Hoops Tonight - 76ers-Knicks Reaction: Tyrese Maxey EXPLODES, Philly STUNS New York

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you guys are having an incredible week. Well, you know what, I was just talking in the group chat with the guys that help make this show possible every day, and I was saying, you know, I've seen a lot of pessimism surrounding this playoff run. Maybe some injuries, some people saying that it hasn't been super competitive. I think it's been awesome. The first round always has a couple of duds, and we've just had a bunch of unbelievable basketball games.

The Knick Sixer series has given us a bunch of crazy competitive basketball games. Obviously that Nuggets. Obviously, that Nuggets Lakers game series gave us a bunch of crazy games. MAVs Clippers has given us craziness. Wolve's suns had some wild highlights. I think it's been an incredible first round and it continues trucking along with a little bit of balance in the universe, a little bit of balance in

the basketball universe. As the Sixers lost game to an absolute shocking fashion and then they end up winning stealing Game five in even more shocking fashion. We're gonna break it down from the perspective of both teams, and then I have some brief thoughts on the chrisops Porzingis injury and what it means for the Boston Celtics. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of a videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT

so you guys don't miss any show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful for you leave a rating and a review on that front. In the last not at least keep dropping mailbag questions on the YouTube comments, We're gonna hit a couple more mail bags throughout the rest of the playoffs. So, as I said at the

start of the show, now we're even right. If that's the way you gotta look at it, right, there's no no one's getting the short end of the stick here. I thought that the Sixers out played the Knicks in Game two and did it their way, kind of out executing them in the half court, and then Jalen Brunston got a lucky bounce on a corner three, and then on the inbounds pass, Tyrese Maxi may or may not have gotten fouled. Nick Nurse may or may not have been denied a time out that he tried to call.

But in the ensuing chaos, Dante DiVincenzo gets a wide open three at the top of the key and sinks it, and suddenly the Sixers are going home down to to Oh, here we are in game five. The dynamic of the series has shifted. Two games in a row. The Knicks have out played the Sixers. Is something we've talked about a lot on the show. They've kind of figured out how to contain and beat in particular tyres Maxey's the one guy matchup wise that they just haven't quite figured out.

They don't really have the personnel for it, which we'll get to in a little bit, but they've outplayed the Sixers for the majority of the game. They're up six with what twenty eight seconds left, and you get an ogn Ando we missed free throw, and then you get Mitch Robinson leaving his feet and Foulin Tyrese Maxi he makes a crazy shot through contact on the left wing.

You go down. Josh Hart misses a free throw and then a little brush ball screen right at half court as Tyrese Maxie rises up from what was that like thirty two feet off the dribble, Just an unbelievable shot to send it to Ot And what was even crazier is like in Ot, Jalen Brunson comes in and quick

skt quick gets five points. He'd kind of had some success sneak layups, like a little quick left handed sneak layups on Embiid when he would kind of turn the corner a little bit, got another one, Hull hit a three.

They're up five and Philly calls a timeout. Tyrese Maxey comes right out of the time out and hits a three, And I thought it was interesting because Mitchell Robinson was way far back on that specific play, and that's a that's a direct side effect of Mitchell Robinson having been too close in committing a foul on the a couple possessions earlier when Tyrese Maxey took a pull up three, and so you know, that three completely changed the dynamic of the game into what one, twelve, one ten at

that point. So then the the Sixers end up going up a little bit and Jalen Brunson gets a four point play of his own. Joel Embiid, I didn't think they were gonna call it a flagrant. I mean, it was like and be clearly gave him the facebreak, but it was like disguised enough as a swipe at the basketball, and given the situation, I didn't think they were gonna call it. Brunson goes to the line, goes one for two.

Another misfree throw. Missfree throws are gonna be the thing that the Knicks are kicking themselves about if they can't close out this series. The similar thing happened to Lakers last night. A bunch of missed free throws that were a critical down the stretch of that game. You gotta make your free throws. Little execution things end up making

a big difference. But Brunton comes out of the flagrant foul and beats too far back on a ball screen and hits another three ties the game up, and Nick Nurse, someone that I don't think has done a particularly great job in this series, a couple of interesting notes from him down the stretch of this game. First of all, do you guys remember at the end of Game four how I talked about those are you guys who watched

the film session. I talked about how they were really struggling to keep og In and Obi and Precious to Chewa

off the glass. And part of the reason for that is they were going to this like two guard look with Kyle Loau on the floor, and Kyle Lowry wasn't really giving you much offensively or defensively, and it all of a sudden gives you this too small guard look, and that's just not a smart move against a team that's so good on the offensive glass as the Knicks are, right, and so one of the things I talked about in the show is I said, I wanted to see Nick

Nurse go back to Nick Patoomb in that situation and basically play all your wings and go Maxi Embiid with Batoum, with Tobias Harris and with Kelly Eubray. That's what he did down the stretch of this game, and he was able to get more stops, more defensive rebounds. Again, if you're gonna live in a rock fight, yeah, Tyrese, Maxie's gonna have to take and make tough shots. Yeah, Joel

Embid's gonna have to take and make tough shots. But that's kind of the dynamic of the game anyway, and it's not like you were getting, you know, Michael Porter Junior type of spot up possessions out of Kyle Lowry. So it was worth it to kind of make that adjustment. I thought that was really smart. And then once again, once Jalen Brunson got that four point play to tie the game, they run a backcut set. They just have Uber at the top of the key and they have

Joel Embiid set a backscreen. You know, it's interesting in a situation like that, at the end of a game, all eyes are on your stars and it can be like like timely set calling like that can be something that can be something that you can pull every once in a while in a big moment. I remember when I was at ACU, it was most well coached team I played for. Shout out Jeff Ruder, He's doing an absolute amazing job at ACU. And we had a big

Brazilian center. His name was Matteas, guy I used to play against in Juco and then we ended up being teammates when we were at ACU, and we had this play that we were we had. We had two all American guards, but one of them in particular to leave the best player I ever played with. He we would always run him off these actions along the baseline, and then what we would do is is we had this play I think, if I remember correctly called it. I think we called it thumbs up if I remember correctly.

But basically what it was is it was we'd have Matteas on the block and we'd have to leave run through like he's running to run one of his typical kind of baseline cuts, but instead of cutting out, we just have him quick set of cross screen on Matteas's man and he would break wide open on the block. And we'd throw a quick swing pass in a post entry and he'd get an easy layup. And like, we didn't run it much. We usually ran it once a game, but we always saved it for a big moment when

we knew we needed a basket. And it was nice because like it was like it was almost like a cheat code. It was like we knew if we ran this play we were gonna get a bucket like eighty percent of the time, and so we always saved it for a really big moment in the game when we

needed one. And I thought that was super fascinating that Nick Nurse again, with how well Tyrese Maxey was playing with all the ball screens, you're running, with all the post ups, with Joel Embiid in a huge possession in a game in overtime with elimination on the line, you run a back cut for Kelly Ubra and it works. And if I remember correctly, it came out of a time out on the flagrant too, so like they had time to draw it up to know exactly what they

were gonna do. After that Knick's possession, Kelly Ubra got wide open and immediately removed the momentum from the Brunts in four point play and then finally Embiid kind of figured out that Brunson drive to the basket and got a couple of stops. Late, they got a couple of big defensive rebounds and the Sixers escape. Now the series is three to two and we're headed back to Philly.

Now here's the deal. You know, the beauty of the NBA playoffs is they tend to reveal who the better basketball team is, not necessarily the most talented team, but the better basketball team, right Like, and that factor is in all these different things talent, not just star talent, but also role player talent down the roster. Look at the difference in role players in the Denver Nuggets series and how big of a difference that made in that series.

Is Michael Porter Junior just being unbelievable every single night, and how they can make a huge difference, Right, So, role player talent, you're looking at coaching, you're looking at basketball character, like what kind of toughness do your guys have? Execution? All those different details are what separated basketball team and over the course of a seven game series, generally speaking, the better basketball team is going to win. Now, the

margins are small. As we've talked about, there's been so many games in this playoff run that have swung one way or the other on tiny margins. But that's kind of the purpose of the seven game series. You have to beat a team four times. And the reality is is the Knicks have only outplayed the Sixers in three games of this series. You know, Game two they got out played and stole the game. Game five they outplayed them,

and the in Philly stole the game. So as far as I'm concerned, like, yeah, sucks, you were this close, Like this is literally what happened when Brunson made the U. I can't remember No Duce McBride. When Duce McBride made the little high post flash jump shot at the foul line, I was like ninety six to ninety twenty eight seconds left. It's showtime. Paul's waiting for me in the zoom call. I'm gonna run back and get ready for the show.

And I'm getting ready for the show and all of a sudden, my phone's blown up and I look down and it's all the guys in our group chat like Tyre Smaxsy, Oh my god, Tyray, Smacksie, Oh my god, I thought the game was over two. We all did, right, and like, honestly that that's kind of the craziness that can happen in the NBA playoffs. But again, you've outplayed them three times, you got lucky, and you almost had a chance to close it out with that bonus win

in game two. Now we're headed back to Philly for Game six, and it's at this point. I think it's interesting DraftKings has the line at minus three ninety. I think that's based on the facts that the Knicks, the fact that the Knicks have outplayed the Sixers in each of the last two games, despite the result in this one, and so they just trust them to be able to

get one of the next two. Game seven at home is always going to be a really difficult game to win, you know, honestly, these closeout games in general are tough. I was worried about the Sixers in the first half. They've had a tendency to really like kind of let go of the rope when things get bad. That was

what happened in Game seven against Boston last year. If you guys remember, like things got a little ugly and they just let go of the rope right and shout out to Tyrese Maxey like forget about the stuff at the end of the game, like he was. He was just so many big plays over the course of the forty eight to keep things close. One last note on the on the Sixers front, I think both teams kind of have for the most part figured out what they need to do. The Sixers finally went to their bigger

lineup today. I think that's what they need to do. We're going to talk about a specific offensive adjustment for the Sixers here in a minute, But like the Knicks, like the actions they're running there, the lineups they're going with. It's very clear that Duce McBride and Mitchell Robinson are like your best defensive combo to handle the maxim B two man game. I think Go'll end up leaning a lot on that in Game six. Everything's kind of falling into place at this point. It's just about who's gonna

make more plays on both ends of the floor. Maxi's clearly been the best offensive player for Philly in the entire series. That just goes without saying. Embiid is having a rough series. I think he had nine turnovers tonight. If I remember correctly, I'll pull up the box score. But like it just seemed every single time the Knicks brought any sort of pressure, Yeah, he had nine turnovers.

Anytime the Knicks brought any sort of pressure. He just couldn't handle that physicality, not reading the floor really well. And there was a stretch there at the end of the fourth quarter basically up until Tyrese Maxi took over where they were just running embiid post ups every single time.

And like, again he wasn't reading doubles well. There was one kickout to Maxi where he hit like a thirty footer on the left wing one pass away from a double team, but like that really won't a great look, right, So, like I just think you need to lean into Maxie and he's steady, diet to MAXI, have him bead working close out situations, have him worked from the top of the key with Mitchell Robinson or Isaiah Hartenstein or somebody from the weak side closing out at him rather than

trying to post him up. It's just not working super well at this point. We'll dive into some film at some point in the next couple of days to kind of take a closer look at it, But I do think the Sixers need to run more through Maxi on offense down the stretch of these games. He's just better option, and quite frankly, it's a better matchup. Like Mitchell Robinson has just done a better job guarding Embiid than anybody has done guarding Tyres Maxey. Tyros Maxi just has the

best advantage in this series. And Tyres Maxey too, just like this dude's just a star. Forty six points, five rebounds, nine assists, only three turnovers, massive usage, thirty shot attempts, fifty two minutes, that kind of had a funky for the throw shooting game. Missed a couple big ones, but seven for twelve from the three point line. Just an

unbelievable game from Tyres Maxi. No matter what, you know, I was prepared to come on this show before Tyras Maxy hit all those shots that sent it to ot. I was prepared to come on here and be like, hey, season's over. Sixers got their issues Embiid obviously, like regardless of what's going on health wise, Like, he's got to figure out how to be more effective in the slow

down half court environments. Bla blah, blah blah, But Tyre s Maxy' is a star, Like that's your big takeaway no matter what happens down the stretch of the series. And again, like I mentioned, DraftKings seems to think that this is still going the next way in a rather convincing fashion, So like like if that ends that way, the big upside here is Tyree Maxy is just a freaking star man. I think I think he is absolutely

capable of being the second best player on a championship team. Again, it's just an unbelievable combination of speed and shooting ability and just all the problems that that can cause. Like it just there is a play where Embiid was posting up on the left block and crunch time before Maxi's run, and I can't remember who it was, but I think Mitchell Robinson poked the ball away from him and like in the chaos, the ball just kind of like popped

into Maxi's hands on the left wing. And in this in literally a split second, he dusted his man off the dribble, dropped it off the ubre under the basket for a layup, and it was it happened so fast. I was like, this is just a matchup advantage that the Knicks can't deal with. Like Maxi is the ultimate superpower for Philly in this series. It's just been so fun watching him. He had a rough postseason last year. He is passing the test with flying colors this year.

All right, before we get out of here tonight, I just wanted to talk really quickly about the Porzingis injuries. So obviously just kind of a funky little hesitation triple threat, a driving move where he ends up pulling up with his calf muscle. It sounds like it's a solely strain and obviously like that's a concern because Boston it is gonna need Chriss Porzingis if they if they have a

chance to win the championship this year. I think that whoever comes out of the Western Conference, whether it's Minnesota or Denver or one of the teams on the other side the bracket, it's it's gonna be a really, really tough game. Obviously you're gonna get a pretty tough matchup

in the conference finals. But this is where the advantage of being a dominant team over the course, So the regular season comes to your it comes to your aid here because you're gonna face the winner of Cleveland Orlando in the next round, and Game five is still going on at the time of the show. I'll check the score really quick, but I believe wow, ninety seven, ninety six or two twenty five left, So that can go

either way. But regardless of who comes out of that series, going into the next round, you're you're gonna be a substantial favorite even without Perzingis. So according to Cleaning the Glass, which by the way, filters out garbage time, the Celtics played four and fifty two possessions this year with Porzingis off the floor, and they were plus eleven net, So they were outscoring teams by eleven points per one hundred possessions.

Like unbelievably good offensively, like just under one hundred and twenty five offensive rating. Defense obviously not as good without the rim protection, but honestly, throughout throughout the regular season, I thought Boston's perimeter defense kind of ebbed and flowed with effort throughout the year, and they can always just kind of step up their perimeter defense and in terms of intensity and do better job containing the ball to kind of limit some of the issues that you can

have in rim protection without Christops. Porzingis also think they'll just do more switching without Horford, and particular, particularly if it does end up being Orlando, they run so many forward forward screens like Franz Palo two man game or like even just two man game with like Jalen Sugg setting a ghost screen or Gary Harris at a ghost screen or something like that, and all those actions are

gonna be actions that Boston can switch. And with Porzingis on the floor, I think teams would look to target more in like drop coverage. But I think with al Harvard you can do more switching and that'll be something that they'll lean into. But the big thing is is you should be able to dispatch of Orlando or a Cleveland without incident without Porzingis. And so here we are. It's Tuesday, April thirtieth. You've got the rest of this

week is still wrapping up the first round. Second round is going to start this weekend, and from there you got what two weeks before the conference finals, So you've got like a hefty seventeen to eighteen days at least until you're going to end up in that conference finals matchup with whoever comes out of that side of the bracket, and so he is going to have some time to rest up, and then you can play by here in the conference finals. Like I even think without Porzingis Boston

can beat New York, Philly or Indiana. So I think that there's this is the reward for your success in the regular season. You get the easy playoff path. Also, I mean, the Eastern Conference is just substantially weaker than the West, and so Boston kind of found this little lane where they can get to the conference finals without facing a really high quality opponent. And so honestly, I'm

not worried about the Porzingis injury at all. The only thing that worries me with Boston is just Minnesota and Denver. By virtue of the degree of difficulty of their run, they're just playing some Minnesota in particular, playing some really really good basketball. Those teams have clear hierarchies and clear like approach in the half court at the end of games, like is just like taking all the shots and being the guy that they're leaning on at the end of

these games. Boston still even in this run, and they responded nicely to their Game two lost couple of big dominant wins on the road in Miami, but there's still it's a little it's equal opportunity. Tonight it's Jalen Brown. You know. Game two, it's Jalen Brown. Game three, it's it's a game four, it's Derek White, right, Like it's a different guy in every game that is going crazy.

And that's kind of like the that's kind of like the the the interesting thing with Boston and so I wonder if they run into a team, particularly Minnesota, if Minnesota gets out of the West and they just lean into this crazy perimeter defense, are they going to have an order of operations that they can go to to consistently generate quality shots. It's going to be an interesting battle.

And like again, I'm gonna be keeping my eye on Boston in the next round just in terms of their level of intensity and engagement on a game and game out basis, because they're gonna need to be sharp, because they're gonna go pretty low level, pretty low level, to a mediocre level to like one of the best teams in the league in pretty rapid order over the course of the next month, and they got to be up for the challenge but not worried about the Porzingis injury.

I think he's gonna be able to come back and make an impact before the end of this postseason. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. As always that sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. The plan as of right now, I would imagine tomorrow morning, I'm gonna get you guys reactions to Cavs Magic as well as Pacers Bucks. If there's a eulogy involved there, we'll see,

depending on if the Pacers can close the deal. And then I'm currently working on the Timberwolves Nuggets series preview, and when I have that up, and i'll have it up most likely before before the end of the week, i'll let you guys know. Actually no it I've confirmed. We scheduled Adamarus, who covers the Nuggets. He's coming on the show on Thursday. Were recording Thursday, but we're probably gonna run it on Friday, So Friday morning we'll have

a series preview on Nuggets Wolves as well. I will see you guys tomorrow morning for a couple more game breakdowns. The volume