June 14, 2022 • 34 mins
Colin and Hoops Tonight and Lakers Tonight Podcast host Jason Timpf react to the Warriors sitting on the verge of another title after taking a 3-2 Finals lead over the Celtics with a decisive Game 5 win at Oracle (3:00). They also look ahead to Game 6 and if the Dubs close it out in Boston, or if the Celts can force a Game 7 (24:00).
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It is great to have everybody in you know me
hour along with Jason Tenth, host of Hoops Tonight. You
(01:04):
know my initial takeaway and I'm glad he played well
late and it's not buried. You can connect almost all
of the Warrior's success to Andrew Wiggins. So Tatum is
struggling and has been awful in the fourth quarter. Who's
guarding him? Andrew Wiggins. Early in this series, Jason, we
talked about, Oh Celtics feel huge. They're dominating the Warriors
(01:28):
on the glass. Wiggins has emerged as a double figure
rebounder ended the series. We talked about early, who's scoring
besides Steph. He needs a compliment, he needs his Robin
Wiggins has emerged as the second score. If Steph didn't
start so well early in this series, I think Wiggins
could get MVP votes. He's a former number one pick.
(01:51):
You and I have talked about. We've always known he's athletic.
You know, in Minnesota he had I believe four coaches
in either six or seven years. There was just an
organizational chaos. You know, we always blame the player. You
put him in a solid culture, and I think the
Warrior's a bit surprised by how good he is Defensively,
He's just been willing to fit into their ecosystem. But
(02:14):
I think you can tie almost all of the Warrior's
success from like Game two on in this series, and
almost all of it is linked defensively, rebounding scoring to Wiggins.
I think he's had an unbelievable series. With how physical
the series has been, and with the athleticism advantage that
(02:36):
Boston has, everyone is struggling to create shots. I mean,
even Tatum and Brown are struggling to create shots to
a certain extent, just in the physicality of the series. Steph.
It's not like Steph's getting a ton of separation. He's
just so unbelievably skilled that every time he gets even
the tiniest fraction of space, he's been able to consistently
make Boston pay. But where Andrew's value has been in
(03:00):
the series is his athleticism. He can look eye to
eye with Tatum and Brown and be every bit as
much of the dominant force of an athlete that they are,
and that bit of creation that he had. I mean, Colin,
coming into the series, we're all like, you know, what
are they What are they going to get from Jordan Poole,
What are they going to get from Clay Thompson? And
we were looking in the wrong place because in a
(03:21):
series like this, with the way that it's gone down,
it was always going to be Andrew Wiggins that ended
up being the guy who could be a release valve,
a guy who when things break down, could create his
own shot because he's six eight and he's got all
that athleticism. And here's the other thing too, Colin, Like,
you know, we talked a lot earlier about, you know,
(03:41):
whether or not he was miscast as a number one.
But that was when he was in Minnesota. But that
was a personality thing, that was not a talent thing.
Like he just didn't have the audacity to consistently be
aggressive enough to be that guy. He shied away. He'd
be that guy that disappeared from the game for too long.
But he's got all of the turnaround jump shot, step
(04:02):
back jump shots, all the dribble combinations, all the post moves.
He's got all of the stuff, all of the tools.
He just never had the confidence to lean on it.
And I mean he hit an arsenal of complex shots
tonight on fadeaway. He had to drift drifting hook through
the lane there in the fourty. I wrote that down. Yeah,
(04:23):
you know it's funny and Kevin Durant go ahead, Yeah,
Kevin Durant, I think was bothered eventually he wanted it
to be his team, and it was always Steffs. It's
the opposite with the Wiggins. He's never wanted it to
be his team. It's not his personality. He loves that
it's Steff's team. It takes all the pressure off him.
So and I'm not saying he's Durant, but but It
(04:43):
is interesting how chemistry works. Is that Kevin Durant always
had this feeling like I'm the best player. Why isn't
it my team? Well, it's just not. You're You're not
the soul of this organization. Wiggins is like, oh, finally,
no chaos, and I don't have to be the alpha.
I don't have to be that guy after every game.
And so it's a classic example of there's a lot
(05:05):
of good ballers in this league, right, Hooper's everywhere, but
where do you fit? The other thing that jumped out
at me is you and I had talked about this earlier,
is that even on the Celtics best nights, they had
these six seven minute holes, these these dark, offensive holes.
They're just unwatchable. Their movement stops. Everybody is kind of
(05:28):
rigid tonight. There's an argument that they had six and
a half great minutes and that's it. I mean, they
didn't play well. They were they were uncharacteristically bad in
the first half. You know, it was funny, Jason so
had I had to be on a call for the
first seven to eight minutes of the game, so I
watched the first part of the game with the sounddown.
(05:51):
The Celtics body language was so bad. I didn't get
influenced by the officials or the crowd. It was so tight,
like shoulders up tight, and the and the Warriors body
language not just because they were leaving. It was so
loose and fun and aggressive. And I'll hand it off
to you, but I felt like it was almost like
(06:12):
in the first six or seven minutes, the Warriors kind
of sensed they could smell blood, they could kind of
sense that Golden the Boston was a little tight. This
was a big moment, Game five winner wins the series,
and I felt with a sounddown, I was just watching
body language, and I'm like, oh, the champion smells blood,
he's got he's got the dog in the corner on
(06:33):
the ropes. A little bit now they turned it around,
but I felt most of the night Boston was tentative.
Their body language was tentative. You know. It was such
a classic Boston game. We talked after Game one. If
you remember, Golden State had a eight point run, an
eight o run in thirty seven seconds, and then there
(06:54):
was another possession where they scored seven points on the
single possession. Boston has always been the team that has
these extended stretches where they play good basketball and things
go well for them, but then they these lapses in
judgment is where the more experienced and smarter team always
takes over for them. You know, Colin in this series
coming into this game. So through four games when both
(07:17):
teams were in the static half court environment, meaning no advantages,
staring each other eye to eye, my offense, firs. Your defense, defense,
who can score in that setting, Boston was averaging about
five points more than Golden State per one hundred possessions.
That's a pretty sizable gap. That means in that half
court static environment, Boston is flat out a better basketball team.
(07:41):
But everything surrounding that static half court environment is a
massive advantage to Golden State, And in this case, I mean,
look at look at the pathway of this game. So
Golden State starts twenty four to eight, and Jason Tatum
was awful during that stretch. We definitely have to get
to that at some point. But after that, Boston's settles
down and plays a long extended run of good basketball.
(08:04):
They go in a sixty six to forty eight run
to take a two point lead there towards the end
of the third quarter, but then immediately after that point,
they give up a thirteen oh run. So I've got
an extended stretch of high quality basketball where Boston looks
like the clearly looks like the better team over a
large sample size, and in two short sample sizes they
(08:28):
blew it. The beginning of the game, they didn't come
out serious. Their star came out lacksadaisical. Tatum literally zero
shot attempts in a turnover in his first shift, goes
to the bench minus eleven. Like you, it's hard enough
to win on the road in the NBA Finals and
you're spotting the other team a huge lead because you're
not serious. It's just it's genuinely confounding to me that
(08:50):
I've never I've never seen a team like this because
you see hot and cold teams all around the NBA,
but they're bad teams. Colin. You don't see hot and
cold teams that have a bone of five championship ceiling.
It's so strange. As I was preparing on Fox Sports
this morning, the staff, one of the guys on the staff,
he said, because we were talking about I had said
(09:12):
before the series started, and I think I told you this, Jason,
I said, I think the Celtics could outplay the Warriors
in five games and losing six because they'll just get tight.
Shoulders will go up. And he went and looked at
clutch stats this year for the Celtics, and I don't
(09:33):
like bottom of the league. This team is a lot
of things. But when you don't have that ring, when
you don't have that bag, it's before you get it.
I've seen this happen to so many quality teams. I
saw it happened to Lebron in Miami. You know that
Dallas series. It's just you've never been there, you've never
hoisted the trophy. And you know, maybe it happens in hockey,
(09:57):
but there's something about basketball, the balls in your hand,
you're the crowds on top of you. And I just
feel like in the last couple of games, the Celtics
have gotten really, really tight. You can see it in
their body language. And you and I have both talked
about this, is that you feed off your star. And
Jason Tatum looks tight and the team looks tight, and
(10:20):
Steph for All is flailing tonight. You know, he's really
zilly game he's ever played without a three. He's still shooting,
he's still confident, he's still driving, and I think you
feed off that. You're like, hey, our guy, he's not
like at And I thought it was funny. At the end,
they showed a picture of him sitting next to Steve Kerr,
and I could just picture him looking at Stephen gone,
(10:41):
you ever had one of those nights when nothing goes
you know that could see He's Kerr going, You'll just
be hotter the next game. But there is something to
be said, is that Tatum sometimes lacks confidence playing well.
Step never lacks its shooting like he did tonight. And
I think I think teams feed off it. You're you
played college basketball. When your star is tight, the team
(11:02):
gets tight. You follow the persona of the leader. And
that's what's so disappointing about the Jason Tatum thing is
like Big Game on the road series tied it two.
You feel like you blew an opportunity. You're already having
a bad series. Like Colin, I'm driving home from the
gym today and I'm just listening to the radio and
(11:26):
I hear you throw out a stat that literally almost
caused me to spit out my drink. You said that
that Jason Tatum's field goal percentage was below Steph Curry's
points per game average through four games. I can't believe it.
Like that's that is an absolutely insane stat And again
like that, and that's the thing. It's you know, what's
(11:46):
funny is with Steph it used to be early on
in his career that he was prone to a lot
more of these bad shooting nights, Like in the twenty fifteen,
two thousand and sixteen, two seventeen range, it was about
a one out of three chance. If you look at
his stats, he was below from three and about from
the field and about a third of his games. But
he's become much more consistent. The difference was is, you know,
(12:08):
and this is the difference between a really good team
like Golden State and a team like Boston that's a
lot more flawed. Is Golden State can win in a
bunch of different ways. Like tonight, Steph didn't have it
going to any extent, But obviously Andrew Wiggins kind of
stepped into that KD role as the guy that could
make things work with his physicality and athleticism when the
Golden State machine isn't working. Clay Thompson hit some big
(12:30):
shots and then honestly, their defense. I thought Golden State's
defense and this entire game was incredible. I think, you know,
it's funny calling because it reminds me of the NFL
with a line play. All of us casual fans were
watching and we're obsessed with the quarterbacks doing, or what
the skill positions are doing, or what the secondary is doing,
and little like unbeknownst to the casual fan, there's like
(12:50):
this huge war taking place right in the middle of
the screen and the trenches and there's a push in
a poll there that usually has a much bigger effect
on the outcome of the game. Then most fans realize.
It's like you always talk about, like if Tyrn Smith
is out, Dak Prescott suddenly becomes a different quarterback. And
in this game, there's been a push and pull in
(13:10):
this series. But Golden State in two of the five games,
namely Game two and in Game five, they've been the
more physical team that's been more of a resistance on
the perimeter. It's like watching the twenty sixteen Dallas Cowboys
offensive line get completely run over by a skinny, small team.
It's it's really strange. It's kind of a bizarre thing.
(13:31):
That's taking place, but that's one of the many ways
that Golden State can win. They can win with defense
and with other guys on their team scoring, whereas with
Boston it's like if they don't get a certain style
out of their offense, they literally are incapable of scoring.
And you see that for extended stretches in this series.
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the things I wrote down everybody but staff was good tonight.
Um Wiggins was good. Clay hit big shots, Jordan Poole
hit big shots, Looney got rebounds. Draymond bounced back. And
(15:40):
it's interesting the role players the al Horde first, the
mar al Horp for Jalen Brown, Marcus Smart, Robert Williams,
to me, didn't quite feel as effective. And so when
Tatum struggles, what's left to the offense. There's just not
much there. You know, it was Draymond. It's interesting is
he is. He got that sixth foul and probably should
(16:02):
have been on Steph. You know, I'm watching it at
the end and we're just getting ready to come in here.
It was late, late, late, and I was thinking, that's
a perfect game for Draymond. Eight rebounds, eight assists, play
great defense, and then you know, a minute left, foul
out because lost in all of this, and he was
really tentative. He was really tentative in Game four, but
(16:23):
I thought tonight he bounced back. But I mean, what
they need of him in this series now, wiggint to
soaring pool scoring plays now scoring Steph didn't, but he would.
It's not the scoring, the rebounding issue. They've solved a
little bit of that, but Draymond already serves a purpose,
and if he gets fouls, he gets fouls. He has
(16:45):
to be active, and I thought he was really active tonight.
Glass assists, he fouls out, he fouls out. You're not
looking for him at the end of the game necessarily.
But I you know, I kind of I watched him
tonight and I'm like, whatever the whatever, whatever the stat said.
I thought Draymond was really effective. You know, a couple
(17:05):
of times Jason Tatum had a fall away in the
lane and Draymond was switched over on and I'm like, oh,
that's a terrible that's a hard nine foot fall away.
And I mean Jason was falling away Draymond six seven
and long. And so my takeaway was tonight Draymond really
did what they need from him. Annoying. I mean, when
(17:28):
he's following Tatum over to the bench, that's exactly what
Draymond should be. By the way, that's what he often was.
We forget, you know, a couple of years ago when
they didn't need his offense either. He wasn't you know,
he was a catalyst occasionally. I just thought tonight was
a when he's like that annoying, rebounds, assists, they're a
hard they're a hard team to be because because they're
(17:49):
getting now scoring from other people beyond Staff. I thought
this was Draymond's first truly great game of the series
by his standards. The big thing was he was at
to score rolling towards the basket, which is so important
to punish Boston for helping off of him elsewhere on
the floor. To be honest, though, Colin, I thought the
whole Draymond storyline in this Finals was so overblown, Like
(18:12):
he's he's the last player in the entire NBA to
look at box scores with. Did you know that the
best lineup for Golden State in this series includes Draymond.
It's Draymond, Looney, Clay Wiggins, and Steph and they were
coming into this game. They were like plus twenty three
points per one hundred possessions in this series in like
fifty minutes. Like Draymond has been doing Draymond stuff all series.
(18:34):
He's been amazing defensively all series. He's been great passing
the basketball all series. He just had some rough offensive
highlights in some rough offensive stretches earlier in the game,
earlier in the series, and that's going to happen with Draymond.
First of all, Boston's in incredible defense, and this is
a terrible matchup for him. That under one of the
huge subplots of this series is Boston's defense is geared
(18:58):
towards trying to get step to score in taking away
a lot of the four on threes that Golden State
loves to run on the back end that classic Warriors basketball.
There hasn't been a ton of that in this series
because of the way Boston's defending, and Draymond is one
of the many victims of that. You've seen that across
the whole roster that I thought that I thought the
whole story was overplayed. Draymond's been Draymond. He was a
(19:20):
little bit below his standards coming into this game, but
he played great tonight. And he's just not a guy.
He's not a guy that the highlights or the box
score will ever do justice for. Yeah, so let's talk
game six. You know, first time Boston's lost back to back.
They haven't been a team in the playoffs. They've been
very resilient. God, you know, I thought Tatum would play
(19:45):
well tonight. I almost bet the under on staff at
thirty and a half, but I was like, I'm not
gonna I thought Boston would play great first half. I
thought they would be just desperate and they came out flat.
But um, you know we have remember Boston goes home,
hold serve. We got a Game seven and anything happens.
(20:08):
I just I look at the body language for the
Celtics tonight. They looked so, I mean, Steph's not going
to play like that. It's almost like reality is set
in for Boston. Al Horford's back to reality, Marcus is
back to reality. Grant Williams, they're fine players, but all
the secondary players for the Warriors have now kind of
(20:29):
found their confidence and groove. They're all really comfortable. We've
gotten the best of Boston second tier players. The difference
is Steph's obviously gonna play. Is gonna shoot better? I'm
not sure. Tatum is. I'm not shocked if Golden State
goes back and wins Game six. I'm not I picked
the Warriors in six. I just feel like, forget step
(20:51):
and Tatum. I kind of feel like I've seen the
best of the Celtics reserves, and I feel like the
last two games, I think the Warriors reserves have been
completely empowered by what's happening. I mean, let's face it,
stars are almost souls confident. It's that sixth guy and
seventh guy or the fourth score when he's feeling it.
(21:11):
Momentum is a huge factor. I think Wiggins is on
top of the world. I think Drey is back. I'm
interested to see Boston will probably be a one or
two point favorite, but I wouldn't be surprised if Golden
State finishes. At your thoughts, so, I think this series
(21:32):
is over in the sense that I feel more confident
than ever about my Golden State and seven pick. But
we have seen this exact same situation twice with Golden
State now where they have a road closeout opportunity and
they're just like, now, we'll get him at home next game.
So like, I could totally see Boston just utterly destroying
them in Game six the way that Memphis did right
(21:54):
before the end, the way that Dallas did right before
the end, just because Golden State has a little bit
of that kind of arrogance as well. But I gotta say, Colin,
I have been so unbelievably disappointed in Jason Tatum in
this series. Like, this series is sitting at three, two.
They damn sure should have won Game four. That was
(22:15):
a blown opportunity for Boston. You had a sixty six
to forty eight run in the middle of Game five
and you've gotten next to nothing at a your best player.
The gap, the gap between the way that Steph Curry
has played in this series and the way that Tatum
has played in this series is so unbelievably massive. And
if it was even half that Boston wins this series
(22:37):
in five or six games like it's been, it's been
a really really interesting indicator of how a team, and
it really should factor in more when we're making our
predictions and we're making our analysis. But it's been so
interesting to see how a team with like Golden State,
at such a huge personnel disadvantage on so many spots
on the floor, just wins a game with all of
(22:57):
the smart elements of the game, all of the things
that go beyond the physicality, all the things that go
beyond the god given gifts that you have as an athlete.
It's all just it's just they're a well oiled machine.
Call and I don't know what to tell you. They
had no business beating this Boston team and their one
win away. It's been an unbelievably impressive performance from them.
(23:18):
Here's my notes. In the first quarter Boston no rhythm,
twelve four Draymond two early buckets. Second quarter Wiggins hitting shots,
Draymond more productive, Boston one bench point all half. Third
quarter Celtics excellent start, defensive intendant City steph way off
(23:41):
set eight straight threes. Fourth quarter Wiggins, wow drive, No
Robert Williams on the floor. Clay three, boy, that was fast.
Marcus smart Ta losing composure, Wiggins thirteen rebounds. What a game,
MVP question mark. So there's my notes, my condensed version.
(24:02):
I guess of my notes, this is fun. I think
that composure is so interesting to me because they've had
bad stretches of basketball, but tonight was the first time
where I felt like they looked a little shell shocked
at stretches, like they're what you talked about at the
beginning of the game was bizarre, like they were like
they were surprised to show up and gold State wanted
to beat him, like it was confounding that Jalen Brown
(24:25):
was the only guy who looked like he was really
mentally engaged in the opening minutes. That was so bizarre
that at that engagement level was a super interesting subplot
in this game. I'll tell you what would worry me,
as if I was Boston flying back, Like if I
was the coaches and I'm looking at the film or
the players, it's like, boy, Clay, last couple of games,
(24:46):
he's driving the ball. Clay looks more confident. So we
talked about that often injury a couple of them. I mean,
forget Wiggins and Staff, they're gonna be fine, but boy,
when Clay, now you have three scores and and as
I watched that, I'm like, yeah, you're you're You're the
coaching staff thinking, listen, we can't get our star Jason
Tatum to produce. Now they've got Wiggins and Clay playing
(25:11):
with confidence. Like that's where you're a Celtic fan, You're like,
it feels like we got we gotta get off to
a really good start at home. We can't feed that
monster because I mean, you know it, there are times
Clay gets hotter than Staff. I mean Clay Clay has
had a half a dozen of those moments in his
(25:31):
career where are like yikes, like he is just and
he's bigger than Staff. He's got a beautiful looking shot.
Sometimes I feel like he doesn't quite need the separation. Yeah, yeah,
I'm just thinking what Boston's thinking flying back, and I
think Golden State flying back. They'll probably do it tonight
or tomorrow morning. Is thinking, you know, we've solved the
(25:51):
Robert Williams thing a little like we don't feel as
small between Looney Otto Porter by the way, he's given
him decent men. Auto Porter's been nice. I'm I think
he started tonight. Auto Porter's played pretty well. Yeah, he
started the last two games. You know. One of the
one of the interesting little subplots from Steve Kerr that
I thought was really interesting, and I thought Jeff Van
(26:13):
Gundy did a good job of calling this out on
the broadcast tonight. But one of the things that the
Golden State perimeter defenders I talked about earlier, how the
perimeter defense in the NBA is like line play in
the NFL. It's like it's the push and pull. How
easily are guys getting dribble penetration. That's that's a huge
indicator of the way basketball game goes. Well, what Golden
State is having Wiggins and Gary Peyton and Clay Thompson
(26:33):
and Draymond Green do is he's sitting on these guys
right hands. So almost every basketball player who plays from
the perimeter who's right handed. When they drive right, they're
very good at getting all the way to the rim
and finishing. When they drive left, they're very good at
getting to their pull up. But all of the footwork
is weird for the alternative going both ways, So finishing
(26:55):
driving left, it's strange footwork, so a lot of players
are weak there. Pulling up to a jump shot driving
right is a lot difficult because your body is turned
a different way. Most people like to have their shoulders
turned the other way. So one of the things that
Golden State is doing is they're perpetually making Jalen Brown
and Jason Tatum feel super uncomfortable by sitting on their
right hands and trying to bait them into driving left
(27:15):
and then stepping back into their pull up jump shot,
which is one of the best ways that they can
get Boston to settle. You know, one of the things
I had in my notes calling I'm not sure if
you notice this, but there's this persistent theme in this series,
and it's been a persistent theme for Boston through this
entire playoff run. They are a bad transition defense team.
They when they're in the half court, they're great, but
as soon as it gets helter skelter up and down,
(27:37):
they really struggle, which is really strange for a team
as athletic as they are, because you would think that
would be an advantage for them. But one of the
big reasons why Colin is they You'll see this all time,
smart Brown Tatum beat somebody off the dribble, there's help
in the lane, it's crowded down there, nobody's calling anything like,
there's no whistle, but they'll just fly into all the
(27:59):
bodies row up, some garbage, goes sliding into the camera
row with their arms up in the air looking at
the refs, complaining, and Golden State's running down the other way.
So they literally spot the other team like twenty to
thirty five on fours every game by driving into the
teeth of the deep. And when all you're supposed to
do in that situation is hey, there's three bodies in
the paint. That probably means someone's wide open over there.
(28:21):
And when did things look good for Boston when they
were driving and kicking to wide open threes and when
they did their record, they made like eight in a row.
You got to take what the defense gives you. Calling
it too often, Boston just plays right into their own weaknesses,
and it's it's really painful to watch. Yeah, it is.
It's been really The playoffs has been great, and I
(28:43):
think a credit to this is that the coaching on
both sides has been very good. But I think Kerr
has more to draw from. Wiggins was a number one pick.
You know, we gotta remember that it was a number
one pick. And Clay Thompson's a multiple time All Star
and Steph has been a unanimous MVP, and so email Dooku.
(29:07):
He can he can go ask guys to do things,
but he didn't. He didn't have a number three or
four on this team that was a number one pick.
And so both coaches, I think have really done a
good job of retooling and addressing some issues. But man,
it's clearly Kerr has gotten in the ear of Wiggins
(29:28):
and said, Andrew, you're you're our best athlete, Go be
our best athlete. And some of this is just Andrew.
I mean a couple of times that I was just like, Okay,
that's that's what a world class athlete looks like. You
can teach. There's a ceiling on teaching, and I think
as both coaches have reached into the toolbox, Steve's had
a few more tools to work with more, you know,
(29:50):
as we both kind of thought coming into the series,
they got more offensive tools, and he has you know, polished,
found pulled stuff out like Jordan Pool. Jordan Pool in
the first like six quarters of the series was just unplayable.
He was just I mean I remember writing it down
on my notes, like get him off the floor. Curs
got a way to get him, get his mojo back.
(30:12):
Now he's become a real threat. So you can always
go into your toolbox. But if I've got a few
more offensive tools, I mean, this is still a seventy
thirty offensive over defensive league. You know, good players get shots,
and I think I feel like Boston Email is doing
as much as he can. But if Tatum is playing
like this, you know, some of it's like, guys, I
(30:33):
can't rely on Al Horford and like getting twenty eight
from Marcus Smart, Like I get there's limitations on what
I can do, right, Yeah, I think, Like to be clear,
I think Boston has a little bit more two way
talent in terms of just overall talented basketball players link
athleticism offensive skill, But we both said from the beginning
(30:53):
of the series, Golden State is more offensively talented and
more importantly offensively versatile. Like Atum and Brown are both
like textbook slashers. They like to have the ball from
the perimeter. They like to drive to the basket, or
if you cut them off, they'll pull up. They'll pull
up off the dribble for a jump shot. That's basically
their style of play. Jason Tatum has been exposed as
a guy who can't play in the post in this series.
(31:16):
He's done it periodically over the course of his career,
making tough Kobe fadeaways, but his entire post game has
been completely unreliable in this series. So that's been exposed essentially.
But Golden State has all these different styles that they
can play. They can run a ton of high pick
and roll with Steph Curry and Jordan Poole, or they
can be like, no, step you don't got to go
in tonight, So we're just gonna have you run around
on screens, off screens, off the ball with Clay That
(31:38):
classic Golden State offense where you know it's Draymond at
the top of the key and he's the decision maker
and everyone else is running around. They can throw the
ball to Andrew Wiggins in the post and he can
do things, or he can create his own shot off
the bounce. Like, is there a single Boston Celtic who's
played nearly as well other than Tatum and Brown? Is
there a single role player for Boston who's played nearly
as well as Andrew Wiggins. No, Marcus Smart has been
(32:00):
horrible in this series, not a guy you can rely on. Wiggins,
like we've said, is arguably been better than Clay, better
than Draymond, better than George Pooley's arguably the second best
warrior in this series. And getting that type of production
off of from a guy you weren't expecting it from
it just again buys Golden State additional flexibility. This is
a game where Steph didn't have it going, and the
(32:20):
whole Golden State offense didn't really have it going, but
they had this release valve and Andrew Wiggins. And when
you get twenty plus points efficiently from a release valve,
that can literally swing a game. And I mean that
those are the types of margins that we're talking about
in these tight series. It's like, I mean, Boston, you
gotta be looking on your flight home. You gotta be like,
we had a lead late in the third quarter in
this game and we spotted them twenty four to eight
(32:43):
like that. That's that's these are these all the time.
I look back at these playoffs series and I realized
they're They're decided by these little tiny things that happen
over the course of a seven game series that often
get glossed over, and it's like, man, if one thing
goes differently here or there, it could have been a
different champion. But in this case, Golden States flexibility has
allowed them to win in multiple ways, and so they've
(33:05):
won with Steph playing well, and they've won with Steph
playing like garbage, whereas Boston has only won when Jayalen
Brown and Jason Tatum have played well because they only
have one punch that they can go to. Well. We
hired him before the basketball season. He's been amazing Hoops Tonight.
He's the host, Jason tenth. I hope you like these
live shots we do on our YouTube channel. Pete please
(33:26):
subscribe to the Volume Sports YouTube channel. It's fun. I
just love coming on and shooting the bowl at one
cocktail tonight. I only poured it with four minutes ago.
It's four minutes. We need to clarity. I needed clarity,
all right. This is great everybody, Thanks for watching. Jason,
It's great to see you again. We'll talk to see
you next time calling the Volume. Make sure to check
(34:06):
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presented by the Fan Duel Sports Book. Here we go.
It is great to have everybody in you know me
hour along with Jason Tenth, host of Hoops Tonight. You
(01:04):
know my initial takeaway and I'm glad he played well
late and it's not buried. You can connect almost all
of the Warrior's success to Andrew Wiggins. So Tatum is
struggling and has been awful in the fourth quarter. Who's
guarding him? Andrew Wiggins. Early in this series, Jason, we
talked about, Oh Celtics feel huge. They're dominating the Warriors
(01:28):
on the glass. Wiggins has emerged as a double figure
rebounder ended the series. We talked about early, who's scoring
besides Steph. He needs a compliment, he needs his Robin
Wiggins has emerged as the second score. If Steph didn't
start so well early in this series, I think Wiggins
could get MVP votes. He's a former number one pick.
(01:51):
You and I have talked about. We've always known he's athletic.
You know, in Minnesota he had I believe four coaches
in either six or seven years. There was just an
organizational chaos. You know, we always blame the player. You
put him in a solid culture, and I think the
Warrior's a bit surprised by how good he is Defensively,
He's just been willing to fit into their ecosystem. But
(02:14):
I think you can tie almost all of the Warrior's
success from like Game two on in this series, and
almost all of it is linked defensively, rebounding scoring to Wiggins.
I think he's had an unbelievable series. With how physical
the series has been, and with the athleticism advantage that
(02:36):
Boston has, everyone is struggling to create shots. I mean,
even Tatum and Brown are struggling to create shots to
a certain extent, just in the physicality of the series. Steph.
It's not like Steph's getting a ton of separation. He's
just so unbelievably skilled that every time he gets even
the tiniest fraction of space, he's been able to consistently
make Boston pay. But where Andrew's value has been in
(03:00):
the series is his athleticism. He can look eye to
eye with Tatum and Brown and be every bit as
much of the dominant force of an athlete that they are,
and that bit of creation that he had. I mean, Colin,
coming into the series, we're all like, you know, what
are they What are they going to get from Jordan Poole,
What are they going to get from Clay Thompson? And
we were looking in the wrong place because in a
(03:21):
series like this, with the way that it's gone down,
it was always going to be Andrew Wiggins that ended
up being the guy who could be a release valve,
a guy who when things break down, could create his
own shot because he's six eight and he's got all
that athleticism. And here's the other thing too, Colin, Like,
you know, we talked a lot earlier about, you know,
(03:41):
whether or not he was miscast as a number one.
But that was when he was in Minnesota. But that
was a personality thing, that was not a talent thing.
Like he just didn't have the audacity to consistently be
aggressive enough to be that guy. He shied away. He'd
be that guy that disappeared from the game for too long.
But he's got all of the turnaround jump shot, step
(04:02):
back jump shots, all the dribble combinations, all the post moves.
He's got all of the stuff, all of the tools.
He just never had the confidence to lean on it.
And I mean he hit an arsenal of complex shots
tonight on fadeaway. He had to drift drifting hook through
the lane there in the fourty. I wrote that down. Yeah,
(04:23):
you know it's funny and Kevin Durant go ahead, Yeah,
Kevin Durant, I think was bothered eventually he wanted it
to be his team, and it was always Steffs. It's
the opposite with the Wiggins. He's never wanted it to
be his team. It's not his personality. He loves that
it's Steff's team. It takes all the pressure off him.
So and I'm not saying he's Durant, but but It
(04:43):
is interesting how chemistry works. Is that Kevin Durant always
had this feeling like I'm the best player. Why isn't
it my team? Well, it's just not. You're You're not
the soul of this organization. Wiggins is like, oh, finally,
no chaos, and I don't have to be the alpha.
I don't have to be that guy after every game.
And so it's a classic example of there's a lot
(05:05):
of good ballers in this league, right, Hooper's everywhere, but
where do you fit? The other thing that jumped out
at me is you and I had talked about this earlier,
is that even on the Celtics best nights, they had
these six seven minute holes, these these dark, offensive holes.
They're just unwatchable. Their movement stops. Everybody is kind of
(05:28):
rigid tonight. There's an argument that they had six and
a half great minutes and that's it. I mean, they
didn't play well. They were they were uncharacteristically bad in
the first half. You know, it was funny, Jason so
had I had to be on a call for the
first seven to eight minutes of the game, so I
watched the first part of the game with the sounddown.
(05:51):
The Celtics body language was so bad. I didn't get
influenced by the officials or the crowd. It was so tight,
like shoulders up tight, and the and the Warriors body
language not just because they were leaving. It was so
loose and fun and aggressive. And I'll hand it off
to you, but I felt like it was almost like
(06:12):
in the first six or seven minutes, the Warriors kind
of sensed they could smell blood, they could kind of
sense that Golden the Boston was a little tight. This
was a big moment, Game five winner wins the series,
and I felt with a sounddown, I was just watching
body language, and I'm like, oh, the champion smells blood,
he's got he's got the dog in the corner on
(06:33):
the ropes. A little bit now they turned it around,
but I felt most of the night Boston was tentative.
Their body language was tentative. You know. It was such
a classic Boston game. We talked after Game one. If
you remember, Golden State had a eight point run, an
eight o run in thirty seven seconds, and then there
(06:54):
was another possession where they scored seven points on the
single possession. Boston has always been the team that has
these extended stretches where they play good basketball and things
go well for them, but then they these lapses in
judgment is where the more experienced and smarter team always
takes over for them. You know, Colin in this series
coming into this game. So through four games when both
(07:17):
teams were in the static half court environment, meaning no advantages,
staring each other eye to eye, my offense, firs. Your defense, defense,
who can score in that setting, Boston was averaging about
five points more than Golden State per one hundred possessions.
That's a pretty sizable gap. That means in that half
court static environment, Boston is flat out a better basketball team.
(07:41):
But everything surrounding that static half court environment is a
massive advantage to Golden State, And in this case, I mean,
look at look at the pathway of this game. So
Golden State starts twenty four to eight, and Jason Tatum
was awful during that stretch. We definitely have to get
to that at some point. But after that, Boston's settles
down and plays a long extended run of good basketball.
(08:04):
They go in a sixty six to forty eight run
to take a two point lead there towards the end
of the third quarter, but then immediately after that point,
they give up a thirteen oh run. So I've got
an extended stretch of high quality basketball where Boston looks
like the clearly looks like the better team over a
large sample size, and in two short sample sizes they
(08:28):
blew it. The beginning of the game, they didn't come
out serious. Their star came out lacksadaisical. Tatum literally zero
shot attempts in a turnover in his first shift, goes
to the bench minus eleven. Like you, it's hard enough
to win on the road in the NBA Finals and
you're spotting the other team a huge lead because you're
not serious. It's just it's genuinely confounding to me that
(08:50):
I've never I've never seen a team like this because
you see hot and cold teams all around the NBA,
but they're bad teams. Colin. You don't see hot and
cold teams that have a bone of five championship ceiling.
It's so strange. As I was preparing on Fox Sports
this morning, the staff, one of the guys on the staff,
he said, because we were talking about I had said
(09:12):
before the series started, and I think I told you this, Jason,
I said, I think the Celtics could outplay the Warriors
in five games and losing six because they'll just get tight.
Shoulders will go up. And he went and looked at
clutch stats this year for the Celtics, and I don't
(09:33):
like bottom of the league. This team is a lot
of things. But when you don't have that ring, when
you don't have that bag, it's before you get it.
I've seen this happen to so many quality teams. I
saw it happened to Lebron in Miami. You know that
Dallas series. It's just you've never been there, you've never
hoisted the trophy. And you know, maybe it happens in hockey,
(09:57):
but there's something about basketball, the balls in your hand,
you're the crowds on top of you. And I just
feel like in the last couple of games, the Celtics
have gotten really, really tight. You can see it in
their body language. And you and I have both talked
about this, is that you feed off your star. And
Jason Tatum looks tight and the team looks tight, and
(10:20):
Steph for All is flailing tonight. You know, he's really
zilly game he's ever played without a three. He's still shooting,
he's still confident, he's still driving, and I think you
feed off that. You're like, hey, our guy, he's not
like at And I thought it was funny. At the end,
they showed a picture of him sitting next to Steve Kerr,
and I could just picture him looking at Stephen gone,
(10:41):
you ever had one of those nights when nothing goes
you know that could see He's Kerr going, You'll just
be hotter the next game. But there is something to
be said, is that Tatum sometimes lacks confidence playing well.
Step never lacks its shooting like he did tonight. And
I think I think teams feed off it. You're you
played college basketball. When your star is tight, the team
(11:02):
gets tight. You follow the persona of the leader. And
that's what's so disappointing about the Jason Tatum thing is
like Big Game on the road series tied it two.
You feel like you blew an opportunity. You're already having
a bad series. Like Colin, I'm driving home from the
gym today and I'm just listening to the radio and
(11:26):
I hear you throw out a stat that literally almost
caused me to spit out my drink. You said that
that Jason Tatum's field goal percentage was below Steph Curry's
points per game average through four games. I can't believe it.
Like that's that is an absolutely insane stat And again
like that, and that's the thing. It's you know, what's
(11:46):
funny is with Steph it used to be early on
in his career that he was prone to a lot
more of these bad shooting nights, Like in the twenty fifteen,
two thousand and sixteen, two seventeen range, it was about
a one out of three chance. If you look at
his stats, he was below from three and about from
the field and about a third of his games. But
he's become much more consistent. The difference was is, you know,
(12:08):
and this is the difference between a really good team
like Golden State and a team like Boston that's a
lot more flawed. Is Golden State can win in a
bunch of different ways. Like tonight, Steph didn't have it
going to any extent, But obviously Andrew Wiggins kind of
stepped into that KD role as the guy that could
make things work with his physicality and athleticism when the
Golden State machine isn't working. Clay Thompson hit some big
(12:30):
shots and then honestly, their defense. I thought Golden State's
defense and this entire game was incredible. I think, you know,
it's funny calling because it reminds me of the NFL
with a line play. All of us casual fans were
watching and we're obsessed with the quarterbacks doing, or what
the skill positions are doing, or what the secondary is doing,
and little like unbeknownst to the casual fan, there's like
(12:50):
this huge war taking place right in the middle of
the screen and the trenches and there's a push in
a poll there that usually has a much bigger effect
on the outcome of the game. Then most fans realize.
It's like you always talk about, like if Tyrn Smith
is out, Dak Prescott suddenly becomes a different quarterback. And
in this game, there's been a push and pull in
(13:10):
this series. But Golden State in two of the five games,
namely Game two and in Game five, they've been the
more physical team that's been more of a resistance on
the perimeter. It's like watching the twenty sixteen Dallas Cowboys
offensive line get completely run over by a skinny, small team.
It's it's really strange. It's kind of a bizarre thing.
(13:31):
That's taking place, but that's one of the many ways
that Golden State can win. They can win with defense
and with other guys on their team scoring, whereas with
Boston it's like if they don't get a certain style
out of their offense, they literally are incapable of scoring.
And you see that for extended stretches in this series.
(13:51):
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eight hundred gambler dot in West Virginia. Well, one of
the things I wrote down everybody but staff was good tonight.
Um Wiggins was good. Clay hit big shots, Jordan Poole
hit big shots, Looney got rebounds. Draymond bounced back. And
(15:40):
it's interesting the role players the al Horde first, the
mar al Horp for Jalen Brown, Marcus Smart, Robert Williams,
to me, didn't quite feel as effective. And so when
Tatum struggles, what's left to the offense. There's just not
much there. You know, it was Draymond. It's interesting is
he is. He got that sixth foul and probably should
(16:02):
have been on Steph. You know, I'm watching it at
the end and we're just getting ready to come in here.
It was late, late, late, and I was thinking, that's
a perfect game for Draymond. Eight rebounds, eight assists, play
great defense, and then you know, a minute left, foul
out because lost in all of this, and he was
really tentative. He was really tentative in Game four, but
(16:23):
I thought tonight he bounced back. But I mean, what
they need of him in this series now, wiggint to
soaring pool scoring plays now scoring Steph didn't, but he would.
It's not the scoring, the rebounding issue. They've solved a
little bit of that, but Draymond already serves a purpose,
and if he gets fouls, he gets fouls. He has
(16:45):
to be active, and I thought he was really active tonight.
Glass assists, he fouls out, he fouls out. You're not
looking for him at the end of the game necessarily.
But I you know, I kind of I watched him
tonight and I'm like, whatever the whatever, whatever the stat said.
I thought Draymond was really effective. You know, a couple
(17:05):
of times Jason Tatum had a fall away in the
lane and Draymond was switched over on and I'm like, oh,
that's a terrible that's a hard nine foot fall away.
And I mean Jason was falling away Draymond six seven
and long. And so my takeaway was tonight Draymond really
did what they need from him. Annoying. I mean, when
(17:28):
he's following Tatum over to the bench, that's exactly what
Draymond should be. By the way, that's what he often was.
We forget, you know, a couple of years ago when
they didn't need his offense either. He wasn't you know,
he was a catalyst occasionally. I just thought tonight was
a when he's like that annoying, rebounds, assists, they're a
hard they're a hard team to be because because they're
(17:49):
getting now scoring from other people beyond Staff. I thought
this was Draymond's first truly great game of the series
by his standards. The big thing was he was at
to score rolling towards the basket, which is so important
to punish Boston for helping off of him elsewhere on
the floor. To be honest, though, Colin, I thought the
whole Draymond storyline in this Finals was so overblown, Like
(18:12):
he's he's the last player in the entire NBA to
look at box scores with. Did you know that the
best lineup for Golden State in this series includes Draymond.
It's Draymond, Looney, Clay Wiggins, and Steph and they were
coming into this game. They were like plus twenty three
points per one hundred possessions in this series in like
fifty minutes. Like Draymond has been doing Draymond stuff all series.
(18:34):
He's been amazing defensively all series. He's been great passing
the basketball all series. He just had some rough offensive
highlights in some rough offensive stretches earlier in the game,
earlier in the series, and that's going to happen with Draymond.
First of all, Boston's in incredible defense, and this is
a terrible matchup for him. That under one of the
huge subplots of this series is Boston's defense is geared
(18:58):
towards trying to get step to score in taking away
a lot of the four on threes that Golden State
loves to run on the back end that classic Warriors basketball.
There hasn't been a ton of that in this series
because of the way Boston's defending, and Draymond is one
of the many victims of that. You've seen that across
the whole roster that I thought that I thought the
whole story was overplayed. Draymond's been Draymond. He was a
(19:20):
little bit below his standards coming into this game, but
he played great tonight. And he's just not a guy.
He's not a guy that the highlights or the box
score will ever do justice for. Yeah, so let's talk
game six. You know, first time Boston's lost back to back.
They haven't been a team in the playoffs. They've been
very resilient. God, you know, I thought Tatum would play
(19:45):
well tonight. I almost bet the under on staff at
thirty and a half, but I was like, I'm not
gonna I thought Boston would play great first half. I
thought they would be just desperate and they came out flat.
But um, you know we have remember Boston goes home,
hold serve. We got a Game seven and anything happens.
(20:08):
I just I look at the body language for the
Celtics tonight. They looked so, I mean, Steph's not going
to play like that. It's almost like reality is set
in for Boston. Al Horford's back to reality, Marcus is
back to reality. Grant Williams, they're fine players, but all
the secondary players for the Warriors have now kind of
(20:29):
found their confidence and groove. They're all really comfortable. We've
gotten the best of Boston second tier players. The difference
is Steph's obviously gonna play. Is gonna shoot better? I'm
not sure. Tatum is. I'm not shocked if Golden State
goes back and wins Game six. I'm not I picked
the Warriors in six. I just feel like, forget step
(20:51):
and Tatum. I kind of feel like I've seen the
best of the Celtics reserves, and I feel like the
last two games, I think the Warriors reserves have been
completely empowered by what's happening. I mean, let's face it,
stars are almost souls confident. It's that sixth guy and
seventh guy or the fourth score when he's feeling it.
(21:11):
Momentum is a huge factor. I think Wiggins is on
top of the world. I think Drey is back. I'm
interested to see Boston will probably be a one or
two point favorite, but I wouldn't be surprised if Golden
State finishes. At your thoughts, so, I think this series
(21:32):
is over in the sense that I feel more confident
than ever about my Golden State and seven pick. But
we have seen this exact same situation twice with Golden
State now where they have a road closeout opportunity and
they're just like, now, we'll get him at home next game.
So like, I could totally see Boston just utterly destroying
them in Game six the way that Memphis did right
(21:54):
before the end, the way that Dallas did right before
the end, just because Golden State has a little bit
of that kind of arrogance as well. But I gotta say, Colin,
I have been so unbelievably disappointed in Jason Tatum in
this series. Like, this series is sitting at three, two.
They damn sure should have won Game four. That was
(22:15):
a blown opportunity for Boston. You had a sixty six
to forty eight run in the middle of Game five
and you've gotten next to nothing at a your best player.
The gap, the gap between the way that Steph Curry
has played in this series and the way that Tatum
has played in this series is so unbelievably massive. And
if it was even half that Boston wins this series
(22:37):
in five or six games like it's been, it's been
a really really interesting indicator of how a team, and
it really should factor in more when we're making our
predictions and we're making our analysis. But it's been so
interesting to see how a team with like Golden State,
at such a huge personnel disadvantage on so many spots
on the floor, just wins a game with all of
(22:57):
the smart elements of the game, all of the things
that go beyond the physicality, all the things that go
beyond the god given gifts that you have as an athlete.
It's all just it's just they're a well oiled machine.
Call and I don't know what to tell you. They
had no business beating this Boston team and their one
win away. It's been an unbelievably impressive performance from them.
(23:18):
Here's my notes. In the first quarter Boston no rhythm,
twelve four Draymond two early buckets. Second quarter Wiggins hitting shots,
Draymond more productive, Boston one bench point all half. Third
quarter Celtics excellent start, defensive intendant City steph way off
(23:41):
set eight straight threes. Fourth quarter Wiggins, wow drive, No
Robert Williams on the floor. Clay three, boy, that was fast.
Marcus smart Ta losing composure, Wiggins thirteen rebounds. What a game,
MVP question mark. So there's my notes, my condensed version.
(24:02):
I guess of my notes, this is fun. I think
that composure is so interesting to me because they've had
bad stretches of basketball, but tonight was the first time
where I felt like they looked a little shell shocked
at stretches, like they're what you talked about at the
beginning of the game was bizarre, like they were like
they were surprised to show up and gold State wanted
to beat him, like it was confounding that Jalen Brown
(24:25):
was the only guy who looked like he was really
mentally engaged in the opening minutes. That was so bizarre
that at that engagement level was a super interesting subplot
in this game. I'll tell you what would worry me,
as if I was Boston flying back, Like if I
was the coaches and I'm looking at the film or
the players, it's like, boy, Clay, last couple of games,
(24:46):
he's driving the ball. Clay looks more confident. So we
talked about that often injury a couple of them. I mean,
forget Wiggins and Staff, they're gonna be fine, but boy,
when Clay, now you have three scores and and as
I watched that, I'm like, yeah, you're you're You're the
coaching staff thinking, listen, we can't get our star Jason
Tatum to produce. Now they've got Wiggins and Clay playing
(25:11):
with confidence. Like that's where you're a Celtic fan, You're like,
it feels like we got we gotta get off to
a really good start at home. We can't feed that
monster because I mean, you know it, there are times
Clay gets hotter than Staff. I mean Clay Clay has
had a half a dozen of those moments in his
(25:31):
career where are like yikes, like he is just and
he's bigger than Staff. He's got a beautiful looking shot.
Sometimes I feel like he doesn't quite need the separation. Yeah, yeah,
I'm just thinking what Boston's thinking flying back, and I
think Golden State flying back. They'll probably do it tonight
or tomorrow morning. Is thinking, you know, we've solved the
(25:51):
Robert Williams thing a little like we don't feel as
small between Looney Otto Porter by the way, he's given
him decent men. Auto Porter's been nice. I'm I think
he started tonight. Auto Porter's played pretty well. Yeah, he
started the last two games. You know. One of the
one of the interesting little subplots from Steve Kerr that
I thought was really interesting, and I thought Jeff Van
(26:13):
Gundy did a good job of calling this out on
the broadcast tonight. But one of the things that the
Golden State perimeter defenders I talked about earlier, how the
perimeter defense in the NBA is like line play in
the NFL. It's like it's the push and pull. How
easily are guys getting dribble penetration. That's that's a huge
indicator of the way basketball game goes. Well, what Golden
State is having Wiggins and Gary Peyton and Clay Thompson
(26:33):
and Draymond Green do is he's sitting on these guys
right hands. So almost every basketball player who plays from
the perimeter who's right handed. When they drive right, they're
very good at getting all the way to the rim
and finishing. When they drive left, they're very good at
getting to their pull up. But all of the footwork
is weird for the alternative going both ways, So finishing
(26:55):
driving left, it's strange footwork, so a lot of players
are weak there. Pulling up to a jump shot driving
right is a lot difficult because your body is turned
a different way. Most people like to have their shoulders
turned the other way. So one of the things that
Golden State is doing is they're perpetually making Jalen Brown
and Jason Tatum feel super uncomfortable by sitting on their
right hands and trying to bait them into driving left
(27:15):
and then stepping back into their pull up jump shot,
which is one of the best ways that they can
get Boston to settle. You know, one of the things
I had in my notes calling I'm not sure if
you notice this, but there's this persistent theme in this series,
and it's been a persistent theme for Boston through this
entire playoff run. They are a bad transition defense team.
They when they're in the half court, they're great, but
as soon as it gets helter skelter up and down,
(27:37):
they really struggle, which is really strange for a team
as athletic as they are, because you would think that
would be an advantage for them. But one of the
big reasons why Colin is they You'll see this all time,
smart Brown Tatum beat somebody off the dribble, there's help
in the lane, it's crowded down there, nobody's calling anything like,
there's no whistle, but they'll just fly into all the
(27:59):
bodies row up, some garbage, goes sliding into the camera
row with their arms up in the air looking at
the refs, complaining, and Golden State's running down the other way.
So they literally spot the other team like twenty to
thirty five on fours every game by driving into the
teeth of the deep. And when all you're supposed to
do in that situation is hey, there's three bodies in
the paint. That probably means someone's wide open over there.
(28:21):
And when did things look good for Boston when they
were driving and kicking to wide open threes and when
they did their record, they made like eight in a row.
You got to take what the defense gives you. Calling
it too often, Boston just plays right into their own weaknesses,
and it's it's really painful to watch. Yeah, it is.
It's been really The playoffs has been great, and I
(28:43):
think a credit to this is that the coaching on
both sides has been very good. But I think Kerr
has more to draw from. Wiggins was a number one pick.
You know, we gotta remember that it was a number
one pick. And Clay Thompson's a multiple time All Star
and Steph has been a unanimous MVP, and so email Dooku.
(29:07):
He can he can go ask guys to do things,
but he didn't. He didn't have a number three or
four on this team that was a number one pick.
And so both coaches, I think have really done a
good job of retooling and addressing some issues. But man,
it's clearly Kerr has gotten in the ear of Wiggins
(29:28):
and said, Andrew, you're you're our best athlete, Go be
our best athlete. And some of this is just Andrew.
I mean a couple of times that I was just like, Okay,
that's that's what a world class athlete looks like. You
can teach. There's a ceiling on teaching, and I think
as both coaches have reached into the toolbox, Steve's had
a few more tools to work with more, you know,
(29:50):
as we both kind of thought coming into the series,
they got more offensive tools, and he has you know, polished,
found pulled stuff out like Jordan Pool. Jordan Pool in
the first like six quarters of the series was just unplayable.
He was just I mean I remember writing it down
on my notes, like get him off the floor. Curs
got a way to get him, get his mojo back.
(30:12):
Now he's become a real threat. So you can always
go into your toolbox. But if I've got a few
more offensive tools, I mean, this is still a seventy
thirty offensive over defensive league. You know, good players get shots,
and I think I feel like Boston Email is doing
as much as he can. But if Tatum is playing
like this, you know, some of it's like, guys, I
(30:33):
can't rely on Al Horford and like getting twenty eight
from Marcus Smart, Like I get there's limitations on what
I can do, right, Yeah, I think, Like to be clear,
I think Boston has a little bit more two way
talent in terms of just overall talented basketball players link
athleticism offensive skill, But we both said from the beginning
(30:53):
of the series, Golden State is more offensively talented and
more importantly offensively versatile. Like Atum and Brown are both
like textbook slashers. They like to have the ball from
the perimeter. They like to drive to the basket, or
if you cut them off, they'll pull up. They'll pull
up off the dribble for a jump shot. That's basically
their style of play. Jason Tatum has been exposed as
a guy who can't play in the post in this series.
(31:16):
He's done it periodically over the course of his career,
making tough Kobe fadeaways, but his entire post game has
been completely unreliable in this series. So that's been exposed essentially.
But Golden State has all these different styles that they
can play. They can run a ton of high pick
and roll with Steph Curry and Jordan Poole, or they
can be like, no, step you don't got to go
in tonight, So we're just gonna have you run around
on screens, off screens, off the ball with Clay That
(31:38):
classic Golden State offense where you know it's Draymond at
the top of the key and he's the decision maker
and everyone else is running around. They can throw the
ball to Andrew Wiggins in the post and he can
do things, or he can create his own shot off
the bounce. Like, is there a single Boston Celtic who's
played nearly as well other than Tatum and Brown? Is
there a single role player for Boston who's played nearly
as well as Andrew Wiggins. No, Marcus Smart has been
(32:00):
horrible in this series, not a guy you can rely on. Wiggins,
like we've said, is arguably been better than Clay, better
than Draymond, better than George Pooley's arguably the second best
warrior in this series. And getting that type of production
off of from a guy you weren't expecting it from
it just again buys Golden State additional flexibility. This is
a game where Steph didn't have it going, and the
(32:20):
whole Golden State offense didn't really have it going, but
they had this release valve and Andrew Wiggins. And when
you get twenty plus points efficiently from a release valve,
that can literally swing a game. And I mean that
those are the types of margins that we're talking about
in these tight series. It's like, I mean, Boston, you
gotta be looking on your flight home. You gotta be like,
we had a lead late in the third quarter in
this game and we spotted them twenty four to eight
(32:43):
like that. That's that's these are these all the time.
I look back at these playoffs series and I realized
they're They're decided by these little tiny things that happen
over the course of a seven game series that often
get glossed over, and it's like, man, if one thing
goes differently here or there, it could have been a
different champion. But in this case, Golden States flexibility has
allowed them to win in multiple ways, and so they've
(33:05):
won with Steph playing well, and they've won with Steph
playing like garbage, whereas Boston has only won when Jayalen
Brown and Jason Tatum have played well because they only
have one punch that they can go to. Well. We
hired him before the basketball season. He's been amazing Hoops Tonight.
He's the host, Jason tenth. I hope you like these
live shots we do on our YouTube channel. Pete please
(33:26):
subscribe to the Volume Sports YouTube channel. It's fun. I
just love coming on and shooting the bowl at one
cocktail tonight. I only poured it with four minutes ago.
It's four minutes. We need to clarity. I needed clarity,
all right. This is great everybody, Thanks for watching. Jason,
It's great to see you again. We'll talk to see
you next time calling the Volume. Make sure to check
(34:06):
out The Draymond Green Show. I brought Draymond Green into
the Volume because one of the more entertaining voices in sports.
Unique perspective understands behind the rope. Also chops up with
guests like Gary Peyton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady. Make sure
download The Draymond Green Show wherever you get your podcasts,
only on the Volume Podcast Network.
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