Hoops Tonight - Celtics bounce back, dominate Miami in Game 2

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In Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and why or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York. In Tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee, visit www one eight dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. You guys know how hi I am on Boston, And as you can tell from my shirt, I have no incentive to be high on Boston. I'm not necessarily a Lakers fan. I've just been covering them

for the last couple of years. A lot of the people who follow the show, a lot of the people that follow me on Twitter are Lakers fans. Um, just from the last couple of years. My uh, my adoption so to speak, of this Boston Celtics team has nothing to do with, uh, you know, some sort of non basketball incentive. It's strictly the fact that, as I said last night, and to quote that colonism. I don't care about being right. I just want to get things right.

That's my goal for this show is too as an analytical approach in terms of actually looking at evidence, film evidence, statistical evidence. I want to give you guys the best basketball analysts analysis that I can. And over the course of the season, I watched thirty basketball teams play in the NBA. UH. The one on my shirt looked like a horrific basketball team, and the team that wore green and UH called themselves the Boston Celtics, was very clearly

better than everybody. And that's why I quote unquote adopted them as my title favorite. It was strictly a basketball take, that's all it is. And what's funny is I'm not as high on Boston as some of the evidence would suggest. Like I talked about at length over the course the last couple of weeks from January on, Boston wasn't just the best team in basketball. They were the best team in basketball by a country mile. Nobody was close. They were way better than everybody on defense, and they were

better than everybody on offense. And so the question becomes, why don't they just blow out everybody? Well, they did for a while there towards the end of the regular season, but like I've talked about, a lot of the Boston offense stuff was fool's gold compared to what happens in a playoff environment. They have some very very clear offensive weaknesses as it comes to as it pertains to decision making. So that's why I call them the jackal and hide

team of this playoff run. They have some really low lows. Their floor is probably lower than any floor in this final four teams, but their ceiling is higher than any of these four teams because their defense is pretty reliable. Game one was a defensive outlier. We're gonna talk about that here in just a second. But their defense I've

never lost faith in. However, their offense can go through these extended stretches where they're terrible, which we've talked about a lot, but when it clicks, when they do have it going on offense, they're literally unbeatable. And they took a very good Miami Heat team that is extremely well coached, a Miami Heat team that thoroughly understands the stakes of

that game. Eric Spoelstra, pat Riley, everybody in that locker room is thoroughly aware of how important it was for them to take a two oh lead on the Boston Celtics tonight, and they got their ass kicked. They got completely and utterly outclassed because Boston threw their best punch. Boston is not always gonna throw their best punch, and we're gonna get into that. But this is what that looks like, and what you guys saw tonight is exactly

why I've been so confident in this team. It is again, not a take for the sake of a take, it's just basketball analysis. If any of you guys have watched enough NBA basketball this year and you know if your team, in this case, the team I covered, the Lakers, is out of the picture, you probably agree with me because if you've been watching the tape and you've been paying

attention to the numbers, they're irrefutable, they're undeniable. Boston has been the best team in basketball pretty much since the turn of the calendar. And this is what it looks like when all those things click. So let's get into the weeds of the excess and knows a little bit. The video that I made yesterday or today, I suppose I released it today but I started making it. Yesterday I talked about Boston's defensive scheme and the two different schemes that they run, and to be clear, they run

both schemes for very specific reasons. You know, I ran into this a lot when I was dealing with the Lakers and Frank Vogel and some of the archaic schemes that he would run. There is no such thing as a scheme that doesn't work when it's executed properly. Everything works well when it's executed properly, right. I mean, even a two three zone, when run properly, can be an extremely difficult defense to score on. It just so happens

that different defensive schemes work better in different matchups. So you know, for instance, if you're playing against a team like Dallas, giving up too many switches can be a bad thing because they're so good at it to acting switches right, So you're kind of playing into Dallas's strengths when you do that. Andrew Wiggins did an amazing job trying to avoid switches with Luca as much as possible last night. He only did so when he absolutely had to.

We're gonna dive into that further later, but The point is is like against the team like Dallas, you might be better off running some different types of coverages, some traditional coverages, right, But you know against teams like Phoenix, against teams like Phoenix, against teams like Boston, against teams like Golden State, against teams like Miami, a different coverage might work in each of those instances. Now, what happened in Game one was Boston came out and ran a

drop coverage. We've broken that down a million times on the show. I'm not gonna get into it again. The gist of it is is the big sits down lower, lower than the screen, and so if the guard comes off and catches the defender on the screen, he's gonna get a clean look. And I showed you guys extensive evidence again. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt

and you'll see the video that I released. It's under the branding that's his TIMPs tape, and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about play by play the way Game one turned on Boston giving Miami wide open jump shots coming off of these screens, and they did it again to start tonight. And the reason why you may Judoka does that has to do with Robert Williams. One of the things that you know, Boston does a ton of switching, and they did a ton of switching for most of

the last six months. But they do mix and drop, and they've almost exclusively done it with Robert Williams and Al Horford on the floor. The reason why it's simple, they love having Robert Williams on the back line. Now, what typically happens with NBA defenses and NBA offenses is they drag your big man up to the level of the screen by running high, pick and roll with a guard that can shoot right. It's a great way to

get the big out of the paint. The problem is, what if you've got two bigs that can do that but still thrive on the perimeter the way that Al Horford can. Well, what Boston does is they have Al Horford defend the screen actions. He's more agile, so he can be up at the screen better right, and if for whatever reason he has to switch, he's capable of guarding in isolation situations. And then if there is a roleman or anything going to the basket, there's Robert Williams

waiting on the back line. That's why they do that the problem is is that more often than not, Miami's getting the Boston guards caught on that screen. Al Horford is just a step too low and they're getting clean looks coming off of that. And so again it's not that that coverages inherently flawed, it's about the matchup. Miami is a very good basketball team on certain facets. They're extremely well coached, they have an amazing front office, They're

very well managed from the top down. Right, they have a really good offensive foot crim and Jimmy Butler a superstar, and he was pretty damn good again tonight, right, this is like one of his lesser playoff games, and he was really really good. And then outside of that, they have a ton of defensive talent, right, even you know,

guys like Gay Vincent. They they aren't necessarily freak talents in terms of their length and size, but what they are is they're sturdy and they compete, and so they're difficult to beat off the knock off their spot or to beat off the dribble. And then Bamata Bio is one of the best defensive players in the NBA. P J. Tucker is one of the best defensive wings in the NBA and Jimmy Butler is one of the best defensive

wings in the NBA. So they're great defensive talent, a lot of guys who can shoot in great coaching, great upper management. What's one thing they do not have. They do not have multiple guys that can create their own shot. Once upon a time that was Victor Oladipot, not anymore. He needs a ball screen now pretty much. Tyler Harrow is okay if he gets a really good mismatch, but for the most part, he's gonna thrive when he can

get an advantage coming off of screen. Duncan Robinson almost exclusively spotting up and coming off of screens, gave Vincent and Max Drew's almost exclusively spotting up and coming off of screens. You guys get the point. That's what the way that Miami's roster is built. There's specific weakness is dribble creation. The advantage of a switching scheme is it

tests your dribble creation. We literally saw in Game one Miami go to it a super aggressive switching help, you know, aggressive help, lots of switching, lots of ball pressure, lots of playing the passing lanes. In the second half of game one in Boston, who has a tendency to go through extended stretches where their ball handling is poor. They

completely fell apart. And what I thought was so interesting tonight is they came out in that first quarter and started with Robert Williams and Al Horford and came out running their drop in. Miami was getting great looks and they had a lead early. I think they were up seen actually had a bigger leading that at one point, I think they're up eighteen to eight. But then right around I think it was right around the four three or four minute mark of the first quarter, Great Williams

checks in for Rob Williams. They instantly start switching everything and suddenly Miami can't score and Boston immediately goes on a seven run. Now to be clear, later in the game they had stretches with Robert Williams that went well, because again, when they run their drop coverage and they do it well, it works. In the video I presented to you guys, I showed examples of how early in the game they did a good job of blowing up those gibl handoffs by staying attached to the offensive player.

But it's exhausting and they went through an extended stretch after that where they kept dying on the screens, and that when Miami got going. Obviously, when they do it, it works, it's just more difficult and it plays into Miami strengths, Whereas when you switch everything, it tests their specific weakness. And when you do that to a team that has less talent than you, now you're gonna have

a big advantage. Whereas in Game one, when you play directly into their strengths, even though they're less talented than you, if they happen to get hot and make shots and you happen to have one of your bad offensive nights, you get blown out. And I've always thought this was super interesting because I think it's stubbornness, I would imagine. But for whatever reason, this particular screen scheme, this switching scheme, is still way too slow to be adopted in the NBA.

Almost every NBA team now is switching guard actions or switching wing actions, but there's nowhere near enough switching involving bigs. And it's just it's just super interesting to me how slow, how slow these teams are to adopt that. There are a couple of other interesting things that I thought Boston weaponized in this game to get going. They got going

in transition off of turnovers. Again, Miami is a great defensive team, and even though Boston played really well tonight offensively shot the ball really well, they will have moments in this series when they don't and you do want to try to avoid Miami's half court defense tonight twenty points off of turnovers. Look at my look at Milwaukee and how they stayed alive in the last round even though they got utterly bludgeoned in the half court by Boston.

They only scored eighty two points per one possessions in the half court last round, but they stole three games by staying out of the half court, by getting out in transition, and magnifying their possessions in Game five by getting a boatload of offensive rebounds. Those swing factors that surround the static half court environment are great ways to

bolster your chances of winning. Then, forcing turnovers and getting out of transition is the difference between this being a close game that Boston wins and a safe game that Boston utterly destroys them. It's what allows you to weather yet another strong Jimmy Butler performance. Again, when you do, especially when you go to those switching schemes, you expect Jimmy to have some success. He's gonna attack Marcus Smart, he's gonna attack Al Horford. He's gonna attack Peyton Pritchard.

When Derrek White gets back, he's gonna attack Derek White. And he's gonna have some big scoring nights in this series already has I think he's averaging like thirty five or something stupid like that through two games, but everyone else is gonna struggle. I've shared some clips from this game. There's a huge difference between what Tyler Harrow looks like trying to beat people off the dribble compared to what he looks like when he's coming off his screens and

he's free to fire. And you know, there's so much better than Miami that it might not matter. I expect Boston to win the next two games, and then I give him a good chance to win Game five. But I wouldn't be surprised if Miami one Game five Boston didn't play as well. I mean, but like again, if you're a Miami fan, and I know there's some of you listening, like Boston shot the ship out of the basketball, the shot, the laces off the basketball. I get that.

I get that you're sitting there thinking, man, they made everything, and there are gonna be nights where they don't. Like if Boston goes into Miami and Game five and loses, it'll probably be because they don't shoot well and they don't take care of the basketball, and they kind of replicate some of the things from Game one. That's why I picked Miami to drag this series out to six, even though I think Miami is significantly worse in terms

of talent. But the reality is is there is a cumulative ball handling and scoring and passing, an overall offensive ability advantage that massively favors Boston on the offensive end. There's a cumulative athleticism and strength and ability to cover ground and all those things that favors Boston on the defensive end. So even if some shooting stuff goes your way,

they're just gonna win there, just better. You know, the cumulative ball handling is so important in these five out concepts, you know, because it's not so much about what Tatum can do or what Jimmy Butler can do, it's what everyone else can do. When Jimmy Butler Tatum draws, the second defender, kicks to an open shooter, and the defense starts rotating. Really good defenses will never give up the driving kick to the single the first shot, or very

rarely the Utah Jazz Garbage Azz defense. Remember them in the first round when like Jalen Brunson would beat one guy to the dribble and quick kick to Maxie Cleverer. There'll be no no rotation wide open three. Yeah, that doesn't happen often against really good defenses. What actually happens is you have to break them down in multiple rotations. And that is where the cumulative ball handling and the cumulative shooting and the cumulative basketball i Q of your

lineups becomes your advantage. And a small samples eies like game one, Miami is gonna have the capability of winning in a small sample size bad coverage idea from email. You don't get too much drop Marcus Smart being out of the game. We're can talk about humages a second. Obviously a Horford being out of the game. You then

a small sample size that can go either way. But in any large sample size in a seven game series, if a team has a massive advantage on offense in ball handling and shooting and passing and size and athleticism, and then we go to the other side, and Boston is a massive advantage and size and athleticism and commitment to the defensive end. Like I mean, Miami is just

as committed, but Boston just hays better players. So they're they're just gonna win in any sort of large sample size, barring injury or some sort of you know, crazy circumstance. I want to talk about Marcus Smart now Horford for a second, because they were vitally important on a bunch of different levels. Marcus Smart, I believe he had, like I don't have the box gore in front of you, but I think he had like twin two and twelve assists tonight. That's a huge influx that raises that cumulative

ball handling and athleticism. That's how valuable he is on that front. He is very good at chasing guys over the top of screens and can defend and switches, so he's a defensive weapon. That's a huge loss from game one. Al Horford we talked about extensively, you know, so coming into tonight, Boston was averaging eleven point one points more per one hundre possessions on offense with Robert Williams off the floor. The main reason why is the same concept

I've talked about a million times on the show. Vertical spacing is a real thing, but it's nowhere near as effective as perimeter spacing, because perimeter spacing is what gives guys comfortable, makes guys comfortable driving to the basket. With Robert Williams on the floor they're facing is worse. Bam is pretty much consistently around the basket and it just makes things harder. Now, their defense is better with Rob Williams. He's amazing shot blocker who has a lot of ability

to cover ground. There about six points better in this postseason on defense without Rob william or with Rob Williams versus without But when you're eleven points better on offense without them, that's when they're at their best. But Al Horford is what unlocks that. Because Daniel Tys is the

guy that can shoot, but no one guards. Al Horford gets left open a lot, but like he's deadly out there, it's just a critical mistake to leave him open, and so having Al Horford back one so they can they can run email U Dooka's desire drop coverage with Rob Williams on the back line, which again was terrible to start the game, had some successful stretches later. It's not my favorite strategy for Boston in this series, but it does work when it's run properly. Al Horford unlocks that.

On the other end of the floor, Al Horford unlocks your five out attack. Make sure offense better and Marcus Smart increases the cumulative ball handling and passing ability on offense, and he gives you another offensive weapon or defensive weapon. So them coming back obviously was a huge swing factor in this as well. You know one thing I wanted to touch on really quick because I don't think it's a coincidence necessarily that there have been this many blowouts

in a row. So I have a theory. Now, these theories, they're what I don't know what a theory is worth to you, guys. I don't have any evidence to back this up. Early, it's just when I think I'm seeing. But as the game has changed, as we've ditched the traditional built like a fridge power forward, as we've ditched the traditional back to the basket, traditional center and we've replaced that with another super athletic wing that can shoot, pass and dribble, and a center that's more mobile, probably

a perimeter oriented center. Right as we've replaced those two positions, the overall foot speed of all of these teams is so much faster. The everyone's playing either four out, one in or five out as opposed to three out two in the way they used to ten years ago. Right As a result of that, the job of covering ground on defense is much hard, and so I think everyone feeding off of their home crowd is helping in that department. That's why you're seeing somebody home blowout solthough we saw

Boston and Dallas rip off some road bloots recently. But a huge part of it, and this is what I think is the biggest driving force, is rhythm. In traditional basketball, the average shot was way closer to the basket, and shots that are closer to the basket are notoriously higher percentage.

They're notoriously shots that rely less on rhythm. In five out basketball, it's a lot of dribble jump shots, it's a lot of long threes, it's a lot of more complicated offensive actions that are very much reliant on rhythm and confidence, and so what I think we're seeing is all of these teams going through super extended stretches where it's like we either have it tonight or we don't.

Like Boston's offense completely combusted in that second half half of Game one and there was no reconciling that, like it was like it was like that and the game was over. But then they come out tonight and they have that confidence, they have that swagger that damned near hang seventy they do hang seventy points in the first half, and they beat the hell out of you. Right. Dallas' offense we saw in Game seven against Phoenix. Luca's gotta go and didn't what He's gotta go and Brunson's gotta

go on, all the shooters gotta go on. We're kicking your ass. We're going to Game one and we're gonna talk about this in a little bit. Dallas got wide open looks and they just couldn't make. And so I think that that that oscillating nature between your good side as a five out team and your bad side as a five out team is way more dramatic than your good side and bad side in traditional three out two in play out of the post basketball. So that's my

theory again, take that for whatever that's worth. A couple of adjustments from Miami really quick, um, because you're you don't you you can't play this team straight up, you

just don't have enough talent. But your best opportunity to stay alive in this series and to compete is to give yourself, your offensive players the best chance to succeed because your defense it is what it is at this point, right Like you trust Eric Spoilsure to figure out a way to make Boston struggle more offensively, but when you're on offense, it can't just be Jimmy. Everyone has to

be going for this to work. Email Judoka has demonstrated that he will drop under specific circumstances, and so Miami needs to find a way two explicitly attack that find out. And it appears to me it's like any time Tyson is on the floor, which I don't even think he played tonight, or not much at least anytime Robert Williams is on the floor, because they seem to run it with Robert Williams those in those situations, and but they

did it with Grant Williams too. And they did. They did some switching with Grant Williams and At Horford at the four five to like again. I shared some of these clips on my Twitter feed, like it doesn't. It doesn't seem to be much of a rhymer reason too when that the Celtics do that, it seems like when they feel like it or when they don't feel like it. But try to target those situations because that's your best opportunity to get looks for Tyler Harrold, Gabe Vincent, Max

Drew's get their confidence going. Says you're better offensively than then trust your defense to carry you on the other end. But there's not a lot of great adjustment options for you. You did the same aggressive defense, like picking up Tatum full court, pressing up into Jalen Brown doing You did all the same things you did in the second half against Boston in Game one. They just didn't combust this time. Like I said, Miami is a really tough team that

will cause problems for teams that aren't tough. But what did I tell you, guys? I said, Boston's tough and I expect them to respond and they did. Alright, guys, we are going to bring on Carson, and we're going to get a little bit further into both of these series. Hey Buddy, Hey Jason, we certainly are so obviously you broke down all of the keys to the Night's game. But let's broaden the scope a little bit here. We have FanDuel odds on the series overall, which Boston they

have at minus to thirty to win. We don't have a game three spread. But given those odds and just overall, who do you like in game three to go out and win? And who do you like in this series at this point? So for both series, I had Boston in six and Dallas and six, but I expected it to take a different path. I figured Boston would steal one in Miami, win games three and four, then possibly lose Game five in Miami, then close out in six. I think Dallas is gonna follow a very similar path

to the Phoenix series. I expect them to lose again tomorrow and then I think they'll win games three and four and then and continue along the way that with with Boston, I think that they're gonna win big in Game three. I think that this is going to be the the worst team that they've played in front of their home crowd. Yet in this postseason, Um again, I we don't, guys, go look at the numbers. Look at how successfully Brooklyn scored against this Boston defense. It's kind

of wild. Now relative to the regular season, it was great. Like I told you, guys, like Boston basically dropped Katie and Kyrie's regular season offense from about a one three offensive rating to like a one fourteen, so about a nine point drop. And then they dropped the Bucks from about a one oh five offensive rating in the regular season without Chris Middleton to about a nine in that series without Chris Middleton. Right, so about a ten point

drop in both series. Right. But again, so much clouded our judgment about Brooklyn in that series because we just wanted to talk shit, right about Katie and Kyrie and all that stuff. So I actually think that Miami going into Boston is gonna be a little bit of a buzz saw. Like even if it, I think they would have to shoot extremely poorly for that game to be close.

So I would be on Boston, my guests, Carson is the spread will be like six and a half or seven in Game three, and and I would be on Boston there because I think they'd win by fifteen to twenty. What do you think the probability is that Boston wins out from here and makes it a gentleman sweep, very

high probability. That's why I like Syrius. I think they I think they have serious spreads on fan duels so you can get like the smart money there would be like if you could get uh Boston minus one and a half games, because then if they win and if they get perfect, if you if you win in five, you're clear, and if they win in six, you're clear. That that that would be the way that I would

bet it. But it's kind of like the way I look at it is, Game five in Miami would be a coin flip, and Miami very well could win if Boston brought their ugly side, and if Boston brought their good side, they'd close him out. All right, Well, let's move on from that series now and play a staple here at Hoops tonight. It's a game called that's what he said. We've got a couple of fun oats tonight. Both come from Draymond Green and The Draymond Green Show

here at the volume. The first one, Draymond gave some thoughts on the job that Andrew Wiggins has done guarding Luca don chet Or did in Game one, a task that frankly has seemed impossible for a lot of the playoffs in the home stretch of the regular season. Let's take a listen to what Draymond had to say about that. I know there's been this thing about oh man, Luca had his worst shooting game in his postseason career. Andrew Wiggins played amazing defense. He picked them up ninet, he

got into him. He didn't allow him to dictate the terms on his home pace. Jason, what do you think about that? What did you think of the job that Wiggy did on Luca in Game one? So I when I watched that video earlier today, which again, all of you guys listening, I'm sure all of you are already watching Draymond's content, but it's so awesome to get to hear directly from him. Um. So I missed this last

night watching the game. And this is something that I encourage all of you guys that are listening to have ambitions of working in this business at some point. Rewatch the games. It's just impossible to catch anything on the first watch. Everything on the first watch, and you know, I caught a lot of things live, but one of the things I missed and that I caught almost immediately on my rewatch today was the effect, the cumulative effect

that Andrew Wiggins had on Luca Um. Again. You know, I talked about before the series that there's nobody on Golden State that can guard Luca, and I think I think Andrew Wiggins falls into that category as well. But one of the things he did, and Draymond mentioned this, is he picked up Luca ninety four feet and with the exception of a handful possessions were in transition, there were cross matches and stuff like that. Like before he even got across half court, he's just riding him all

over the floor. And what all that does is it just it just wears you out. Like, don't get me wrong, it's gonna wear Andrew Wiggins out too, because lucas big and he's gonna bump you all over the place and it's tough. But flip side of that is, like Andrew Wiggins, you're not depending on him for nearly as much on the offensive end of the floor, so you're willing to give that up, right, Andrew Wiggins did a phenomenal job in that game of just making life difficult for Luca.

And ironically, one of my biggest adjustments that I have for Dallas, and we'll talk a little bit more about this in a little bit, is just find a way to not have Luca bring the ball up the floor. And that's the advantage of all the ball handling that Dallas has, and I think they will have the ability to counter that. But again, like there's always too Lucas point, or to Draymond's point, something that I've always agreed with, you know, in any sort of small sample size. Yeah,

shooting plays a role. We're gonna talk about shooting later. We're gonna talk about bad nights and good nights. But there's always a reason for why teams don't play well. Like I, I I personally think that a good amount of why Dallas didn't play well is just unfilm unfamiliarity. You grow so accustomed to playing against the team you're playing against every night for two weeks, and then you completely

change and go against an entirely different style. It's just different, you know, Like Wiggins is not as long in terms of his wingspan as Michael Bridges, but he is a little quicker and he's stronger, and so even though Michael Bridge has applied a lot of ball pressure to Luka dan Chich, it's just different ball pressure. It's very different ball pressure, and you could tell that it had an

impact on him. But again, like I and we're gonna get it further into this in just a second, Like, there are a lot of reasons why things went the way they did, but a huge part of it, I thought in Game one was Wiggins just chipping away at Luca in the form of fatigue, by just ball pressing the hell out of him throughout the entire game, and

and just the cumulative effect that can have on a player. Well, first of all, Jason, it looks like you nailed the spread on the head it as it has actually been at at plus six and a half for Game three

of Celtics Heat. So well done on that. Let's talk about Wiggins specifically for a second, because he is such an interesting player, and it feels like the discourse with him is always so voluable, and he was so slandered for so long, and then he was so effusively praised for adjusting and playing winning basketball, and he was an All Star starter, mostly because he's a warrior and because

of some K Pop stands. But nevertheless, and then because of that, it swung back the other way and people were overly critical of him, and he had a little bit of a rough stretch offensively, but just overall, how important do you think he is in this series and how highly do you value him overall as a basketball player. So in this series he's vitally important because he's lucas primary defender. And another huge detail is in Game one.

I don't know how consistent this will be in the series, but in Game one, Andrew Wiggins put a decent amount of pressure on Luca trying to score, and like on on rewatching film, like there are possessions where Andrew just brought the ball up the floor and was like, no need to run anything, guys, I'm just going at him and scored on Luca and isolation like that. That is

audacity was one of my new go to words. I tend to repeat words a lot, as you guys know and like, but that's important as terms of valuing him. I value him massively in his current role. Now. The reason why he's been so maligned is like he lacks audacity in a consistent sense, right, Like if he had, if I could take Dylan Brooks's conscience put it into

Andrew Wiggins's body, the dude be an all star. But like Andrew goes from one day feeling like he's capable of being the best player on the floor to most nights walking in and comfortable being a role player, whereas Dylan Brooks will walk into a game being the seventh best player on the floor and think it's my time, shine, you know what I mean. So, like that's the difference

in in the psyche between those two guys. And you know, obviously, if Wiggins could channel that more frequently in that series would be a huge swing. But he is vitally important because he's lucas primary defender. And again this is an important Again, anytime I talk about these concepts, whether it's drop or switching, there's always complications within that with like for instance, Carson and a drop. You know, sometimes you can drop and go under the screen, sometimes you can

drop and go over the screen. Sometimes you can run a version of a drop where the the guy who's the screen defender is up at the level of the screen, or even hedging and recovering or or sitting all the way back in the paint. Like there's always different variations of all these different things. Some teams offer help off

the ball in screen and roll coverage. Some teams don't, you know, switching it's the same thing, like you can run, you know, like the Cavaliers, for instance, towards the end of the lebron Kyrie era, where what they did a ton of switching, but they were lazy with it and they would just switch everything without even necessarily needing to.

And and one of the things that I liked that Wiggins did last night is like if he would surrender the switch if he had to that he fought like hell to not and all it did is just eat more shot clock. And one of the things we've consistently talked about with Dallas is when you work forced them to work late into the shot clock, then Luca is making those kickouts with only a handful of seconds on the shot clock, and there's not enough time for people

to make an additional rotation. And part of the advantage of fighting through those switches and ball pressuring Luca all the way up the floor is by the time he gets to where he wants to kind of initiate offense, there's like twelve seconds on the clock, right, and so by the time he actually makes a move and gets by somebody, there's six or seven seconds left and you're there, you're out of time. So like that's a huge value at and by the way, that's something that doesn't manifest

in the in the box score. It's something that you have to watch the games to see and and it's it's just one of those little details, one of the many factors that can swing a playoff series. All right, we've got another quote from Draymond here. Obviously, it was a pretty convincing Game one victory for the Dubs in terms of the final score, but Draymond spoke on an area in which he thinks the Warriors can do even

better going forward and improve upon. Let's he already had to say, I walked away from that game saying there's a lot of things that we could do better. No, granted, there's a lot of things that they can do better, but I think there are some things that we can really do better. And I also don't think we shot the ball very well either. And when I look at those things that that that really bowled well for US. Um, you know, Steph Curry didn't have an incredible shoot at night.

Clay Thompson was one for four from three, Like, you know, we we can shoot a lot better. So, Jason, what are your thoughts on that when Draymond talks about that potential for shooting improvement from the Warriors. So, first of all, like I relate a thousand percent with his thought process there. I mean, I remember when I was playing in college. All the time, I'd have a monster game and I'd be on the ride home thinking about all the shots

I missed, you know, the truth. The truth, like even even recently, like I I don't I I I mean two cent Arizona, I don't have much opportunity to play against high level basketball players. There was like a month ago there was a like a charity game where me and a bunch of older guys that are pretty out of shape got to play against the local junior college. And I was like, I was like just ready for that because I was like I finally get to play like some real basketball. And and it was so funny

because I played really well. I had like thirty four points. We won the game, and and literally, I'm I was irritated for like three days about a possession towards the end where I had a chance to ice it, because we ended up winning an overtime, and there was a possession at the end of regulation where I made a misread and didn't thee help defender and turn the ball over and we ended up having to win the game in ot and I was so pissed about that for

weeks after. But that's completely irrational. I'm thirty years old. I don't even play basketball for a living anymore. Like, there's no reason for me to be There's no reason for me to feel that way like it just it's just like as a competitor, it's just the way you're wired. Like there's no such thing as good enough. And so I relate with Draymond looking at that situation and saying, oh man, we could play so much better. Here's the thing,

you can't play much better then you. Then you played in that game, of Draymond, I hate to break it to you. So I watched the film. You guys kicked their ass and almost every facet of the game, and you actually shot way better than that. And there's metrics and video to prove that, so I wanted to break that down really quick. So, uh, Golden State generated fourteen open threes. That's the defender between four and six ft away. They consider that like lightly contested on those, they only

made three of them. You didn't shoot. Well, here's the thing. Dallas also had sixteen open three, so two more than you, and they only made three as well, So actually shot a little bit worse than you in open threes. On wide open threes, Golden State only generated twelve of them and they made six, So they got fifty on wide open threes last night. Again, that's defender at least six ft away, So that's like your butt naked on the

perimeter all day to think about it. Right, Then, Dallas generated twenty eight wide open threes defender at least six ft away, and they only made eight. So they generated more than twice as many wide open threes as you and only made two more. And that was my big takeaway last night on the Live. If you guys remember Carson, I texted you about it during the game, We talked

about it during the show. I was like, dude, it felt like Dallas was getting wide open shots and they were they were getting wide open shots, and I shared out the numbers and I've read them off to you. Basically every role player for Dallas in this postseason run was shooting over a wide open threes except for Reggie Bullock, who's arguably their best shooter. And so like, it's an

anomaly for Dallas to not shoot that well. So like I I think the biggest reason why Dallas has an opportunity to keep keep things closer and or to turn the series around is they did what they were supposed to do going into Golden State. They generated high quality shots. Now there are a bunch of other things that Dallas has to do better, and we're gonna get into that. But like to Draymond's point, and again I totally understand why he feels the way he feels. I relate to it.

I understand that's why he's been so damned successful. Nothing is good enough for him, and that's the way you have to be if you really want to be great at something. But you shot a lot better than Dallas, like way better than Dallas. So that's just not a realistic thing to look forward with. I will say, I don't know how much Draymond can relate to the thirty

four piece and being upset with yourself. Although we did have thirty two, fifteen and nine in a Game seven of the finals, did you have thirty five in game seven? I think it's thirty two. I feel I have that stat, all right. I'll check that as you strike me, as you strike me as photographic memory, guys, so I would I would believe that you're probably right. I can name you every Finals MVP ever right now, if you give me the year, I do kind of have the photographic memory.

All right, Um, let's talk about what you just mentioned a little bit there. What are some of those key adjustments for the MAVs as they try to bounce back from that Game one loss? So first and foremost, uh And I'm not even to get into the weeds on this because there's too many things to talk about. Dallas defense was terrible. They we're not staying connected to shooters.

Their rotations on the back line were awful. Luca pretty much mailed in the game Defensively, Dallas just put on a defensive clinic in Game seven against Phoenix and let go like just to let their foot entirely off the gas. So Dallas simply has to be way way better defensively. So that's adjustment number one, and I trust Jason Kidd to figure that part out. Um adjustment number two, don't play into Golden State strategy of ball pressuring Luca the

length of the floor. Now there's a downside to that, because one of the advantages of having Luca bring the ball up the floor is he is very much a strangle the pace type of player, and he's so methodical bringing the ball up the floor deliberately to just suck the life out of the arena and out of the other team, and to just and to just make it feel like you're stuck playing his game. So if you take the ball out of his hands, there's downside there.

But there's no reason why you can't have Jalen Brunson or Spencer Dinwood he bring the ball up the floor and not have to stress necessarily about having to deal with that ball pressure. And you can tell them like, hey, once you get the ball to Luca here, you know, thirty feet from the rim on the right wing, then you could take your time, right, but you know you might. Andrew Wiggins is is physically equipped for ball pressure. We just talked about how he's quicker, a little bit shorter

than mchael. I don't actually think he's shorter than mchael. Bridge is just not as long. But he's a better athlete. He's quicker. You know, he's good at ball pressure. They're guys on Golden State that are not create at ball pressure. Like they're like, I, you're not gonna waste steps energy by having him pick up because you need him for offense.

So whoever, Steph Carding bring the ball up the floor. Hell, Like, there's no reason why you can't have Kivon Looney's man bring the ball up the floor when he's on the floor. Just find ways to avoid Luca having to deal with that ball pressure. No, that's not least like knocked down your open shots, man, Like, the goal of your offense is to create those shots, step into them confidently, knocked

them down. Those are my major adjustments for Dallas. Obviously, things have gone very well for the MAVs overall to this point. They are among the last four teams in the NBA. Is still standing. But when you talk about the importance of alleviating that pressure from Luca long term as they continue to try to build out a championship caliber roster as good as Bronson is and as brilliant as some of the moments from din Witty are, although

there are equally horrible moments from him. Often do you think that that second true perimeter star initiator, a guy who can alleviate that pressure and really you know, attack defenses on his own and playmate for others in command pressure of the game, is that the biggest need for the MAVs alongside Luca, Absolutely, and you know guys like it's only gonna get harder, Like if there I I think Dallas has a legitimate chance to win the title.

I expect them if they do get to the finals to lose to Boston, but it would they would have fighting chance, right. The The thing is is that specifically with with the way that the league has become more

talented at the top. So for instance, like Lebron and Anthony Davis are going to be back in this picture next year, Kawhile Leonard and Paul George are going to be back in this picture next year, Like Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Are gonna be back and bringing the league MVP back to a point where he has more talent to deal with, you know, even in the Eastern Conference, Like Philly went out softly this year, and

they're gonna have some stuff figured out. Like chances are Kevin Durant's gonna have a better basketball team around him next year than he did this year. Like and the same, the same thing that don't make the mistake that golden that Milwaukee made where you won the title and then you thought you were good enough and you let go with p J Tucker, and then p J Tucker very

well might have been a swing piece in that Celtics series. Right. So, like the way I look at it is like, even even if Dallas won the championship, at a certain point, you have to understand that the league, even even though it seems so top heavy right now, there are still teams that would be in this picture, great players that would be in this picture that aren't because of things that didn't go their way. Even the Chris Middleton think

it's an injury. Right. So, Like my point is is like as good as Dallas has looked, even as a bona fide championship contender, even as Luca has ascended into true superstardom, you don't have enough talent, and if you signed Jalen Brunson to a long term deal, that could

be an issue in the long run. And so I don't know what the answer there is, Like, I don't know if it's make moves on the margins two stockpiled draft picks so that maybe in the future you can flip Brunson and someone else in a bunch of picks and stuff for a player, a disgruntled star or what the deal is. But eventually, Luca is gonna need a real right hand man, a dependent a dependable one, because Brunson, who's a little bit more dependable than Spencer Dinwood, he

is still not dependable on this level. And if you consistently surround Luca with guys who are kind of, you know, inconsistent, then it's gonna get him beat as things get tougher, especially in upcoming seasons. Yeah, I completely agree. And we just haven't seen a team win a title in a long time with one offensive star caliber player, Like I think you would have to go back to Dirk And maybe some people would argue the en Raps, but they had at least two quasi star offensive caliber guys with

Lowry and Siakum alongside their supernova talent. So it just always seems like a really tall task. As incredible of a one man offense as Luca is, it just really is not done very often at all. Let's lip the Stile Warriors here. What are the key adjustments that they need to make? So there's not much because again, contrary to what Draymond said, they played pretty damn good in game one, um, you know, and there's always a give

and take with that stuff too. That's the funny thing too, Like he was talking about, Oh, Clay Thompson can shoot better, Steph Curry can shoot better. Yeah, Like, but typically what happens is on the nights that they shoot better than Wiggins won't make as many shots, right, or Jordan Pool have an off night. Like it's always That's what's so great about Golden States cumulative offensive talent is you can afford to have guys having poor shooting nights and other

guys will come have better shooting nights. I thought they played a damn near perfect defensive game, but there are two things. So Golden State averaged seventeen wide open threes allowed through the first two rounds of the playoffs is way too many. Forty four open to wide open shots allowed for Dallas, that's gonna get you beat in this series. So they need to polish up some of their three point rotations chasing around shooters off of help. And then this is a big one that I that I actually

I can't remember who I saw make this suggestion. You know who might have been was Arali by Vulgaris, but it was I thought it was genius. So Dallas plays at an extraordinarily slow pace. They were dead last in pace this season. When they secure a defensive rebound, they throw the ball to Luca and they slowly worked the ball up the floor. They very rarely pushed the ball in transition. So Golden State has to do, in my opinion, is another another way for Golden State to add to

their you know advantages in this series. Do what you did to Memphis throughout that entire series. Crash the offensive glass like hell. There's a main you know when when when teams are setting up transition defense, there's usually a balance. We literally call it floor balance. As coaches, right like, you want to have you never want to have too many players along the baseline because a missed shot will screw you in transition defense. Right, So typically that's why

you have like kind of like a wheel. Guys will rotate around, and even when guys are replacing in spots, you always want to god to guards. That's what that's why they used to call them guards. It's literally where the name came from. But you want two guys that are back so that when the shot goes up you can begin your transition defense. And then typically you decide

how many guys you want to crash. Really good transition teams that push the ball in transition to like Golden State, for instance, like Dallas, can't waste a ton of effort chasing offensive rebounds because if they do, they will compromise their defense on the back end in transition against a really good transition defense or transition team in Golden State. But Golden State might be able to get away with

having their entire front line crash. They might be able to have Draymond crash and Auto Port or Junior crash and keep On Looney crash and Andrew Wiggins crash and just have Stephan Claire Jordan whoever is in the backcourt, just have them get back on defense because they just simply have way too many. Uh, they have way too many opportunities there that they're they're kind of they're too concerned with their transition defense right now when they don't

really need to be. And so another little adjustment for Golden State is crashed the hell out of the offensive glass with the intention of, um, with understanding that you're not going to give up anything in transition on the back end. All right, guys, that is all we have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys support. Again, if you go to my Twitter feed at Underscore, Jason lt It did a video breaking down a lot of the things that I was talking about with the Celtics heat.

You can kind of see some visual examples of the things that I'm talking about there. At some point in this series, I'll do something similar for this Warrior's Maverick series. I just typically like to key in on a concept, So wait un till I see a concept that I find to be particularly interesting. As always, UM, remember like this video that goes a long way to helping us.

I would sincerely appreciate that subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel. UH. Starting tomorrow, UM, we will not be live for the next three nights, but I'll still have video breakdowns, still will get into the same topics that I've been doing

in the live show. Just stay tuned for about a half hour after the final buzzer of the games and come to our YouTube channel there and you will see full length clips in their entirety where you can see this type of breakdown, and then we'll be back to our normal live shows on Money, all right, guys, I will see Smart Night Volume