Colin Cowherd Podcast - Celtics Win Game 2 In “Lopsided” Series, Dan Hurley Shouldn’t Take Lakers Job, Caitlin Clark Should Be On Olympic Team " For The Eyeballs"

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run in this game. They are a streaky hot offense if Luca gets rolling. But I mean mostly outside of two, three or four minute right, I could take six minutes out of this series. It's lopsided, like it's not particularly close. I like the Celtics and six and I felt at the time, is they listen, they can just man up. Their biggest can be honest and they're just they're just two we all talk offense. They're too good defensively, they're just they got too many guys that can manu up.

I mean, they got guys that didn't make All NBA that if they weren't on the Celtics, they didn't want three guys on the Celtics All NBA defense. So I think some of it is just Boston's got better dudes. And I think we all realize that Denver Boston were the best teams. But it happens Minnesota constructed to beat Denver. Denver led by twenty in that game in Game seven, or I think we'd have a really compelling six to seven game series.

the negative energy surrounding that situation. I think going home will be good for him. But the reality is is like Boston hasn't really gotten going offensively to the level that they're capable of, outside of a brief run in the first half of Game one, like even after that point, they cooled off substantially. Like you know, it's funny. I really look at it to a very basic problem for Dallas,

which is they cannot contain the basketball. There's this so, as you know, I coach in the high school level, and when I'm doing the skill development with the kids, like king of the Court so they can practice on their games, and I use this like simple kind of idea to try to convince them to pass the ball more. I'll let them play King of the Court with the defender right on them, and they'll barely ever score. It'll

be like one out of every ten times. And then I'll have him do it with the closeout, where like the kid has to start underneath the basket and throw the ball and then sprint out at the defender or at the offensive player, and they score like four or five times out of ten. They're like many many orders of magnitude better offensively. Now at the pro level, that's

a smaller gap, but it's still a gap. And that's really the problem here is Boston can just easily get that first little bit of dribble penetration, and then what they're doing is they're throwing the ball to thirty million dollar players who are standing at the perimeter just waiting for a guy who's sprinting with his hair on fire to get out to close out. It's just unsustainable. And it's not just Luca. And by the way, Luca's getting hounded all over the place when he's on every possession.

But it's not just Luca. There's a bunch of Dallas players that are struggling to contain the ball. They're going at Gafford and just going right around him every single time. They're taking smaller players into the post. It's a problem. They just they can't contain the basketball. And then Boston has so much offball talent, and then even there's nobody they can ignore to just park somebody in the paint, or to every time they double every time Luca just

randomly decides to kind of double team the ball. They're just in rotation. Again, That to me is the fundamental issue. I do think Dallas will have better offensive nights as they move back to Dallas, as they move back home, but I just don't know how they solve the problem that they can't guard Boston well.

just couldn't get it going. And you know my take on Tatum was he actually assisted well, he defended well, There's a lot of things he did well. But our lifetime Kareem Bird, Lebron, Steph Duncan, Michael, we need a basket He's not consistently that guy. Now again defensively, I mean rebounds, he fills the stat sheet. But again Boston won a title. It's Paul Pierce. It's kg like, we

want our guys to get their points. And with Tatum, I just feel like we just and I've said this, I picked Brown to be the MVP of this series. I know what I get with Jalen Tatum. It depends on the matchup. It depends on his headspace, where is he at. Is he playing with confidence? It's not a knock on him, but Boston is built to overcome his really bad three point shooting series. They're built for it. They just got so many dudes. It's kind of becoming

the series. I thought it would look like. I just thought Kyrie would be more available. But man, when you Boston, I'm watching Porzingis's limping. Tatum at one point was I have this written down here. He was eight for forty four, eighteen percent on ISO threes, So I mean he was just you know, is this yeah eight vers at forty four. It was eighteen percent And it has no impact outside today. I mean, forget the first game. It was a blowout. If you take out a nine to nothing Dallas run.

It is a blowout. I mean, there wasn't a moment in the second half I thought, oh, Dallas is gonna come back. So also, Lively, he's a rookie, he's not playing great, So this happens. I think this not every finals. I mean, we saw San Antonio early Lebron team in Cleveland. You're like, like a like a game and a half in, You're like, yeah, this isn't gonna work. They got way more good players. I kind of feel like, I mean, Luca now is not at one hundred percent. I kind

of feel like Dallas will steal Game three. But I think it may be a five game. That's what it feels like to me.

to operate in those ball screens. Another big thing too, you talked about all the guys that can guard, like Al Horford switched on to Luca is A is a great matchup for Boston. They just live with that. They feel like he can guard there. So like they're just there's not a lot of great options for Dallas to get good opportunities for the role players so that they can get going. Now, Kyrie is the one guy where

you're like, dude, you just got to do more. You've had, you know, six thirty point games in your NBA Finals career.

flawed as he is as a superstar. It's weird seeing Luca as the superstar of Dallas just getting hunted relentlessly on the on the defensive end of the floor. I think with Tatum, and really it all just starts with where you're beginning the conversation, Like if you're beginning the conversation with is Tatum a apex superstar with the top guys in the league, it's just no, you're just gonna run into all these issues.

help him. His ability to hold up against Gafford on the glass and to switch out in pick and roll has been the major adjustment that has caused problems for Dallas offensively. And then, yeah, if you put on a team like this with five really good offensive players, if you put a ball hog out there, it might mess

everything up. And he's not that guy. And so in a weird way, you talk about this all the time with the NFL, like if a GM is prioritizing offensive line player players and like skill players, they're telling you that they're worried about their quarterbacks ability to kind of make something from nothing, right, they're telling you what they think that That's what I look at with the Brad Stevens piece. Here he by going to get Porzingis and

Drew Holliday. He told you what he thought about Jalen Brown and Ja That's right, these guys aren't good enough. I need to give them just an overwhelming amount of support in order for them to accentuate their strengths. And it's worked wonderfully in this season.

And then you generate that trade with Drew Holliday, who's like a better version of Marcus Smart, especially on offense.

have an alpha. I think my take is I would bet money that Denver comes back next year and wins, and I think Minnesota is going to rearrange the deck chairs. Boston We'll still be really, really good, but I don't think Boston's a three straight championship team. Also, eventually after next year, they may have to move off some pieces because of the maxis to Tatum and Brown. But I

think we're seeing kind of what we thought. You know, the notes I have right here, Boston getting much better shots, Boston Tatum, it was a lot you know, porzingis Tatum not great offensively not an issue. Boston back to back three's biggest lead. You know. One of the things I also noticed is that Kyrie's not getting assists. The Mavericks aren't getting a ton of them, which usually tells you stagnant ball movement. You know, Luca was doing some clever stuff,

but it's a nothing. I don't there's not a lot of continuity with Dallas's offense. I mean, you're the guy that coaches. To me, it just doesn't feel like there's any rhythm to a lot of their offensive possessions.

you need to engage a help defender. Because as soon as you engage a help defender, you've brought a second defender to the ball, which means off the ball you have four on three, right, that's where your advantage is now. From there, when you make a kickout pass, it's a spot up opportunity if they drive the close out or if they shoot a three. In game one, Boston generated

thirty six spot up opportunities and Dallas generated twelve. And that is the main issue there is they're not getting Luca and Kyrie have not been good enough on an island as scorers to consistently bring multiple players to the ball, which will get those opportunities. For example, in Game one on ISOs, Dallas got just zero point five to four points per possession including passes. That's why would you send

an extra defender. They're getting stops. To your point, their dudes are getting stops, and so like it's kind of like a trickle down effect. If you don't demonstrate the threat of actually bringing in that second defender, you're not going to get the opportunities to get the other guys going. In Game three, what has to happen for Dallas is Kyrie and Luca have to so deeply compromise the defense that they start to warp Boston in on them to

generate those opportunities. And they just haven't been able to do that to this point. Like Boston's looking at those numbers from Luca twelve for twenty one, four for nine from three thirty two points. They don't care, like they they've been they've been shooting terribly and they've been winning this entire series. So like at the end, at the end of the day, like they're like Luca, we're making

Luca work hard. Luca had eight turnovers tonight. So if you if you actually like piece it all together, the total number of possessions for him to take twenty one shots, to go four for eight from the foul line into and to turn the ball over eight times and only have thirty two points, Like that's a battle that Boston is like kind of winning, Like they're they're they're Dallas scored ninety eight points.

But I still think it's gonna come down to the stars because there's nothing that Boston has to react to in terms of sending extra defenders that will get PJ. Washington wide open corner threes, or we'll get Derek Jones Junior wide open cuts off of the wing. Like I maintain that these are problems that I don't think that they can solve. I mean, so, what do you think? Do you think Dallas will come back in game three? Is that what you're looking at it?

One way too low, one feels too high. But I'm going to guess because the NBA runs through coaches much like the NFL. Sixty year seven a year and I told a friend, I said, I don't know if the Knicks would hire him, I said, but would it be shocking if next year, like this year, the Knicks fall apart in the playoffs. There's some complaining about how hard Tibbs coaches and the minutes he plays, and everybody goes, get the guy from Yukon. If he wins an international championship,

that to me is a potentially better gig. Wife's happy, closer to home, easier conference. You've got a star, but it's not the burden of sort of Lebron at the end of his career or Anthony Davis, who maybe the best two in the league in a decade but doesn't always feel like a one offensively. So that's what I was told, is that Hurley will make a decision tomorrow. My gut is, I don't know why I feel this.

He won't take the job, and my feeling is there's going to be better opportunities the Lakers job right now. The best part of it is the brand in college sports, like if George is available and they're down in the dumps, you take the job. Texas is available because I get twenty five players a year in football, right or basketball, the transfer portal, I can get twelve new guys.

a hard league to make big trades. And so my gut feeling is Dan Hurley Tomorrow calls and says, I mean, ask yourself this when you know it, you know it he interviewed like forty eight hours ago, right, Like, it's like you kind of make the call, right, So I w'ch my gut feeling. How's it land for you?

Brego or somebody like that. Right, So, like I get why they're waiting. I'm with you that I'm still kind of like I'm very cautious about getting too stoked about it your opinion though about potentially waiting for a better job. Let's just be straight. I want Dan Hurley to go to the Lakers because I root for the Lakers, but

like the that's not the best job. And here's the reason why, Like this is a this is an ownership group that has demonstrated a considerable amount of incompetence over the last ten years or so.

There's like all of this stuff over the last half dozen years that would lead you to believe that, Like, it's a little bit of a volatile situation. So I want him to go there, But you'd be a fool if you if you weren't actually looking around behind the

scenes and making phone calls. I guarantee you Dan Hurley has heard the ugly stuff, and I'm sure that he's had some uh, I'm sure he's had some reticence there that said, like you said, he gets stoked with his boys when he goes on the visit because it's the

Los Angeles Lakers. Man, It's it's it's just there's something, there's a cool factor there, right, I think I think even just extending it to the scope of NBA history, like when they tell the story of Lebron James's career, what if you were the guy who coached him for the last couple of years, what if you made a deep playoff runt or if you had have God forbid,

you won a title or something like that. Like there's a there's a level of basketball immortality that I think Dan Hurley could be factoring in here as well.

You know, Phoenix is in the West. I mean, who knows why. I mean, sometimes the guys you want to you want to coach a guy, you want to create a relationship with a guy, like we all know that Laytoner made it. Michael didn't one Isaiah on the team. It got political, so Christian later made the team.

ratings The average sports fan. Sports fan doesn't know this. Our women's basketball team has won seven straight goals. They don't lose games like they're like the dream team. Every single Olympics, I think they've won like eight of nine to nine of ten. They're completely our most dominant team, and most people don't know that because they don't watch. They get about six to seven million viewers, they get

fourteen or more with Caitlin Clark. And my takeaway is when Connor McGregor came to the UFC, you wanted to be on the undercard because people saw you, including Monster Energy Drinks or you know, Pens Oil. Whoever, when Tiger got on the tour, you wanted to be in a foursome, you know, you'd get a sponsor. If I was on that team, I'd be like, yeah, put her on the team, eyeballs. So to me, it's as if it's being established that

the players didn't really want her. And my take is, I think the agents of the other players are probably like, what.

how Olympics generate their revenues. The TV partner didn't get on the phone and go, hey, could you do us as solid you know, well, well write you check that part. If I was NBC, I would be like, guys, we're TV partners, We're paying all the bills. That was my takeaway that NBC should be pissed, And I actually think she'd be good for the other girls even if she didn't play. What was your initial thought.

saga over the past month and a half. Like what's happening to her is something that has happened to every talented young player that's entered a.

People try to step up to it to people try to pick her up full court, people try to be physical. This is so normal and it's being made into now. The political side of things has grabbed a hold of this and it's gone completely off the rails, which which is crazy to watch. Like a Caitlin Clark is a competitor who is going into the most talented and by the way, this league doesn't have very many teams, which

means it is completely stacked with talent. So like it's just a really difficult spot that she's in, and she's in her team has some limitations and all that kind of stuff as far as the Team USA thing goes, Like she's there's the basketball case. It's on the fence right, Like you could argue if you were making a list of just the twelve best women's basketball players in the world, she's on the fence and probably should be left off.

But to your point, throughout every single national like it's like Anthony Davis being on the on the redeem team, right or the team in twenty twelve, right, Like sometimes you just bring the super young talented kid along. Yeah, energy, and and like there's no there's no reason not to bring her. And I don't buy the excuse. The excuse that's like, oh, when she doesn't get playing time, her fan base will be ravenous, Okay, by all means, then leave her off the roster.

years from now. Hopefully they they they include me. But yeah, I mean, I just I just wish people understood the basic competitive dynamics that are taking place, because it's really nothing special that's going on there.

year they went to Peacock. What a shock. They put Patrick Mahomes on Peacock. They wanted another streaming giant to do well because those are ascending businesses. Amazon got its best schedule so very clearly in the last year, the NFL has said, yeah, we're going to streaming. It's a business. FIFA is a business. I mean, the Olympics held a Summer Olympics in Soshi. Never been there, but you know, when you think of Sydney and Barcelona, you don't think

of Soshi as a summer retreat. So it's like people tend to get very precious, especially people who cover a sport, you know, like I know it. I've covered this for years. Yeah, too close to the forest, like baseball writers and not all certainly, but those that argued against the pitchclock, well, baseball's infinitely more watchable. Attendance is up again this year. TV rating her up the games now if you get good pitching, they're two and a half hour games. They

fly by. It's a much better television product, and the baseball writers push back in it. It's like sometimes I'm seeing a lot of these almost with this religious veracity, this kind of like I know this sport, it's business. All this stuff. The NFL schedule, Jason, you don't think they put Aaron Rodgers worried about his health. They got him all over September games in October to a point where it's competitively unfair. He's got short weeks, night games,

they got mahomes playing every day but Tuesday. Like, we understand this stuff. Money greases, it lubricates all of it.

her game kind of fits. Being the last person to make an Olympic roster or frankly, make any roster if you just got a guy that can shoot.

thirty eight and seven or whatever. Yeah, by the way, putting over twenty thousand people in an arena for two really bad teams at the bottom of the WNBA stand things which to your point, like like, I don't know why if you were a player on the team USA team, why you wouldn't want Caitlyn on the the on the on the roster just so that you get more exposure while you're playing overseas. But it is what it is. I I'm with you. She's she's handling it like a champ.

I just I hate it because she's being kind of weaponized, even especially on the political side of that. She's being weaponized and used to make points that don't even make sense. Like I I'm just glad that she's been the column in the storm because she's been put in a really tough situation. All right, guys, that is all we have for tonight. This NBA Finals Game two Instant Reaction was brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited Unlimited one point

five percent cash back is just the beginning. Cash back three percent on dining including takeout, three percent at drugstores, five percent on Chase travel in one point five percent on everything else. How do you cash back? All right, guys, we'll have our film session in the morning and then Colin I will be back for Game three on Wednesday.