Hoops Tonight - Celtics-Heat ECF Game 1 Reaction: Jimmy Butler & Heat stun Jayson Tatum in Boston

one game to nothing. I have picked every single playoff series correctly in this postseason run, except for Miami in the first round, except for Miami in the second round, and I picked against them again in Round three. So if you're a Heat fan, you should just be happy that I keep picking against them, because I could not be more wrong about this team as they continue to impress night in and night out. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to The Volume's YouTube channels.

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All right, let's talk some basketball. So, as we've said so many times over the course of this postseason, the reason why Jimmy Butler succeeds in the playoffs is this combination of side strength and athleticism right, which helps him get to his spots on offense, gets him physical mismatches on offense, and helps him be an impact player on

the defensive end of the floor. When you combine that with his skill set in Basketball IQ, it turns him into my personal favorite archetype of basketball player, which is that big, rim pressuring and playmaking forward. That's why Lebron James has been my favorite player of all time and the guy that got me to fall in love with

the game of basketball. It's why I think guys like Luka Doncic are so successful in I would actually argue Jimmy Butler kind of is a lesser version of Lebron James at his prime, and that's a big part of

why he's been such a dependently great playoff player. He has the size, speed and skill to consistently attack lesser defenders on the floor I've talked about this for years now, but in the NBA playoffs, schematically, coaches just find a way to slow down your pet actions in the plays that you run routinely throughout the season, right, So more often than not, it kind of breaks down into matchups. Like Golden State ran the most magnificent motion offense in

the NBA all season long, like they always do. They run about twice as many actions per game as any other team in the NBA. They're always running sets, right, But all of a sudden, the teams can get in front of them and it just turns into, hey, we got to give the ball to Steph Curry at the top of the key and let him try to pick specific matchups. Apart that no team is immune to that.

By the end of the day, when you're allowed as much time to scout, when you see the same team seven times in two weeks, it just breaks down into

matchup hunting more often than not. And what happened down the stretch of this game, Jimmy Butler just relentlessly calling Malcolm Brognan's man up in ball screens, getting him on a switch, working him down to somewhere in that eight to fifteen foot area where he can get an easy short jump shot that he knows he can make consistently at a high percentage without getting bothered by the smaller defender that's guarding him. And here's the thing, Malcolm Brogen's

a good defensive player, It's not about that. It's about the size mismatch, which is a natural thing that occurs in basketball games. Right. We literally just watched this in last night's game as Lebron James did the exact same thing to Jamal Murray, just pulling him up into ball screens every single possession, getting him on switches or catching him in hedges to find the open shooter. And that's

what Jimmy's doing. Jimmy's doing the exact same thing. There's play where he gets Malcolm Brogden buried under the rim kind of right by the right block, and Malcolm Brogden comes in and helps out of the corner and leaves Caleb Martin wide open, and Jimmy Butler hits him. Because that's the other side of it. You start to attack those mismatches. You dictate an adjustment from the defense in the coverage. For Jimmy Butler tonight, it was double teams

for Lebron James last night it was hedges. But you're finding that opening that comes when the defense tries to keep you away from attacking those matchups and you end up just getting better shots than everybody. That, at the end of the day, is the best way to score in the NBA playoffs. Have an offensive player that can routinely attack one of your defensive players, regardless of lineup that you have out there, and you're gonna get higher

quality shots. Here's the funny thing. Boston has similar matchup advantages on the other end of the court. They can pick on Gabe Vincent, who was a strong guard, but he's a little bit undersize, or excuse me, Max Struz is a strong guard who's a little bit undersized. Gabe Vincent's like legitimately a small fin guard. They can attack him.

But here's the problem. Jason Tatum has gone from being a versatile three level score to an analytically driven top of the key above the break three point shooter who attacks the rim and looks to draw fouls. He's turned himself into a two dimensional score. And Jaylen Brown has a lot of that creative shot make making and the ability to attack matchups in the mid range, but he doesn't see the floor well enough to avoid some of the problems that come when the defense starts to send

multiple defenders towards him. That's the difference when we talk about this series, and I talked about this in the series preview, and we're gonna look at two specific things here. I want to talk about the overall team shot chart in Eric Spolstra. But what was the first thing I said as Miami's path to the series. Jimmy Butler has to play like he did in the first round and he did. His pull up jump shooting really cooled off

in that second round series against the Knicks. He hit all the same shots that he hit against Milwaukee in tonight's game. That is a absolute must for Miami to win this series. Jimmy Butler has to be making those turnaround jump shots over both shoulders, the occasional pull up three. He's got to have the same command of the game that he did against Milwaukee, and he absolutely did. He was by far the best player in the Florid tonight. He looked like the one savvy veteran in a game

full of young stars. Right and as long As that dynamic continues, Miami has an excellent chance to win this series. What was the second thing that I said that Miami had to do to win this series? I said, Eric Spolstra had to scheme the Celtics into their worst tendencies, leading them to long, extended stretches of bad basketball, which has been one of their weaknesses for a couple of years. Now. Well,

they had sixty six points in the first half. Everything was working, but then they only had fifty points in the second half. What did I What did I talk about a lot in the the sixer series as pertained to the Philly stealing games from them. Boston only wants

to take threes in shots at the rim. Right, If you pull up my Twitter feed, I tweeted out the shot chart from tonight's game, and I put him next to each other juxtaposed, and you'll see the shot disparity that Miami has their shot variety, I should say, in the shot variety that Boston has. And Boston only attempted a small handful of shots outside of the restricted area and inside the three point line. Miami attempted dozens of shots outside the restricted area and inside the three point line.

As a result, like, for instance, like Jimmy Butler can drive past Malcolm Brogden, but if he does, he's gonna run into rim protection, right, So what he's taking are the shots before the rim protection. Miami has a really easy defensive responsibility against Boston relative to some of the

other teams. Like if they face let's say they face the Lakers or Nuggets in the second round, it's gonna be an entirely different journey dealing with Jokich and Murray, or dealing with Lebron James and Anthony Davis or Austin Reeves is a great mid range player against Boston. Chase them off the three point line, funnel them to the basket. If you have room protection there, You'll have to bait. You'll bait them into making consistently great rim decisions, which

is something they struggle with. I'm gonna use two plays from this game to kind of demonstrate what I'm talking about, and they were both with Jason Tatum. So it's late in the fourth quarter, Boston's offense is struggling. The announcers on TNT are begging for Jason Tatum to get involved, so they run a five out spacing situation where Jason Tatum gets Max s Truce on a switch. Okay, so mistake number one. They stay in their traditional five out spacing.

So Tatum's right squarely at the top of the key. There's two players immediately on the wing and two players in the corners. So what does that mean? The two players on the wing, their defenders are digging down into the driving lanes right, So Jimmy Butler, I believe was on Jaylen Brown on the right wing, he's slid over out of standing there, so that if Jason Tatum drives to the right pass Max Strew's Jimmy Butler is just

waiting for right. Max Drews also knows that Jayson Tatum's not going to back him down because that's just not in his game anymore. So all he has to do is press up on the three. So Jason Tatum tries to mix into his little pull up three point shot that he takes all the time, but Max Drewce is stunting up into his shooting pocket to dissuade that specific shot. Jayson Tatum ends up picking up his dribble and no one's open right because he hasn't compromised the defense in

any single way. So he tries to throw a swing pass over to the side to Jaylen Brown and guess who's waiting right there in the passing lane, Jimmy Butler. What would Jimmy Butler have done in that exact same situation. He gets a switch on Max Drews, Right, He's going to be like, all of you go over to that side of the floor. I want the entire right side of the floor to myself that way, even if they do want to shade over, I've got the entire baseline side to work. And if they zone up over on

the baseline, you're leaving one of my shooters open. Okay, now I've got the space. I'm turning up back, I'm backing him down. I'm getting into that ten foot area where I can get a short jump shot that I know I can make every single time. That's the difference. That's quality matchup hunting versus whatever the hell Jason Tatum was trying to do to Max Trust on that possession. There's another possession later in the fourth quarter, Jason Tatum catches on the right wing or left wing, and I

believe Caleb Martin is the defender closing out. Caleb Martin knows, I just have to chase him off the three point line. That is my schematic responsibility, per the orders from Eric's Poulstra. Jason Tatum wants that three point shot so badly he rises up even though the defender's closing out, changes his mind at the last second, picks up his pivot foot off the ground and gets called for a travel. Jason Tatum committed three consecutive turnovers in that fourth quarter. That's

the difference. When things bogged down, when the coaching removes your base scheme offensively, you need a guy that can consistently attack matchups. And here's the thing against Philly. It worked why because Joel Embiid can't guard on the perimeter, and when you attack Joel Embiid, there's no rim protection.

So Jason Tatum was able to pull Joel Embiid out to the perimeter, and Joel Embiid either had to concede a three point shot to him because he's not quick enough, or press up on Jason Tatum, at which point he's gonna dust him to the basket and there's nobody waiting at the rim. That's the difference. You're not attacking bam Adebio. That's a terrible idea. So you've got to attack one of their smaller guards, and you can't beat them off the dribble because if you do, you're gonna run into

all this help. So you need to have a reliable back to the basket game, which Jason Tatum was building out in the early phase of his career, and he's completely abandoned it. And Jaylen Brown is capable of that, but he doesn't see the floor well enough to make the right reads when the defense sends multiple defenders to him. As a result, Boston, who's a team that wants to attempt a million threes, only got twenty nine three points shots up. So everything that Miami needs to win this

series kind of manifested in this game. They got a dominant defensive performance at a bam at a Bio. That band was great in general. I thought he scored extremely well in the short role. He helped them manage ball pressure in the beginning of the game just by bringing the ball up the floor. He had timely isolations and post ups when he had the right matchup and the right amount of space. Eric Spolstra genius game plan to make Boston feel uncomfortable, vintage Jimmy Butler playoff Gem. All

the things broke right. The other thing that stood out to me is just the difference in the rhythm of both teams. So I talked about this a lot after Game five against Philly for Boston, But in that game, it was really simple. Down the stretch, Jim James Harden had the ball every single time, and he would run a pick and roll Joel Embiid and he dropped that little pocket pass into Beat at the foul line and

he'd go to work. And because of that, they were in a great rhythm because both of those guys are just doing the same thing every single time. Meanwhile, on the other end of the floor, it's like this time Malcolm Brogden co ops the possession. This time, Jaylen Brown co ops the possession. This time, Jason Tatum co ops the possession. Oh, Like, here's this random Derek White possession in there. Oh, Marcus Smart just decided it's his turn.

There's so many hands in the pot in Boston, and that's a big part of what went wrong for them offensively. Down the stretch of this game. You go five possessions at a time where your best player doesn't touch the ball, whereas on the other end of the floor, it's Jimmy Butler top of the key every single time, finding the matchup he wants and getting to a spot and going

to work. I do think, regardless of what happens to Boston in this playoff runt, they need to consider targeting players that are actually willing to just disappear into the team concept and be a guy that's like, hey, my touches are gonna come in spot up situations only you know that, like or like think of the way that Ruey Hatcha Mura is involved with the Lakers. Oh, I have a great matchup here in the second quarter, throw

me the ball. But if it's the fourth quarter, like I'm spotting up and Lebron You've got it every single possession right like that, They need to simplify their order of operations offensively when they get through this season. I understand going after a guy like Malcolm Brogden because of the ball handling limitations of Tatum and Brown, And maybe that's the fundamental issue there is your two stars you have neither neither of those guys are super comfortable having

the ball in their hands all game. But as a result, you've just got a bunch of guys that can take over the offense, and so as a result, they can go through these extendeds. When it's when it's rumming, it

looks amazing. Their offense looks ridiculous when they have it all going because there's so much skill on the floor, there's so much ball handling, there's so much shooting, but there's not a good hierarchy there, and so I think that's something that they might have to take a look at in the future, regardless of what happens in this postseason. All right, I want to do a couple of shoutouts to some Miami players and then we're gonna go over

some adjustments for Boston. So Kyle Lowry had an amazing heater in the second quarter as a pull up jump shooter that I thought helped keep them in the game. There was a stretch there in the early third quarter where the Heat were down nine and Max Strus hit like a crazy late clock pound dribble between his legs.

There was like a four dribble combination into a pull up three on the right wing that he hit then they forced a turnover and Kevin Love in transition on the left wing like just pulls up and hits a transition three. All of a sudden, it goes from nine to three Like that feels like a brand new ballgame. Those are some big plays gave. Vincent obviously has been fantastic in this entire playoff on it, I thought he hit a massive relocation three to the top of the key.

I think it was in his Spain pick and roll possession if I remember correctly, because he relocated to the top. But a lot of a lot of timely contributions from these guys and uh man, I, like I've said all postseason long, I cannot believe how wrong I've been about this team. All Right, adjustments for Boston, Like I said,

proper matchup hunting. So if you're going to target Miami's weaker defenders, clear the side of the floor so that they can't help unless they zone up on the baseline side, in which case you're gonna have kickout passes, but most likely you're gonna have the entire baseline side to work. Stop trying to hunt pull up threes or driving to the basket. Stop trying to hunt fouls. Actually just turn

your dam back back, your defender down. Get to a spot where you, as Jason Tatum at six nine or Jalen Brown at six y seven, who's bigger, stronger, more athletic, and has the skill set to knock down these short kind of in between shots. Go take those shots. That's that is the stuff that Eric Spolstra is allowing in his defensive scheme, and you are currently unwilling to take it. That is that is a key offensive adjustment for them. Here's the second one, and I think this is their

only hope to stop Jimmy Butler. They have to play just one guard in crunch time. So I don't understand the point of having Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogden out there if on offense the goal is to eventually run everything through Tatum, right, or just forget about that. Tatum, Brown and Smart is plenty of ball handling for the

closing lineup. So by putting Brogden out there, if he's not going to be running the offense, all you're doing is giving Jimmy Butler a defender to attack while on the offensive end of the floor, he's an off ball player who was just spotting up. So if that's the case, have Marcus Smart be your one guard on the floor so that at least if Jimmy Butler wants to attack a smaller guard, he's attacking the defensive player of the year from last year and a player that's much better

at defending up position wise than Malcolm brogden Is. And again, you have two options there that I think makes sense. You can either go big with Robert Williams, but then again, that's rim protection. You're giving Miami rim protection by allowing bam Adebayo to stay by the rim, So that means Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum have to be comfortable taking those turnaround jump shots or easy little kind of like short to mid range shots. Well go with Grant Williams.

Like Grant Williams was a staple in the rotation last year, why because he defends, and he's big, and he's the kind of guy that Jimmy Butler's not gonna be able to just relentlessly attack matchup wise, and he can knock down the occasional three when you kick out to him. So yes, Malcolm Brock didn't get a knockdown that pull up, that kickout three at a higher rate. Yeah. Is he gonna be able to attack a close out a little better? Yeah, But at the very least you're limiting the matchup options

that Jimmy Butler can attack. I know he's in the doghouse with Missoula, but like that would be that would be what I would do is at the end of the game, if I was coaching the Celtics, I'd go with Marcus Smart, Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Grant Williams, and Al Horford And that gives me decent five out spacing and it gives me better defensive matchups to contain the Jimmy Butler problem. Man, all right, big Game one, I like to think Boston is gonna come back and get

Game two. Actually, for Heat fans, I'll just say it. I think Boston's gonna come back and win Game two. So maybe I'll just continue to be wrong for you guys. But man, highly entertaining series. I'm having a lot of fun watching this Miami Heat team. I'm so impressed by them because they do so many things that you know, the diehard basketball fans love, right, all the little things that win basketball games. And Jimmy Butler just man an

all time great playoff run from Jimmy Butler. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. I will see you guys tomorrow. After the final buzzer of Lakers Nuggets Game two, the volume