Hoops Tonight - Devin Booker dominates, Suns win Game 3 vs. Nuggets, Tatum & Celtics take down 76ers

stealing Game three on the road in Philly. This afternoon, we'll have a video after Game three of Heat Nicks, as well as later in the evening after Lakers Warriors Game three. All right, you guys know the drip before we get started. To subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements in it. For whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows, can't get back over

to YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops Tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So in Sun's Nuggets not a whole lot of a lot in the way of adjustments that I noticed. I know that they made Yokic playing much more of a crowd, definitely set more extra defenders at him, gapped him a little bit more than they did in Game two. Jokics was obviously amazing as he

usually is. I think he has seventeen assists in the game, but they did force him into six turnovers, got out into transition a lot more. The Suns had twenty eight points in transition in this game. I thought that was a big part of how they got loose offensively. Devin Booker himself had twelve points in transition. The second big adjustment I noticed is they went with a lot more Jacques Landale over DeAndre Ayton. I talked a lot about

after Game one. I believe, if I remember correctly, that the short role was going to be one of the most important areas of this series, and the main reason why is because the Nuggets are bringing Nikola Jokic out

really high. In these screen and roll coverages with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, we've been talking about a similar thing when it comes to the Lakers Warriors series and Anthony Davis coming out really high and the Warriors picking them to pieces in the short role with Draymond Green, and if you guys remember in that show, I talk to you guys about how it's uniquely a Golden State problem that that coverages such a bad idea, because I said, if you guys remember, it's okay to bring the big

up above the level of the screen against most players because usually the short role guy's not as good or they don't have the bang bang pass sequences down in the spacing down to make teams pay out of the

short role. And so you can blitz or hedge or come up high out of your drop and usually have success rotating on the back end out of that, whereas against Golden State it's like a huge pain because it's just Draymond Green down the lane, and if you commit to him, he's gonna kick it to the corner, and if you don't, he's gonna go to the rim hard and make a layup or dunk it. And it's just

Golden Stay a rippy to shreds like that. But you're seeing in this series the importance of having competency out of that short role. DeAndre Ayton had a Nightmare game in the short role. In this game, there are two plays in particular that really hurt where yok is coming out high. They hit eight and on the roll. There was one where like he had a clear lane to go up with two hands and dunk the basketball and went up with a soft finger roll layup over Michael

Porter Junior that he left short. There was another one where so we call this tagging the roller. Right, So I'm guarding the guy in the weakside corner and the rollman comes down the lane, and our screen defender came up high above the level of the screen or up above the free throw line to contain the rollman is

coming directly to the rim unimpeded. Right, But the job of the weak side corner that defender, his job is to tag the roller, which means to get into the lane and at least try to do something to make it difficult for that big man to finish at the basket. But usually it's an undersized defender. There was another play I believe in the second half of this game where Jamal Murray tagged the roller on DeAndre Ayton rolling to the rim, and like that's a matchup in the NBA

playoffs that you have to win. DeAndre Ayden catching on the role under the rim against Jamal Murray has to be a bucket, and it wasn't. He missed that layup too, and it just becomes a problem because what you're doing is you're allowing the Denver Nuggets to throw multiple bodies at your superstars without experiencing any sort of drop off

on the defensive back line, and that's a problem. Jack Landale much better finishing out of the short role in this one, just going with power dribbles and more force towards the basket to finish, and I thought that was a big part of why he ended up playing as many minutes as they did. Jack Landel ended it played about half of this game, So again, keep that, keep an eye on that in the long run. I mean, the way I see it, Deandreten's going to have to be dominant in the short role for the Suns to

have any chance to win the series. They got away with one in this game where he didn't play particularly well, but Game four is gonna be a really tight one and they're gonna need Deandreten to play better. Kevin Durant and I'm gonna get to Devin Booker because obviously he's the hero of the night, but I want to take my time there, so I wanted to get through some of the other kind of smaller things first, Katie, I was. I thought that was a very very impressive Kevin Durant performance,

and mainly because nothing was working for him. And I always think that that's when we learned the most about our competitors. I've talked to I've talked a lot about this in the past, but I've one of the things that I love about real stakes, and like the parody in the NBA, is it brings out the best in our stars because they have to be amazing in order

for their team to win. Like I'm a huge Kevin Durant fan, but one of the things I didn't enjoy about him being on the Warriors is they were just so damn good that he never really had to dig that deep for them to win. He had big games like that game that game ceiling shot that he hit over Lebron James in the NBA Finals in twenty seventeen, Like super impressive shot, not trying to undersell it at all. That was their fifteenth consecutive playoff victory, like there were

no real stakes there. They were the most unstoppable team in NBA history. If Kevin Durant could have missed that shot and it had no bearing on whether or not they were going to get the trophy. Right. What I like about seeing more parody and more even the stuff across the board is like Steph's gonna have to be incredible to beat the Lakers this year. He's gonna have to dig deep, Like Lebron James and Anthony Davis are gonna have to be incredible to beat the Warriors this year.

They're gonna have to dig deep. Kevin Durant is going to have to dig so deep to beat this Nuggets team, and he did last night. And what was so impressive about it is, even in that context, his go to move for his entire career, the pull up jump shot failed him. This is a guy who I talked about this year fifty five percent on pull up jump shots. That is unheard of. That's the best pull up jump shooting season I can ever remember witnessing as a basketball fan.

And he went five for seventeen on pull up jump shots in Game three, five for seventeen. I think he started what one for nine from the field. So imagine in a must win game, down two to Zho at home and the thing you've worked your entire life for fails you on that stage. And what did Kdie do? He said, Hell, no, I'm not losing this game, even though this is not working. I have all of these other things that I can bring to the table as

a basketball player, and he made those things happen. The big thing I noticed was playing with downhill force and actually trying to get to the rim again. When you really dive in on Kevin Durant as a basketball player, there are no weaknesses anywhere, except for sometimes it could be a little reticent to attack the basket. He's incredible pull up jump shooting at every single level. He could score on pick and roll, he could score in isolation, he could score in the post. He's got every single

conceivable shot type. Fadeaway's over both shoulders, one like fadeaway, pull up, going right, pull up, going left, step backs, floaters, you know, pushots in a lane. He's got everything right. He's an excellent passer, a highly underrated part of his game. Here. In the last half of his career, he'd assists with zero turnovers last night. That Kevin Durant has all of these things tied up perfectly in his skill set. He's a perfect basketball player, except for sometimes he can be

a little reticent to go to the rim. Not in this game. Eleven points at the rim, another two on a floater. He attempted fourteen free throws. And again, when you play with force, you will get the whistle. It's kind of counterintuitive because you think, like the guy who's being super physically aggressive is gonna get called for fouls. But I've talked about this on the show all the time. If you play with real physical force, the refs will usually err on the side of giving you the whistle.

They reward force. And like Katie turned what could have been a disaster night into thirty nine to nine and eight because all of those other areas of his game showed to the surface when his core talent failed him. He was amazing defensively in this game. On the back line, he took care of the basketball and made plays for his teammates. He generated offense by playing with Downhill four

worse and they got the win. And so to me, that's like one of Katie's more impressive playoff performances, because again, five or seventeen on pull up jumpers, that's not like a a that's not like something he's in control of. I mean, he's taking the same shots he's worked on his entire career. He was getting good separation on a lot of them. They're just not going in, which, as I've said so many times on the show, is something that can absolutely happen to a pull up jump shooter.

But everything else came to the surface and they got the win. But let's move to the real hero of the game, Devin Booker. That was one of the greatest scoring performances I've ever seen. Forty seven points just two free throws, the exact opposite of the pull up jump shooting spectrum. Thirteen for seventeen on pull up jumpers, ten

points at the rim, twenty for twenty five from the field. Again, there's this funny quote that a tweet that was going around last night where kd from a regular season game, and I think, if I remember correctly, I have my timing right, it was from before Katie went to play with the Suns. I think you might have still been

with the Nets at the time. But he said something like Devin Booker went twenty for twenty five, and he goes like, that's efing ridiculous, you know, basically complimenting Devin Booker that was in a regular season game doing it against this level of defensive attention with Yolkic coming so high out of the screens being guarded by good perimeter defenders for the most part, like just unbelievable. And I

you know, I watched the game live last night. Then I went back and watched every single one of his scoring possessions again today rewatched the beginning of the game to look at defensive coverages and stuff, and the big things that stood out to me were one, just the ridiculous level of shot making. I mean, he hit these like fadeaways from ten to twelve feet that were smothered that he made. Even some of his transition baskets were

completely smothered. But he did supplement it with a lot of what I would consider to be non stagnant isolation, which is something that I think is not talked about enough. And we're gonna talk about it a little bit more when we get to James Harden here in a few minutes. But when you are stagnant isolating. It's a lot harder to get separation. Your defender is keyed in on you, the back line is set up ready to help. It's

just a lot harder. But what Devin Booker does a lot is he finds opportunities to attack with an advantage. I'll give you an example. So he'd pull up three on KCP on the left wing in the first half, and like on the play, he kind of flashes over to the to the wing and he catches the ball and instead of like turning and facing and slowing down to face KCP, which which he did on some other possessions, but he supplemented it with stuff like this, he just does a hard jab step to his left, takes a

dribble to his right, and elevates up and shoots. But the reason why it generates separation on KCP is he

did that on the catch. So kcp's in a closeout again, like something silly, Like a close out improves your chances of gaining separation from the defender by like fifty percent, Right, you're gonna get It's just a lot harder defensively to do that immediately when you're not even really keyed in and set yet versus when everything is kind of a static situation, right, so like or like you'll see him hunt transition opportunities like I was talking about, like, don't

always attack against that set half court environment if you see an opportunity to get out and transition and cook, get out and transition and cook the pull up three's in transition just like walking into those shots. Right, The shot making and pick and roll, it was all there. But I thought it was a very good balance of post work attacking the basket, like there's a post up against KCP on the left block or on the right block in the first half, where he didn't fade over

either shoulder. He just bam, bam, two hard power dribbles like caved in kcp's chest, reverse pivot drop step back towards the baseline, and easy bank shot off the glass. Like again, you want to supplement your top, your tough shot making with easier shots. That was a big part of what allowed him to be so efficient in a huge physical playoff environment in the must win game. Literally

one of the best scoring performances I've ever seen. And you know, I've been talking about this all year this year, but I consider Devin Booker to be every bit as good as that long list of players that we talked about at the top of the league. You know, we have Steph Lebron Kadi, Jannis Jokic, and b Tatum Kawhi and I'm probably forgetting a guy or two, But like Devin Booker is straight up on that list. Like he's

just on that list. He's an unbelievable playmaker compared to where he was early in his career, one of the most efficient scorers in the league, can do it from all levels, translates to the playoffs, has turned himself into above average defensive player who competes. He's got all the stuff that we typically associate with the superstar player, and he's been one of the best players in the league during this playoff run from any team that's participated. So

shout out to Devin Booker. Now, will they do it three more times? Who knows, but they're certainly capable. It's like I've been talking about since the beginning of the series, the Suns are just going to have to get heroic scoring performances from Katie and Devin Booker to have a chance on the dever front. Nothing really to overreact to. I thought effort was a huge part of their issues in this game, especially in transition. They were just really

sloppy getting back and getting matched up. I think their coverages are still working again as I go back and look at the footage. With exception of those transition opportunities, I thought they forced Devin Booker into a lot of tough shots and forced kd And into a lot of tough shots. There are just two amazing players who took advantage of the easier opportunities in the margins when the

effort wasn't quite there. And I tend to think that if Denver plays with that same process, with a little bit better effort, they're gonna have a good chance to win Game four. I mean, heck, they took a three point lead late in the third quarter of this one. But I'm glad the Sons are making that a series because that I think that one's gonna be interesting down the stretch. All right, six of Celtics. You know, it's funny when I watched Game one and everyone was focusing

on the Hardened thing, and Hardened was incredible. I'm not trying to undersell it. And when I went back, I watched the film. Everyone everyone was talking about Boston and some offensive process stuff, and oh why did they post up Marcus Smart at the end. And I went back and looked at the footage, and I didn't really think Boston's offensive process was that bad. Down the stretch of that game. I thought it entirely came down to defense.

They played pick up basketball defense, soft switching, playing off of James Harden, letting him feel comfortable as he got to his spots, not helping enough off of the non shooters. They let him get too comfortable and he made a ton of shots and beat them right in game one. But they just had a much better defensive effort starting

in Game two, and it continued into Game three. I thought they did a great job guarding Harden and MBA, and I want to dive a little bit into the schematics of the way they did it, so specifically guarding Harden. Jylen Brown in ball pressure. He started this in game two, but it continued in game three. You see, it's like Joel Andbie wins the tip, tossed it back to James Harden. There's Jalen Brown right at half court, just like stunting and getting into James Harden just to make him not

feel comfortable. Again, Like I talk about this all the time, but when you set a tone early to make a star feel uncomfortable, it's far more likely that they'll have a poor shoot versus when you allow them to feel comfortable at the beginning of the game. They might make a couple of shots now they're feeling great, and even if you do turn up the defensive intensity at that point,

it might not matter. Right, Like, even that shot that James Harden hit over al Horford at the end of Game one, like that was probably their best defensive possession of that sequence. I mean, Al Horford smothered that shot, took away the drive. It was great defense. But at that point, James Harden is so comfortable and in so much of a groove that it's just not going to

affect him anymore at that point. But Jalen Brown applying ball pressure forcing him to his right hand, that's important because James Harden just is not as effective getting downhill towards the rim as he goes that way and then

back pressure. So in his ball screen situations, like I'll give you an example, there's play where he runs pick and roll, gets downhill, actually gets to his left hand, and Al Horford's at the rim and James Harden just does that classic thing that he tries to do, or he just drops his shoulder into the big man's chest and then tries to take like a hard step to try to dislodge him and then kind of lean back

and take like a little floater off the glass. But Jalen Brown, when he gets caught on the screen, he's behind James Harden Harden's downhill, but he doesn't give up on the play. He goes to his next responsibility, which is back pressure, right, and so he comes sprinting in from behind and just flies in and blocks it with one arm. And we talked about this with Jared Vanderbilt

in the Warriors Lakers series. But longer defenders in back pressure actually can be really valuable in a sense that like when you're putting a guard on a guard in pick and roll, once they get caught on the screen, they're just not gonna bother anybody. But if it's a wing on a guard in pick and roll, they can

actually use their length to bother people from behind. I thought Jayleen Brown did a good job that with that they also did a really nice job of gapping into driving lanes and playing off of the weekside corner in the lane. There was a big play where James Harden got all the way to the rim on the right side of the floor went for a right handed layup and James Harden wasn't making good reads in this game. But Robert Williams ended up on de Anthony Melton on

this play. The Anthony Milton was on the left wing wide open, Robert Williams just ignores him and comes over and blocks James Harden at the rim. So they were just sending tons of bodies that hardened him bead throughout the game. And I didn't think either of them did really a good enough job of spraying the ball out to shooters to actually soften up the defense over the course of the game. But excellent defensive game plan from

Boston on Harden, and I'm the even bead front. The big thing that I noticed was really trying to stop him from those catches at the elbow. So Joel embiid like when he's posting on the block for whatever reason, and a lot of big struggle with this. Anthony Davis struggles with this a lot too, But like when you post him on the block, he really struggles to make the kill pass, like the pass that beats the double team, not the pass that escapes the double team, but the

pass that beats the double team. It's usually a cross court pass. It's usually to a three point shooter, and you hit a couple of those, and then it kind of softens things up in the paint right well. Jolanbid struggles with those specific passes. So one of the things they've been doing is instead of posting him, trying to get him the ball in a face situation at the elbow, because now he doesn't have to worry about anything going

on behind him. He's facing the entire floor. If they double from this side, it's an easy kick to the corner. If they double from this side, he can kind of rip through and then pass to the other corner. It's just a much easier set of reads for him to make. So one of the things that Boston was doing is just trying to stop him from ever actually getting catches there. So what they were doing is doing a three quarter front. So usually Philly will set up and essentially like a

like a like a pistol set right. So if there's one big at the elbow, guard in each corner, guards on the wings, and the guard on the wing will try to make a post entry, essentially like a high post entry. Two Joel Embiid at the elbow. But what Boston was doing was a three quarter front, So the guy who's defending Embiid has their left foot behind embad, so he can't just cut back door. He'd run into him.

But then he's reaching around the front right, so it's forcing them to throw an extended pass a little bit further off the spot, which serves two purpose One, It forces it so that if he does get a catch, he's catching it further away, so instead of catching it at seventeen to eighteen feet, he's gonna catch it at twenty twenty two feet, maybe even out at the three

point line. Also, then from the other wing, they're basically completely ignoring that guy and sending that guard to right behind Embiid and trying to bait them into throwing that high post entry so that guard can just come in and knock the pass away. And the Sixers just in general throughout the game did not do a good enough job.

I thought of reversing the ball, because when a guy's in three quarter front, he's already submitting himself to Embiid to flip position on him and get a seal this way, right, So all you have to do is throw that skip pass over the top to the other guard and Embiid can just reverse. Now he has excellent position in the middle of the floor with the defender pinned on his backside. And so that's a calendar that I'd like to see

from Philly going into Game four. But really nice job from Boston of just preventing James Harden and Joel Embiid from doing what they like to do. And again, that's playoff basketball, is forcing teams to do things that they're uncomfortable with and hoping to four stars into bad games, you know what I mean. I thought Robert Williams was excellent on the back line. He had three blocks. Offensively,

I thought Boston. You know, I've always been really impressed by Boston's highs offensively because they're kind of the quintessential modern version of driving kick basketball, and they find a bunch of different ways to generate dribble penetration, which is cool. So they'll do it in transition. They'll do it off the dribble. They'll do it and pick and roll for sure. But one of the biggest ways that they do it

is by slipping screens. So a lot of teams like to switch guard guard screens, right, So like if Jason Tatum and Marcus Smart set a screen, rather than trying to navigate that with a traditional screen and roll coverage, they'll just have the two guards switch, right. So now you have a wing on whoever the guard is for Boston and a guard on the wing for Boston. But you're not super worried about that compared to a traditional

post mismatch, right. So in those switching situations, often the defenders will get confused or have a little delay before they guard who they're gonna guard, and so slipping is open. And so one of the things they've done, especially with Tatum, because Tatum is so good at finishing at the rim

and making that kickout pass. But they'll have Tatum come set of guard to guard screen and then just slip to the rim and like Marcus Marter or Derek White or whatever, we'll just kind of throw that little float pass over the top, and then Tatum is now barreling downhill because the two switching defenders are still up high. Tatum is now downhill. And it's the same concept that we've been talking about with all of these short roles with Deandreyton and Jacu Landale or with Draymond Green with

the Warriors. Now it's Jason Tatum barreling down the rim and the low man having to make a decision do I stop Tatum at the rim or do I stay with my shooter in the corner. And Boston has extremely good spacing. That's one of their best abilities offensively. Everything is constantly in a typical four out or five out spacing system, so there's always shooters in the corners, there's always shooters on the wing. If they're in five out,

they'll be spread out a little bit further. If they're in a four out situation, there will be a guy in the dunker spot. But they have very, very consistent spacing, and so these raids are super easy. So Tatum will set the screen, he'll slip to the ram, they'll throw that little pass over the top. He'll then throw a touch pass to Al Horford in the corner, who will throw that extra pass to Derek White, because Derek White's defender rotates down to Al Horford and now Derek Whit's

shooting in wide open three. And again, like driving kick, basketball is more about what happens after the initial compromising

offensive play, not the beginning. Like I would argue that dribbling the ball down the floor and just trying to beat somebody off the dribble is sometimes the hardest way to do it, especially against the set elite NBA playoff defense, So finding other ways to generate that rotation situation, like slipping screens, going into the post, you know, like literally anything pushing in transition, anything that gets a defender to leave his man to offer help, which gets you into

that driving kick situation. And what makes Boston so deadly and driving kick is everybody's an offensive threat. I've talked about this before, but their aggregate offensive skill is probably the best in the league. Because you got fifty points from the two j's in this game, which is basically becoming a guarantee these days. And then you get the three guard course, you have Marcus Smart, Derek White, and Malcolm Brogden, which is like one of the most underrated

guard corps in the league. Like Malcolm Brogden completely dominates Game two right off the bench, and then in this game you get twenty eight from Derek White and Marcus Smart combined. Right, So, like you just have so much offensive skill on the floor that when they start doing the driving kick thing, everybody who has the basketball is a great passer, a great shooter, and a guy that can attack the rim if needed. Right. I mean we even saw Al Horford drive and dunk on Giannis, you know,

in the in the conference semifinals last year. Like he's another guy that can legit play, drive and kick from the center position. That's a huge asset. And then at the end of the game, it was Jason Tatum shot making. He was really hunting Tobias Harris. They got it within seven, and he hits a post up fade away over Tobias Harris and then they get it back to six and

then he's got d Anthony Melton on him. He sets a ball screen to get Tobias Harris switched on him, and then he just does like a hard step back three on the left wing and knocks it down. Basically ice is the game. Really impressive late game shot making from Tatum on the Sixers front, Like the James Harden thing is this weird, man, you've disengaged from the jump. Well, really,

the whole Sixers team was disengaged from the jump. They gave up two transition threes to Boston in the first handful of possessions where they just didn't get matched up. Like Marcus mart just walks up and takes a wide open three, Jason Tatum just walks up and takes a wide open three, because guys just start talking and getting matched up. But James Harden in particular, one of the biggest things that is frustrating for me with him is he's always just a little too loose and relaxed instead

of like really playing with physical force. It's the NBA playoffs, man, You're playing against one of the best defensive teams in the league and certainly one of the most talented defensive rosters in the league. Like, there is no loosey, goosey basketball that's gonna work against that team. You've got to be tight with everything. You can't just like dribble the ball soft to a spot and then throw like a looping pass. No, you've got to get there with force.

You gotta play with physicality. You gotta apply pressure on the rim and really draw defenders in before you throw passes, or you're gonna have turnovers. Turn the ball over a lot, couldn't make any shots, super indecisive. There was a play where he got downhill and it had an easy floater in the lane, just didn't take it. You know, he was I talked earlier about the Robert Williams block where he just missed a wide open shooter on the week's side because he's just not making the right reads. It

just was kind of a bizarre James Harden performance. And you know what's funny is this is the latest in a long line of a concerning trend with James Harden involving his game faltering over the course of a playoff series. I noticed this for the first time in twenty eighteen. But you know, I have this theory with James Harden that the repetitive nature of his game is what makes

him easier to guard over time. So you'll see him be super dominant in game ones, and then usually over the course of the series he kind of falls apart. That's when you get those really bad games at the end of playoff series, right, So twenty eighteen against Minnesota Game one, James Harden has forty four points on fifty eight percent shooting, rest of the series, twenty five points

per game on thirty six percent shooting. Against Utah game one, forty one points on forty six percent shooting rest of the series, twenty five points per game on thirty nine percent shooting Against the Warriors that year, the seven gamer forty one points on fifty eight percent shooting in game one, twenty seven points per game on thirty nine percent shooting

the rest of the series. In twenty twenty in the Bubble against Oklahoma City, thirty seven points on fifty five percent shooting in game one, twenty nine points on forty five percent shooting the rest of the series. Against the Lakers thirty six on sixty percent shooting in game one, twenty eight on forty seven percent shooting the rest of the series. And those aren't as inefficient as some of his others, but again you can see the drop off

from game one over the course of the series. And then this year he hit seven threes and scores twenty three points in game one against Brooklyn, shoots thirty three percent the rest of the series and averages fifteen points game one against Boston, forty five points on fifty seven percent field goals, fourteen points per game on eighteen percent field goals in the last two games. So you can see this consistent trend of like first time anybody sees

James Harden, they really struggle to guard him. He gets to his spots, he knocks down a bunch of step back the through he's he puts up big numbers. Over the course of the series, they start to figure it out and again, like juxapose it with Devin Booker, who is so good at varying his attack, like this time I'm attacking in the post, this time, I'm attacking in transition. This time, I'm just gonna go on the catch and jab step and go to my spot and hit a three.

This time I'm working in pick and roll, you know. This time I'm going to you know, clear out, slow down ISO and hit a hard jab step jumper going to my left right. Like he's gonna have all these different variations of his offensive attack, and so it makes him kind of actually gain strength as the series progresses. But with James Harden, it's kind of the same thing

every time. It's I'm gonna isolate you, and I'm going to kind of get that left foot forward and I'm gonna pound those between the leg dribbles until I kind of see you leaning one way. And if you're leaning on my step back, I'm gonna go left and drive hard to the basket. If you're leaning too hard on my left hand, I'm gonna do a hard left right crossover and try to get back to the right. If you're playing too far off of me, I'm gonna do a hard step back dribble into that step back jump

shot going to my right. Like he's gonna to do that same kind of sequence of events in every single iso, and it's almost always above the break. Then you go to the pick and roll situation, same type of thing. There's no variation. He doesn't have a hard pull up jump shot in pick and roll. His jump shot in the mid range is more of a step back that

he likes to take in isolation situations. So in pick and roll, it's like he's gonna go all the way to the rim, and so you can kind of funnel him properly, and especially if you can send him to his right hand. He's not gonna finish at the rim very well. So it just in a single game sample size, when people aren't familiar with it or not ready for it,

he can have a lot of success. But like NBA defenders, they see that same sequence of moves dozens and dozens of times, and by game four they just have it figured out. And I mean, this is the same player that Boston had no idea what to do with in Game one and now he looks, you know, incredibly ineffective as we've progressed and we're not even I mean we're in game three, series two to one. But it is

definitely a concerning trend with James Harden. I do think think that is the reason why he struggled so much in the postseason. Joelbid I thought he competed his ass off on both ends. He had thirty and thirteen and he had four blocks, but he got ten combined made field goals from James Harden, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris. That's just not going to cut it. I Mean, I've talked a lot about how that's the most talented top

four in basketball. But if they're like I've talked about this a lot, but sometimes it's more simple than any sort of schematic or any sort of complicated concept. It's like, hey, did your guys play better than they did the last game, because that's going to fix a lot of your problems. Like what did I say about the Warriors series inconsistency from Lebron James From Lebron James and Anthony Davis is their biggest threat. Said to Colin, I was like, if

they play great consistently, they'll beat the Warriors. If they don't, they'll lose Anthony Davis incredible. In game one, they win Anthony Davis awful. In game two, they lose Steph Curry awful. In game one, they lose Steph Curry amazing. In game two they win. You kind of get the point here, like they need James Harden to play well to have any chance to beat the Celtics. It's just a fact now from an adjustment standpoint, A couple things I'd like

to see them do on the hard in front. I'd like to see them run more guard guard screens early in the possession to get a smaller defender on Harden so that he's a little bit more effective in pick

and roll. Again, a big part of that's gonna be pushing with pace so that you have time to run multiple actions, and regardless of anything having to do with James Harden in general, getting the ball up the four floor clicker quicker and flipping sides I think could help a lot because Boston is loading up so much on the strong side that like just a skip pass could go a long way to get any entire defense to rotate.

You do that once or twice, their shel drill just gets a little looser now instead of being completely loaded up on the side, they're only kind of loaded up on the side, which could go a long way towards helping that Joel embiid high post catch or elbow catch right. So I'd like to see them get the ball up the floor quicker and reverse sides of the floor a

little bit more. We talked about this earlier with the embiid at the elbow stuff, but when they're doing that three quarter front with backside help that bracketing embiid before the catch at the elbow, that's where you want to throw that skip pass so that Joel and Bee can reverse pivot and have a good seal at the elbow on the other side of the floor. And then just in general, they need to play better defense. I didn't think their defensive effort was very sharp to start the game.

They got a little bit more desperate at the end of the game, but it just was too late at that point. All right, guys, that is all I have for this morning. We will be back after heat Nicks at about three point thirty four o'clock ish Pacific time, and then we'll be going after Warriors Lakers. The volume