca a little bit just because of
the offensive low that he has to take on and
then the fact that they're going at him. Luca's injured
and got this huge responsibility offensively, Like he's just I
don't think he's gonna be able to stop anybody. Like
there's moments right where he can put a body on somebody,
but he got cooked in this one. I also want
to give props to that monster dunked the Jaylen brownhead

(35:51):
in transition where he had that crossover on Luca that
was just gnarly. Also, I want to give a big
shout out to Boston's collective and what they did on
the glens. This is a really like minute detail, but
Boston's ability to just put a body on somebody, and
like all of these guys are such great winners, Brown, Tatum, Holiday,

(36:13):
Man White, there's such a commitment to doing all of
the little things, and one of those little things, man,
is just tagging a guy on the glass. Dallas hasn't
been able to win defensively against Boston. They also haven't
been able to win on the glass. I know that
Lively and Gafford get their statistically like on the rebounds,
but when they wanted to, Boston was dictating that too.
Like they just have so many guys that the crash

(36:36):
and go all out. I was impressed with their effort there.
Dallas seems outmatched, man, Dallas seems really outmatched, And I'm
I don't know, man, I don't want to see a
sweep that feels like what is uh, what's lurking around
the corner?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Carson interesting. I don't know if I necessarily agree with that.
I just think sweeps are generally pretty tough to pull
up against very good basketball teams and as commanding as
this two to zero lead may feel. Right now, you
just held serve if you're Boston and I don't think
that we have an update on kp Like. It didn't

(37:12):
look bad. I would presume that he's gonna play State
on the court for a couple more minutes, but he
was clearly hobbled, and he didn't return to the game
after he came up hobbling. Whatever that was with his leg,
that would potentially open a door for Dallas. So I
would go as far as to say sweep or whatever.
But the path to them ageain. Now you have to
win four out of five. That that path is crazy,

(37:32):
crazy long to me. So we will talk about that
on the other half of a break. What went wrong
for Dallas? What needs to go better going forward? After
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Speaker 2 (39:12):
So logan wht me look at this Dallas performance. First
thing that stands out is that Luca got his and
he in terms of the box score, has a pretty
strong performance and in that first half was really quite
dominant offensively. What did you make of his performance?

Speaker 1 (39:29):
I thought it was a masterful performance. I know he
ends up getting the eight turnovers and shout out to
Boston for being really opportune with when they you know,
blitzed him and stuff. Pritchard has one whereas creeping up
behind him, there's the other ones where there's a litt
cheeky double team and he ends up getting the ballpunk loose.
It was great though, I mean thirty to eleven eleven

(39:52):
on twelve of twenty one, from the field, four of
nine from behind the arc. They flash some of these
stats up during the broadcast, but he's at the most
points per game following the loss NBA playoff history, more
than Michael Jordan. In first quarters after a loss, he
was averaging thirteen points per game on sixty to fifty
splits in these playoffs. He again not just thirteen points
in this one. In the first half, he gives you

(40:13):
twenty three. I want to give him a shout out
for his just exquisite passing. Man. The passing in this
game was phenomenal. There's one where he's doubled in the corner.
He has a crazy kickout to PJ where PJ can't
make the defense pay, and that's what some of his
frustrating man. Luca's diving these guys up where these are
like all time highlights and they're not hitting shots. He's

(40:36):
got a no look kick to Josh Green, he misses
a corner three some of them do convert. He's got
that nice dumb off to Derreck Jones Junior, but just
so many. The one that really stuck out to me
too was he's matched up with Horford on the elbow
or on the wing near the end of the shot
clock and he hits PJ cutting around the free throw
line like off of a shot. So many great passes,

(40:57):
killing guys out in isolation, shooting over the tops of guys.
Luca did get his and ultimately guys can't punish him
enough for his gravity. But I thought I was encouraging
the way he's able to play make after game one
only not just want to assist there. I think that
has more to do with his teammates not converting than
anything else. But he's able to be weaponized more as

(41:18):
a playmaker in this one. It was a really good game, man,
and he's just got such an insane burden on his shoulders.
Maybe he could have executed a little better in the
fourth quarter, but that's kind of the only area where,
you know, I felt like Luca left his short. This
is an all time offensive performance from one of the
game's great offensive players all time. I mean, he's still

(41:41):
got a huge burden on his shoulders. Man, He's not
getting it is really good. The eight turnovers is problematic,
but everything else Luca gives you you'll take and I
don't mind those, man, when everybody else is struggling. So
much like I understand Luca trying trying to put the
entire team on his back. Man, he's a monster.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
Well, I just think all time is too strong and adjective.
He was off to a crazy, crazy start to this game,
like extremely dominant and was just cooking every individual matchup
to a different level than we saw in Game one,
where like as a scorer he was relatively successful, but
wasn't like crazy efficient, and when you consider how much
they were able to limit him as a playmaker, that

(42:25):
was a successful game plan overall for Boston. This game
was different. He was just too big for Derek White.
He was bullying him. The mid range shot making was incredible.
Over the top, he was too shifty for Jason Tatum,
was consistently getting by him off the bounce, and even
when he was really well defended by anybody, like his
pull up shooting was just out of this world. But

(42:46):
the key for Boston that I'm very glad that they
realized and they primarily stuck with, is that you just
have to live with that largely. Now. They did get
a little bit more aggressive, sending two defenders to him
in some spots, but I thought, as you say, they
were selective with that and generally had the element of
surprise working to their advantage in some way, or you

(43:07):
just had some dudes make some really good defensive plays
for them, like when KP is shown high while Tatum
is still recovering and Luca tries to get that behind
the back pass out to PJ and Tatum picks it off.
I thought they had a very smart blitz with KP
when the shot clock was winding down and he was
on Lively. So that's the spot where you absolutely want
to force the ball out of Luca's hands because it's like, Okay, Lively,

(43:28):
catch the ball at the free throw line with three
seconds on the shot clock. That's not a good spot
for the Dallas offense to be in. So they did
send to defenders his way some more. But when they
were doing any sort of like conventional predictable sending two
to the ball, like, that's where you start getting these
wide open looks for his teammates, lob for Derek Jones,
junior wide open doun for Derek Lively that we just

(43:49):
hadn't seen. So I want to give them props for
not over committing to Luca and being smart about when
they did bring to because the reality is you are
just better off with Luca having to take twenty five
thirty shots, all of them working in single coverage, a
lot of them difficult. Then you are allowing these wide open,

(44:10):
extremely high value shots for his teammates, and then he
ultimately did hurt them with the turnovers, eight of them.
And I thought that Boston did a really nice job
of being bringing pressure and they brought some physicality in
some spots that I think forced him to turn the
ball over. You have another spot where KP is a deterrent,
trips him up, forces him to travel, but he does
go one to six in the fourth quarter. So this

(44:33):
was a really really good Luca game. And overall, if
we're doing blame Pie for Dallas, he is a very
small part of it because of how much Kyrie struggled
because of the offensive limitations of his whole supporting gas.
But he was bad defensively and down the stretch like
he did struggle and he didn't get anything easy in
this game. So if you're Boston, you're fine with that.
You know that he's going to be the best player

(44:54):
on the floor. You know that he's going to be
the best score on the floor, and they did allow
him to get his teammates going more in this game,
just out of of necessity. Again, they had to dedicate
some more attention to him in these spots. But overall,
like this wasn't enough on its own to fuel Dallas
to a win. That's not to say that Luca didn't
do it enough. That's just to say that with the
other limitations of this roster, it wasn't enough. And I

(45:15):
think that's where you look at Kyrie more than anybody else,
because he has to be way better going forward. And
that's where when we talk about how it's like Dallas
has to win this one because Boston is off in
terms of their three point shooting and Tatum is off,
the reality is the cash in on that sort of
off night. You probably just need Kyrie to be really,
really good. You probably need not just Luca to be

(45:36):
really good offensively, you need both them. You need them
to combine for sixty as we've talked about, and Kyrie
through two games of this series is averaging fourteen points
per game on thirty seven percent true shooting, which is
just brutal, and he was able to win with his
quickness in a few spots, but he also got blocked
by Derek White one time that he beat him off
the bounce, and so he wasn't extremely successful finishing in

(45:57):
the paint. But more importantly, he's missing damn near all
of his pull up jumpers and he's not getting a
lot of easy stuff offensively. And what's even more problematic
about that for Kyrie is that we've raved about his
all around impact throughout this postseason, which has never really
been his calling card. But the level he's defended at
the level that he's been at as a playmaker has
been really impressive. The problem is now he actually can

(46:21):
get hunted defensively because this Boston team just has so
many big wings, so many good offensive players. He doesn't
hold up as well in this matchup, and now he's
not drawing enough defensive attention to have a big playmaking
impact like he could against Okac for an example. So
they need him to be great as a scorer, and
he has been really bad as a scorer. So we

(46:44):
can point fingers out a lot of dudes for Dallas
who haven't been good enough, because there are plenty, But
to me, the guy who is most disappointing is Kyrie
because everybody else it's like their limitations are their limitations.
You leave bad shooters open and they don't make shots.
It's just pointing. It's not shocking. Kyrie. Struggling this much
has been really costly for Dallas in this game, much

(47:06):
more than Game one, because this is the one where
you had the opportunity and he did not sees it whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Yeah, and I do want to commend Boston's defense one
more time for just making life hell on Dallas taking
away all the easy stuff, Like we're talking about easy
corner opportunities for shooters, lobs over the top, like you
talk about that one lot. To Derreck Jones Junior. It's like,
damn man, that's like the one time Boston, you know,
didn't get set up. That was in transition, when Boston's

(47:33):
been really, really consistent and really.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Yeah, but they had him set a screen and they
sent to it, Luca. Really that transition.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Well, that's what I'm saying is kids, they weren't set
up fully and that's why they weren't able to exploit that.
But when Boston has been able to set up and
get their defense like going, that's just never there. It's
never an option. And they played Luca really physically. Again,
Luca eats his but he is working for these shots.
Man Like when Drew and Jaylen Brown on him. It
is there banging man is. It's really physical. And they're

(48:05):
doing the same thing with Kyrie. Man just making him work.
Don't do that.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
I'm sorry, I was just a bit alarmed by the
phrasing there.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
They're just making these guys work. And that's what you
do two great players, is you just make life difficult
on them. Kyrie th you two games, Carson. You mentioned
the true shooting number. He has a hit of three.
He's O eight from behind the arc. It is crucial
that he gets going from there. And the biggest issue
really is that, you know, we haven't had a spurt,
we haven't had a stretch from Kyrie. And that's what

(48:34):
his value has really been in these playoffs. Is Luca,
you do your thing for the first quarter, all right,
you needed to pick up the slack in the second.
I got you, all right, Luca, you can take the
whole first half. I got you in the third quarter.
It's when Kyrie can give you these microwave moments of
all right, we're stalling out the engines you know, the
engine stalling here, and he gives you that little extra boost,

(48:55):
that little extra kick at the most opportune time. And
there are moments in this game. Door just mentions it
on the broadcast. Hey, fourth quarter time, Kyrie hasn't been
hadn't been going. It's his time to eat and we
just haven't seen that at all from him. We just
need signs of life, We need one of those stretches.
And this is a game again that you just got
to capitalize on. And that's the scariest aspect of this

(49:18):
game to me. I don't want to beat a dead
horse with his take, but the fact that you don't
capitalize on poor shooting and Jason Tatum having a bad
scoring night, that's the recipe for a Dallas win. That's
a huge component. Tatum stinks scoring the basketball. The Celtics
lower themselves into shooting a bunch of threason they don't
make them. They generated a ton of open looks. I'm

(49:38):
actually not really mad at their shot quality or decision making.
All of the looks were basically open, but they were
all from deep. The next two recipes, the keys to
that recipe are Kyrie and Luca ball Out Luca ball
out Kyrie didn't. I agree. He's been the most disappointing
player in these finals, and his job isn't That's what
I want to emphasize it at this Kyrie's job, it's

(49:59):
not it's not difficult. And you had a good first quarter.
You had eight points in the first quarter, you had
eight the rest of the game. We just need stretches.
We need stretches of great Kyrie where it's eight minutes
of high impact Kyrie just going out there and getting buckets.
We don't need really an entire game. I trust Luka
to give me three great quarters. Can Kyrie give me one?
And that really would make the difference. I just don't

(50:22):
really see it getting easier for Kyrie. You look at
all of these things. It's not that I don't think
Kyrie's gonna play better. I think Kyrie will have a
better Game three or a Game four. It's just gonna
balance itself out. I think Kyrie is that great of
a basketball player. But the opposition is not going to
get any easier. Yeah, he's gonna have Holiday, he's gonna

(50:43):
have Brown, he's gonna have Derek White, and he's gonna
have Porzingis at the rim, like, this is just a
really tough defense to be matched up against. But I'm optimistic.
Kyrie is a great player. They're gonna go back home.
That's key Number one though for Dallas getting a basketball game,
is that Kyrie just gives you more. And again I
think he's a great player. I think going back home
he'll play a little better. But this great defense isn't

(51:07):
going anywhere.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
No, it's absolutely not. And this is a defense that
is a really really tough matchup for Dallas specifically, as
we talked about, because of what they can do with Tatum,
because of their switchability, because for Kyrie, of the fact
that you're dealing with the best defensive backcourt in basketball.
It is of course a really tough draw. But he
has to be significantly better, and I do think he'll

(51:30):
be better going forward. The question is just is that
little too late, And the answer is probably yes, because again,
when you are at this sort of overall talent deficite,
it has to be about your two dudes being out
of this world. I've talked about this as being just
in terms of peak, the best offensive backcourt that we've seen,
because the shot creation, the shot making is so overwhelming normally.

(51:53):
Kyrie has not lived up to the task whatsoever through
these first two games, and so I think you put
the blame more on him than anybody else. I do
want to give some props to the mav supporting cast,
because even though we're talking about how big the differences
between these two teams in that respect, that's always been
very apparent on paper, and that's not like, oh man,

(52:16):
these dudes are totally letting you down. Now. Are their
spots where you just need to knock down wide open shots? Absolutely? Absolutely,
But Boston having way better supporting cast players isn't necessarily
like the fault of Dallas is they traded for Kyrie.
They had no assets at that point. They were just
doing what they could. So we shouldn't be saying, oh,
Derek Jones Jr. You need to be as good as

(52:37):
Derek White, PJ. You need to be as good as KP.
Like obviously, that's ridiculous, and I thought these guys did
some good things. Pj's close out attacking was really good,
and he was physical as a driver. He got to
his little floater game. Daniel Gafford had a significantly better game,
and particularly in that second half I loved how he
attacked the glass. I thought his touch finishing was impressive,

(52:58):
and particularly he has stretch. We're back to back possessions.
They go to him in the post against Jason Tatum,
he gets two easy buckets. That was some offensive punch
that he hadn't provided in game one, and Lively really
can't provide. He doesn't have that sort of physicality and
that sort of touch around the rim. And Derek Jones Junior,
I thought did a better job of cutting and of
doing some of the off ball stuff using his athleticism

(53:21):
as he has throughout these playoffs. But again, that inability
of a number of these supporting guys to hit those
above the break threes is just absolutely killer. It's PJ. Washington, Maxi, Kliba,
Josh Green, Derek Jones Junior, all of them, they combined
for one of thirteen. And that just allows KP to
play drop when he's involved, when one of them is
being used as a screener, and he can ignore them

(53:42):
and they're bricking wide open. Looks literally no contest, and
it allows Boston to be more aggressive with their help
in spots. So the impact that has on this offense
goes beyond just the box score. It goes beyond just
the wasted possessions when they miss a shot, because it
basically means that if Luke is gonna use KP's man
as a screener, well, he's kind of playing one on

(54:04):
two and he's still been able to get KP in
space enough where he can just get a sliver of
space for his pull up shooting, and he's been able
to create some good shots for himself. But that's a
disadvantage and you're kind of playing four on five offensively
with the level that these dudes are at. So one
of the biggest things to the MAVs having hope going
forward is going to be figuring out who can make shots,

(54:25):
who can bring offensive value because after Game one, I thought,
let's see more Maxi Kleba, because when you play that
jumbo lineup with him in PJ and a big then
you just have the ability to switch, particularly with KP
on the floor, and not worry nearly as much about
him just getting these super easy mismatches where he can
shoot over these smalls because four or five dudes on

(54:46):
the court can guard him at least decently well. And
Derek Jeark Junior had really struggled as a shooter in
Game one, but they both struggle mightily as shooters in
this one, and at least Derek Jones Junior is bringing
you some value with his athleticism offense. Also, Boston wasn't
as deliberate about attacking those KP switches. They didn't do

(55:06):
it with the same volume, and so you were able
to get away with it a little bit more again,
like when they switched Kyrie onto him. Then mostly they
went to KP a couple times and he got a
couple easy buckets. But it's definitely disappointing because although we
can't hold these guys to the same standard, they're just
not as good. Like missing the wide open threes, that's
an excusable. It's killer.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
I mean, yeah, it's killer all first half. Man, especially
in that first quarter. Dude, Porzingis wasn't even going out
to Maxi Kliba, he moaned Cleva in the first quarter. Man,
he stuffed him one time, Lucas creating these easy looks
for him. Uh, he airballs a three that leads to
the Jalen Brown monster dunkin transition. You have to hit

(55:50):
those shots, and like I know, that sounds like a
simple key moving forward, But literally, which one of you
guys is going to hit open threes? Because I really
don't care at this point. If it's I think you
gotta keep PJ out there, and yeah, try Derek Jones
Junior as much as possible. But it's like, is it
Josh freen is an exhum? Is it clear?

Speaker 2 (56:09):
X admitted above the break three? Almost I was shocked. Yeah,
I was like, Wow, Dallas Maverick made it above the
break three.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Whoever, whoever it is, that guy's gonna get burned. And
Boston has so many these multifaceted guys, you know, Dallas
just doesn't. And I do think the other guy that
if we're looking I know you said this last show,
and I agree. I think we got glimpses of it
in this one. If there's gonna be a third guy
that steps up for Dallas, it's gonna be PJ. Washington,

(56:37):
And I like what we got more when he would
get those d white switches, he gets to a couple
of floaters in this one, he's the guy that I'm
looking at. And again, more of this is on Kyrie. Yes,
the aggregate here deserves blame for just clanging open threes
that may get lost in the shuffle too. You know,
they go. I think it was six to twenty six
from behind the arc in this game. Like that's also

(56:59):
an excuse from Dallas' supporting cast. But again, man, that's
it completely limits what this Dallas offense can do. The
ceiling right, We're gonna load up on Luca. We're gonna
put you said it perfectly four on five. You can't
win like that. You have to punish the other team
for playing like that. If Christops is gonna drop, you
gotta punish them, and they just didn't do that. Again.

(57:20):
The thing though, I'm encouraged that these things will balance
out right. I feel like we're That's what that's my
stet of Game one man. I was like, it's got
to balance out right, And that's what scared me about
a potential sweep here from Boston, Like, damn, what if
it just doesn't balance out and Boston just runs the
table these next two games. But that's what I'm waiting on.

(57:43):
I'm waiting for a great Kyrie game. I'm waiting for
these guys to actually help Luca in knock down some shots.
But it's concerning like, uh, I don't know. There's very little,
like really encouraging things that I can take away from
Dallas in these first two games. And there's a lot
of areas where I feel like boss and could be
even better. On Hunter, Jason Tatum I think could shoot

(58:03):
the hell out of the ball next game and just
go nuclear. We have yet to see a good game
from Jason Tatum scoring the basketball. You mentioned it just now.
I think they all second half. I was like, one,
why is porzingis not out there? Two when he was,
I was going, damn, man, put him in the action.
Let's just get a small dude on Christops and run
these boys out of the building. There are so many

(58:24):
more areas where I think Boston can play even better,
and there are very few areas where I really see
like Dallas completely turning it around. That's that's where I'm at.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
You said it pretty well. I do think there are
areas Dallas can improve. These guys could make wide open
threes at a better clip than they have. Kyrie can
play better, But I do look at Boston and you
highlighted two of the key areas. Tatum can absolutely play better.
KP can be on the floor more and be more involved.
And the update is that there's basically zero concern. He

(58:58):
didn't aggravate his injury at all. He says he's gonna
be out there Game three no matter what. I would
like to see him out there even more. I understand
the conditioning, but it's like we're in the NBA Finals.
He's a game breaking player. I understand that to some extent,
you feel like you can target him a little bit
more out of pick and roll than Horford. But I
do feel like because of the fact that he's really

(59:19):
not guarding the bigs very much and so they're not
getting behind him on the roll, Like I'm not too
worried about KP guarding those actions, and offensively, like he
just brings such a different dimension with his mismatch attacking
and defensively with his rint protection as well, although Horford
is clearly more switchable and has been good overall in
this series. And then the other thing is just what

(59:39):
we talked about, the fact that they were ice cold
from deep and you love the shots that they got,
and you love how constantly that Dallas defense was in
rotation and Dallas defended the three point line better. I
thought I thought that they rotated better, but still Boston
left a lot of meat on the bone in this one.
So going forward for Dallas, I I still think that

(01:00:00):
we could see a little bit more trying to get PJ.
Washington involved when he has the Derek White matchup as
a mismatch attacker. I think that we've seen what he
can do as a driver there. He does have a
physical advantage. I do wonder if we see more of
Gafford going at Tatum. I did not expect that to
be the case coming into the series. I did not

(01:00:22):
think that would be something that they would try. But again,
first possession of Game one, what happened. Gafford drew a
double there and he was able to create an open
three for a teammate. And then in this game you
have the sequence where he gets too easy buckets out
of the post over Tatum. Like Tatum holds up well
there and you wouldn't generally trust Gafford with that sort
of responsibility to create for himself, but he is bigger

(01:00:44):
there and he does have good enough touch. It's definitely
not something you can try with lively, but I wonder
if they go to that more at all, and then
it really is going to be like, who's the duty
you can trust out of this entire group, because I
don't think there's a big enough gap between Derek Jones
Junior and Dante Exum and Josh Green, like where you
are just absolutely married to your rotations there and ExHAM

(01:01:07):
does bring a little bit of playmaking and ball handling
and pushing in transition, and he's still bringing that defensive value,
Like if one of those dudes can step up, then
that's the dude who I would be willing to play
if on Dallas, And that's a dude who could make
a difference. But ultimately, I still think they're gonna struggle
to create the easy offense that they're used to. They're
not going to manufacture those same corner threes, They're not
going to manufacture those same lobs. It's gonna be about

(01:01:29):
Luke and Kyrie being great in their matchups and the
supporting cast just doing enough. And at this point I
am much more confident in Boston's formula as I was beforehand.
I felt pretty confident that Boston was gonna win this series,
and if they weren't, it would have to be because
Luke and Kyrie were just so so great, and Kyrie
hasn't been that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Yeah, Dallas is scrambling and searching for answers, and I
think Jason Kidd is going to look to his rotation
next game to really, you know, see who they're gonna
rock with. And what sucks about that is again the
complete value that you're getting out of these Boston role
players compared to the other guys. You're always sacrificing something,
you know, by subbing out one of these guys. If

(01:02:11):
you take Derek Jones Junior out, you're losing something defensively.
If you're putting in an EXE wore Josh Green, they
may bring you more shooting, but that's another defensive liability.
If you're running your starters right now, you have Luca,
Kyrie and Green or Xman. And I'm not saying that, well,
Green's actually been all right on Tatum and I'm not
saying like that. It's just you're losing a lot of size.

(01:02:33):
And there's another point Green probably is defensively, but damn
he was.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
I don't necessarily agree. I mean, I love Derek Jones
Junior defensively, and he's super long and athletic, but he's
six ' five and slight, So like if you're worried
about the mismatch attacking, there's not massive difference there. Of
course there is a difference, and Derek Jones Junior is
definitely better than these guys. It's just a question of like,
if he's missing all of the wide open threes, how

(01:02:58):
much can you play him? Yeah, and if guys somebody
else nobody else has and if.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
I'm and if that guy's hitting shots, I would be
willing to play more. And the final thing I'll say
on that, I feel like a lot of people, if
you're listening, would probably point to like Jaydon Hardy and go,
oh well, he's clearly like their best offensive creator off
their bench. He's a guy where like that defensive gap
really is like if, man, this is not at all
like a key to me to game three or anything,

(01:03:26):
like if if you're in Defcon, you know four mode
and Luca and Kyrie are completely off and you need to,
I don't know, switch the mojo up and get like
four or five. Jayden Hardy minutes here to see if
he can get something going.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
Fores calling it. That's the difference to the series.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
That is not by any means the solution but that's
kind of a point. Man. There is no easy solutions.
Who the hell is gonna hit a shot for the
Dallas Mavericks. That's the big question heading into game three,
and we will soon find out. I'm I don't know, man.
I guess i'd probably give ex them a little more burn.
I like how you looked out there tonight. But yeah,

(01:04:05):
Dallas has got to be better in basically every facet. Man,
are you to your sticking to your guns? Man? You
think it's gonna be Boston in six? You still think
that Dallas gets two games?

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
No, probably not. I think that they probably win one
of two at home, and I think Boston probably finishes
it off in five. I was confident in Boston coming
into this series, but the gap through two games has
been really quite big, and it's gonna be tough for
Dallas to find all of the answers that they need.
I also think they should stop switching everything with KP.

(01:04:36):
I think it's a no brainer because I think the
Boston can do even more damage there. But even with
like the Tatum Lucas switch, that's a spot where I
would just hedge and I would try to recover to
Drew and like, coming into this series, I was like,
you know what, I think that you would probably rather
make Tatum win in that matchup than you would potentially

(01:04:57):
concede an open pick and pop three to Holiday. There's
not a good answer there. But at this point, the
problem is Luca can't contain Tatum off the dribble, and
so you're conceding a wide open three. Anyways, in fact,
you're conceding a more open three because now Tatum's really
getting into the teeth of the defense and you're just
totally helping off of a really good shooter that's been really,

(01:05:19):
really exploitable. And I think the Dallas does need to
mix things up there. This is a different series, this
is a different offense that they're facing. And all the
props to them, Man, this Boston team showed a whole
bunch of signs of being very, very special during the
regular season and it was not adequately appreciated, and throughout

(01:05:40):
the playoffs there was really very little credit given to
them whatsoever. And I will say, as I have many times,
I am not trying to claim whatsoever that I have
been the dude throwing the Boston parade. I didn't pick
them to win the title coming into the playoffs, and
I had not been latting them with praise throughout the
first three rounds of playoffs because they hadn't played anybody

(01:06:00):
remotely close to their caliber as a basketball team. But
coming into this series, Logan, I did make sure to say,
let's understand the gap and talent here. Let's understand Boston
is clearly the favorite here, and let's appreciate how great
this team really is. And this has been a very
convincing couple of games from them, even though this wasn't
like a dominant win for them, because again, they're able
to win while falling short in what makes them as

(01:06:24):
lethal as anything as a basketball team, that being their
three point shooting. Any final thoughts before we get out
of here, nas reed, nas Reid Logan rip no longer
in the playoff field. All right, guys, appreciate you tuning in.
As always, we'll be back with a show before Game three.
We'll talk some big picture stuff with this series and
maybe whatever else pops into our head. But of course

(01:06:45):
we'll be back after that game as well. If you
want more of our content, it is across our YouTube channel,
all of our full shows, all of our video essays.
I made one on KP after Game one. Still relevant.
He does a lot of the same stuff at a
high level, and we'll route this series. Luca Nope, Logan, congratulations, Logan,
I just confused you with Luca doncons that's a fantastic

(01:07:06):
player comp for you. Logan made a Prospect breakdown about
Matas Bosellis today that you can go ahead and check out.
So that is across our YouTube channel. You can listen
to the show across audio platforms. You can also follow
us across social TikTok and Instagram at nerd sessh to
see clips from the show and all of our trivia content.
Twitter at nerd Underscore sessh, and you can join our

(01:07:26):
discord if you want to chat with the fellas, including
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And you can check out our merch at the volume
dot com. So with that, as always appreciate you guys.
I've been Carson Braber

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
I am in Logan Camden and this was Nerd Seshion