April 22, 2025 • 48 mins
Jason reacts live after the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Denver Nuggets in Game 2. Kawhi Leonard was exceptional and Nikola Jokic & Jamal Murray were uncharacteristically poor down the stretch of that game, leaving the series tied 1-1. Then he discusses the Detroit Pistons also getting a road win in Game 2 against the New York Knicks, Cade Cunningham’s spectacular play, Jalen Brunson falling short at the end.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The NBA eighty two game grind is done, and now
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Speaker 3 (01:45):
Slash audio. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
You're at the volume heavy Monday, everybody, Oh balt, you
guys are having a great start to your week. We're
hitting the two games from tonight's slate as the Los
Angeles Clippers and the Detroit Pistons. On the Road even
up their series to tie things at one and then
at the tail end of the show, like we will
be doing for the most part in the weekday shows.
During the playoffs, we're gonna do ten to fifteen minutes
(02:19):
of questions from the chat, So make sure you subscribe
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(02:40):
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(03:02):
in our YouTube comments so we can hit him in
our mail bags throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So I say out a tweet
in the middle of the third quarter reemphasizing a point
that I made after Game one of this series, which
was that I thought that Denver's chance to win this
series was to keep things close. The Clippers are not
(03:23):
a super high quality playmaking team relative to Denver. I
think Denver in general is a little bit smarter as
a team, and so in theory, if they can get
into close games with two three minutes left, four or
five minutes left and it's a two or three point game,
I like Denver's chances in those situations. And boy did
I jinx the hell out of the Denver Nuggets because
(03:44):
they end up getting into that situation. It looks like
the Clippers were gonna build a little bit of margin
there in the late third quarter, right, we got a
huge Nick Matoom three. There was a James Harden three
in there. They get a couple of buckets, they push
it up to seven, but Denver battles back and we
end up in another crunch time battle, but ironically it
was the Denver Nuggets who were the undisciplined team in
(04:06):
crunch time. Aaron Gordon, with a wide open dunk, smokes
it off the back of the rim. Michael Porter Junior,
who honestly played a much better game than he did
in Game one, earned his right to close the game.
Made a couple of huge plays, an offensive rebound where
he drew a foul, a huge three, and a chaotic
sequence on the right wing, and then he gets a
defensive rebound on a critical possession, looks to throw a
(04:29):
kick ahead pass, but hesitates at the last second, and
right when he pulls back on that kick ahead pass,
the ball just slips out of his fingers goes right
to the other team, leading to a wide open three
for Norman Pale, who really couldn't buy a bucket most
of the night but hit several big ones late. It
hit that three along the wing that was a huge swing.
Instead of getting a Denver offense possession, which this season
(04:50):
has been worth like around one point two to five points,
especially with Nikole Yocic on the floor, you end up
giving up three to the Clippers instead, So between he's
at and the dunk, we're talking about like almost six
and a half point swing back towards the Clippers. And
then on that critical Jokic turnover late in the game,
he gets double teamed, and this basketball one oh one.
When you're double team it's about spacing and making yourself available.
(05:14):
Both Christian Brown and Russell Westbrook stand in the exact
same spot up on the right wing, making themselves easy
to guard. Jokic has no place to go with the ball,
he tries lobbing it in that direction. Kawhi Leonard gets
a big steal. That was what was so unusual about
what happened down the stretch. The Denver Nuggets so are
typically so surgical about getting to the best possible shot
(05:35):
and not making mistakes down the stretch, made three massive
mistakes in crunch time that swung this game back towards
the Clippers. And meanwhile, on the other end of the floor,
Kawhi was just absolutely surgical with his shot making. He
was amazing all night. Had just a classic Kawhi Leonard
I'm not going to miss a single pull up jump
shot type of game, but I thought the two he
(05:58):
hit at the end might have been the toughest ones
he hit all night. That right shoulder fade over Aaron Gordon.
Aaron Gordon defended that perfectly. On Kawhi's followed through here,
he damn near high five to Aaron Gordon, but he
got the separation that he needed to at least get
the clean look off or at least to get into
his rhythm, and he knocked it down. And then the
second one coming off the right wing, he sold it
(06:18):
with this really nice aggressive driving move. Really got his
momentum going down towards the basket before he hit that
in and out dribble and elevated. That got Aaron Gordon
on his heels so he could get good separation on
the move and he knocked it down. I thought he
did a much better job of handling double teams in
this game. I want to credit the coaching staff here
(06:39):
because they made it really simple for him. They had
him attack on the right side of the floor. Denver
was strong side zoning, usually with Jokic, meaning they were
bringing Jokic over to basically outside the block and allowing
Aaron Gordon to whoever was guarding Kawhi in a switch
to basically force him towards the baseline where he's going
to go right into additional help. And what the Clippers
did there is they just sent a flasher right to
(07:02):
the high posts, right at the semi circle below the
free throw line. That's where he saw Norman Powell run
in and get that little floater. That's where he saw
Avita Zubats come in and get that little kind of
hooking floater that he takes in that spot in the floor.
They created an easier read for Kuhi to make, and
it was interesting because in those situations he was making
(07:22):
the reads. It was on the other ones when he
was dribbling out above the break when Denver brought the
double teams that Kawhi did a lot of what he
did in Game one, where he kind of struggled to
identify where the opening was or miss some of the
easier reads. But when they got him into the right
side of the floor, they had a plan. They had
a plan for how to handle that double team, and
he had five assists in one turnover tonight to go
(07:44):
with the thirty nine points on nineteen shots. Just a
unbelievable game from Kawhi Leonard. One of the things we
talked about all year, dating back to training camp. I
had my optimism surrounding the Clippers. I predicted them to
finish above the play and thought they'd be good, base
on my beliefs, my core basketball beliefs surrounding their perimeter athleticism,
(08:05):
James Harden as a floor raizer on offense in the
regular season, What if Eata Zubats can do as a
pick and roll partner with it Harden and all the
other stuff he showed. But one of the things I
talked about at the beginning of the season was there's
always this potential outcome, which is we joke about Kawhi
and the Clippers struggling in twenty twenty. We talk about
Kawhi being consistently unavailable from a health perspective in twenty
(08:27):
twenty one, in twenty twenty two, in twenty twenty three,
in twenty twenty four. But none of that matters if,
for whatever reason, he makes it to April this year
ready to go, and here we are it's April twenty.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
First, he just.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Played a playoff game that only a top tier superstar
in this league is capable of playing. And it's because
when Kawhi is late when Kawhi is healthy, he is
capable of reaching that level. And so yeah, there can
be some wishful thinking if you're an opponent of why
that maybe he won't be able to hold up over
the course of the series. But he's here now and
(09:05):
he's busting everybody's ass. I thought the Clippers handled the
tic tac toe sequences better. What I'm referring to there
is just like the ballscreen attack. When they get two
to the ball, there's an opening there in the pocket
or on a skip, and there's these simple read and
react sequences that have to take place, and there were
just a couple of examples where it worked better. There's
a big one out of the right corner late in
(09:26):
the game. Harden came off lefty hook pass over the
top to Zoo, and Zoo you could see it coming
a mile away. They loaded up the low man and
they came across to rotate and Nick Patum was wide
open in the left corner and Zoo just threw a
beautiful over the top pass that landed in Batomb's hands
with plenty of time for him to knock down that shot.
(09:47):
They still botched a couple ones in their baseline cuts.
Chris Dunn missed a reverse layup, credit to Aaron Gordon.
He had a nice last second contest. But they're still
batching some of those like baseline cut finishes that they
I can get in those sequences. I thought that there
were a lot of close out attacks from Norman Powell
that didn't get converted. There's still a lot of meat
(10:08):
on the bone there, so to speak for the Clippers
to try to clean it up and get even more
out of it. But I thought they handled everything just
a little bit better today. Really nice bounce back when
James Harden obviously not the most statistically impressive game with
the four turnovers in eighteen points and seventeen shots, but
I thought he hit some big ones, some big momentum
shots throughout the game. I thought that big three hit
in the late third quarter to push the lead up
(10:30):
to seven was an example of a shot that carried
more in terms of the momentum of the game. Defensively,
I thought they got they've they've forced. I want to
credit them for forcing them into some of those mistakes,
specifically transition defense and getting back and sprinting and communicating.
That's what closes up the opening that causes Michael Porter
Junior to hesitate and go to throw the ball and
(10:52):
then cough it up. The ball pressure from bog Don
Bogdanovich on Russell Westbrook as he's driving up the left
sideline versus the turnover that leads to the Derek Jones Junior.
Don't there was a turnover that zubats or that Joki
chad against a post up where Chris Dunn. We've seen
Jokic burn teams a million times with this. He'll post up,
(11:12):
He'll spin over one of his shoulders. Aaron Gordon will
cut along the baseline and find a little opening as
his man steps up to help on Jokic's spin, Chris
Dunn came flying in and intercepted that pass to Aaron
Gordon along the baseline. They they just made a few
more plays in this game, and it ended up being
the difference for Denver. A lot of positive Michael Porter
(11:36):
Junior reintegrated himself with his rebounding by just being active
on the offensive glass. I thought it was a you know,
like it's one of those things where it's annoying that
you have to sit down with Michael and be like, hey,
this is what you're great at let's get you to
do this in this big game. Like at a certain
point you kind of hope that he would just bring
up that bring out that level of intensity in game one.
(11:56):
But he did bring that intensity, drew a key foul
late in the game, although he did miss a big
free throw, ended up hitting a huge three on that
right wing. But he just made that one critical mistake
late that ended up undercutting a lot of his success
in the night. But Jamal Murray looked great all night.
Russell Westbrook, aside from the handful of mistakes here and there,
is still finding ways to space the floor as a
(12:17):
cutter and as a shooter. Russ literally got chased off
the three point line. I can't even remember the last
time I saw that where Russell Westbrook has a dude
literally come flying at him and forced him off the
three point line. Russ panicked so much at the close
out that he literally immediately traveled and stepped out of bounds.
It just ended up not getting called as he was
to the basket and drew a foul. There was a
(12:38):
lot of upside from Denver tonight. They just undercut all
of that upside with mistakes twenty turnovers. Twenty one points
off of those turnovers, lots of them were picked sixes
and key sequences late. The MPGA turnover directly leads to
a three for Norman Powell. The Russell Westbrook turnover directly
leads for leads to a dunk for Derek Jones. The
(13:00):
miss free throws from Yo Kitchen Michael Porter Junior changing
the shots that you can take at the end of
the game. This has to be the Denver Nuggets in
crunch time, the Denver Nuggets from the last few years
that weren't mistake prone. This is their pathway. They've got
to keep things close so that they can out execute
them late in games. I was talking with Jackson before
(13:20):
we came on the air, and Jackson made an interesting
point just about how each game in this series is
basically swung on mistakes. Clippers' mistakes in Game one, Denver
mistakes in Game two. These teams feel very evenly matched,
and this is going to be a series that pretty
much comes down to the decision making, the playmaking, and
the mistake making or lack thereof, from either of these
(13:42):
teams as they move forward in the series, as we
always do, come back to the channel on Tuesday morning
Tomorrow morning, and we will have a film session that
will go over some of the specific details that I
noticed in this game. All right, let's move on to
Pistons Nicks. Kind of similar to the first game, where
the Pistons just controlled things throughout, but the Knicks came
(14:02):
on strong late. Just this time, the Knicks came on
strong at the very end of the game instead of
the early fourth quarter. Jalen Brunson did some surgical shot making,
and some surgical playmaking got the game tied, and the
game came down to a pretty open Dennis Schroeder pull
up three against Jalen Brunson and then a Mkale bridges
pretty open catch and shoot three. Although it was moving,
it was wide open, but it was a little bit
(14:24):
higher difficulty because he was kind of moving aggressively towards
his left. But Dennis made his, McHale missed his, and
that was the difference in the game. The Pistons tie
the series. Cade Cunningham has his first huge playoff game
of his young career. I thought the story of his
original rhythm that he built in the early part of
(14:45):
the game was his transition pushes. He has this ability
to finish while going full speed with either hand. A
lot of guys have to slow down and they'll go
to eurosteps so or they'll jump up to try to
elevate goes through you in transition. It's a straight line,
it's bump with the shoulder. It kind of gets to
that left hand on the left side of the right
(15:06):
hand of the right side.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
He actually kind of reminds me of as a finisher,
speaking strictly of as a finisher as Desmond Bane in
the sense that like it's all straight line power and
really good touch while going full speed on either side
of the basket. But he got a lot of work
early in the game in transition, a steady diet of
ball screens attacking. Jalen Brunson I thought that was an
(15:27):
interesting approach in this game. It was less, you know,
one to five pick and roll and a lot more
of those pick and rolls with Tim Hardaway Junior trying
to attack. Jalen Brunson I thought Tim Hardaway Junior set
awesome screens. This is like such an important part of
playoff intensity. You can get away with a lot more,
especially if your feed are set, like if your feed
are set. They'll let you lean, they'll let you bring
(15:48):
those forearms in, they'll let you chuck somebody pretty good.
As long as you're in position, as long as you're
not moving around or like standing in a four foot
wide stance or something like that, you can get away
with a lot of contact on your screens. And Tim
was just setting great screens for OG and then the
scheme there that the Knicks are going to run and
that most teams run when teams try to attack a
(16:08):
small guard as a classic hedge and recover right. So
Jalen Brunson is throwing his body out as a hedge,
and the next step in beating that coverage is as
Tim Hardaway's setting a good solid screen on OG, uh
Caid's got to get over the top of that hedge
because if he does, he can turn the corner and
there's an opening there before Og can recover from the
(16:29):
screen for little min range jump shots for him to
get downhill and to get into the teeth of the defense.
A lot of success attacking Jalen Brunson in ball screens,
beating his hedges with some quality screens from Tim Hardaway Junior.
A lot of semi transition attacks. This is where Caid
was getting his one on one success against Og when
he had the semi and again semi transition. All that is,
(16:51):
to me is a typical transition possession is you know,
two on one, three on two, everyone's sprinting full speed.
Semi transition is like are kind of back, but they're
not really set. The defense is still a little bit
on their heels, but it's usually more of like a
five on five or a five on four just before
the defense is completely set. And in those situations, Ojan
(17:12):
Andobi's got his weight more backwards. He's a little bit
more on his heels, which you know, neutralizes some of
his physicality, and so that's where Caid can kind of
stare him down as he's on his heels, hit him
with a quick, quick crossover dribble. Now he's able to
beat him to the spot and initiate the contact allowed
to allows it allowing him to leverage his strength a
(17:33):
little bit more to get easier finishes around the basket.
That big late lob to Jalen Jurned, I thought this
was a really fan of a fan of I thought
this was a really fascinating play. Sorry, it's been a
long couple of days. So obviously at the end of
the game, Kid looks tired. Quite a bit of action
being run for Dennis Schroeder down the stretch, which we're
(17:54):
going to talk about in a minute, but there's a
huge play late in the game where Caid generates a
wide open lob dunk for Jalen Durnan, and I thought
it was just a really smart example, a really good example,
I should say, of why it's so important to take
the time to set your spacing up properly before you
run action. So in this case, they have Kid coming
off of the ball screen towards his right hand, so
(18:15):
that Duran is rolling to the left, but they have
an occupied corner in this case Malik Beasley in the
left corner. McHale Bridges is the guy who typically would
be the low man there, and what they did is
right as Caid was coming off the action, they had
Malik relocate from the left corner up to the wing
aggressively as though he was gonna shoot. So what that
(18:37):
did is it put McHale Bridges in a really tough
spot in terms of his decision making. All game long,
the Knicks were putting two on the ball in those
kid ball screens when they could, especially with the five
man was involved, right. They were doing it as well
with Brunson, but with that five man. As Caid comes
off and he has two on the ball, that means
the roller gets behind right. Jalen Duran gets behind the
(18:57):
ball screen defender right. In that situation, SUA, the lob
is open unless you tag the roller from the lowman.
The lowman in that situation since kid is dribbling towards
his right, towards the right corner, towards the right wing area.
In that situation, technically the lowman is Mikale Bridges. It's
his job to come over and step in front of
(19:19):
Jalen Durrett. But because it's Malik Beasley over there, such
a great shooter, and because they relocate him out of
the corner up to the left wing, McHale Bridge's natural
instinct is to follow the shooter as he's relocating, and
so that basically neutralizer removed the lowman from the equation.
What happens when there's no lowman and there's two on
the ball with Kate, he doesn't need to make some
(19:40):
tough shot, he doesn't need to beat someone off the dribble.
He just got to go like this and just throw
an easy lob pass up in the air for a
dunk for Jalen durt Really really smart action at the
end of the play or at the end of the game,
and just a great example of why it's so important
to set your spacing up properly. There's a lot of
margin in basketball games. If you can get up the
ball quickly, get up the floor quickly, get guys into
(20:02):
their spacing properly, get to a matchup early enough in
a possession you have quality spacing and time on the
clock for guys to extend advantage. By driving closeouts and
stuff like that, you can dramatically improve your offensive efficiency.
That stuff really does matter. If that ends up being,
you know, Dennis Schroeder in the left wing instead of
Malik Beasley, it's the easiest low man rotation of all time.
(20:23):
You're going to concede a catch and shoot three to
Dennis Schroeder, especially when he's a guy that you can
close out hard at and he's a guy that's a
little hesitant to take that type of shot. You know,
all the stuff that Kaid was succeeding with today, is
the same kind of stuff that allowed Kaid to be
successful versus the Knicks throughout the entire regular season. This
is a big part of why even though I picked
the Knicks and I still do believe the Knicks will
(20:44):
win the series, I did believe this would be a
long series because the Knicks have their advantages, and specifically,
Kay Cunningham has found opportunities in ways for him to
be successful against this team, regardless of the type of
matchup that he's dealing with. Again, the really smart attacks
like those guard screens with Tim Hardaway Junior, that was
(21:05):
an excellent way to neutralize some of og Anonobi's physicality
on Kade Dennis Schroeder. I ended up talking a lot
about Dennis this year because he got traded to two
playoff teams. He has his limitations. His jumper is inconsistent.
He's small, so he's somewhat matchup dependent in terms of
who he can guard effectively. Famously, in the twenty twenty
(21:26):
three Conference Finals, he was basically useless first Jamal Murray
because he was too big and strong, so he could
just get to his spots and shoot over the top
of him. He's not as fast as he used to
be back like when he was in Atlanta and he
could just toast everybody off the dribble all the time.
But he's one of the best competitors in the game.
And what I mean by that is that he despises
losing so much that you can count on him to care.
(21:47):
I talk about this all the time. I think a
basketball player, I think a player in the NBA that
hates losing is actually more valuable than a player in
the NBA that loves basketball, because the hatred of losing
will drive you to do the dirty work. Ideally, it's both,
and the best players in the NBA are both. The Steps,
(22:10):
the Jokich's, the Lebrons, the guys that have run this
league over the course of the last decade. These are
guys that hate losing and love basketball. But Dennis Schroeder
is a classic example of one of those dudes that
despises losing. He has this competitive motor, his fight, his
willingness to battle his ass off against Brunston every minute
is on the floor, the ability to be confident in
(22:34):
a big moment that all stems That all comes back
to Dennis Schroeder's unrelenting competitive nature and It was a
reason why I loved rooting for him when he was
with the Lakers. It's why I told Warriors fans that
you guys would like him. He just didn't get to
say they're long enough, and he had to be trade filler.
And I told Pistons fans right after the deal, like,
if you need a backup guard to be or Jaden
Ivy temporarily, you can't do any better than Dennis. Schroeder
(22:57):
has an option in that spot, and like they you know, J. B.
Bickerstaff closes with him instead of a sar Thompson, which
I thought was smart. He's very good at making Brunson
work hard for his shots, and he has a little
bit higher floor as an off ball player on offense,
and he's a guy who can run action late in
the game. So Kaid runs out of gas late in
the game and the Pistons needed a bucket, and you know,
Dennis had to miss a miss on a different shot.
(23:18):
It was like a little midrange pull up that he missed,
but he went right at Brunson on that final possession
and it was a ball screen. He gets to Bias
Harris on him and he brings Brunson back into the
screen again, and Brunson really did not want to switch
back out on Dennis, and so on that second switch,
Brunson was hanging just a step too far back and
Dennis just confidently stepped into that shot a huge shot
in a huge moment in that game, especially when Kay
(23:40):
Conningham's on the floor and he just stuck it. It was
a big time shot and it ended up literally being
the difference in the game. We haven't even talked about
the Pistons defense yet, and I thought their defense was
fantastic all night. They were flying around in rotation closing
up openings after putting two on the ball against Brunson.
They did an excellent job rotating to Cat to take
away his easy pick and pop and spot up opportunities.
(24:03):
They really controlled Cat all night. He generated sixteen points
on one on ones meaning post ups and ISOs.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
In Game one.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
He generated just four tonight. That's a huge difference from
Game one. He didn't even log a single ISO possession
after logging seven ISOs in Game one, which I thought
was interesting. I want to dig a little bit into
the film and try to see where those opportunities were
missing from Game one. That'll be something we'll take a
look at tomorrow. But yeah, they controlled Kate. They controlled
(24:31):
Cat all night. The Pistons did get some help. Oj
And and Obi and Michale Bridges missed some wide open looks,
like absolutely unguarded looks, especially open like early in the game,
New York generated seven completely unguarded catch and shoot jump
shots from Chale, Bridges and Og and and Obi, and
they made just two of them, and one of them
(24:51):
was a two pointer. So like, if you generate seven
unguarded ketch and shoot jumphots from Mkale and Og, you're
hoping to get twelve points out of that, not five,
and that ends up being literally the difference in the
game tonight. Like most of the adjustments for New York
basically just involve their guys playing better, Like Cat's gotta
play better. The Calbridge has got two great looks down
(25:12):
the stretch, one on the right wing and one at
the top of the key, both of them he left
way short. They need him to knock those shots down.
Ojan andob Be missing wide open corner threes, not bringing
the scoring pop that he brought down the tail end
of the season like they need, Like there's always this
desire that I've seen since I started covering the league
to come up with like some magical solution. This is
(25:34):
what we can do. This x's and o's thing that's
gonna solve all of our problems. And it's like, you
can try a different matchup here or there, you can
try running a different action here or there. But because
in the NBA playoffs everyone does so much more switching
and all the actions are scouted, it really just comes
down to your dudes have to play up to their capability.
(25:59):
And right now, McHale Bridges, Ojan and Obi and Karl
Anthony Towns are not meeting the moment the way that
even some of these Detroit Pistons role players are, and
they just got to be better. They converted spot up
possessions tonight at zero point four to eight points per possession. Now,
some of that is the quality of Detroit's rotations. I
(26:20):
want to give them credit, but these are pros and
not just pros. These are elite pros on the offensive
end in oj In and Obi and McHale Bridges. They
need to convert those, They need to convert them at
a higher clip. And again, I think the Knicks are
gonna win the series. Over the course of this series,
the more experienced, more talented veterans will eventually find their footing.
(26:42):
But this Detroit team's not going anywhere. They've been out
rebounding them on the offensive glass, and through the first
two games, Kate is obviously comfortable and getting to where
he wants to on the floor. They have some physical advantages.
There are some tough hurdles for the Knicks to cover
in the series, and they're not going to cover it
unless they're high paid, highly revered role players on the
(27:04):
wing can meet the moment and help contribute on the
offensive end of the floor. All right, let's bring Jackson
in here and let's get to some of your guys' questions.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Let's do it. We're gonna start with who has been
the MVP of the first round so far? And we
only have basically one game man from every series, but
still it's a fun question.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Oh man, that is a very good question. Let's see,
we've only had one set of Game two so far,
so I feel like it would have to be somebody
from tonight's slate, right.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Man, I think I think.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I think Kawhi and Steph all give a mutual to
a double award to Kwi and Steph just because like
those two individual performances, what Kawhi did tonight as a
shot maker and what Steph did last night, I got
in trouble with some Warriors fans were like, I always
get in trouble with Staves for not being nice enough.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
It's like the weirdest thing.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Like I said to I said last night that Steph's
performance was one of the better ones in his career,
which is a pretty innocuous statement, and I just got
absolutely slayed for it online because he's had so many
better games, and it's like, first of all, we're gonna
stop looking at box scores, Like if you watch that game,
he made eleven out of twelve shots, Like he made
every single shot out of it, almost every single shot
(28:26):
out of a dozen incredibly difficult shots in a game
where he was the only guy who could generate offense
when the entire game plan was built around stopping him.
As like, it was a remarkable Steph Curry performance. I
was blown away by it. And then Kawhi every bit
is impressive tonight for the Clippers. I would go with
the two of those guys. What do you think, Jay, Yeah?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I agree, and the chat was saying was had a
lot of Kawhi, and I think it has to be
between those two with the way that both those guys
just rose to the moment from a playoff shot making standpoint,
and also I really feel like they controlled the game
beyond just the shot making. It felt like both guys
completely controlled the pace, the flow. It felt like they
(29:09):
were getting creating good offense even when it wasn't actually
just pure jump shot making. So I think it's gotta
be between those two.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That's a great.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Point between the Clippers and Denver, which matchup is more
difficult for Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Oh Man, I would go with I would go with Denver.
I think they have the specific ability to more consistently
punish their lack of size with Jokic. The Clippers had
some issues with the Thunder for stretches this year too.
The Nuggets logged a couple of wins. It's worth mentioning
(29:46):
their last win involved a little bit of weirdness with
Jadubb going out with I think a hamstring injury, and
then they just started double teaming Shay every time he
crossed half court. But they did hang one forty on
the thunder defense. In that game they a Denver completely
blew this game down the stretch.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Jackson.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I don't know about you, but I thought I thought
Denver was about to go up two oh. And I
was literally sitting there thinking watching the game. I'm like, man,
like these guys here they are again. It looked like
they were dead to rights like like a month ago,
and now they are looking a lot closer to the
team that you know, uh, contended for a championship over
the last couple of years. If I was okay, see,
(30:25):
I'd much rather play the Clippers. I think the Clippers
lack of playmaking talent would be a disaster against Okayc's
turnover forcing defense.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah, I think the strength of the Thunder defense, I
mean they got hardened times good and chet is good
and switchable, But the strength of their defense is just
how many wing athlete bodies they have to throw at
every every other skilled offensive player. And I think that
would be much more effective against a team like the
(30:54):
Clippers that where you got so many bodies to throw
at James Harden not I mean, Kawhi is pretty big,
so it's probably just mostly lu Door, but you got
still a lot of bodies you can throw a kwhi
and a lot of swarming that we've seen Kawhi struggle
with in this series.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And against a worst rotation team in Denver, not just
a worst, but like a flat out bad rotation team
relative to the better teams that we have in the league.
I want to very quickly credit though, both of them,
in the sense that I do think both of those
teams are capable of beating the Thunder. I'm not trying
to underrate the Clippers. I just personally think Denver's a
little more capable of the upset there.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
We got a couple of Warriors questions. Is the Warriors
lack of interior size going to cost them these playoffs?
Or could step in Jimmy and their defense make up
for the lack of size.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So there's all this talk about size with some of
these specific teams in the West, Like there's a lot
of talk about size with Minnesota. It's not Minnesota's size
that concerns me, it's their athleticism. It's their overall length
and athleticism. The Thunder or not a team that presents
substantial size related issues. So there's a vert and the
(32:03):
Lakers don't either, with exception of Lebron and and Lucas.
So like, if god, let's let's let's say Golden State
beats Houston, you're facing one of Minnesota or the Lakers
in the second round. I think the Golden State defense
is capable of doing much more damage to Minnesota's offense
than the Lakers defense is capable of doing. And I
(32:24):
don't think Minnesota's biggs are the types of bigs that
would do substantial damage to the to the Warriors defense.
So neither of those teams I think could be particularly damaging.
You're probably looking at OKAC in the conference finals, They're
not a particularly big team, and then coming out of
(32:45):
the East, you're likely getting Boston, who's not a particularly
big team. So I I don't want to sit here
and pretend like it wouldn't be great if the Warriors
had a little bit more size on the front line,
but I don't think necessarily it will show up in
a real damaging way in this West playoff run.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Yeah, I agree. I think there's a lot of talk
about size, and there's certain there's certain there's different ways
that size can manifest. To your point about the Timberwolves
attacking the offensive glass or something like that, but not
the size that I think people are critical of the
Warriors is interior defensive size, and the only way to
punish that is what if you have someone who can
actually do that, which not that many teams do anymore.
(33:25):
The Thunder are not running a lot of post ups
because they think the Warriors are small. If they played
each other, right, like the Nuggets, you can say, yeah,
and the Clippers, I think would be the two teams
that they their centers are problems on the inside if
you don't guard them with side, even Draymond, who's as
good of a defender interior against both those guys Joki
chan Zu, that's a much more tough challenge on the
(33:45):
specifically about the size issue than any of the other
teams and the rest of the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And your odds of actually facing Jokic r Zoo in
the conference finals are pretty low because the Thunder will
be favored, even though we think that those teams can
beat the Thunder. I actually my main concern about Golden
I'm actually curious to see if this matches up with
your main concern, Jackson. My main concern with Golden State
actually winning for playoff rounds is consistent offense. It's it's
(34:11):
like Jimmy Butler hits six jump shots against the Rockets
last night, Like, is he going to keep hitting six
jump shots every night? Because if it's not that, they
don't really have a reliable offensive player beyond Steph, and
Jimmy's been great so far, but like I have my
skepticism after how he finished the regular season. So like,
I think it's more likely that if like Golden State
gets eliminated at some point in the first three rounds.
(34:33):
You and I are sitting here talking about how they
need more shooting and more like reliable play finishing, not
necessarily size on the front line.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Yeah, I agree. They they sort of feel like it's
very different stylistically and even about the way that their
success comes. But it feels similar to the to the
Nuggets to me actually a little bit, where it's like
they're so heliocentric in a different way. It's not like
Steph is, you know, pounding the ball. Their offense is
so predicated around actions around one player, and it's like
(35:04):
that can be really challenging, especially when that player's off
the floor. But if you're in the game at the end,
you really feel confident that player is just good enough
to lift you up over the top. So it's sort
of a double edged swort of do you have the
forty seven minutes forty six minutes of enough offense to
get you there when? Because in the last two you
feel real even though it didn't work out that way
for the Nuggets tonight, you feel relatively confident that your
(35:26):
singular player is going to lift you over the top.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, you know, this is why I'm so interested in
the Cam Johnson piece, because like, and I mean, who knows,
he could be a pipe dream for the Warriors.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
But I there's a very specific reason why Jimmy Butler
fits so well in this system, and it's because he's
such a great read and react player that can play
off of Steph And yeah, they can have him take
a random ISO possession here or there, but he's pretty
efficient in those situations because of his ability to hit
mid range jump shots and his ability to get to
the foul line. And like, Jimmy can do it, you know,
(35:58):
four or five times in a game, and it feel
like it happens in the flow of the offense, and
it's not as disruptive as it can be, like when
sometimes Kamingo will hijack a possession to disrupt the flow
of the offense. But a guy like Cam Johnson is
the type of player that could legitimately, like score twenty
points a game entirely in the flow of the Warriors offense,
(36:19):
while also being a guy who was trusted with the
primary point of attack assignment a lot for Brooklyn this
year and actually showed some real defensive chops. So like
as a big picture goal for the Warriors, yeah, like,
I like to put it simply, and we can kick
this back to you here before we get to the
next question. Would you rather have a legitimate center that
(36:40):
fits the goal of this team as a starting caliber
center or would you rather have Cam Johnson?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Oh? I think definitely Cam Johnson. He's in almost every
way a knockoff prime Klay Thompson. It almost every way.
And if you insert that guy back into this system,
and then with Jimmy Butler still in the it's a
much it's a very diverse set of ways you can
score the basketball.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
All of a sudden, YEP, I totally agree.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
All right, I like this question. Getting back to tonight's game,
do you think tonight showed David Adelman's inexperience with the
way he was setting in the fourth quarter. Couldn't tell
if he was overthinking or second guessing. I do think
to be fair to David Adelman, it seemed like Michael
Porter Junior did get hurt at the.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
End of the game.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
But I think the question about Adaman's inexperience feelsr relevant.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
I think he's done fine to this point. I think
he's pushed the right buttons. I thought closing with Russ
was the right move in game one. I thought closing
with MPJ was the right move tonight, And when you
factor in the mistake that Michael made and the injury,
it made sense to go back to Russ late. I
didn't necessarily have a problem with any of those moves.
He had the quick hook with Russ after he had
(37:47):
that bad turnover along the left sideline, like I think
he's been managing. Like at a certain point we got
to blame the players, like Aaron Gordon smoked it dunk,
Michael Porter Junior coughed the ball up in crunch time,
like like not putting yourselves in the same position when
when a guy's getting double teamed is like basketball one
(38:08):
oh one, Like you'll hear yelling about that shit in
a pickup game or in a high school game, like
you got, hey, that's spacing one oh one. Make yourself
put yourself in a position where you're not easy to guard.
When you start staying next to each other, you're easy
to guard. Like so many of the things that happened
to Denver tonight, where like legitimately self inflicted wounds.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
I agree, and I think the same can be said
even of Yokic's turnovers, which is relevant to the next question,
which is what changes does Jokic need to make to
to clawback in this series? And I think specifically the
question is probably about turnovers because he had I think
seven tonight, and some of them like there was that
one where he was sort of they were really shading
the whole the whole defense of that side of the floor.
(38:46):
Peyton Watson is in the dunker spot ready for a
lob and Yogic just kind of throws out of bound.
Like he he has some weird turnovers, very very uncharacteristic
turnovers tonight.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
I was screaming at Peyton Watson on that play, like, dude,
cut you're gonna get a dug.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Like he was just this second late, and there was
like a mile disconnect there where like Jokic threw it
to where he was like right after he ended up cutting,
and it's like I saw that play coming a mile away.
I was like, dude, the dunk is there. Peyton Jokic
wanted it, he was just was too late on the cut.
But I mean, yolks will have a game like that
every once in a while. He had a game with
seven turnovers in the Minnesota Timberwolve series last year too,
(39:21):
and they're like, I want to give the give the
Clippers some credit. They jumped some of the typical passing
reads that he makes. There's some of them that were
unforced too, like the one with Peyton Watson. I really
do think that that one's on Peyton for not cutting
when Yokis originally saw the play. The one late in
the game that Kawhi got to steal, that's on Christian
Brown and Russell Westbrook for like legitimately just doing something
(39:41):
really stupid. Yeah, but then like, yeah, the one where
he spun out of the post up and dropped it
off and Chris Dunn stole it. Like the actual read
was to the right corner. I can't remember who it
was that was shooting over there at that spot. I
think it might have been Michael Porter Junior, but he
he missed the tic tac toe read for in that
situation where unmade the rotation and he had to make
(40:01):
the But like yokscha make mistakes like that every once
in a while, I'm not. I am infinitely more encouraged
about Denver and their chances to win this series after
two games than I was before the first two games.
So all you Nuggets fans take that for whatever it's worth.
I used to think you had a pretty small chance
of winning this series, and now I think you guys
have a pretty legitimate chance of winning the series.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
That is a perfect pivot to well, I think it's
probably our last question of the night. Are you feeling
worried about any of your picks? Your series picks? And
if so, who are.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Not even worried?
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Is the question? But also, if you were a couple
one game in for most of the series, two for
these two games, are there any series that you would
change your pick at this point?
Speaker 2 (40:41):
So let's take a look at it. So Calves magic
or Calves Heat. I ended up not doing serious previews
on those ones just because we got so run down
and we didn't have time. We did like what fourteen
videos last week, But the Calves Heat series I called
what four to one or four to zero, that obviously
is going to stay the same thunder Grizzlies. That one
(41:02):
I feel relatively certain will be a sweep. I said
sweep for Celtics Magic. I feel pretty good after Game
one that Orlando has a good chance to get one
game just on the strength of their defense and if
Palo and Fronts have really nice games down in Orlando,
but that obviously could also end in a sweep. Nick
Pistons is going about as exactly as I expected it
(41:22):
to to this point. The Pistons clearly showing some ability
to make the Nicks uncomfortable. But the Pistons now in
both games have like kind of soiled themselves late and
they just happened to pull this one out because one
Denis Schroeder jump shot went in. But I think the
Nicks will close that one out in six games. Pacers
bucks very similar to how I felt after Lakers Timberwolves,
where when I went back and watched the tape, I'm like,
(41:44):
can someone go up to these guys and tell them
that it's the playoffs? Like, what the hell are you
guys doing? And so both of those series, the Pacers
Bucks series, in the Thunder or in the Lakers Timberwolves series,
I'll have a much better feel for after Game two,
because I felt it's really hard to tell how teams
stack up unless they both bring their A game, and
like Minnesota and Indie brought their a games in Game one,
(42:06):
and the Bucks and the Lakers kind of tried to
ease their way into the postseason and that went about
exactly as you could have expected. Denver Clippers, I will
I'm not going to change my pick yet, but I
went into the series thinking Clippers and six and feeling
pretty strongly about that, and internally, I'm feeling closer to
(42:27):
coin flip now. So that should give you guys a
general idea of where I stand. I'm never going to
overreact to the first couple games of a series, but
I think you can start to learn, Like there was
there was a big one for me last year. I
before Luca hit the game winner over go Bear, the
Timberwolves had a two point lead in the final minute
with a chance to tie the series, and I tweeted
out the series was over. It was just like abundantly
(42:48):
clear to me through two games that Luca was infinitely
more comfortable picking apart Minnesota's defense than Ant was on
the other end of the floor. And I just didn't
see anything happening that would change that trend. And what
do you know, Dallas went into Minnesota in Game three
and beat them or uh and uh I went up
three zero, right, So like, I haven't seen anything that
has changed my mind significantly, but I would say, yeah,
(43:09):
the the Knicks or excuse me, the Nuggets Clippers one
is the one that I'm closest to changing my mind
because I'm feeling closer to fifty to fifty.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
I think that's fair. I think I think the Pistons,
I don't know something about it, something.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
About it feeling I'm drinking drinking the.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Cad kool Aid a little bit. I'm drinking the Cad
kol Aid a little bit. It doesn't feel you're theig
CA guy. I'm a huge kid guy. I'm a huge
kid guy. It doesn't feel like I mean I was
texting you about this that yes, not the Pistons almost
blew that game. But if either of their two very
good three point shooters, Tim Hardaware Malik Beasley hit anything
(43:44):
in that game, they would have been up nineteen instead
of hovering around ten. For the vast majority of the
second half, those guys were I don't know what they
finished up when I was texting you about it. At
one point they were combined one for twelve. You got
to assume it's a cliche, ha ha ha, the role
player shoot better at home thing. If it's gonna happen
for them, it's gonna because some of those guys started
to hit some shots.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
So well, let me ask you to follow up though, because,
like my feeling, that game was very much like classic
Eastern Conference knockdown, drag out fight and both teams shot
in the twenties from three and mkaleen Og missed a
boatload of good look, so let me ask you this, like,
who do you think is more likely to get it
together and bring more offensive punch over the rest of
the series, mkaleen Og or Malik and Tim Hardaway.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
I mean, mkalen o g I think is the right answer.
But I feel like process wise, CAID has been more
effective at generating, which I think is true largely over
the course of you know, as the two players are
in general, but he's been largely better at creating better
looks for his teammates and than Jalen Bruns and our
cat has for their teammates. The looks that Bridges and
(44:47):
og have gotten are good enough. They should they should
make more than their making. But I think the process wise,
Cad is doing a good job against this against a
good Knicks defense.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
This is a really interesting take because I'm not sure
I think I agree with you through two games, Like
I think Caid has done a better job, and so
going back to my initial kind of ethos when it
comes to the playoffs, like which team does a better
job of making the other team uncomfortable? Like the Pistons
are doing more to make the Nicks uncomfortable right now
(45:21):
than the Pistons. I just think the margin is relatively small,
and I just feel like the Pistons are far more
likely to blow games over the course of the series,
and they like to your point, the Pistons basically controlled
both of those games and damn near lost both of them,
which right, which is exactly why NBA history tells us
that teams like the Pistons don't typically win this series.
But I think I think the point you're making is
(45:42):
extremely fair, which is through two games, Kate has been
the better kind of like half court surgeon, so to speak,
than anybody on the Knicks. Before we get out of
here tonight, I just wanted to thank you guys. We
have officially crossed over one hundred thousand subs. There was
a moment back in October twenty twenty three. We were
still on the Volumes feed and the Volume feed had like,
(46:05):
you know, seven hundred thousand subscribers or whatever, and it
was kind of like a scary moment. Me and by
producer at the time, Ryan Brumley, still very good friend
of mine, we kind of had a chat and we
were like, we were like, do you want to go
out and like just launch our own channel. And we
were scared because we were like, if we go out
on our own, we could lose some of the juice
(46:27):
that we get from the Volumes feed in terms of exposure.
And we launched that channel from scratch in October twenty three,
and here we are eighteen months later at one hundred
thousand subscribers, and like you guys came over immediately, like
we moved most of our audience, like in the first
week over from that feed. And all I can say is,
(46:48):
you know, I've been doing this for what thirty eight
months now with the volume, and I am just completely
and totally mind blown at the support you guys have
given the show and what we've actually managed to build
here and the things that I've gotten to experience over
the course of the last three years. Like I got
to this summer go to like Team USA playing against
(47:09):
Canada in Vegas. It was like one of the coolest
experiences of my life. I got to see Steph throll
A lob to Lebron James and transition, and like getting
to be at Summer League and getting to meet the
people I've gotten to meet and get to talk to
the people I've gotten to talk to. I just am
so lucky, and it's because of you guys and the
support that you've given the show, and this just feels
like a huge milestone and I'm just I'm not taking
(47:32):
it for granted, and I'd love to just let you
guys know how much I appreciate you guys for supporting
me and supporting the show. That's all I have for tonight.
We'll be back tomorrow morning with the film session on
tonight's games, and then we'll be back tomorrow night with
Game two of Lakers Timberwolves. And you guys might see
you very angry and upset Jason tomorrow, we'll see, or
(47:52):
you might see a more relaxed, confident Jason. We'll see.
I'm really curious to see how the Lakers respond after
the game went. But again, I appreciate you guys, and
I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (48:02):
What's up, guys.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Ares always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second and leave a
rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
The volume
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The NBA eighty two game grind is done, and now
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Speaker 3 (00:14):
I can't wait.
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Speaker 3 (01:45):
Slash audio. All right, welcome to Hoops tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
You're at the volume heavy Monday, everybody, Oh balt, you
guys are having a great start to your week. We're
hitting the two games from tonight's slate as the Los
Angeles Clippers and the Detroit Pistons. On the Road even
up their series to tie things at one and then
at the tail end of the show, like we will
be doing for the most part in the weekday shows.
During the playoffs, we're gonna do ten to fifteen minutes
(02:19):
of questions from the chat, So make sure you subscribe
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and then we'll bring Jackson on at the end for
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(02:40):
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(03:02):
in our YouTube comments so we can hit him in
our mail bags throughout the remainder of the season. All right,
let's talk some basketball. So I say out a tweet
in the middle of the third quarter reemphasizing a point
that I made after Game one of this series, which
was that I thought that Denver's chance to win this
series was to keep things close. The Clippers are not
(03:23):
a super high quality playmaking team relative to Denver. I
think Denver in general is a little bit smarter as
a team, and so in theory, if they can get
into close games with two three minutes left, four or
five minutes left and it's a two or three point game,
I like Denver's chances in those situations. And boy did
I jinx the hell out of the Denver Nuggets because
(03:44):
they end up getting into that situation. It looks like
the Clippers were gonna build a little bit of margin
there in the late third quarter, right, we got a
huge Nick Matoom three. There was a James Harden three
in there. They get a couple of buckets, they push
it up to seven, but Denver battles back and we
end up in another crunch time battle, but ironically it
was the Denver Nuggets who were the undisciplined team in
(04:06):
crunch time. Aaron Gordon, with a wide open dunk, smokes
it off the back of the rim. Michael Porter Junior,
who honestly played a much better game than he did
in Game one, earned his right to close the game.
Made a couple of huge plays, an offensive rebound where
he drew a foul, a huge three, and a chaotic
sequence on the right wing, and then he gets a
defensive rebound on a critical possession, looks to throw a
(04:29):
kick ahead pass, but hesitates at the last second, and
right when he pulls back on that kick ahead pass,
the ball just slips out of his fingers goes right
to the other team, leading to a wide open three
for Norman Pale, who really couldn't buy a bucket most
of the night but hit several big ones late. It
hit that three along the wing that was a huge swing.
Instead of getting a Denver offense possession, which this season
(04:50):
has been worth like around one point two to five points,
especially with Nikole Yocic on the floor, you end up
giving up three to the Clippers instead, So between he's
at and the dunk, we're talking about like almost six
and a half point swing back towards the Clippers. And
then on that critical Jokic turnover late in the game,
he gets double teamed, and this basketball one oh one.
When you're double team it's about spacing and making yourself available.
(05:14):
Both Christian Brown and Russell Westbrook stand in the exact
same spot up on the right wing, making themselves easy
to guard. Jokic has no place to go with the ball,
he tries lobbing it in that direction. Kawhi Leonard gets
a big steal. That was what was so unusual about
what happened down the stretch. The Denver Nuggets so are
typically so surgical about getting to the best possible shot
(05:35):
and not making mistakes down the stretch, made three massive
mistakes in crunch time that swung this game back towards
the Clippers. And meanwhile, on the other end of the floor,
Kawhi was just absolutely surgical with his shot making. He
was amazing all night. Had just a classic Kawhi Leonard
I'm not going to miss a single pull up jump
shot type of game, but I thought the two he
(05:58):
hit at the end might have been the toughest ones
he hit all night. That right shoulder fade over Aaron Gordon.
Aaron Gordon defended that perfectly. On Kawhi's followed through here,
he damn near high five to Aaron Gordon, but he
got the separation that he needed to at least get
the clean look off or at least to get into
his rhythm, and he knocked it down. And then the
second one coming off the right wing, he sold it
(06:18):
with this really nice aggressive driving move. Really got his
momentum going down towards the basket before he hit that
in and out dribble and elevated. That got Aaron Gordon
on his heels so he could get good separation on
the move and he knocked it down. I thought he
did a much better job of handling double teams in
this game. I want to credit the coaching staff here
(06:39):
because they made it really simple for him. They had
him attack on the right side of the floor. Denver
was strong side zoning, usually with Jokic, meaning they were
bringing Jokic over to basically outside the block and allowing
Aaron Gordon to whoever was guarding Kawhi in a switch
to basically force him towards the baseline where he's going
to go right into additional help. And what the Clippers
did there is they just sent a flasher right to
(07:02):
the high posts, right at the semi circle below the
free throw line. That's where he saw Norman Powell run
in and get that little floater. That's where he saw
Avita Zubats come in and get that little kind of
hooking floater that he takes in that spot in the floor.
They created an easier read for Kuhi to make, and
it was interesting because in those situations he was making
(07:22):
the reads. It was on the other ones when he
was dribbling out above the break when Denver brought the
double teams that Kawhi did a lot of what he
did in Game one, where he kind of struggled to
identify where the opening was or miss some of the
easier reads. But when they got him into the right
side of the floor, they had a plan. They had
a plan for how to handle that double team, and
he had five assists in one turnover tonight to go
(07:44):
with the thirty nine points on nineteen shots. Just a
unbelievable game from Kawhi Leonard. One of the things we
talked about all year, dating back to training camp. I
had my optimism surrounding the Clippers. I predicted them to
finish above the play and thought they'd be good, base
on my beliefs, my core basketball beliefs surrounding their perimeter athleticism,
(08:05):
James Harden as a floor raizer on offense in the
regular season, What if Eata Zubats can do as a
pick and roll partner with it Harden and all the
other stuff he showed. But one of the things I
talked about at the beginning of the season was there's
always this potential outcome, which is we joke about Kawhi
and the Clippers struggling in twenty twenty. We talk about
Kawhi being consistently unavailable from a health perspective in twenty
(08:27):
twenty one, in twenty twenty two, in twenty twenty three,
in twenty twenty four. But none of that matters if,
for whatever reason, he makes it to April this year
ready to go, and here we are it's April twenty.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
First, he just.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Played a playoff game that only a top tier superstar
in this league is capable of playing. And it's because
when Kawhi is late when Kawhi is healthy, he is
capable of reaching that level. And so yeah, there can
be some wishful thinking if you're an opponent of why
that maybe he won't be able to hold up over
the course of the series. But he's here now and
(09:05):
he's busting everybody's ass. I thought the Clippers handled the
tic tac toe sequences better. What I'm referring to there
is just like the ballscreen attack. When they get two
to the ball, there's an opening there in the pocket
or on a skip, and there's these simple read and
react sequences that have to take place, and there were
just a couple of examples where it worked better. There's
a big one out of the right corner late in
(09:26):
the game. Harden came off lefty hook pass over the
top to Zoo, and Zoo you could see it coming
a mile away. They loaded up the low man and
they came across to rotate and Nick Patum was wide
open in the left corner and Zoo just threw a
beautiful over the top pass that landed in Batomb's hands
with plenty of time for him to knock down that shot.
(09:47):
They still botched a couple ones in their baseline cuts.
Chris Dunn missed a reverse layup, credit to Aaron Gordon.
He had a nice last second contest. But they're still
batching some of those like baseline cut finishes that they
I can get in those sequences. I thought that there
were a lot of close out attacks from Norman Powell
that didn't get converted. There's still a lot of meat
(10:08):
on the bone there, so to speak for the Clippers
to try to clean it up and get even more
out of it. But I thought they handled everything just
a little bit better today. Really nice bounce back when
James Harden obviously not the most statistically impressive game with
the four turnovers in eighteen points and seventeen shots, but
I thought he hit some big ones, some big momentum
shots throughout the game. I thought that big three hit
in the late third quarter to push the lead up
(10:30):
to seven was an example of a shot that carried
more in terms of the momentum of the game. Defensively,
I thought they got they've they've forced. I want to
credit them for forcing them into some of those mistakes,
specifically transition defense and getting back and sprinting and communicating.
That's what closes up the opening that causes Michael Porter
Junior to hesitate and go to throw the ball and
(10:52):
then cough it up. The ball pressure from bog Don
Bogdanovich on Russell Westbrook as he's driving up the left
sideline versus the turnover that leads to the Derek Jones Junior.
Don't there was a turnover that zubats or that Joki
chad against a post up where Chris Dunn. We've seen
Jokic burn teams a million times with this. He'll post up,
(11:12):
He'll spin over one of his shoulders. Aaron Gordon will
cut along the baseline and find a little opening as
his man steps up to help on Jokic's spin, Chris
Dunn came flying in and intercepted that pass to Aaron
Gordon along the baseline. They they just made a few
more plays in this game, and it ended up being
the difference for Denver. A lot of positive Michael Porter
(11:36):
Junior reintegrated himself with his rebounding by just being active
on the offensive glass. I thought it was a you know,
like it's one of those things where it's annoying that
you have to sit down with Michael and be like, hey,
this is what you're great at let's get you to
do this in this big game. Like at a certain
point you kind of hope that he would just bring
up that bring out that level of intensity in game one.
(11:56):
But he did bring that intensity, drew a key foul
late in the game, although he did miss a big
free throw, ended up hitting a huge three on that
right wing. But he just made that one critical mistake
late that ended up undercutting a lot of his success
in the night. But Jamal Murray looked great all night.
Russell Westbrook, aside from the handful of mistakes here and there,
is still finding ways to space the floor as a
(12:17):
cutter and as a shooter. Russ literally got chased off
the three point line. I can't even remember the last
time I saw that where Russell Westbrook has a dude
literally come flying at him and forced him off the
three point line. Russ panicked so much at the close
out that he literally immediately traveled and stepped out of bounds.
It just ended up not getting called as he was
to the basket and drew a foul. There was a
(12:38):
lot of upside from Denver tonight. They just undercut all
of that upside with mistakes twenty turnovers. Twenty one points
off of those turnovers, lots of them were picked sixes
and key sequences late. The MPGA turnover directly leads to
a three for Norman Powell. The Russell Westbrook turnover directly
leads for leads to a dunk for Derek Jones. The
(13:00):
miss free throws from Yo Kitchen Michael Porter Junior changing
the shots that you can take at the end of
the game. This has to be the Denver Nuggets in
crunch time, the Denver Nuggets from the last few years
that weren't mistake prone. This is their pathway. They've got
to keep things close so that they can out execute
them late in games. I was talking with Jackson before
(13:20):
we came on the air, and Jackson made an interesting
point just about how each game in this series is
basically swung on mistakes. Clippers' mistakes in Game one, Denver
mistakes in Game two. These teams feel very evenly matched,
and this is going to be a series that pretty
much comes down to the decision making, the playmaking, and
the mistake making or lack thereof, from either of these
(13:42):
teams as they move forward in the series, as we
always do, come back to the channel on Tuesday morning
Tomorrow morning, and we will have a film session that
will go over some of the specific details that I
noticed in this game. All right, let's move on to
Pistons Nicks. Kind of similar to the first game, where
the Pistons just controlled things throughout, but the Knicks came
(14:02):
on strong late. Just this time, the Knicks came on
strong at the very end of the game instead of
the early fourth quarter. Jalen Brunson did some surgical shot making,
and some surgical playmaking got the game tied, and the
game came down to a pretty open Dennis Schroeder pull
up three against Jalen Brunson and then a Mkale bridges
pretty open catch and shoot three. Although it was moving,
it was wide open, but it was a little bit
(14:24):
higher difficulty because he was kind of moving aggressively towards
his left. But Dennis made his, McHale missed his, and
that was the difference in the game. The Pistons tie
the series. Cade Cunningham has his first huge playoff game
of his young career. I thought the story of his
original rhythm that he built in the early part of
(14:45):
the game was his transition pushes. He has this ability
to finish while going full speed with either hand. A
lot of guys have to slow down and they'll go
to eurosteps so or they'll jump up to try to
elevate goes through you in transition. It's a straight line,
it's bump with the shoulder. It kind of gets to
that left hand on the left side of the right
(15:06):
hand of the right side.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
He actually kind of reminds me of as a finisher,
speaking strictly of as a finisher as Desmond Bane in
the sense that like it's all straight line power and
really good touch while going full speed on either side
of the basket. But he got a lot of work
early in the game in transition, a steady diet of
ball screens attacking. Jalen Brunson I thought that was an
(15:27):
interesting approach in this game. It was less, you know,
one to five pick and roll and a lot more
of those pick and rolls with Tim Hardaway Junior trying
to attack. Jalen Brunson I thought Tim Hardaway Junior set
awesome screens. This is like such an important part of
playoff intensity. You can get away with a lot more,
especially if your feed are set, like if your feed
are set. They'll let you lean, they'll let you bring
(15:48):
those forearms in, they'll let you chuck somebody pretty good.
As long as you're in position, as long as you're
not moving around or like standing in a four foot
wide stance or something like that, you can get away
with a lot of contact on your screens. And Tim
was just setting great screens for OG and then the
scheme there that the Knicks are going to run and
that most teams run when teams try to attack a
(16:08):
small guard as a classic hedge and recover right. So
Jalen Brunson is throwing his body out as a hedge,
and the next step in beating that coverage is as
Tim Hardaway's setting a good solid screen on OG, uh
Caid's got to get over the top of that hedge
because if he does, he can turn the corner and
there's an opening there before Og can recover from the
(16:29):
screen for little min range jump shots for him to
get downhill and to get into the teeth of the defense.
A lot of success attacking Jalen Brunson in ball screens,
beating his hedges with some quality screens from Tim Hardaway Junior.
A lot of semi transition attacks. This is where Caid
was getting his one on one success against Og when
he had the semi and again semi transition. All that is,
(16:51):
to me is a typical transition possession is you know,
two on one, three on two, everyone's sprinting full speed.
Semi transition is like are kind of back, but they're
not really set. The defense is still a little bit
on their heels, but it's usually more of like a
five on five or a five on four just before
the defense is completely set. And in those situations, Ojan
(17:12):
Andobi's got his weight more backwards. He's a little bit
more on his heels, which you know, neutralizes some of
his physicality, and so that's where Caid can kind of
stare him down as he's on his heels, hit him
with a quick, quick crossover dribble. Now he's able to
beat him to the spot and initiate the contact allowed
to allows it allowing him to leverage his strength a
(17:33):
little bit more to get easier finishes around the basket.
That big late lob to Jalen Jurned, I thought this
was a really fan of a fan of I thought
this was a really fascinating play. Sorry, it's been a
long couple of days. So obviously at the end of
the game, Kid looks tired. Quite a bit of action
being run for Dennis Schroeder down the stretch, which we're
(17:54):
going to talk about in a minute, but there's a
huge play late in the game where Caid generates a
wide open lob dunk for Jalen Durnan, and I thought
it was just a really smart example, a really good example,
I should say, of why it's so important to take
the time to set your spacing up properly before you
run action. So in this case, they have Kid coming
off of the ball screen towards his right hand, so
(18:15):
that Duran is rolling to the left, but they have
an occupied corner in this case Malik Beasley in the
left corner. McHale Bridges is the guy who typically would
be the low man there, and what they did is
right as Caid was coming off the action, they had
Malik relocate from the left corner up to the wing
aggressively as though he was gonna shoot. So what that
(18:37):
did is it put McHale Bridges in a really tough
spot in terms of his decision making. All game long,
the Knicks were putting two on the ball in those
kid ball screens when they could, especially with the five
man was involved, right. They were doing it as well
with Brunson, but with that five man. As Caid comes
off and he has two on the ball, that means
the roller gets behind right. Jalen Duran gets behind the
(18:57):
ball screen defender right. In that situation, SUA, the lob
is open unless you tag the roller from the lowman.
The lowman in that situation since kid is dribbling towards
his right, towards the right corner, towards the right wing area.
In that situation, technically the lowman is Mikale Bridges. It's
his job to come over and step in front of
(19:19):
Jalen Durrett. But because it's Malik Beasley over there, such
a great shooter, and because they relocate him out of
the corner up to the left wing, McHale Bridge's natural
instinct is to follow the shooter as he's relocating, and
so that basically neutralizer removed the lowman from the equation.
What happens when there's no lowman and there's two on
the ball with Kate, he doesn't need to make some
(19:40):
tough shot, he doesn't need to beat someone off the dribble.
He just got to go like this and just throw
an easy lob pass up in the air for a
dunk for Jalen durt Really really smart action at the
end of the play or at the end of the game,
and just a great example of why it's so important
to set your spacing up properly. There's a lot of
margin in basketball games. If you can get up the
ball quickly, get up the floor quickly, get guys into
(20:02):
their spacing properly, get to a matchup early enough in
a possession you have quality spacing and time on the
clock for guys to extend advantage. By driving closeouts and
stuff like that, you can dramatically improve your offensive efficiency.
That stuff really does matter. If that ends up being,
you know, Dennis Schroeder in the left wing instead of
Malik Beasley, it's the easiest low man rotation of all time.
(20:23):
You're going to concede a catch and shoot three to
Dennis Schroeder, especially when he's a guy that you can
close out hard at and he's a guy that's a
little hesitant to take that type of shot. You know,
all the stuff that Kaid was succeeding with today, is
the same kind of stuff that allowed Kaid to be
successful versus the Knicks throughout the entire regular season. This
is a big part of why even though I picked
the Knicks and I still do believe the Knicks will
(20:44):
win the series, I did believe this would be a
long series because the Knicks have their advantages, and specifically,
Kay Cunningham has found opportunities in ways for him to
be successful against this team, regardless of the type of
matchup that he's dealing with. Again, the really smart attacks
like those guard screens with Tim Hardaway Junior, that was
(21:05):
an excellent way to neutralize some of og Anonobi's physicality
on Kade Dennis Schroeder. I ended up talking a lot
about Dennis this year because he got traded to two
playoff teams. He has his limitations. His jumper is inconsistent.
He's small, so he's somewhat matchup dependent in terms of
who he can guard effectively. Famously, in the twenty twenty
(21:26):
three Conference Finals, he was basically useless first Jamal Murray
because he was too big and strong, so he could
just get to his spots and shoot over the top
of him. He's not as fast as he used to
be back like when he was in Atlanta and he
could just toast everybody off the dribble all the time.
But he's one of the best competitors in the game.
And what I mean by that is that he despises
losing so much that you can count on him to care.
(21:47):
I talk about this all the time. I think a
basketball player, I think a player in the NBA that
hates losing is actually more valuable than a player in
the NBA that loves basketball, because the hatred of losing
will drive you to do the dirty work. Ideally, it's both,
and the best players in the NBA are both. The Steps,
(22:10):
the Jokich's, the Lebrons, the guys that have run this
league over the course of the last decade. These are
guys that hate losing and love basketball. But Dennis Schroeder
is a classic example of one of those dudes that
despises losing. He has this competitive motor, his fight, his
willingness to battle his ass off against Brunston every minute
is on the floor, the ability to be confident in
(22:34):
a big moment that all stems That all comes back
to Dennis Schroeder's unrelenting competitive nature and It was a
reason why I loved rooting for him when he was
with the Lakers. It's why I told Warriors fans that
you guys would like him. He just didn't get to
say they're long enough, and he had to be trade filler.
And I told Pistons fans right after the deal, like,
if you need a backup guard to be or Jaden
Ivy temporarily, you can't do any better than Dennis. Schroeder
(22:57):
has an option in that spot, and like they you know, J. B.
Bickerstaff closes with him instead of a sar Thompson, which
I thought was smart. He's very good at making Brunson
work hard for his shots, and he has a little
bit higher floor as an off ball player on offense,
and he's a guy who can run action late in
the game. So Kaid runs out of gas late in
the game and the Pistons needed a bucket, and you know,
Dennis had to miss a miss on a different shot.
(23:18):
It was like a little midrange pull up that he missed,
but he went right at Brunson on that final possession
and it was a ball screen. He gets to Bias
Harris on him and he brings Brunson back into the
screen again, and Brunson really did not want to switch
back out on Dennis, and so on that second switch,
Brunson was hanging just a step too far back and
Dennis just confidently stepped into that shot a huge shot
in a huge moment in that game, especially when Kay
(23:40):
Conningham's on the floor and he just stuck it. It was
a big time shot and it ended up literally being
the difference in the game. We haven't even talked about
the Pistons defense yet, and I thought their defense was
fantastic all night. They were flying around in rotation closing
up openings after putting two on the ball against Brunson.
They did an excellent job rotating to Cat to take
away his easy pick and pop and spot up opportunities.
(24:03):
They really controlled Cat all night. He generated sixteen points
on one on ones meaning post ups and ISOs.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
In Game one.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
He generated just four tonight. That's a huge difference from
Game one. He didn't even log a single ISO possession
after logging seven ISOs in Game one, which I thought
was interesting. I want to dig a little bit into
the film and try to see where those opportunities were
missing from Game one. That'll be something we'll take a
look at tomorrow. But yeah, they controlled Kate. They controlled
(24:31):
Cat all night. The Pistons did get some help. Oj
And and Obi and Michale Bridges missed some wide open looks,
like absolutely unguarded looks, especially open like early in the game,
New York generated seven completely unguarded catch and shoot jump
shots from Chale, Bridges and Og and and Obi, and
they made just two of them, and one of them
(24:51):
was a two pointer. So like, if you generate seven
unguarded ketch and shoot jumphots from Mkale and Og, you're
hoping to get twelve points out of that, not five,
and that ends up being literally the difference in the
game tonight. Like most of the adjustments for New York
basically just involve their guys playing better, Like Cat's gotta
play better. The Calbridge has got two great looks down
(25:12):
the stretch, one on the right wing and one at
the top of the key, both of them he left
way short. They need him to knock those shots down.
Ojan andob Be missing wide open corner threes, not bringing
the scoring pop that he brought down the tail end
of the season like they need, Like there's always this
desire that I've seen since I started covering the league
to come up with like some magical solution. This is
(25:34):
what we can do. This x's and o's thing that's
gonna solve all of our problems. And it's like, you
can try a different matchup here or there, you can
try running a different action here or there. But because
in the NBA playoffs everyone does so much more switching
and all the actions are scouted, it really just comes
down to your dudes have to play up to their capability.
(25:59):
And right now, McHale Bridges, Ojan and Obi and Karl
Anthony Towns are not meeting the moment the way that
even some of these Detroit Pistons role players are, and
they just got to be better. They converted spot up
possessions tonight at zero point four to eight points per possession. Now,
some of that is the quality of Detroit's rotations. I
(26:20):
want to give them credit, but these are pros and
not just pros. These are elite pros on the offensive
end in oj In and Obi and McHale Bridges. They
need to convert those, They need to convert them at
a higher clip. And again, I think the Knicks are
gonna win the series. Over the course of this series,
the more experienced, more talented veterans will eventually find their footing.
(26:42):
But this Detroit team's not going anywhere. They've been out
rebounding them on the offensive glass, and through the first
two games, Kate is obviously comfortable and getting to where
he wants to on the floor. They have some physical advantages.
There are some tough hurdles for the Knicks to cover
in the series, and they're not going to cover it
unless they're high paid, highly revered role players on the
(27:04):
wing can meet the moment and help contribute on the
offensive end of the floor. All right, let's bring Jackson
in here and let's get to some of your guys' questions.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Let's do it. We're gonna start with who has been
the MVP of the first round so far? And we
only have basically one game man from every series, but
still it's a fun question.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Oh man, that is a very good question. Let's see,
we've only had one set of Game two so far,
so I feel like it would have to be somebody
from tonight's slate, right.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Man, I think I think.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I think Kawhi and Steph all give a mutual to
a double award to Kwi and Steph just because like
those two individual performances, what Kawhi did tonight as a
shot maker and what Steph did last night, I got
in trouble with some Warriors fans were like, I always
get in trouble with Staves for not being nice enough.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
It's like the weirdest thing.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Like I said to I said last night that Steph's
performance was one of the better ones in his career,
which is a pretty innocuous statement, and I just got
absolutely slayed for it online because he's had so many
better games, and it's like, first of all, we're gonna
stop looking at box scores, Like if you watch that game,
he made eleven out of twelve shots, Like he made
every single shot out of it, almost every single shot
(28:26):
out of a dozen incredibly difficult shots in a game
where he was the only guy who could generate offense
when the entire game plan was built around stopping him.
As like, it was a remarkable Steph Curry performance. I
was blown away by it. And then Kawhi every bit
is impressive tonight for the Clippers. I would go with
the two of those guys. What do you think, Jay, Yeah?
Speaker 1 (28:47):
I agree, and the chat was saying was had a
lot of Kawhi, and I think it has to be
between those two with the way that both those guys
just rose to the moment from a playoff shot making standpoint,
and also I really feel like they controlled the game
beyond just the shot making. It felt like both guys
completely controlled the pace, the flow. It felt like they
(29:09):
were getting creating good offense even when it wasn't actually
just pure jump shot making. So I think it's gotta
be between those two.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That's a great.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Point between the Clippers and Denver, which matchup is more
difficult for Okay.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Oh Man, I would go with I would go with Denver.
I think they have the specific ability to more consistently
punish their lack of size with Jokic. The Clippers had
some issues with the Thunder for stretches this year too.
The Nuggets logged a couple of wins. It's worth mentioning
(29:46):
their last win involved a little bit of weirdness with
Jadubb going out with I think a hamstring injury, and
then they just started double teaming Shay every time he
crossed half court. But they did hang one forty on
the thunder defense. In that game they a Denver completely
blew this game down the stretch.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Jackson.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I don't know about you, but I thought I thought
Denver was about to go up two oh. And I
was literally sitting there thinking watching the game. I'm like, man,
like these guys here they are again. It looked like
they were dead to rights like like a month ago,
and now they are looking a lot closer to the
team that you know, uh, contended for a championship over
the last couple of years. If I was okay, see,
(30:25):
I'd much rather play the Clippers. I think the Clippers
lack of playmaking talent would be a disaster against Okayc's
turnover forcing defense.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah, I think the strength of the Thunder defense, I
mean they got hardened times good and chet is good
and switchable, But the strength of their defense is just
how many wing athlete bodies they have to throw at
every every other skilled offensive player. And I think that
would be much more effective against a team like the
(30:54):
Clippers that where you got so many bodies to throw
at James Harden not I mean, Kawhi is pretty big,
so it's probably just mostly lu Door, but you got
still a lot of bodies you can throw a kwhi
and a lot of swarming that we've seen Kawhi struggle
with in this series.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And against a worst rotation team in Denver, not just
a worst, but like a flat out bad rotation team
relative to the better teams that we have in the league.
I want to very quickly credit though, both of them,
in the sense that I do think both of those
teams are capable of beating the Thunder. I'm not trying
to underrate the Clippers. I just personally think Denver's a
little more capable of the upset there.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
We got a couple of Warriors questions. Is the Warriors
lack of interior size going to cost them these playoffs?
Or could step in Jimmy and their defense make up
for the lack of size.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So there's all this talk about size with some of
these specific teams in the West, Like there's a lot
of talk about size with Minnesota. It's not Minnesota's size
that concerns me, it's their athleticism. It's their overall length
and athleticism. The Thunder or not a team that presents
substantial size related issues. So there's a vert and the
(32:03):
Lakers don't either, with exception of Lebron and and Lucas.
So like, if god, let's let's let's say Golden State
beats Houston, you're facing one of Minnesota or the Lakers
in the second round. I think the Golden State defense
is capable of doing much more damage to Minnesota's offense
than the Lakers defense is capable of doing. And I
(32:24):
don't think Minnesota's biggs are the types of bigs that
would do substantial damage to the to the Warriors defense.
So neither of those teams I think could be particularly damaging.
You're probably looking at OKAC in the conference finals, They're
not a particularly big team, and then coming out of
(32:45):
the East, you're likely getting Boston, who's not a particularly
big team. So I I don't want to sit here
and pretend like it wouldn't be great if the Warriors
had a little bit more size on the front line,
but I don't think necessarily it will show up in
a real damaging way in this West playoff run.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Yeah, I agree. I think there's a lot of talk
about size, and there's certain there's certain there's different ways
that size can manifest. To your point about the Timberwolves
attacking the offensive glass or something like that, but not
the size that I think people are critical of the
Warriors is interior defensive size, and the only way to
punish that is what if you have someone who can
actually do that, which not that many teams do anymore.
(33:25):
The Thunder are not running a lot of post ups
because they think the Warriors are small. If they played
each other, right, like the Nuggets, you can say, yeah,
and the Clippers, I think would be the two teams
that they their centers are problems on the inside if
you don't guard them with side, even Draymond, who's as
good of a defender interior against both those guys Joki
chan Zu, that's a much more tough challenge on the
(33:45):
specifically about the size issue than any of the other
teams and the rest of the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
And your odds of actually facing Jokic r Zoo in
the conference finals are pretty low because the Thunder will
be favored, even though we think that those teams can
beat the Thunder. I actually my main concern about Golden
I'm actually curious to see if this matches up with
your main concern, Jackson. My main concern with Golden State
actually winning for playoff rounds is consistent offense. It's it's
(34:11):
like Jimmy Butler hits six jump shots against the Rockets
last night, Like, is he going to keep hitting six
jump shots every night? Because if it's not that, they
don't really have a reliable offensive player beyond Steph, and
Jimmy's been great so far, but like I have my
skepticism after how he finished the regular season. So like,
I think it's more likely that if like Golden State
gets eliminated at some point in the first three rounds.
(34:33):
You and I are sitting here talking about how they
need more shooting and more like reliable play finishing, not
necessarily size on the front line.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Yeah, I agree. They they sort of feel like it's
very different stylistically and even about the way that their
success comes. But it feels similar to the to the
Nuggets to me actually a little bit, where it's like
they're so heliocentric in a different way. It's not like
Steph is, you know, pounding the ball. Their offense is
so predicated around actions around one player, and it's like
(35:04):
that can be really challenging, especially when that player's off
the floor. But if you're in the game at the end,
you really feel confident that player is just good enough
to lift you up over the top. So it's sort
of a double edged swort of do you have the
forty seven minutes forty six minutes of enough offense to
get you there when? Because in the last two you
feel real even though it didn't work out that way
for the Nuggets tonight, you feel relatively confident that your
(35:26):
singular player is going to lift you over the top.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, you know, this is why I'm so interested in
the Cam Johnson piece, because like, and I mean, who knows,
he could be a pipe dream for the Warriors.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
But I there's a very specific reason why Jimmy Butler
fits so well in this system, and it's because he's
such a great read and react player that can play
off of Steph And yeah, they can have him take
a random ISO possession here or there, but he's pretty
efficient in those situations because of his ability to hit
mid range jump shots and his ability to get to
the foul line. And like, Jimmy can do it, you know,
(35:58):
four or five times in a game, and it feel
like it happens in the flow of the offense, and
it's not as disruptive as it can be, like when
sometimes Kamingo will hijack a possession to disrupt the flow
of the offense. But a guy like Cam Johnson is
the type of player that could legitimately, like score twenty
points a game entirely in the flow of the Warriors offense,
(36:19):
while also being a guy who was trusted with the
primary point of attack assignment a lot for Brooklyn this
year and actually showed some real defensive chops. So like
as a big picture goal for the Warriors, yeah, like,
I like to put it simply, and we can kick
this back to you here before we get to the
next question. Would you rather have a legitimate center that
(36:40):
fits the goal of this team as a starting caliber
center or would you rather have Cam Johnson?
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Oh? I think definitely Cam Johnson. He's in almost every
way a knockoff prime Klay Thompson. It almost every way.
And if you insert that guy back into this system,
and then with Jimmy Butler still in the it's a
much it's a very diverse set of ways you can
score the basketball.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
All of a sudden, YEP, I totally agree.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
All right, I like this question. Getting back to tonight's game,
do you think tonight showed David Adelman's inexperience with the
way he was setting in the fourth quarter. Couldn't tell
if he was overthinking or second guessing. I do think
to be fair to David Adelman, it seemed like Michael
Porter Junior did get hurt at the.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
End of the game.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
But I think the question about Adaman's inexperience feelsr relevant.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
I think he's done fine to this point. I think
he's pushed the right buttons. I thought closing with Russ
was the right move in game one. I thought closing
with MPJ was the right move tonight, And when you
factor in the mistake that Michael made and the injury,
it made sense to go back to Russ late. I
didn't necessarily have a problem with any of those moves.
He had the quick hook with Russ after he had
(37:47):
that bad turnover along the left sideline, like I think
he's been managing. Like at a certain point we got
to blame the players, like Aaron Gordon smoked it dunk,
Michael Porter Junior coughed the ball up in crunch time,
like like not putting yourselves in the same position when
when a guy's getting double teamed is like basketball one
(38:08):
oh one, Like you'll hear yelling about that shit in
a pickup game or in a high school game, like
you got, hey, that's spacing one oh one. Make yourself
put yourself in a position where you're not easy to guard.
When you start staying next to each other, you're easy
to guard. Like so many of the things that happened
to Denver tonight, where like legitimately self inflicted wounds.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
I agree, and I think the same can be said
even of Yokic's turnovers, which is relevant to the next question,
which is what changes does Jokic need to make to
to clawback in this series? And I think specifically the
question is probably about turnovers because he had I think
seven tonight, and some of them like there was that
one where he was sort of they were really shading
the whole the whole defense of that side of the floor.
(38:46):
Peyton Watson is in the dunker spot ready for a
lob and Yogic just kind of throws out of bound.
Like he he has some weird turnovers, very very uncharacteristic
turnovers tonight.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
I was screaming at Peyton Watson on that play, like, dude,
cut you're gonna get a dug.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Like he was just this second late, and there was
like a mile disconnect there where like Jokic threw it
to where he was like right after he ended up cutting,
and it's like I saw that play coming a mile away.
I was like, dude, the dunk is there. Peyton Jokic
wanted it, he was just was too late on the cut.
But I mean, yolks will have a game like that
every once in a while. He had a game with
seven turnovers in the Minnesota Timberwolve series last year too,
(39:21):
and they're like, I want to give the give the
Clippers some credit. They jumped some of the typical passing
reads that he makes. There's some of them that were
unforced too, like the one with Peyton Watson. I really
do think that that one's on Peyton for not cutting
when Yokis originally saw the play. The one late in
the game that Kawhi got to steal, that's on Christian
Brown and Russell Westbrook for like legitimately just doing something
(39:41):
really stupid. Yeah, but then like, yeah, the one where
he spun out of the post up and dropped it
off and Chris Dunn stole it. Like the actual read
was to the right corner. I can't remember who it
was that was shooting over there at that spot. I
think it might have been Michael Porter Junior, but he
he missed the tic tac toe read for in that
situation where unmade the rotation and he had to make
(40:01):
the But like yokscha make mistakes like that every once
in a while, I'm not. I am infinitely more encouraged
about Denver and their chances to win this series after
two games than I was before the first two games.
So all you Nuggets fans take that for whatever it's worth.
I used to think you had a pretty small chance
of winning this series, and now I think you guys
have a pretty legitimate chance of winning the series.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
That is a perfect pivot to well, I think it's
probably our last question of the night. Are you feeling
worried about any of your picks? Your series picks? And
if so, who are.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Not even worried?
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Is the question? But also, if you were a couple
one game in for most of the series, two for
these two games, are there any series that you would
change your pick at this point?
Speaker 2 (40:41):
So let's take a look at it. So Calves magic
or Calves Heat. I ended up not doing serious previews
on those ones just because we got so run down
and we didn't have time. We did like what fourteen
videos last week, But the Calves Heat series I called
what four to one or four to zero, that obviously
is going to stay the same thunder Grizzlies. That one
(41:02):
I feel relatively certain will be a sweep. I said
sweep for Celtics Magic. I feel pretty good after Game
one that Orlando has a good chance to get one
game just on the strength of their defense and if
Palo and Fronts have really nice games down in Orlando,
but that obviously could also end in a sweep. Nick
Pistons is going about as exactly as I expected it
(41:22):
to to this point. The Pistons clearly showing some ability
to make the Nicks uncomfortable. But the Pistons now in
both games have like kind of soiled themselves late and
they just happened to pull this one out because one
Denis Schroeder jump shot went in. But I think the
Nicks will close that one out in six games. Pacers
bucks very similar to how I felt after Lakers Timberwolves,
where when I went back and watched the tape, I'm like,
(41:44):
can someone go up to these guys and tell them
that it's the playoffs? Like, what the hell are you
guys doing? And so both of those series, the Pacers
Bucks series, in the Thunder or in the Lakers Timberwolves series,
I'll have a much better feel for after Game two,
because I felt it's really hard to tell how teams
stack up unless they both bring their A game, and
like Minnesota and Indie brought their a games in Game one,
(42:06):
and the Bucks and the Lakers kind of tried to
ease their way into the postseason and that went about
exactly as you could have expected. Denver Clippers, I will
I'm not going to change my pick yet, but I
went into the series thinking Clippers and six and feeling
pretty strongly about that, and internally, I'm feeling closer to
(42:27):
coin flip now. So that should give you guys a
general idea of where I stand. I'm never going to
overreact to the first couple games of a series, but
I think you can start to learn, Like there was
there was a big one for me last year. I
before Luca hit the game winner over go Bear, the
Timberwolves had a two point lead in the final minute
with a chance to tie the series, and I tweeted
out the series was over. It was just like abundantly
(42:48):
clear to me through two games that Luca was infinitely
more comfortable picking apart Minnesota's defense than Ant was on
the other end of the floor. And I just didn't
see anything happening that would change that trend. And what
do you know, Dallas went into Minnesota in Game three
and beat them or uh and uh I went up
three zero, right, So like, I haven't seen anything that
has changed my mind significantly, but I would say, yeah,
(43:09):
the the Knicks or excuse me, the Nuggets Clippers one
is the one that I'm closest to changing my mind
because I'm feeling closer to fifty to fifty.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
I think that's fair. I think I think the Pistons,
I don't know something about it, something.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
About it feeling I'm drinking drinking the.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Cad kool Aid a little bit. I'm drinking the Cad
kol Aid a little bit. It doesn't feel you're theig
CA guy. I'm a huge kid guy. I'm a huge
kid guy. It doesn't feel like I mean I was
texting you about this that yes, not the Pistons almost
blew that game. But if either of their two very
good three point shooters, Tim Hardaware Malik Beasley hit anything
(43:44):
in that game, they would have been up nineteen instead
of hovering around ten. For the vast majority of the
second half, those guys were I don't know what they
finished up when I was texting you about it. At
one point they were combined one for twelve. You got
to assume it's a cliche, ha ha ha, the role
player shoot better at home thing. If it's gonna happen
for them, it's gonna because some of those guys started
to hit some shots.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
So well, let me ask you to follow up though, because,
like my feeling, that game was very much like classic
Eastern Conference knockdown, drag out fight and both teams shot
in the twenties from three and mkaleen Og missed a
boatload of good look, so let me ask you this, like,
who do you think is more likely to get it
together and bring more offensive punch over the rest of
the series, mkaleen Og or Malik and Tim Hardaway.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
I mean, mkalen o g I think is the right answer.
But I feel like process wise, CAID has been more
effective at generating, which I think is true largely over
the course of you know, as the two players are
in general, but he's been largely better at creating better
looks for his teammates and than Jalen Bruns and our
cat has for their teammates. The looks that Bridges and
(44:47):
og have gotten are good enough. They should they should
make more than their making. But I think the process wise,
Cad is doing a good job against this against a
good Knicks defense.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
This is a really interesting take because I'm not sure
I think I agree with you through two games, Like
I think Caid has done a better job, and so
going back to my initial kind of ethos when it
comes to the playoffs, like which team does a better
job of making the other team uncomfortable? Like the Pistons
are doing more to make the Nicks uncomfortable right now
(45:21):
than the Pistons. I just think the margin is relatively small,
and I just feel like the Pistons are far more
likely to blow games over the course of the series,
and they like to your point, the Pistons basically controlled
both of those games and damn near lost both of them,
which right, which is exactly why NBA history tells us
that teams like the Pistons don't typically win this series.
But I think I think the point you're making is
(45:42):
extremely fair, which is through two games, Kate has been
the better kind of like half court surgeon, so to speak,
than anybody on the Knicks. Before we get out of
here tonight, I just wanted to thank you guys. We
have officially crossed over one hundred thousand subs. There was
a moment back in October twenty twenty three. We were
still on the Volumes feed and the Volume feed had like,
(46:05):
you know, seven hundred thousand subscribers or whatever, and it
was kind of like a scary moment. Me and by
producer at the time, Ryan Brumley, still very good friend
of mine, we kind of had a chat and we
were like, we were like, do you want to go
out and like just launch our own channel. And we
were scared because we were like, if we go out
on our own, we could lose some of the juice
(46:27):
that we get from the Volumes feed in terms of exposure.
And we launched that channel from scratch in October twenty three,
and here we are eighteen months later at one hundred
thousand subscribers, and like you guys came over immediately, like
we moved most of our audience, like in the first
week over from that feed. And all I can say is,
(46:48):
you know, I've been doing this for what thirty eight
months now with the volume, and I am just completely
and totally mind blown at the support you guys have
given the show and what we've actually managed to build
here and the things that I've gotten to experience over
the course of the last three years. Like I got
to this summer go to like Team USA playing against
(47:09):
Canada in Vegas. It was like one of the coolest
experiences of my life. I got to see Steph throll
A lob to Lebron James and transition, and like getting
to be at Summer League and getting to meet the
people I've gotten to meet and get to talk to
the people I've gotten to talk to. I just am
so lucky, and it's because of you guys and the
support that you've given the show, and this just feels
like a huge milestone and I'm just I'm not taking
(47:32):
it for granted, and I'd love to just let you
guys know how much I appreciate you guys for supporting
me and supporting the show. That's all I have for tonight.
We'll be back tomorrow morning with the film session on
tonight's games, and then we'll be back tomorrow night with
Game two of Lakers Timberwolves. And you guys might see
you very angry and upset Jason tomorrow, we'll see, or
(47:52):
you might see a more relaxed, confident Jason. We'll see.
I'm really curious to see how the Lakers respond after
the game went. But again, I appreciate you guys, and
I'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (48:02):
What's up, guys.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Ares always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second and leave a
rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
The volume
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