All right, well Coon hoops and here at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody, love you guys are having a great end to your week. As promised, we're gonna do a deep dive into Game one of the NBA Finals. We're gonna do a monologue off the top where I go over everything I found in my film session. Then we'll do the film session at the end. I have thirty nine clips to go through, so we're gonna do a deep dive into Game one. You guys know the joke.
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into the series. I specifically talked about the idea of putting Jason Tatum onto Daniel Gafford and forcing they actually ended up putting Horford to start the game on Derek Jones Junior, but Derek Jones instead of PJ. Washington. But
Derek Jones Junior and PJ. Washington ended up getting a lot of minutes where porzingis or Horford regarding them, and so that fundamentally altered Dallas's approach in pick and roll, right, we were seeing Gafford and Lively have to sit in the dunker spot with Tatum on them, while Derek Jones and PJ. Washington were trying to figure out how to pop and roll properly with Luca and Kyrie in ball screens, and just neither of them are very good above the
break three point shooters. Neither of them are great role men in ball screens, especially when there's more traffic on the back line. With Tatum and Lively and Gafford being down there. You saw that direct the effect Dallas's ability to attack and pick and roll. Boston ended up doing a lot more switching than I expected to. We saw Horford hold up really well. We saw a bunch of
other guys hold up really well in switches. We saw on the offensive end for Boston, we saw how they were able to space Dallas out and challenge their depth of perimeter personnel. We saw Luca struggle to contain on an island in straight iso situations and giving up a lot of dribble penetration. Just a lot of the things that we talked about being a problem for Dallas in
this series kind of manifested. Chris topsporzingis spacing the floor, hitting threes and then beating switches in the high post. It was again just one game, but the first game in this chess match kind of went exactly as I expected.
And I even said before the series that I thought that Boston would have at least two blowout victories in the series, and we got our first one here in game one tonight, I want to go over some metrics and then we're going to go into specifics of all those little things that I just talked about and get into some more detail, and then we'll get into the film. So couple metrics. Dallas scored zero points from the role man in this game. Zero. They averaged nine per game
against Minnesota and ten per game against Oklahoma City. That is a direct result of their ability to put Jason Tatum onto Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively, so that you're bringing your big guys into ball screens and you're just getting Tatum in a switch. If you do that, or if you want to attack the center, you have to bring PJ. Washington or Derek Jones into the action. Actually, in retrospect, I'm surprised that we didn't see Minnesota try that more like put Jaden McDaniels on gafferd or Lively
and put go Bear on like a PJ. Washington and Derek Jones Junior to try to disrupt Dallas's pick and roll attack. In retrospect, that's something they probably should have tried, because you saw how much it kind of discombobulated Dallas last night. In ball screens, Boston got one point two to six points per possession including passes, Dallas only got zero point eight nine. Another big kind of like indicator of those things that I was just talking about isolation defense.
Boston did a lot of switching in this game, even in ball screens with Horford in particular, they ran a lot of switching with Horford and a you know, but Dallas was hunting Horford, they were hunting Sam Houser, they were hunting Peyton Pritchard, and all those guys just held up really well on isolations. They Dallas ISO twenty four times in the game including passes, and got just zero point five to four points per possession. So tip of the cap to the entire Boston roster. All of those
guys just did a really really good job. Again, we're gonna get into some more specifics there in a in a minute. I'm just kind of going over the numbers right now. Jump shooting, Boston outshot Dallas badly one point zero seven points per jump shot. Dallas only got zero point eight five. That also doesn't really reflect the difference because Boston got cold towards the tail end of the game, but they were red hot early when they went up by twenty nine points, Dallas really struggled to get Boston
into rotation. The dead giveaway there was the spot up possessions. Boston was constantly getting Dallas in rotation and getting great opportunities to take catch and shoot threes or drive closeouts. They generated thirty four spot up possessions in this game. Dallas generated only twelve, So that's a massive indicator to me. The total number of spot up possessions is a great way to just kind of take a look at how often you're getting the defense into rotation, and Boston just
did a way better job of it than Dallas. Now let's get into some of the specifics. So depending on switches. So we saw this early in the game, a lot of Horford switching on to Luca in ball screens and then holding up really well in isolation. We also saw Boston go with a two big look with Porzingis and Horford on the floor together. That ended up being interesting because when Luca would like go to hunt al Horford, Porzingis was also on the back line, which kind of
took away that driving opportunity for Luca. And allowed Horford to kind of overplay the mid range and three point pull up game right, and so that helped Horford a lot. But I thought he just did an unbelievable job on Luca Doncics in this game. I have a bunch of clips in the film session that you guys will see. Sam Hawser there's a stretch where Kyrie and Luca were both hunting him and he got multiple stops, Ripped Luca clean on an ISO on the right elbow, got a
great contest on a three above the break. He forced Kyrie into a jump shot off the side of the backboard in the left corner. Howser held up really well. Hit a couple of big threes in that stretch as well. Really nice shift from Sam Hauser in that first half. Peyton Pritchard came into the game and had to guard Kyrie for a little bit, got a couple of big stops on him. Just everybody in Boston in a Boston
uniform just held up really well in their perimeter assignments. Again, zero point five to four points per ISO, including passes for Dallas. That's a major hip of the cap to the Boston perimeter defenders. Boston completely shut down Dallas's pick and roll attack, and I found it really fascinating, And it was a combination of a bunch of different things. First of all, like we talked about earlier, having Tatum on Gafford and Lively and then putting Porzingis and Horford
either on Derek Jones Junior or PJ. Washington, we have I'll show you guys a bunch of clips of like Josh Green, PJ. Washington, Daniel Derek Jones Jr. Struggling to know what to do in those ball screens when they pop they'd miss a three above the break, or like Josh Green at one point, like drove and missed a bad floater in the lane because he didn't know what to do when he popped on the ball screen when
they tried to roll to the basket. There's just a lot of traffic in there and they're not great vertical spacers. That caused issues in the drop coverage. Both Horford and Porzingis had drop coverage possessions where they got awesome contests on Luca and Kyrie driving down hill. Jaden Hardy had a couple of bad possessions in drop coverage again driving Against's dropped coverage where he had bad misses at the rim,
excellent defense from Boston's from Boston centers the switching. That's another great way to cover a ball screen, as long as your big guys can defend in space against someone like Luca or Kyrie. Porzingis gave up a couple of step back threes to Luca, but Horford in particular, they didn't want to switch with Porzingis. Luca just kind of dragged him out a couple of times and he had to, but Horford was just magnificent on switches against Luca. It
did a lot of damage to Dallas's ball screen. So in the regular season, Dallas averaged one point zero one points per possession in ball screens including passes. They got zero point eight to nine last night, so substantial dip in their production in one of their most important play types because of all of the work that Boston did defensively.
One of the things too, is like when guys defend well on switches, and when you can defend in your drop coverage, and when they don't know what to do with the role man in terms of PJ and Derrek Jones Junior, that allows your other play to stay home. So like another big kind of storyline last night was that the two big storylines from last night from Boston defensively was they were taking away the lob dunks and they were taking away the corner threes the lob dunks.
In order to get those lob dunks, a couple of different things need to happen. In straight iso situations, Luca needs to get deep penetration so that he can manipulate the rim protector to step over and help so that he can throw the lob to the big man under the basket. On ball, the switching defenders were just keeping Luca further away from the basket, not allowing him to
manipulate the rim protector. In those ball screens the lob, it's just really difficult to find those opportunities unless they're like in the last series where it's Lively and Gafford picking from the top of the key and then rolling hard so that they have a head of steam and they can get their one two down and jump nice and high so that Luca can give them a pass.
With such a big window for them to finish. Going straight vertical from under the basket is just a lot harder it's a smaller window and you need to generate more. You need to manipulate that rim protector more, and so putting Tatum on Gafford and Lively basically neutralized the lob game in pick and roll as far as the corner
threes go. In order to generate corner threes, you have to force those help defenders in the corner to actually help guard the action, and they just didn't need to because of all the things we just talked about, because of the fact that they weren't a threat to kick back to PJ. Washington or Derek Jones Junior on the pop, because when those guys would roll hard, they weren't the
vertical spacing threats that Gafford and Lively are. Because Tatum was holding up underneath the rim against Gafford and Lively, that allowed them to guard that action basically three on three right with Luca and his defender, with the screener and his defender, and with Tatum in the center, all just kind of working in the middle of the floor.
That allowed those corner three point shooters to be accounted for by Boston's off ball defenders because they did not have to come into the action to help stop it because they were having success guarding it three on three, and so by virtue of doing that, you take away the corner threes, you take away the lob dunks, and then all of a sudden, Dallas's pick and roll attack
falls apart. Christops Porzingis. As I said last night with Colin, I thought last night was just an excellent showcase of everything that makes him a ceiling razor for this Boston team. The three point shooting, he hit threes in pick and Pop. I've got examples of all this on film. He hit threes on Picking Pop. He hit threes spacing the floor. There's a long one on the right wing where Luca was kind of sinking down to the nail and it was just a swing pass and Porzingis hit like a
twenty seven footer right trailing threes in transition. I've got that in the film session where Porzingis is just trailing the play as everyone else is driving, and then he just gets a little pitch back and knocks down a twenty five footer on the left wing. He was amazing
spacing the floor as a shooter, beating switches. There's a stretch there in the second quarter, where like every every time down the floor, Porzingis was getting a smaller guard on him in those ball screen switches, just walking him down to the elbow and getting great looks in post up situations there at the elbow in scoring, and then
his rim protection as well. That obviously highlight plays like him blocking Josh Green in transition when he tried to dunk on him, but he was just really good in his drop coverage at the rim, bothering shots for Dallas. I thought he was incredible. Jalen Brown physical ball pressure on Luca up the floor. This is a big part of just like being a pain in the ass and setting the tone and making a player feel uncomfortable. He just picked up Luca full court and made him work
on his way up. He had two separate possessions where he ripped Luca clean either right after half court or before half court and got run out dunks the other way. Those are not only is that points on the scoreboard, but that adds to just the level of discomfort and the lack of confidence that Luca displayed in this particular game. I thought Jaylen Brown really set the tone with what
he did on the defensive end of the four. Also had a big stretch of rim protection in the second half where he was in help side making plays at the rim, big block, and Derreck Jones Junior on a dropstep dunk attempt out of the left dunker spot. He was incredible. Next big note, Dallas really needs to reprogram
their defensive instincts. I'm sure you guys a bunch of examples of this on film, but in the Minnesota series, really in all of the other series is that they were playing in they were swarming the ball, swarming SGA, swarming Jalen Williams, you know, swarming Anthony Edwards, swarming Karl Anthony Towns. Because those guys just weren't surrounded by the requisite amount of shooting to make teams pay for sending
all those additional bodies at the basketball. Every single time they did that to Boston last night, those guys made the right reads and generated quality three point shots and made them pay for it. In this series, they're gonna have to reprogram the way they think about help defense.
They have to stay home because this team is such a good three point shooting team that you're better off trying to bait them into ISOs and even if they score an ISO, it'll probably be less efficient than what they're getting out of their catch and shoot three point
shooting at this point in this type of matchup. And so again Dallas is really going I'll show you guys some examples on film, all these possessions where a guy kind of gets a little bit downhill and then like three black jerseys will coalesce around him and then it's just a kickout in a wide open three from there. That's something that they're going to have to figure out.
Boston's bad stretch. So they go up twenty nine and then Dallas cuts it to eight, and you know, I had all these Boston fans like it's a game of runs. It's a game of runs. It's like yeah, but like, ideally you don't go from being up twenty nine to
only up by eight. I'm sure that you'd prefer to flatten that out a little bit so that you regain control of the game when they get it down to seventeen or eighteen points, right like, And this is something that has burned Boston over the course of this season.
They did blow leads against Golden State, against Cleveland, I mean, they blew a twenty two point lead in the fourth quarter against Cleveland and lost a game, and so like I do think it, like even though Boston won and it was super impressive in this game, it was concerning and they did they they played really really bad basketball over that stretch they had. This is crazy. As I
was watching, I literally could not believe this. From one eighteen left in the second quarter to eight twenty two left in the third quarter, so what's said, almost five minutes of game time there. Over the course of that span, they did not get the ball in the paint a single time, literally once. They did not get the ball in the paint a single time. They just passed the ball around the perimeter and took bad three point shots, and in the process, over that span from one eighteen
to eight twenty two, they cut the lead. So the following two possessions Tatum did at the eight twenty two mark in the third quarter, the first paint touch was Drew Holland a dribbled up the floor and took a terrible transition three that barely grazed the front of the rim. Derek White got the offensive rebound and got fouled. That's how he got to the line that was their first paint touch over the course of that span. Right from there, I guess it was only a four minute span and
a five minute span anyway. From there, Tatum had a driving turnover on the next possession where he got in the paint, but he turned it over. Then the following possession they had another zero paint touch possession, so two paint touches total, one was an offensive rebound foul and one driving turnover. From the one eighteen mark of the second quarter to what does that take you down to? Like the seven minute mark of the third quarter, that
was when the league got cut from twenty six to fourteen. Okay. Then from there Luca and Kyrie had their confidence. That's when Kyrie hit that tough left shoulder fade. Luca hits a step back three. All of a sudden, it's an eight point game. From there, Joe Mizoula calls a timeout, and for the record, right here, it could have been a lot worse. In that same span, Dallas was not playing well. Kyrie missed two wide open threes and an open mid range jumper. Luca took a really bad step
back three against Al Horford. He got blocked, he kicked the ball away on a turnover a separate time, the role players missed a couple of layups in that stretch. Like given how poorly Boston was playing, Dallas could have taken the lead or pushed it a little bit over the course of that stretch. But thankfully for Boston's sake, Dallas wasn't playing very well at that point. But to Boston's credit, they righted the ship. Joe Mizoula calls a timeout.
As I mentioned last night with Colin. With Colin Cowherd, they I thought the main adjustment was just get back to driving and kicking. That was exactly what they did. They went right back to driving and kicking on six of their first seven possessions after the timeout. They had quality driving kick possessions, all from Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum. Three of them, actually four of them were driving at
Luka Doncic. All of them were just trying to get Luca in switches, beating him off the dribble, making kickout passes, and getting high quality threes from there. Again, there's a huge difference in Boston offense between when they get paint touches before their threes versus when they just pass the ball around on the perimeter and get threes. When they pass the ball on the perimeter and take threes, they go through cold spells, they lose control of basketball games.
When they are deliberate about playing driving kick basketball, they can be frightening and really really difficult to beat because of just the quality of the shooting that they have, in the quality of the passing that they have when they start playing driving kick basketball. So again, you saw that for roughly what's that roughly six minutes of game time, you get two paint touches, you blow. You go from
twenty six point lead to an eight point lead. Right, you go six of your first seven possessions after the timeout where you get quality driving kicks. All of a sudden you have a nineteen point lead. Right. I think the Horford three, No, no, it is a Tatum three at the top of the key off of a No, it was a Horford three because Jalen Brown at backpack driving kicks at the end of the run. One was that ended up in Tatum's hand on the top of the key, and then a Horford won in the left corner.
All of a sudden, they were up twenty two. They were literally up twenty two because of just getting back to what makes them great, which is playing that drive in kick basketball. So again, paint to great is a cliche you hear a lot in the game of basketball,
and that is especially true for Boston. Again, I'm not trying to hyper focus on the bad stretch, and I'm very impressed that they were able to regain control of the situation and do what they were supposed to do, get the ball in the paint, make those driving kick plays, regain control. But they just have to be careful because again, Dallas will respond at some point in the series, and if you have four or five more stretches like that in this series, this thing could drag out and Dallas
could have an opportunity. If you limit those stretches, you're going to win. I'll make it more. I'll just take it a step further. If you limit those stretches, you could win this series in five games. You can win the series in four games. That's the level of talent advantage that you have in this matchup. You just have to be deliberate about the way that you execute on
the offensive end of the floor. Again, completely inexcusable for a team with as much talent and athleticism as this Boston team has to go almost five minutes a game time without getting the ball in the paint. That's just something that can't happen. Adjustments for Dallas moving forward into Game two. On the offensive end of the floor. I have a bunch of different notes here because this is going to be challenged. This is not easy. These are not easy simple like, oh, just do this and then
everything will be fine. These are a little things they can try to attempt to free up a little bit more opportunity for their players to get into the paint and to generate those lib dunks in corner threes. One, get the ball up the floor quicker so that you have more time to work for better matchups. We saw Luca getting hounded in the backcourt by Jalen Brown. You can either set backcourt screens to try to free look up so he can get up the floor cleaner. Or two,
just have Kyrie bring the ball up the floor. Him bring the ball to the floor with pace. He's a little bit faster you get yourself up the floor. You can run an off ball action for Luca to try to get a switch during the same sequence so that you can kind of work for those matchups. Try to get Derek White on the Luca to start the possession. Another type of another type of screen you can set to help free things up in a ball screen. What
if you just run a rams screen. Now, what a ram screen is is when you have a player pinned down, like set a screen down on your role man's defender so that he can come up and set the ball screen. So now imagine this. You have Derek Lively on the floor. He's standing underneath the basket. Okay, He's got Jason Tatum on him, which is the problem because if he comes up into the screen, he's just gonna switch onto Luca. Right. Well, let's let's say Derek Jones Jr. Has Chris tops Porzingis
on him. Okay, what he would do is Derek Jones Junior would just run down and set a hard screen on Jason Tatum. Okay, if he sets a hard screen on Jason Tatum and actually makes good contact while at the same time, Lively sprints up to go set the ball screen. If he does that, Tatum will in all likelihood switch with Porzingis, and Porzingis will then go up to the screen with Lively. Then PJ. Washington or Derek Jones, whoever sets that screen, can clear Tatum out to a
spot up position, then you're in your traditional matchups. Or you have Porzingis in the ball screen so that Luka can attack and now Lively can roll hard to the rim. Did not see that last night. Would hope to see that in game two. Just literally have whoever Porzingis is guarding set a hard ram screen or downscreen on Tatum so that Lively or Gafford can sprint up into the ball screen and have an opportunity to actually rep to actually be a vertical spacer in pick and roll. I
think that's something they could do. They just this is all part of the pacing of it. You've got to get the ball up the floor quickly so that you have time to do this kind of stuff. More hunting of the guards instead of hunting Horford. So one of the things that Luca did a lot is just bring or PJ, Derek Jones, Junior, PJ Washingon, whoever Horford was on, into the screen, get Horford on a switch, and then look to attack Horford. Horford is a really big, strong
player who's a great positional defender. He's not a guy that's super aggressive. What he is is he reads your body language. He beats you to spots and he takes contact in the shoulder and he makes really good contests. That's how he has so much success against guys like Joel Embiid for instance, over the course of his career. The power players he fares really well against. But Luca can look to attack the guards. They did not post
up very much last night. They only had five post ups in the entire game, but they got one point six points per per possession out of it. That's really good.
So running more guard screens for Luca so that he can look to attack not into ball screen but through ice own post up situations with a smaller defender on him, I think that's a better option than trying to target even like a Houser who's six ' eight and can kind of absorb some of the contact, like go after the smaller players if you're not having success in pick and roll. So those are all some tactical things that can do. But here's the reality. Boston is switching a lot,
so Kyrie and Luca just have to be better. Zero point five to four points per Iso is not going to cut it. They're going to have to win more of those battles by getting buckets and getting into the lane, drawing multiple defenders and making quality kickout passes. They were both Lucas always going to fill up the box score the guys at the top of the league typically do. But I did not think Luca played a good game.
He was abysmal on the defensive end of the four, which is what we're about to get to right now. On the defensive end, rewire your thinking to stay home off the ball. We talked about that earlier, but you cannot afford to be swarming the basketball against Boston. They are too good at shooting and passing out of it and then knocking down shots to make you pay. So they need to do a better job of staying home off the ball too. Luca just has to do a
way better job of containing the basketball. I've got damn near ten clips in here of Luca getting toasted off the dribble and bad things happening to Dallas's defense as a result. He just has to do a better job. And then lastly, I put in all caps just do a better job. That means everything. That you're doing needs to be done with more pace, with more force. Every close out needs to be harder. Every screen needs to be set harder. Every cut needs to be harder. Every
drive needs to be harder. You need to sit in a defensive stance better, slide your feet better, help and rotate better. Everything just has to be way better for Dallas heading into game two. All right, on that note, let's get into the film, all right. Our first clip here. One of the things I thought was interesting with Boston switching or Dallas doing some switching. Tatum ended up getting
Kyrie irving on him in this switch situation. And what you see here is Jalen Brown misses a three, but look, Derek Jones Jr. Tries to get back in front and box him out. But this is Tatum just being way bigger than these guys and he just cleanly gets the offensive rebound and makes a kickout pass to Derek White,
who knocks down the three. You're gonna see several examples of that where Dallas getting caught up in some switches and some cross matches caused some problems for them on the defensive glass, especially in the early portion of the game.
Very similar thing here. As you can see at the on this possession, Gafford is actually guarding Derek White, and Derek White relocates out to the right corner, and as he relocates to the right corner, as Jalen Brown makes this kickout pass, as Derek White gets his kickout pass, Gafford has to close. Because Gafford has to close now, al Horford is under the basket with all of these smaller players on him, and al Horford gets a big rebound that gets kicked out for Jalen Brown, who knocks
down or misses the three. But it was another opportunity there. So again, offensive glass became a factor early because Dallas was getting into some cross matches off of switches. And in transition, here's one of the possession where Wreford switched on to Luca, so again we get a ball screen. This was one of the things that I appreciated with Joe Mizula too. This was a dead ball situation where randomly, for no particular reason, Missoula switched Horford back onto Gafford
and Tatum back onto Derek Jones. This was not their base scheme. They did the opposite of this. The majority of the game, but they randomly did it just to mix up the coverage. This is a great way to just keep an offense off balance. Horford switches on to Tatum Jalen Brown just tracks Gafford into the lane, and then watch the job that Horford does in ISO, sliding contact, absorbing contact, staying in front, forcing him into a really
difficult over the top jump shot that he misses. Gafford does get an offensive rebound, and I put this in my notes too. I put that Gafford needs to do more work on the offensive class. I have one other clip in this film session where Gafford gets an offensive rebound, but this is another counter. I should have honestly put this in my list of adjustments, and so that's my fault.
But when Gafford gets switched or has either get switched onto a smaller defender, or when Gafford and Lively just have Tatum or Brown on them in these matchups so that they can switch those ball screens, they have to make Boston pay on the offensive glass. They have to make them pay more. See how Gafford gets that inside position. They have to do a lot more of that. In game two. You need to bully them make them pay
for putting smaller players on your center. If they can't do it in the post, they have to do it on the offensive glass. So we get a transition attack here from Jalen Brown up the left wing. In the process, Gafford gets pulled in and help gafferd's helping al Horford relocates here to the right corner. It gets a wide open three out of it. So again, a lot of the instincts from Gafford and Lively to help underneath the basket are going to be are going to actually be
detrimental to Dallas's ability to defend in this matchup. Here's the first backcourt steel or shouldn't say backoard. This one was past half court, but the first deal that Jalen Brown got against Luca watched the jobb he does fighting over the top of the screen with physicality, splits the gap, forces a turnover, gets a big dunk on the other end as a result. A lot of physical ball pressure
from Jalen Brown in this game. So here's our first example of the problem with attacking Horford and porzingis in ball screens. When when Horford is on him, or excuse me, when when they're guarding Derek Jones instead of Gafford, So I see Tatum's on Gafford, So Gafford's not going to set the screen because if he does, it's just going to end in a switch and then Tatum will be on the ball. So instead they end up running off
of Derek Jones's side. Now watch this, Horford's dropping Jalen Drew Holliday is chasing look at Tatum though Tatum is on Gafford. Nothing's open here, so Horford's in his drop. Drew Holiday is chasing over the top, so Kyrie has no opening. Right, Tatum is taking away the lob pass to Gafford. The old Jalen Brown is staying home in this corner. Derek White is in position to easily get
to this corner, so there's no corner three kickout. The only quality read here is Derek Jones Junior, who's going to have to take an above the break three, which is a lower percentage shot for him, and certainly a lower percentage shot than anything they get when they can
get Gafford or Lively actually into the ball screen. As a result, Horford forces Kyrie into this impossible shot that he airballs, so that's the first example on film of just how difficult it is for them to score in ball screens by virtue of their ability to put Tatum on the center and Horford on a wing. Okay, now we're going to get a transition attack off of the airball by Drew Holliday. Notice the notice the defense kind of coalesce around him. Okay, draws help from Derek Jones.
Kick to Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown drives, gets into the lane. Easy drop off to Drew Holliday underneath the basket. So again, just like it's just so easy for Boston to just beat one guy off the dribble, make an easy kickout pass, beat another guy off the dribble, easy drop off pass, you get a layup. That's gonna be the story of the series. How well can Boston well can Dallas contain in space? Get a driving kick here from Tatum, Watch the defense coalesce around him on the move. Crossover gets
into the lane, Watch the defense coals around him. Kyrie steps up PJ. Washington Because Kyrie steps up off of Drew Holiday. PJ. Washington digs down on a cracksdown onto Drew Holiday. Nice kickback pass from Jason Tatum for a great shooter for stand still corner three can't pack the pain against this team. He just can't do it the way he did in the other rounds. Here's another example of the pick and roll problem that we talked about earlier.
So here we go. We have Lively's being guarded by Tatum, so Lively's not gonna be brought into the ball screen. Kyrie wants to go at Porzingis, so Derek Jones sets the pick Boston ice. Is it meaning they refuse the use of the screen. Kyrie ends up driving into the ice. Derek Jones pops to above the break. Notice Jalen Brown doesn't even rotate to him, because that's what they want. This entire scheme is designed to force Dallas to tilt
their offense towards above the break. Three point shots for bad shooters or I shouldn't say bad shooters, but mediocre and inconsistent streaky shooters. Here's another example of Dallas swarming in transition. Watch how many bodies go around Drew Holliday on this transition attack Boom, three bodies around him. What happens kick to Derek White open three bucket just can't do that. You just can't do that in this matchup.
You have to reprogram your entire approach to defense, to staying home, and then the on ball guy has to just do a better job of containing. Okay, so Derek Jones just missed a pick and pop three right. So now in this case, notice they get a little brush screen from Lively to get Tatum onto Luca to start right. Then Derek Jones sets the pick as Luca gets downhill. Now, Derek Jones just missed it above the break three, so this time he's gonna roll, but he's not a vertical spacer.
And look at this. In the last matchup, when they would do this, this would be Lively setting the pick right and then Derek Jones would be spotting up up here on the wing. So when Lively would roll, these two bodies would not be there. This would be empty space or Drew Holliday would have to come further down. And if Drew Holiday's down here, that's where Luca can throw this skip pass to Kyrie here in the corner. But he can't do that because Lively is sitting in
the dunker spot. This area is occupied. Now Derek Jones is rolling and the open space is up here. This is now all wasted space, right, So now Derek Jones is rolling into the lane, he's not a vertical spacing threat. If that's gaffered, Luca might just be able to throw
it up, but it's not. It's Derek Jones. He ends up kind of settling into the spot under the basket, and when he catches here, he's trying to go up straight vertical against a player that's got damn near a foot of height on him, and he smokes the layup. So I'm hoping these clips are doing a good job of demonstrating to you guys how Boston's kind of adjustment I shouldn't say adjustment, but a game plan of putting Tatum on the set just kind of jinks up everything
for Dallas's pick and roll attack. Here's an example of Porzingis being a switch. So we have Hardy on the ball, then they switch. Now Lively's on White. Lively, I thought, for the most part, did a good job on switches. As we said before the series, that's kind of what we expected. This is the problem, though, Porzingis just takes Jaydon Hardy down, pump fakes a couple times knocks downer jumper. That's just easy. Here's Howser defending Luca on a switch,
swipes the ball away from him. Great work from Howser individually, AND's then a turnover for Boston. Though. Here's another example. Now Porzingis is on Josh Green, Tatum's on Lively. Watch what happens ball screen. Josh Green pops Luca gets into the lane, Josh Green's open, doesn't want to take it, shoots this ugly floater off the front of the rim. See how like Dallas literally does not know what to
do to counter this issue at this point. This was just a play I included because I thought it was a really impressive play from Porzingis. This is a fake dribble handoff. So I want you to watch Lively closely right here, So Lively's on the ball. Watch as Porzingis dribbles at I think it's at Derek White, or is it at Tatum? Let's see is at Tatum. So watches Porzingis dribbles at No. Tatum cuts actually, and then it is at Derek White. So watches Porzingis dribbles at Derek White.
Watch what happens to Lively watch Lively's attention as Porzingis is faking the drible hand off right there, see boom right there, for a split second he favors the dribble hand off side, preparing for a switch. As a result, Porzingis is able to turn the corner and he gets into the lane and throws it down. Really impressive play from Porzingis. That's another great way to beat switching. By the way, there's actually another example of that later on
in the game that Drew Holliday does. Here's that stop that Howser got in the corner again eleven on the shot clock, straight ISO against one of the lesser perimeter defenders for Boston, and he just does a really good job and gets a great contest and forces him into a bad miss off the backboard. In transition. This is a classic trailing three. So Gafford's attention, he's on Porzingis, right, Gafford's attention is on Pritchard and getting back into the lane.
Look where he runs to. He runs to the free throw line, and then he goes, oh shit, I forgot I'm guarding Porzingis, who then settles into this trailing transition three. Most basketball coaches love a big that can shoot in transition because it's just one of the biggest loopholes in a transition defense is you prioritize the rim, you prioritize the ball, and so as a result, a big trailing
to play is almost always open. This was a nice block by Porzingis in a ball screen against Kyrie, and so this is another example of a random situation where they mix the coverage. This time Tatum's on Kliba and Porzingis is on the vertical spacing threat. When these opportunities are there, you have to capitalize on him. The lob is open right there, Boom, lob is open. That's gotta be a lot that You got to throw that right up here so Gafford can dunk it instead. Kyrie takes
this shot and gets blocked by Porzingis. Kyrie shot selection was really bad in the first second half. I thought he was just missing. First half though, Kyrie was making a lot of bad decisions. Another ISO possession where we get a switch where Horford ends up on Kyrie right. Once again, Horford holds up really well on a switch on an island against Kyrie. Irving. Watch this defense funnels him into the paint, gets a great contest, forces a miss.
Horford's switching defense was amazing in this game. So at this portion in the game, this is when Jalen Brown starts looking to attack Luka Doncic in two man game with Howser, So Derek Jones is on Jalen Brown. This is actually the same play that they ran when Jalen got the dunk. I'll show you guys when we get
to that clip here in a minute. But basically all that happens is Howser sets the pick, Jalen Brown, switches kind of like a soft switch onto Jalen Brown, and Jalen Brown just beats him off the dribble cleanly and gets a bucket. Here's another example of them swarming in transition and giving up an open three. So watch Drew Holiday attack. All these bodies kind of coalesce around him. Easy case got past to Howser, who it's the no dip jumper in the corner. Here's that exact same action
that they just ran for Jalen Brown. This time they get the dunk. So again Howser sets the pick, Jalen Brown attacks down hill, crosses over on Luca, gets the dunk. You're gonna see a lot of examples of this over the course of the rest of this game. Luca was just so bad on the ball. He was just so bad, and he just simply has to do a better job. This is one of the stops that Prichard got on Kyrie. Fast forward a little bit here. Okay, So Pritchard on
an island against Kyrie Irving. This is a matchup that Dallas has to win if they're gonna win this series. And Pritchard just does a really nice job, absorbs contact, forces Kyrie into a tough layup, and he misses it. Here's another example of the pick and pop situation. So this was the too big look that I talked about. What they would do is they'd put one of their bigs onto Lively and then they'd put the other big onto PJ. Washington, and they'd had that same exact issue. Right,
Luca comes downhill drop coverage. Look at all this congestion in here because of Lively and Horford. Again, that is where this matchup screws everything up for Dallas. They can't set ball screens with their centers, so they have to put their centers in the dunker spot, which just causes everything to get screwed up with the spacing. PJ. Washington's wide open, but he's a mediocre. I think he's below thirty percent on above the break threes in this postseason.
I think he was twenty nine and a half coming into the night. So like that SHOT's probably not going to go in. Here's another Porzingis shot attempt against the switch, so we get ball screen switch. Derek Jones is on Porzingis, swing pass, walks him down to the elbow, gets the ball back strong with it, gets a little closer, knocks down the jumper. Here's Horford defending Luca on the switch again, screen switch. When Lively rolls, Jalen Brown stays with him.
Look at this job, absorbs contact, beats him to a spot, gets a great contest on that pull up three, forces him into a miss. All right, We're gonna get another Porzingis attack of a switch here. All right, So we have Lively on Porzingis, Derek White with the ball, Porzingis sets the screen. Josh Green switches Porzingis, walks him down to the elbow post entry, pump Fay gets a little closer, knocks down the jumper, just did a brilliant job of
beating that coverage last night. On the other end of the floor, a nice stop from Tatum on Luca going the other way. A random double team from Luca. So again, instead of just getting matched up and playing defense, Luca's dribbling against his primary defender, Luca double teams for no reason. You can already guess how this movie ends. Swing swing, swing. Jalen Brown three knocks it down. This is bad defense. Another backcourt rip of Luca just guesses, beats him to
a spot, swipes him, goes up and dunks it. Here's another bad Luca defensive possession. He's guarding Drew Holliday. Drew just kind of dribbles at Tatum and then just cuts downhill on Luca beats him. Drop off pass for Derek White. Luca just has to do a better job containing the basketball. This is when Boston went up twenty nine. Dallas tried zone for one possession on It wasn't anything to do with the coverage. Here is pass to Tatum and then they screen the top part of the zone and Tatum
hits a contested pull up three. Now you're up twenty nine. Here's another one. Of Gafford's offensive rebounds against Tatum. This again is something I think they need to do a lot more of a better job of in Game two, just just making Boston pay for putting a forward on your center, missus. The shot bullies gets inside position, gets put back. I talked about the ugly stretch of offense
from Boston. This was just one random example. So again they went almost they went four minutes without getting the ball in the paint a single time, and over about what a six minute span they got the ball in the paint twice total. But it's a lot of stuff like this, eighteen seconds on the shot clock, just random contested jab step three, a lot of just kind of bad process from Boston in that stretch. Time out gets called right after Luca hits the step back three. Here's
your run. Here's the run that Boston fans told me is totally normal. Twenty nine to nine. Notice out of the time out, the what the job is here? Howser sets the pick, get Luca on a switch, get out of the way. Tatum drives on Luca, beats him cleanly, engages the rint protector. And again, when you engage the rint protector, you give Porzingis an opportunity. Luca honestly fouls him by just bumping into his back there just doesn't
get called, so it ends in his stop. But that's really good process, although Lively ends up getting called for a travel, same possession after the travel, Jalen Brown does the same thing. Bringhauser, set the pick, get Luca, drive right by Luca, get into the lane, draw foul just
Luca's inability to contain the basketball. This time, Jason Tatum does it in a ball screen, so it brings Cleba into the action or Lively into the action, gets downhill, beats Lively off the dribble, gets into the paint, kick to Porzingis. This doesn't go in, but that's a really good look. And then in the process again all these things are connected. So Lively's on Tatum right, So when Tatum makes this pass, Lively ends up making an impromptu
close out to Porzingis. So now no one's matched up with Tatum, so no one thinks to box him out. So Tatum gets the ball because that's Lively was the one who switched on to him, right. So that's an example of how getting into rotation can cause problems for you. On the glass as well. Porzingis gets a dunk. Another Tatum driving kick here going out, Lively beats him clean help a little overhelped too, Like what you don't need to be sending three bodies at Tatum on the drive here,
You're just gonna give yourself a lot of issues. This one ends with Jalen Brown driving into the lane and drawing another foul. So again that close out opportunity. Look at the closeout. He's got PJ. Washington sprinting at him this way, so the rip through to the right is easy because he's just his momentums carrying him too far. So by this whole sequence was generated by Tatum beating Lively off the dribble, and those are both fouls. By the way, I'm Lively like he's he's not vertical. He's
going down over Brown. Here's another example of the difference in vertical spacing between Derek Jones and a center. Okay, so we're trying to attack Horford ball screen. They basically are are It's a high drop with a drew chasing. It's effectively like a blitz. Derek Jones is rolling, but he's just not the vertical spacer that Lively or Gafford.
Is that's a dunk if that's Lively or Gafford. Two more another Jalen Brown hunting Luca play have tatums at the pick, get Luca, beat him off the dribble, swing swing wide open. Three. And then lastly Jalen Brown again drives past Kleiba, draws multiple defenders, gets Horford. But this is what so quality stuff from Boston again. Six out of the first seven possessions out of the time out,
you got quality driving kick possessions. Right, that's all good on the Dallas front, though that can't be a help from Gafford. That just can't. You got to force Jalen Brown to make a contested layup over Kleiba before you just hard help and leave a shooter wide open like this. So yeah, I hope that film session does a good job of kind of breaking down for you guys some
of the issues that Dallas was having with Boston last night. Obviously, some of the stuff with Boston's offensive process as well, when it's good versus when it's bad. And then, like I said, the adjustments for Dallas who went over earlier, I will go over them again. But there's some things they need to work on offensively and defensively to do a better job in Game two. As always, I sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting the show. I'm recording a mailbag right after this that'll be out on Saturday morning, and then obviously we're going live after Game two with Colin on Sunday night. I will see you guys. Then the volume