185. Previewing Nets-Celtics, Sixers-Raptors, Bucks-Bulls series

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three six nine in New York, Tennessee. Red line is one hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in one hundred five to four seven zer zo or is it w WPP dot one hundred tiler dot in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandel Here at the volume, I'm Jason Timp Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope you're all having a great start to your week. The playoffs are officially started. I guess the play in tournament, which is basically the playoffs. This is gonna be one

of the most interesting playoff runs of our lifetimes. I think there's just an unbelievably loaded field with a ton of talent. I personally can't wait. We are going to break down that Calves Nets game, which went about exactly as I expected, and then we're gonna spend the second half of the show focusing on a breakdown of what I think is going to be the most interesting series

in the first round, which is Brooklyn versus Boston. As a result of tonight's playing game, I'm not gonna tell you guys who I'm picking until the end of the video, but I do think that series is going seven games. That's how close those teams are. We're gonna get into the weeds of what that series is going to look like. And then for those of you guys listening on the podcast, I'm gonna tack on a couple of breakdowns I did earlier having to do with the Bucks Bowls series and

the Sixers Raptors series. I made predictions for both of those series. Stick around at the end, and you guys will hear those as well. So let's get into this game tonight between the Calves and the Nets. So in my playing breakdown, my preview that I did, I picked Brooklyn, which is to be expected. They're the better team, But the big reason why I picked Brooklyn is because of the fact that Brooklyn's perimeter initiators are so much better

than Cleveland's, which goes without saying. How However, Cleveland lost their biggest advantage in that matchup With Jared Allen on the floor, the front court of the Cavaliers would be so imposing as to allow the Calves some margin for air with their stars, because obviously Derris Garland, Darius Garland and Carris Lavert can't go punch for punch with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Duray. That's an absurd thing to expect to happen, So you have to have advantages elsewhere on

the floor in order to make up for that. I talked about this a lot in my breakdown of the Bucks Bulls series, which you guys will hear later. So if I'm trying to over I'll play Janice with DeMar Dea Rosen. That's not gonna work. But the Bucks are really bad at guarding the three point line. So if you're a good three point shooting team that generates a ton of three point shots, you might be able to make up some of that gap. Problem is the Bulls

don't generate any three point shots. They literally generate the fewest three point shots per game in the entire NBA, so their ability to attack the book Bucks greatest weakness is not there, and so it's gonna be a battle of the stars, and the Bucks just have better stars. And that's what happened to the Calves tonight losing Jared Allen. They lost their interior advantage, which is something that they would have been able to use in that type of game to try to make up for some of that

talent disparity, and they didn't have that. So it was gonna come down to Kris LeVert and Darius Garland trying to go punch for punch with Kyrie Riving and Kevin Durant, and that went about exactly as you expected. It was forty to twenty after the first quarter. In that first quarter, Katie and Kyrie combined for nineteen points. In tennisis Caris LeVert and Darius Garland only managed ten points and two assists, and they looked kind of out of sorts, forcing things.

Both of those guys seemed intent to just drive into Brooklyn's rim protection to Brooklyn. We're gonna get into their defense here in a little bit when we're talking about the Celtics series. But Brooklyn has a lot of interior rim protection. Andre Drummonds a good rim protector, rim protector, Nick Claxton's a good rim protector. And Kevin Durant, who you saw hit the gas on the defensive end tonight also when he's dialed, and is a very very effective

rim protector. So when you are playing a team like that that has guys camping around the rim, you can't drive into them and try to finish that's playing directly

into their into their strengths. You have to pass out of that and try to get open shots away from them, or start stop short and go to your floater or your pull up fifteen foot or your pull up ten foot, or anything other than driving right into the super tall guy that's going to block your shot, or you're gonna have to distort your shot so much that there's almost no chance of it going in. And so that went

about exactly as I expected. Now, over the course of the game, Brooklyn let up a little bit and the Calves got back into it. But then here we are Calves back within six. Late in the fourth quarter, Katie goes down and makes a jump shot of what his patented one dribble pull up to the right. Here comes Carris Lavert, works into his into the lane, drives into a bunch of traffic and trips and falls. He ends up kicking it out to Evan mobile and it gets

worked around. But your perimeter initiator tripped and fell in the lane. They go down the other way. Kevin Durant makes another to dribble pull up, going along the right side, and here comes Darius Scarland gets into the lane, but he panics because here comes the ring protector and he throws up a jan Kee left handed layup and shoots it all the way over the rim. So even when things got close at the end of the game, it came down to we have Kevin Durant, you have Carass Laverton,

Darius Scarland. I like our chances, and that's how it went. And so in this particular matchup, there's just too much star power for them to be for the Calves to be able to overcome. That's why it went the way that it went. So let's get into this series between the nets and the Celtics, which I think is going to be an incredibly interesting matchup. So we're gonna break

this into three sections. We're gonna take a look at what the series looks like with the Nets on offense, then we'll look at it with the Celtics on offense, and then I want to look at the Tatum versus Durant matchup, which is how the public is going to view it as the although basketball is always a whole lot more complicated than that. So let's start with the Nets on offense. First of all, the Nets have a one point eight offensive rating with k D and Kyrie

on the floor, which is absolutely amazing. The Celtics with Marcus Smart, Al Horford, Jayson Tatum, and Jalen Brown on the floor had to take Robert Williams out of that obviously because he's hurt, but with those four guys on the floor, they have a defensive rating of nine point eight, which is absolutely amazing. So this is the side of the floor where you're gonna have one of the best offenses that you could possibly have in a playoff series versus one of the best defenses that you can possibly

have in a playoff series. The other thing that's gonna be really interesting is I expect the Celtics to switch everything, which is what they've been doing all season, but with Kab and Kyrie in particular, it's going to test Boston's willingness to avoid double teaming. This is something that I talked about all season. There's switching defenses all over the league, but there's different variations of it. You have teams like Boston that don't send a ton of help and leave

guys on an island and hope to stagnate you. And then you have teams like Dallas that send a ton of help and a ton of the Toronto is another team like this, ton of help, ton of doubling, tons of stunting, lots of gimmicky stuff, and there usually is a lot of opportunity to swing the ball around the perimeter to try to get open shots on the back line. But when you're playing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, I'm not sure you can get away with staying in in

single coverage. You're probably going to have to start sending multiple bodies, especially on screen and roll actions to both of those guys. This is where the Rob Williams loss can be really concerning because this is the it's the concept of back line help. So when you send two defenders to a screen and roll, Let's say that Kevin Durant brings the ball to the floor and he wants to work against Marcus Smart, So you come instet a

ball screen and Tatum and Smart both go with Kevin Durant. Well, chances are you're gonna have someone rolling to the basket into that short roll area right around the free throw line, probably gonna be Bruce Brown or someone like that. In that position when you dump the ball there, you're playing four on three on the back end, and that's where having that back line defender, the guy that steps over from the weak side to try to disrupt that action

becomes so important. And Robert rob Williams has been one of the best back line defenders in the league this year. Him being out of the picture turns that into yeah, Al Horford is gonna be there a lot, but it's gonna be a lot of Daniel Tye or maybe they'll have to go small. Sometimes it changes that whole dynamic

on the back line. Bruce Brown played really well tonight, but he has at stretches over the course of the season, struggled in that type of situation catching the ball in the short roll because he doesn't have a great floater, he's a little bit under size. He struggles around shop blocking. So it's an interesting dynamic there. How the Celtics are going to manage when they decide to double team and send help at Kyrie and Katie and when they do, will they have the athleticism on the back line to

be able to compensate for that. This is where the question becomes, where do you go this year? For the most part, the Celtics have been going with Al Horford at the four and Robert Williams at the five. Especially in pivotal moments, they go huge because Al Horford and Robert Williams can both switch onto perimeter players. So with Rob Williams out of the picture, you have a decision

to make. Do you prioritize a guy like Daniel Tye, another big who's nowhere near as good as Robert Williams, or do you go small and go with someone like Derek White, stick with your switching and essentially bank on that your athleticism and your effort to compensate with that dip in size. I would go with Derek White, but I think you're gonna see a lot of both, But it would be interesting to see as the series progresses which direction they decide to go. The question becomes which

matchups do you attack? If you're Brooklyn, So when you play switching basketball, usually it's it's kind of it's it's a waste of effort to attack the guy you're originally guarding. So if Kevin Durit brings the ball off the floor and he's going against Jayson Tatum, yeah he can create shots against Jason Tatum. But if you know the Boston Celtics are switching every screen, why would you waste your

energy going against Boston's best perimeter defender. You're better off trying to find someone else, someone you have an advantage against. Was whether that Smarcus Smart or someone like Derek White or someone like Daniel Tys or if you like your chances against Al Horford. So the interesting dynamic in this series, and we're gonna get to this when we get to the Celtics on offense, is which matchups are the Nets going to attack most frequently? And this is where the

Rob Williams injury becomes another issue. Whenever you're thirty something minutes out of rob Williams is gonna be dispersed among a mix of perimeter players like Derek White and you know, Peyton Pritchard, guys like that, and a big guy someone like Daniel Tye. Right, that just opens up thirty four extra minutes where there's a better matchup for a guy like Kevin Durant to attack. That's an interesting wrinkle in

this series I would have picked. To be clear, I would have picked the Celtics to win this series in five if Robert Williams is healthy. That's how good the Celtics were. But Robert Williams was that perfect fifth guy to put alongside Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and Al Horford, and taking him out of that picture just decreases the Celtics margin for error. That's why I think the series is going to be pushed longer and probably the seven games. So nets on offense is

gonna be the most interesting dynamic to this series. One of the best defenses that I've seen in recent NBA history versus one of the best offenses that I've seen in recent NBA history. Those two going against each other is going to be really interesting and it's gonna be really close and competitive. Let's move to the Celtics on offense. So this year, first of all, everybody who's been watching the Nets needs to reconsider the way that they evaluate

their defense. So from the top down looking, you think, oh, the Nets are terrible defensive team. They finished your twentie and defensive rating. You see all these games where Charlotte comes into Brooklyn and Katie and Kyrie are playing and they hang like a hundred and thirty three points on them and they lose, and you're like, oh, the Nets don't play any defense, they don't have a chance. Well, we need to throw that out because the reality of the situation is with Kevin Durant on the floor of

the season, they've actually been a pretty good defense. With Katie on the floor, they have a one o nine point seven defensive rating. It's one fourteen point four with him off, and Kevin Durant has been out so long this season that that one four teen point four number is poisoning the overall metric for the season. So the twentie in defense on the season, but they're actually a top ten number with Kevin Durant on the floor. That's not a perfect logic because every team has bad lineups

mixing up with their data. But the bottom line is is the Nets are actually a pretty decent defense with Kevin Durant on the floor. The Celtics on that end of the floor have been good, not great. That same four man grouping that I told you about, Marcus Smart, Al Horford, Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown was scoring about a hundred and fifteen points per one Hunter possessions with

that four on the floor. That's an okay number. So this side of the floor is gonna be a little more interesting on the with the a little bit different. The Nets on offense, it's an amazing offense versus an amazing defense. With the Celtics on offense, it's gonna be a pretty good offense versus a pretty good defense, a totally different type of of dynamic. I expect the Nets

to double Tatum as the series progresses. In their last matchup, when the Celtics went into Brooklyn and won that game, they left Tatum on an island for the most part, and he killed the Nets because he was able to attack specific matchups. We were talking earlier about which matchups

would Brooklyn attack, Who would Kyrie and Katie attack. It's gonna have to be someone like Daniel Tyson the minutes that he's on the floor, someone like Derek White, maybe Marcus Smart if you think you can shoot over the top, those are the kinds of guys that they'll be attacking. Boston's gonna have better matchups to attack. You're always gonna have someone like Seth Curry on the floor. You're gonna have moments where you can attack Patty Mills, Kyrie Irving.

He's an okay defensive player in in certain matchups, but you're gonna be able to shoot over the top of him. So Boston's gonna have better matchups to attack. That gives Tatum a margin for air, which will get into a little bit when we talk about the Tatum Durant matchup. But I think as the series progresses, the Nets are gonna end up having to send multiple bodies at Jayson Tatum, which is something that he's been seeing a ton as the season has come to an end, especially over the

course of the last few months. This is where it gets interesting because the Nets have a great back line. You've got Nick Laxton. You've got Andre Drummond, you got Kevin Duran. We talked about that earlier, how dominant they were against the Calves tonight. They have a ton of size right around the basket, So I expect the Nets

to overplay the paint in double team Tatum. So it's gonna be a lot of Tatum coming off of screen and rolls or being doubled in the open floor and is making decisions out of the short roll guys like Marcus Smart. This is where corner three point shooting is is gonna become really, really important. The Celtics are gonna get a lot of wide open corner three's against this Nets defensive scheme this year, and the Celtics are only

okay shooting out there. Derek White has been a really bad three point shooters since he came to the Celtics, but strangely enough, he's actually okay in the corner. He's been shooting from the corner since he's been a Celtic. Al Horford is right around Marcus Smart's like thirty seven percent in the corner. Jalen Brown is like thirty four percent in the corner of the corner. Three is one of the weirdest shots in basketball. For a lot of shooters.

It's a shorter distance, but the optics of it are very different, and you're usually stationary, which is difficult to adjust to in the up and down flow of the game. So big part of the series is gonna be will the Celtics be able to make corner three's when the Nets double Jayson Tatum on the perimeter and they make decisions out of the short roll and the Nets overplay the paint with their size. That's gonna be an interesting aspect. Whether or not the Celtics make those threes could go

a long way to determining this series. So let's look at the Tatum verse Durant matchup. Tatum has ascended in my book this season. I call him a bona fide superstar. He it's hard to say where he places in the league. I put him with John Moran Devin Booker as guys who are kind of fighting in that nine ten eleven range of players in the n B A like firmly beneath the guys above them, but firmly above the rest. And they call it like the third tier of players

in the NBA. That's a compliment to Jayson Tatum. Kevin Durant's the best player in the world in my opinion. So on the surface, you look at that, like, can Jayson Tatum out played Kevin Durrant. That's a lot to ask. But this is where those matchups become such an important detail. Kevin Durant is going to be going against the best defense in basketball and j Jayson Tatum is gonna be going against an okay defense. Now, if the Nets double him all series long, that takes that decision out of

Jayson Tatum's hands. I trust Jayson Tatum to make the right plate, get the ball to the short roll, make the right reads, and give the Celtics a chance to make plays on the back end. But in single coverage situations, Jayson Tatum simply has a better selection of players to attack. He's going to be able to pick on Patty Mills. He's gonna be able to pick on Kyrie Riving. He's gonna be able to pick on Seth Curry. He's gonna be able to pick on slow footed bigs like Andre

Drummond on the perimeter. If he gets a chance, Duran's gonna have lesser He's gonna have greater defensive players that he has to choose from who's gonna attack. You saw that specifically take place the last time the Celtics played the Nets and beat them up in Barclays Center. At the end of the game, Kevin Durant was coming down the floor shooting pull up jump shots over Jayson Tatum and Robert Williams and Al Horford, and he was still

making some shots, but they were tougher shots. And meanwhile, Jayson Tatum was getting down the floor and attacking Seth Curry out of the high post and getting to his jump shot and knocking stuff down the Celtic. The Nets ended up having to double team him in the open floor when he would get Seth Curry in those isolation situations, and they were getting wide open looks out of it.

So again, Durant is the better player. Tatum has an advantage, He has more margin for error because his defense is better, and Kevin Durant doesn't have the same thing behind him, So that would be the interesting dynamic. This is why I don't like it when people say, like, if Boston wins a series, I wouldn't say Tatum beat Durant. Tatum is better than Durant. No, no, no, it's a team sport,

but I think Durant is a significantly better player. Tatum has more margin for error that gives him an opportunity to win. So this is as close to a fifty fift series as I could possibly imagine. Home court plays a big role. Boston's a really, really difficult place to play. But Kevin Durant is impervious to that sort of thing, as you've seen so many times over the years, including his Game five in Game seven in Milwaukee last year.

In a series this close that is split by the thinnest of margins, I have to go to the better player. So I'm picking Kevin Durant in the Nets to beat the Celtics in seven games based purely on the fact that Kevin Durant's the best player in the series. Everything else, to me is so split evenly down the middle. Both teams have advantages. Both teams, I think will have moments in the series where it feels like they're in control. Home court will play a role. I think Kevin Durant

overcomes that. NETS and seven. All right, let's move on to the Sixers and the Raptors. This is one of the most interesting series in the first round a couple of wrinkles. Matisse Tyble is not allowed to play in Toronto because he's unvaccinated. I'm not as concerned about this because Toronto is a massive help team. They do a ton of help, digging, doubling things along those lines. They are very disruptive defense. So I think shooting is gonna

be a very very important factor for the Sixers. And I've talked about a lot on the show about the difference between using Georgias Kneeing and Matisse Thyble and their pros and cons Matisse Tybles this incredibly disruptive defensive player, but he's not a great shooter. And Georgia Kneeing is at three point shooter at decent volume of guns. He's not scared to take any shot, but he's not a

great defensive player in that trade off. Because of the way Toronto plays as an over help, over, double, over, overdig over crowd type of team, you need guys that can make you pay on the back end, so I think Georgia Sneeing might actually be a better option than them. So I don't really look at the matissetybel The thing is that much of a problem. I think the Raptors

are gonna win the series in six games. The reason why comes down to the fact that this particular Toronto team and the style that they play directly is going to affect the two best players on the Sixers, and we're gonna let's let let's just get Let's just get into the weeds a little bit here. So first of all, Joe l embat So, the Raptors have won three of their four matchups with the Sixers this year in large part because of their ability to disrupt Joe l Embiad,

particularly double teaming. So as Joel, Joe Embiad has talked about this a lot. He talked about this in his appearance on the JJ Reddick Podcast, but he credit to Toronto is one of the best teams guarding him because of their ability to just stunt and double and all those things that I've been talking about. Here's the issue. In those three games, Joel Embiads only played in three of the four matchups. In those three games, Joel embiad Is only managed eight assists against all of that double

teaming and all of that overhelping. And this is an issue that I've talked about a lot with Joe el Embide. It's very similar to an issue that Anthony Davis has. He doesn't see help very well. He's not good at attracting double teams and making that killer pass. There's always passes out of a double team that are easier, but that a band in the advantage, like a quick uh

like Anthony Davis does this all time. Catching the post and a double team will common He'll kind of just dribble away from the double out to the perimeter and just find the first outlet pass to the wing as a you know, as a guard does like a V cut to try to get open on the perimeter. But once that pass has made, the advantage is gone. Now you have a guard with the ball thirty from the basket and you accomplish nothing. Joel Embiid does a lot

of that as well. The best post pastors in the league, the two in my opinion, are Nicola Yokich and Lebron James.

What they do is as the double comes, they get stronger with the basketball and advance ground and almost and and and keep their head up the whole time and look for the killer pass the past that compromises the defense for you making that double, it's usually to the weeks side corner, because good double teams will always take away the easy reads and make the longest pass the only available pass because if they can make you throw a looping skip pass, that gives you more time to

recover back. But guys like Yo Kitchen Lebron, they're hitting that week's side cornerman in the pocket for three every single time against these doubles, and if you just stunt at that and try to take away the corner three, they'll hit a cutter or they'll They're just they're very very adept at taking advantage of those types of coverages. And Joel Embiad is not for him to only get eight assists, and by the way, he had eight turnovers as well, so eight his eight turnovers in three games

against that Toronto aggressive help defense. That doesn't spell well for himbiads ability to solve the chess match that will be this playoff series. Then we go to James Harden. In the two matchups against Toronto as a seventies sixer, he's eight for twenty four from the field. He was three for twelve in their last matchup, one for eight from three three assists but nine turnovers to go with it.

This just comes down to James Harden's overall decline, which is something that I've chronicled in depth on the show.

We're not gonna get too much into it, but the gist of it is James Harden is not athletic enough anymore to consistently beat people off the dribble, and everything about his game is predicated on rim pressure because when he's beating people off the dribble, the defender plays further off of him and on his heels, which allows James Harden to get quality looks out of his step back, which then opens everything else up. But when he's not

driving to the basketball, defenders are on their toes. They're in an advancing position guarding James hard and leaning onto that step back. So now the step backs James Harden is taking are contested and usually low percentage. He's just trying to draw fouls at that point, and he's not generating that rim pressure when he's getting to the basket. That's when he opens up his ability as a playmaker

as well. Bottom line, if James Harden can't create quality looks against this Raptors defense, the way he used to when he was you know, four or five years ago. I don't know that they're gonna be able to create enough advantages here. The other thing too, the Toronto Toronto has had a lot of success against the Sixers with a lot of guys out with injury. You've had Fred VanVleet dealing with a knee issue that's held held him

out a lot. They've beat the Sixers a couple of times without Fred VanVleet, O g and and Noby has just returned. You're going to see a more offensively talented version of this Raptors team in this postseason run. There's a group in particular that I'm excited to see Fred VanVleet with Gary Trent Jr. Then O G. Pascal and Scotty Barnes in the front court. That team is. That

lineup has only played three forty five. It's this year that that allows the Raptors to play a lot of the same style they've been playing with the younger athletes, but with a ton more offensive firepower. This team is going to be a huge pain in the butt to beat this year, and they have specifically had success against the Sixers because of their inability to create advantages against

the defense like this. And then, last, but not least, the Sixers have a similar issue that the Bulls are gonna have in their first round series with the Bucks. The Raptors give up a ton of three point shots, just like Milwaukee does because of their overhelp defense. So it's very important for you to be able to generate

a lot of three point shots in your offense. And the Sixers are seven in the NBA and three pointers attempted per game, so similar to Chicago, there's a gaping issue there with their ability to exploit the raptors very specific defensive weakness. So I expect the Raptors to win in six games in Canada in front of their home crowd. This season, the Bulls lost all four matchups with the Bucks. I will be predicting the Bucks to sweep the Bulls. I'm not even sure that they have enough advantages to

take one game off of Milwaukee. I want to start by throwing out a couple of stats for you and we'll get a little bit into the weeds. And first of all, the Bulls are twenty four and paint points allowed per one hun possession. It's not a big shock.

They don't have a great front line, they don't have a ton of size and athleticism, and they've struggled defending on the perimeter this year ever since Alex Crusoe Alonzo ball went down twenty four and pain points allowed allowed is a big concern when you're going up against Janice. They they are very good at defending the three point line, which is interesting dynamic there because the Bucks are one of the best teams in the league at generating good

quality three point shots. The Bulls only give up fourteen point three wide open threes per game, which is second best in the NBA. The Bucks generate twenty point one wide open threes per game, which is second best in the NBA. So there's an interesting little clash there. The issue is is that as I've always told you guys, the but the Bucks have a catastrophic flaw and their defense and that they allow a ton of threes there.

They're sell out to protect the paint and they're bad at rotating on the back end to take away three point shots. But the problem is is the Bulls only attempt point eight threes per game, which is dead last in the NBA. So the Bulls are not set up to attack the Bucks very specific weakness. So if you can't match the top end talent, if you can't handle Janice and Chris Middleton, which obviously they can't, the the

star power of the Bucks is better. You better have some advantage out there that you plan on unleashing on them, something that they would struggle with. So, for instance, if the Bulls were an excellent three point shooting team that generated a ton of three point shots, I would say, hey, yes, you can't stop your honest, but the Bucks are bad at guarding the three point line. You're great at generating wide open threes. That's your opportunity to gain an advantage.

But the Bulls don't have that advantage, which makes me feel like this is going to end quickly and it's going to end ugly. To look at the matchups the way they were guarding each other. In their last matchup, they put Alex Crusoe on Chris Middleton. Chris Middleton can shoot over the top. I love Alex Caruso, excellent defensive player. I would have him on an All Defense team this year if he had played enough games, But it's he's

constantly had a problem with this type of matchup. Not not his, not by any of anything that's his fault. It's just that shorter defensive players, even if they're very very good at what they do, very tall offensive players can shoot over the top. You guys all probably remember last year a game in Philly where Tobias Harris made

a game winner over the top of Alex Cruso. It's just what happens when a six nine or six eight guy goes up against a six five or six six guy and has that ability to shoot over the top. They put um uh janice. They guarded with Patrick Williams, which is to be expected. Patrick Williams is thin, very athletic, very good defensive player, but he's thin, not as tall as your honest. He's giving up a lot of ground there.

The Bulls made up for that by doing a ton of stunting and crowding and doubling like uh In their last matchup, they held you Honest to just thirteen shots. Uh. J Honest was content to make the right play, kind of just draw in that attention and let his teammates go to work. I like that matchup in the sense that I think he can hold his own well enough with them crowding. I just think the Bucks are gonna

have tons of success scoring around him. It looks like zactly didn't play in their last matchup, but I think that's gonna be Drew Holiday there, and then Vosovic is gonna be guarding brook Lopez. The only interesting dynamic there is brook Lopez is a drop coverage big. When he's in the lineup, they run a very traditional drop coverage,

and Nikola Vusovich is a pickin pop guy. A pick and pop is a classic counter to a drop coverage because any drop coverage, the big has to to fall back to contain the ball handler and the guard has to chase over the top. So if the biggest dropping back and the guard is chasing over the top and the screener pops to the three point line, he's probably

going to be completely unguarded. They did get a lot of wide open looks for Vosovic out of those sorts of action, so that's something that you'll see a lot in that particular matchup. And then the last matchup you'll see is they're gonna put Wesley Matthews on Demarta Rosen Um. Demarta Rosen has been the best player on the Bulls this year. He's having a fantastic season. Wesley Matthews is arguably the perfect type of defender to put on Demard Rose And I've talked about this a lot on my

on my twitter feed. If you guys ever see the stuff that I do with basketball videos and skill development, like the fade away jump shot, which is what Demarda Rosen uses as his bread and butter, it's impossible to guard up top. That's the whole point of the fade away. You're turning and fading and you're usually initiating initiating contact before, so you don't see a ton of blocked fade aways. So you're not going to disrupt a guy up top.

But what you're supposed to do defensively on a guy who's taking fade aways is trying to disrupt the base as much as you can. Anytime you're bumping bodies and post up situations, the refs due allow a good amount of contact to go without calling fouls, and if you can disrupt the base of the fade away, you can affect the lift and those fade aways I always call him,

they're like dunks. In order to make a fade away, you have to get a ton of lift in order to get that separation so that it feels like an open shot at the top of the shot. So Wesley Matthews is an interesting matchup there because he is one of the best undersized wing defenders in the league because of his the way he disrupts the base. He keeps his feet sliding, he sits really low, he is a low center of gravity, and he just pushes on your

base to keep you off balance all the time. That's why he's had success in the past against a lot of the bigger scoring forwards that we have in the league. So I like the way that the Milwaukee can guard Chicago. Chicago's uh, Milwaukee's greatest defensive weakness also happens to be Chicago's greatest offensive weakness, so I don't think they have an advantage there. And the Bulls don't defend the paint well and Janice is just an absolute monster in the paint,

especially in the postseason. As we know, I think this is going to be a sweep. I would be shocked if the Bulls even took one game off of them. All right, guys, that's all I have for tonight. As always, I appreciate your support and I'll see you guys in a couple of days.