Hoops Tonight - Ja takes down Warriors with monster performance

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help in Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and Why or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York. In Tennessee redline dial one eight hundred eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee, visit www one eight dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel. Here at the volume, I'm Jason Timp Happy Tuesday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are off to another great start, in another great week,

A ton of great basketball to talk today. Both home teams bounced back. I was on both of them on FanDuel, so I'm happy with how I did as a sports

better tonight. I you know, the favorite, not necessarily the favorite, because Golden State is actually favored in their series, but the home team, the team with home court advantage down one zero in Game two, is a great betting opportunity because you just don't see the team with home court advantage fall behind all that often It is they are a desperate team playing on their home floor, and they

have home court advantage for a reason. Typically that means that they have a lot of talent on the roster. Usually that means you're top two seed when you may make it to the second round. Right. So obviously for both of these teams, for Milwaukee and for Golden State, there's a lot of series left, a lot of opportunity to make up for what happens tonight. But I'm glad that we get longer series. Longer series means more intense basketball. I like seeing games six is in game sevens and

things along those lines. So I'm gonna take it. We're gonna get into Golden State Memphis. I'm gonna talk about the Dylan Brooks ejection. I want to talk a little bit about the Warriors in general, with their continuity and the advantage it gives them in settings like this, because I thought it was insane with how poorly they played in so many areas of the game that they were

as competitive as they were tonight. And then at the end, we're gonna play a game of That's what he said, where we go over some of the best sound bites around the world of sports at the end of the show with my guy Carson. But let's start with Golden State Memphis, and you can't start anywhere other than with John Moran. You know, I thought there was a deliberate strategy from Golden State to guard John single coverage. And there's a bunch of different, you know, ideologies with how

to stop a star. And you've probably you know, you've heard the the cliches surrounding them, like make everybody else beat us or don't let anybody else beat us, Right, those are the two kind of strategies to go about, and for the most part, in the last couple of years, you've seen a lot more with uh, the make everybody else beat us type of strategy. You see so much more attention devoted to stars. We've talked about it a

lot on this show. Teams have just gotten so sophisticated with how to rotate on the back end, and then the losing of the traditional big man and supplementing that with another wing athlete, and then the complete disappearance of the traditional power forward. You know, the Paul Millsap type of player and bringing in range e athletic basically wings

that are playing the four. For the more part, the overall foot speed of these teams is so much higher than it used to be that you have the ability to cover ground on the back end, and usually you can get away with double teaming, but there's an advantage to going with single coverage, and it usually throws the other guys at a rhythm, right like the advantage is. You know, Desmond Bain had another really bad game. Desmond Baine is now in both games in this series been

pretty much useless offensively. We talked a lot about how Desmond Bain is not a traditional shot creator in the sense that you don't just throw him the ball against good defenses and he creates shots for himself. He's not that kind of wing. What he is is he's an advantage attacker. He's kind of like Clay Thompson. You can get him with the defender closing out at him from a distance, He's going to make plays. He'll either knock down a ton of threes or he'll pump bake and

get to the rim and things like that. But what if you stay home, What if you stay on Jaw single coverage and you consistently have a defender tied up with pain, he doesn't get those opportunities, and it affects him everywhere on the floor, and it affects the psychology of the total team. There's a reason why, even though Jaw had such an amazing night, this game wasn't you know, as much of a convincing win as you would have

hoped for. You know, if you if you tell me I'm gonna get forty seven, eight and eight at a Jaw, I'm hoping for a fifteen twenty point win, right, But no, it was close. And but here's the flip side. The advantage of going with single coverage on Jaws you throw everybody else out of rhythm. It helps you with defensive rebounding because you have guys assigned to bodies you know you have. There's a bunch of like obvious pluses that come from that. But the downside is this, John Morant

is a top ten basketball player on planet Earth. And so if you leave him in single coverage against great defensive players, excuse me, against you know, average to average to good defensive players, he's gonna have a ton of success, and that's where the Gary Payton Jr. Injury ended up being a massive swing factor in this game. We're gonna get to that minute. I have a gigantic problem with what Dylan Brooks did tonight. We'll get to that in

a second. But without Dylan or without Gary Payton Jr. Out there, there was a lot of John Rant against Steph Curry, against Clay Thompson, against Jordan Pool, even was getting shots off against Andrew Wiggins at the end of the game. And that's because John Morant, like I said, is a top ten NBA player, and if you leave him on an island, there's a chance that he burns you. To to Golden States credit. With the strategy, they had a very good chance to win the game. We'll get

to that in just a minute. But Jah was magnificent down the stretch, made every single play at the end of the game, despite Golden State having multiple punches and taking multiple leads at the end. You know, I made a lot of comps during this regular season between Jah in two thousand sixty Wade, because we know so much about playoff basketball from all of our years watching it, right,

and we know that matchups can swing a series. It's no different than you know, Roy Hibbert and with the Pacers, massive problems for Lebron and d Way because he was camped under the basket, and the way that that dragged those series is out. You saw Dwight Howard and two thousand and nine carry a team to the finals because nobody could guard him, and even a great team like the Cleveland Cavaliers was just you know, he ate zyderusgowskis

alive and it changed the series. Well. Back in two thousand six, something similar happened the Miami Heat team, and they were good, but they weren't your typical championship team that just absolutely destroys everybody all season long and then runs through everybody in the postseason. No, they were, you know, just a standard playoff team that had that one a tough series against the Detroit Pistons to get out of

the Eastern Conference. They fall down to zero to the Dallas Mavericks, and then something happens, a singular matchup factor that completely changed the series. And yes, officiating played depart in it, but nobody could guard Dwayne Wade, nobody could keep him in front, nobody could keep him out of the lane, and then when he got into the lane, he was such a freaky athlete vertically and with the speed linearly that he would just kind of fall down

half the time. And there was contact, the same type of contact that you see on a lot of playoff plays. But when you contact a player that's flying into the lane way faster than normal humans do, it's tough to interpret as an official. And so what happened. Dwyane Wade got a ship ton of calls, shot a million free throws. Then when they didn't fail him or they didn't have enough bodies in the paint, he was scoring at will and the paint and a young player who was not

the best player in the league. Very similar trajectory in terms of where his league standing is to a job Morant. Nobody could guard him, and he won an NBA championship. Now, is Memphis gonna win an NBA Championship? I don't think so. There's I mean, Steph Clay and Jordan Pool went six nine from three tonight and had nine turnovers. It was a disastrous game from Golden State and they damn near

took a two oh lead on your home floor. If I'm a Golden State Warriors fan tonight, I'm feeling fantastic about where we are in this series, but I wanted to you know, I have to credit Jaw and eight Flash that same thing that I'm talking about. No one could keep him in the front in front at the end of the game. All they did was traditional five out spacing, so they had, you know, guys in each corner, guys on each wing, and they basically had John Morant

at the top of the key spread floor. Just go to work and it's really simple, and it worked tonight. Now the question will be how sustainable is that. You guys know how how I feel about, you know, repetitiveness on offense and the playoffs. You can't just get away with running a high isolation time and time and time

and time and time again. Even if even if Jaws having success individually, and even if you have some of the spacing stuff figured out, the individual defenders, the guys like Steph, the guys like Jordan Pool, the guys like Wiggins, will get so accustomed to seeing the moves that John Morant is using that over the course of the series

they'll get more and more stops. And then again, if you're in single coverage in that situation and your other players are out of rhythm, That's where the problems can come. You know. My philosophy is is when you let a guy in single coverage like that all night long and you let him get going, a great time to start suddenly double teaming him is at the end of the game.

The reason why is nobody's in a rhythm. Nobody has any confidence if that ball ends up in Desmond Bains, Like Desmond Bain got a couple of wide open looks in that fourth quarter that he missed wide open. Desmond Bain was I think he led the league in three point percentage this year. So Desmon being fantastic shooter, missed some open shots at the end. That's where you gotta go in a in a in a setting like this is Jaw's got all the numbers. You got everybody out

of rhythm. Late game is when you start throwing extra bodies at him and try to turn him into a passer. Make guys make shots, you know what I'm saying. So from that standpoint, like you tip your cap to Jaw, he beat you because of your defensive strategy. He's gotta beat you four times. You did your job you went on the road as the team that doesn't have home courted manage. You stole a game in Golden State, and

as a result, now you have home court advantage. Now you go home to Golden State, you win a couple of games on your home floor. You have a three one lead. Now you can afford to go into Memphis and drop a game five if you have to, just like that Golden State again, you want to have a two oh lead. I get if you're a Warriors fan, you could be a little bit disappointed in the way things went. But at the end of the day, you stole a game in Memphis. That's all you had to do.

I want to move on to this Dylan Brooks ejection for a second. You know, the Draymond Green suspect. The Draymond Green ejection to me was a textbook like I thought he deserved to get ejected. We talked about on the show. It wasn't about the jersey poll, It's the combination. He loaded up slap Brandon Clark right in the face. I thought he did it deliberately as well, and then he grabbed the jersey and pulled him down. I thought

that deserved an ejection. But had they kept Draymond in the Green, Draymond Green in the game, wouldn't have had any problem with it, wouldn't have been an issue. They just happened to make the ejection and I thought that that was a defense. Will call this one. There was no defense for it. If they would have left him in the game, it would have been a travesty. It was an outrageously dirty play. I actually had a huge problem with shock and Charles Barkley going into the halftime

show and talking about how he was going for the ball. No, he wasn't, like it was disguised like that. He swung in a trajectory where his hand was kind of in the same direction of the ball, but he wasn't even close to the ball, and he intentionally followed through on his head. Gary Payton had a clear advantage going to the rim, and Dylan Brooks made a deliberate attempt to knock him out of the air, which is frighteningly dangerous. He knew what he was doing, he knew it had

a risk of injury, and it did. It hurt him. There's a chance, like we don't know until we get the m R. I there's a chance he's got a seriously messed up elbow. And in addition to that, Gary Payton Jr. Is Not under contract next year. It's a you know, this is professional basketball. They don't Golden State doesn't owe him anything. If he has an elbow injury that keeps him out for six months or something like that and ends up being an issue, he'll have to

find another spot in the league potentially. That's the type of risk. That's why you don't do stuff like that, because you're messing with people's livelihoods at that point. Like Dylan, imagine if you were in a contract year man, and someone did that to your shooting elbow, Like that's the kind of that's the kind of situation that was. And you know, there's this stupid dynamic, you know. And Steve Kerr saw this coming a mile away. Steve Kerr was talking about how he expected this to be the most

physical game of the series. Clay Thompson talked about it as well. Draymond Green talked about it on his show. Everyone predicted physicality. There is a massive difference between physicality and playing dirty, you know, And I hate, I hate when I'm talking with older basketball players guys that have been around for a long time. When when guys start driving to the basket and they're like, oh, you gotta knock him on his ask, you gotta, you gotta, you

gotta knock him out of the air. You gotta do something to to stop him from getting into the lane. And whenever I'd hear guys talk like that, I'd be like, get out of here, man, that's dirty. Playing physical is about holding your ground. Playing physical is about being the aggressor on offense, and being the aggressor in box outs, and being the aggressor when you set screens, and being

the aggressor when you're driving to the basket. It's not about clabbering dudes out of mid air deliberately and knocking them in a position where they're precariously falling down on their elbow. That's not basketball. That's dirty. There's no place for that, And it was deliberate. I had a huge problem with it. If it were up to me, i'd suspend him. He wouldn't be allowed to play until Gary Payton Jr. Came back. But you know how that goes, it's probably not gonna happen. My guesses we'll see him

in game three. But I just, you know, it offends me personally as someone who's been around the game for a while when guys do stuff like that, because I just think it has no place in the game. And again, Dylan, imagine you're in his predicament. Imagine it's a contract year and you're literally going up to the basket and like you could if you don't want to give up the basket, grab him, hold him, do anything other than what you did. That was incredibly dangerous. Had a huge problem with it.

I want to talk about the Warriors continuity for a second because I thought this was super interesting. So you have this disastrous game, right uh, Steph Clay and Jordan Pool, I'll go six nine from three. You have this game where John Moraic goes for forty seven, eight and eight, makes all these huge plays, but you're right there at the end, and you had chances to win that game.

As a matter of fact, I through that entire fourth quarter I thought Golden State was going to win, And I thought, you know, it's a testament to the type of continuity and and confidence that this group has in all of these settings. You know, there's this culture in the NBA now player movement. Right, guys are teaming up elsewhere in the league, and I have zero problem with that. For the record, you guys have heard my take on

that before. We won't have to get into it tonight. However, you know, it puts certain teams at a disadvantage because it's an accumulation of talent. You know, if you run a team organically, try to build through the draft, try to build through free agency, have guys stay in your jersey for their entire careers. You know, it's hard to keep up with Kawhi Leonard calling up Paul George and going to a team that already was in the playoffs and then suddenly they become one of the most talented

teams in the league. It's hard to keep up with Clutch Sports is engine and the way that they can pull Lebron James and Anthony Davis into the biggest brand in the NBA and win a title in their first year together. It's hard to keep up with Kyrie and k D and all these things. Right, that's the the challenges you're trying to keep up from a talent perspective. But to Golden States credit, they did well enough in

the draft. I don't love the James Wiseman pick, But at the end of the day, overall, over the course of this era, they've done a great job drafting, and they have done savvy things, like when Kevin Dury wanted to leave, they brought back to Angelo Russell that they were able to flip into Andrew Wiggins, who's making pivotal plays for you in the playoffs right now. They did

a lot of really really smart things. But most importantly, the core group Steve Kerr, Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, and Draymond Green has seen it all and done it all. They've been in all these fights. That's why I thought it was super interesting that all of them were prepared for a physical blood bath tonight in Memphis. They were ready for it because they've been there before. They know

how to react to all of these things. I thought it was you know, we talked about, uh, we literally talked last night about how Doc Rivers was completely unwilling to use a lineup that he used in the first half that was damned successful, the one without any centers, and he just wouldn't use them the rest of the game, and I thought it cost them any chance of trying to upset Miami. Well, you know what Steve Kerr did.

He learned from Game one. There was a lineup that he used at the end of the third quarter and to start the fourth quarter that had no Draymond and had no Kivan Looney. They went with I think it was Clay and Jordan Pool, and then they had um Jonathan cominga otto porter and then they had Andrew Wiggins as the third guy or Gary Payton Jr. In the third as the third guy in that group right in that front court. Obviously, Gary Payton Jr's hurt, so tonight

they went with Damien Lee. But I was really imprest that that group that Kerr had to use by virtue of an ejection in Game one that had success. He learned from it, he paid attention to it. He started the fourth quarter tonight with that same group with Damian Lee in for for Gary Payton Jr. And they were plus three and three minutes, and so when the game was tied in the fourth quarter, you you were able to bring step back later in the fourth quarter with

the lead. And that's a huge advantage. That's experience from Kurr. That's a lack of stubbornness from Kurr. That's a willingness to acknowledge information that's readily available in front of you and to adopt that information and use it in the game. I thought there were a bunch of really really smart plays throughout that game. Steph. Late in the in the

third quarter, Uh, they went on. The Warriors went on a thirteen to three run to close a ten point lead to a tie in the last five minutes of the third quarter, and it was all just Steph relentlessly attacking the rim. Auto Porter and Andrew Wiggins have both been absolute monsters on the offensive glass of late. They had three offensive rebounds in that sequence to end the third quarter, two of which lad to uh points for

the Warriors. They get we talked about that center list line up to start the fourth, then you know, go Uh. Memphis goes on a little bit running, a little running gets a lead, but they come out of a time out and it's like a beautiful out of bounds play that gets an awesome backdoor cut for Clay Thompson there the next possession down like Andrew Wiggins back cut, Draymond Green hits him for a layup. Draymond h Andrew Wiggins

had that beautiful spinning float in the lane. They just look like a team that is so comfortable and confident executing and all of these situations, and and it's just such an advantage to have in these situations. Like you, again, if you're a Warriors fan, you have to feel fantastic about where you are in this series, to have played easily your worst game and to have had a chance to win on the road in Memphis, and I just think it's again, there's nothing. There is a reflex in

basketball that comes from continuity. When you play with the same group of guys time and time again for years and years and years, the whole game becomes like a reflex for you. It's you don't even have to think about. It just happens naturally. And this team has a natural

winning reflex. Everything that they do and they have done over the last ten years, has built in this set of habits to where no matter the prigament predicament, whether it's super physical, whether they're trailing, whether they have the lead, whether it's the fourth quarter, whether it's you know, in a playoff series or in the regular season, they just reflexively know what to do. To get the job done

and to win the game. And I think it's a credit to the way that they've built that team, and it's and it's it's good for the league that they've had success in this specific way because it's an example that you don't have to do it the super team route. You don't have to do it by by teaming up

superstars on your team. If you build organically through the draft and you have an organization that's well run enough that people want to stay, and you get that continuity year over year over year over year, and you draft well enough that as your stars age, you have more talent supplementing them, Guys like Jordan Poole. I thought Jonathan

Cominga made a lot of really big plays tonight. When you have that set up, it makes you have that lot lasting continuity, and it gives you the the the the the fall back set of reflexes and habits to win important basketball games. And it's what makes it's what makes Golden State such an interesting team. It's why they have such a big and and and you know, voracious fan base, and it's what makes them so much fun to watch. It's why they branded basketball is so new,

so ne unique. But before we move on to the Celtics and the Bucks, I wanted to go over a couple of quick housekeeping things. Make sure you like this video and subscribe to the channel. Check out our newsletter. Our newsletter, there's a link to subscribe it in the description of this video. It's a great way to keep up with all of our content, and this is the place to get all dream on Green content. He will

be reacting to this game at some point later this week. Also, don't forget to follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt That's the great place to see all of the video breakdowns that I do of these games. And subscribe to our podcast feed. It's under Lakers Tonight, so you have to google Lakers Tonight. It's your podcast feed, but you can find our show there. Just in case you can't watch the whole thing on YouTube, that's another great place to watch it. But before we check out Bucks Celtics,

here's a promo about some other great content at the volume. Hi, it's Colin Coward. I started the volume to bring you some of the most apathetic voices in sports. While you're here, make sure we hit subscribe. Thanks. All right, let's move on to the Bucks and the Celtics. So I thought it was really interesting after Game one Boston was a five point favorite in Vegas, and then they were a

five point favorite again tonight, and it's just the latest example. Obviously, Vegas is not as clean and cut and dry of a prediction because they're factoring in public money and a lot of those scenarios. However, I thought it was interesting that they didn't overreact to Game one. And you know, I said that Boston would win the series in five and after Game one, I told you guys that I thought would probably be longer because I didn't think Boston would lose one of their first two games, and so

things are gonna stretch longer. It's gonna be a longer series, and Milwaukee does have a chance to win, which before the series, I thought they had a very small chance to win. So Milwaukee has shown me a lot to demonstrate that this is gonna be a lot more competitive than even I thought it would be. However, we are Boston picked for this show. Our pick of Boston was not based on you know, like anti Janice, you know, sentiment or any sort of hopefulness. It was reacting to

information that was right in front of their eyes. Like, guys, I covered the Lakers this year and last year. The vast majority of my followers are Lakers fans. Do you think I stand to gain anything by suddenly becoming a Celtics fan, Like, of course not. All I'm doing is responding to information that's taking place right in front of me. I we had a season's worth of data that showed

that Boston was the best defense in the league. I had half of the season's worth of data that showed that Boston was by far the best defense in the league we had during that span. They were also the best offense in the league. They took a team in Brooklyn that was the preseason title favorite that yes, didn't farewell in the regular season, but when Kadi and Kyrie were on the floor, they were a very good team,

and Boston just handled them, just completely handled them. They took one of the best basketball players in NBA history at the top of his game and made him struggle worse than I have ever seen him struggle. That's the type of stuff we were seeing from Boston. That's why I picked them, not because I'm a Celtics fan, not because I dislike you, honest not because I have some skin in the game. I'm simply reacting to information that happens right in front of me. And that's why Boston

was a minus two hundred favorite before the series. What happened in Game one, Boston defended extremely well in the half court. Boston on certain offensive possessions looked good, particularly when they were driving and kicking, getting feet in the paint and hitting shooters in the pocket for catch and shoot opportunities. They really struggled when they went off kilter and tried to force things when they started shooting off the dribble. We talked about how non Tatum Celtics were

over eleven on pull up jump shots. They had a lot of really bad turnovers, and then when they turned the ball over, Milwaukee scored every single time, literally every steel that Milwaukee had they went down and scored. They scored two point three three points per steel opportunity against Boston. That was where they lost the game. They lost it in transition. Now, there were a lot of other things there.

You know, Boston's offense does have some limitations. They had had stretches this year where they've struggled, So that's to be expected at certain stretches, but that's all been factored in when we're making these predictions. I thought it was really interesting what Email Udoka said before the game same Van Gundy was talking about it in the opening minutes. Email Judoka's major takeaways from game one where no early clock contested threes, which is exactly what we talked about.

How many times you'd see Jalen Brown come down the floor, get a ball screen and just pull up a three with seventeen on the shot clock when he's open, but it's not really that open, you know what I mean. There's a lot of that kind of stuff. And then Email Yudoka said he wanted multiple drive in kicks, which is something we talked about a ton on this show.

The concept of further compromising the defense with each progressive action, turning a good shot into a great shot, and you do that by perpetually applying rim pressure and kicking out

the shooters. You know, in this game, I talked a lot about how in the first game, part of the reason why Boston struggled so much from two was the types of shots they were taking and the fact that nothing was really all that high quality of a shot well in this game after only attempting I think they I think they were ten for twenty four from two point range in uh in game one, they attempted thirty seven two's tonight and they were eighteen for thirty seven,

And a big part of that was early in the game they generated quality three point shots, and with those quality three point shots, they loosened up the defense. They went twenty for forty three from three tonight. That's an awesome percentage. That's what Milwaukee's defense gives up. I keep seeing things. I keep seeing it from stand Van Gundy too. Like Boston has to find a way to score, two is Boston has to find a way to score at the rim. They're not going to. Milwaukee plays two centers

sometimes three. Two of them are premier shot blockers, and no matter what, one of them is directly under the basket. So be my guest if you want to try to score over that all night long, the most realistic way to try to score is to loosen things up from the perimeter first and then take advantage of opportunities as

they come around the basket. But email you don't get you know, obviously, we work hard at this show to try to to to to watch the film and to be you know, aware of what's actually happening on the court. And I thought it was cool that he may. Judoka mentioned some things that we specifically talked about on this show. Moving on to Jalen Brown, we talked. Carson asked me, you know, before the game, he said, who's the guy that's most important for Boston to be able to figure

this out? And I said it was Jalen Brown. And it's because of the fact that, you know, not only did he play poorly in game one, but it's not even like he's a role player. This guy is a star. He's a two way star. Is he Paul George? No, But he's you know, a tear right below that. He's a guy that on any given night can create shots for himself at all three levels of the floor. He did a lot of scoring from the mid range tonight.

We did. We showed you guys those shot charts last night, and I talked about how Boston needed more variety in their shot selection. Well, Jalen Brown made five. Jalen Brown and now Horford, between the two of them, I think made four or five mid range shots just in the first quarter after they made zero mid range shots in Game one. Adding that variety makes you tougher to guard, and you started to see that they were all open

to The Al Horford shot was wide open. The Jalen Brown step backs like the defender is overplaying the paint, so when he does that hard pound dribble into that step back between his legs, he's getting tons of separation. Those are open shots, and as a result, Jalen had a monster night. He had thirty points, five rebounds, and six assists. He was eleven for eighteen from the field, six for ten from three. He was demonstrating all of

that shot making. He was definitively either the best or second best player on the floor tonight after being like the ten or eleventh best player in Game one. That's that influx of talent that makes the big difference in the outcome of the game. You know, Boston's defense is something we've talked a ton about on this show, but there are a couple of specific impacts that make them

so interesting. And the biggest thing is, you know, for those of you guys who've been following me over the last couple of years, the big reason why I talked so much about switching defenses is because switching defenses stagnate NBA offenses. You can't run actions, you can't. You can't just you know, run a staggered screen for a shooter coming off. It's not gonna gain an advantage because whoever is guarding the second screen is just gonna grab the

shooter as he's coming out. Or if you're running a flex action, or if you're running complicated pick and rolls or whatever it is you're doing, a good switching defense will simply be a one step ahead of you, and they're just gonna be somebody waiting for you when you're coming off the screen and nothing is really open, and

it turns you into an isolation team. And I thought it was really interesting that the Bucks made thirty four field goals tonight and they only had sixteen assists, so literally eighteen of their thirty four made field goals were unassisted, meaning even when they did score, for the most part, it was in isolation sar scenarios, and it stagnates you. It makes it harder for you to score. Milwaukee only

at eighties six points in this game. Again, the important, the important impact of of stagnation is it throws everybody out of rhythm. You know, it's hard for everybody to feel confident and feel in a flow if the ball is not really popping around, and the ball doesn't really pop around against switching, Defen says, because nobody's really open. Everyone's kind of staying home, and they're trying to bait you into playing io ball, into playing your turn my turnball.

Boston has been really effective at doing that all year, and they did it really really well tonight. You know, a huge part of what made that work was discovering that they could single cover nice on most of the possessions. So in game one, Grant Williams really struggled, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that um uh, Boston wasn't hitting him enough when he was open at the three point line. There were a bunch of missed opportunities there, obviously at a great offensive night tonight.

But in game one only Al Horford demonstrated that he could guard Janice on an island. But in Game two, immediately in the first quarter, Grant Williams came out and clearly demonstrated that he was not going to be ran over. That he was going to hold his ground and make your honest shoot over the top. That put them in a situation where now because they had two guys that they could cover your honest in single coverage with, it made things a lot more difficult for Janice. Now. He

struggled mightily in the first half. In the second half he started to get going just by relentlessly trying to pressure guys like Grant and al Horford. They did a lot better job of clearing the side and putting him in the post and making it so that he had a little bit more space to operate. But for the most part they had some success. You're honest. We talked about I am relenting. Now, he's the best basketball player

in the world. I will admit it. So like obviously he's going to eventually break through that wall and have some success, and he did in the second half. But it's a very very interesting, you know, tool to have in your toolbox for Boston to know that for the most part, Grant Williams and al Horford can do a decent job in single coverage on j Honese. And the last note, on Boston's offense, they took much better care of the basketball. We talked about how Milwaukee scored on

just about every single steal that they had. Well, Milwaukee only had six fast breakpoints in this game after having twenty eight fast break points in Game one. Taking away that supplementary offense for Milwaukee trapped them in the half court all night long, and their Boston's half court defense was at silint in Game one. It was even better tonight in Game two, and it was a big part of why they were able to get so many stops. I wanted to talk about Janice for a little bit.

So you know, Janice, he struggled, uh, really badly in that first half, had some success in that second half. You know, there's a lot of talk about the way that he's officiated. My issue with it is like, I don't have any problem with Janice being physically aggressive. I don't have any problem with Lebron being physically aggressive. I don't have any problem with Joel and Bid being physically aggressive.

My thing is leeway. If you were going to give leeway for Johannice to drop his shoulder and try to run people over, then you have to give leeway to

the defensive player back to be physical. In return, you can't be by the book with the defensive player on your honest and then give Joannice all sorts of leeway with off arms and dropping his shoulder and player control fouls and all that stuff, because there's by the book stuff on offense too that says that if a player has position, you're not allowed to run in mode that you know, you're not allowed to drop your shoulder, you're

not allowed to extend an off arm. There are a lot of things that the off ensive player is not allowed to do. You know, I've I've talked about this a lot on the show. I have no issue with the fact that Lebron doesn't get many foul calls because I think Lebron initiates a ton of contact. So my thing is like, let Lebron play Lebron ball, let the defender be physical back. And I feel the same way

with your honest. There was a few plays there in that second half where it started to kind of feel like the refs didn't know what to do with your honest, and that's kind of the predicament he puts you in. It's a credit to Jannice. Again, this is not It's just like with the Joel and beat thing. This is not an insult to Jannice. This is an issue with

officiating and the way that they are inconsistent. There was a play in the second half where Jannas barreled down the lane and ran over Robert Williams, just completely ran them over and got a layup. It was called an and one. Then on the very next trip down, Jason Tatum is posting up on Grayson Allen and just as a basic like backdown dribble and Grayson Allen flops and they call an offensive foul. You can't. You can't give leeway to Janice if you're not gonna give it to

other players on the court. That's just that's just my little two sense. I know I complain about officiating all the time. It's just, you know, I'm a big believer and letting guys play basketball and rest being less involved. And I know it's really tough with the honest, but there needs to be Again, all I'm saying is I don't want to see Janice living at the free throw line when he's running people over. Make him play basketball the same way that every other player in the league

is supposed to play. You know, the one of the interesting things about having Grant Williams and Al Horford in single coverage is it forces your honest to be more of a shotmaker. And tonight he had three in transition in the second half. He had a little mid range jump shot that he made in the second half, but for the most part, they made him shoot over the top and he struggled in that department, and that's his one specific weakness. You know, Janice has demonstrated that he's

come miles as a playmaker. He obviously is the best paint scorer that we have in the league. He's, you know, one of the best defensive players that we have in the league. His one hole is like half court shot making. And one of the things that's gonna be tested over the course of the series is, you know, Boston's gonna try to bait him into taking those shots. And in the first half he did. He took a lot of

jump shots. In the second half, he was much more deliberate about, like, Hey, if you're gonna put Grant Williams and Al Horford on me, I'm gonna try to run

you over. Even if I don't get calls, even if I missed shots, I'm gonna try to wear you down, and that kind of goes to that concept that we were talking about, you know, after Game one, where Janice forced a lot of things in traffic, and I talked about the cumulative effect of rim pressure if you just keep doing that over the course of a seven game series, as the game's progress, as we get later into the series, it gets harder and harder to build that wall, It

gets harder and harder to hold your ground, and there is probably going to be a monster Jannice game later in this series, or Boston struggles to build that wall and he gets like forty six points with like you know, you know, twelve or thirteen dunks. That's just kind of the natural order of things, you know, Boston. We talked a lot about how after Game one Boston played scared, that they were deferential to Janice, that they seemed to

be kind of like trapped in his aura. I thought from the opening tip tonight they threw that right out the window and they were like, no, screw that, we don't care that. He's honest, We're gonna play basketball the way that we want to play. That's the way they have to be. If you play scared, you're dead on arrival. Last note before we move on, Milwaukee didn't play a little bit better in the second half. This is that

fake comeback concept. I never like getting too you know, wrapped up in second half comebacks when you fall into a massive deficit, because almost always, if you're a team like Boston, especially a team like Boston that has some guys that are banged up, you know, like Marcus Smart obviously missed this game. They have three days off until Saturday,

Jalen Brown's dealing with a hamstring thing. There's a tendency to be like, we're up, let's just escape, Like, let's just get out of here with the win and move on, rather than going for the jugular. It's obviously you'd prefer to see teams stay aggressive down the stretch, but it's a lot easier said than done. I thought that was a big part of why Milwaukee did sort of kind of sort of threatened. But here's the three reality. Even in that second half for Milwaukee played better, they only

scored forty six points. So for all of that talk about you know, Milwaukee getting quality looks at the rim, and and and and you know, Boston struggling to get shots at the rim. Well, guess what, Milwaukee still only scored forty six points, so it's not like they had some massive offensive revelation in that second half. The only real the only real takeaway I got in terms of

like something to move forward with Janice, there were two things. One, when they used Joannice as a screener, they were Boston was just hugging up on the screener, which instead of playing pick and roll coverages like having a guy in drop coverage or showing on the screen or trapping or anything like that, they were just hugging onto Janice, which

effectively makes it like a double screen. And so the guy who was guarding the ball handler kept getting caught on that screen and Milwaukee was getting into the pain off of that. Boston's gonna have to figure out some adjustments there. And then one last thing. One of the ways that Janice started to have success against Al Horford and Grant Williams was clearing the side instead of having an attack in the middle of the floor where Janice

was struggling with understanding where help was coming from. They spaced everybody out past the three point line, like five ft out past the three point line, put Janie on that left block, and they were just like, here's the entire floor for you. Puts the Boston help defenders in a weird position where they they don't know if they're supposed to help because their defend their offensive players so

far away, or if they're supposed to stay home. And Johanna had some success there, so that's definitely something that they're gonna want to go to in Game three to try to get you honest going. But hey, this is the bounce back game from Boston. Just like I said, don't take victory laps after game one, I'm not gonna take a victory lap after Game two. Yes, I think Boston is a better team. Yes, I think they're gonna win the series. I was wrong in the sense that

it's not gonna be a walkover. Milwaukee is gonna have some they're gonna win probably at least one of these two games here in Milwaukee next week or on Saturday, so a Saturday Monday. So this isn't over by any stretch. Even if you're a Boston fan. There's no way to

no no time to relax. However, what was encouraging tonight in terms of my prediction was I started to see some of the things materialized that I saw on tape over the course of the last six months, which, obviously, you know, your team tells you who they are over the big sample size, not over the small sample size, and over a big sample size. Boston has demonstrated to us that they were the best team in the league.

Here tonight they demonstrated it again. They're gonna have to demonstrate it three more times in order to get out of this round, but we're gonna move on by It's Colin Coward. I started the volume to bring you some of the most apathetic voices in sports. While you're here, make sure you hit subscribe. Thanks. The playoffs are here and you can make every game feel like Game seven on Fandel Sports Book, an official partner of the NBA.

FanDuel is hooking you up with free bets throughout the playoffs. It doesn't matter if you're a new customer or already have an account. Just be sure to check out the app for exclusive weekly same game parlay promos. Vandel has so many ways to play, and best of all, when you win, you'll get paid faster than a fast break. New to FanDuel, just download the fan Duel sports book app and signed up with promo Code Jason T. Once again, that's promo code Jason T. All right, we're gonna bring

my guy Carson on to play a game. Yeah, all right, Jason. The game is a personal favorite of mine. I would He said, we're gonna take some of the most interesting sound bites from around the league and we'll play them, will get your reactions. So we're gonna start with a pretty unfortunate one, and it's related to the Dylan Brooks flagrant foul on Gary Payton the second that ended up earning him an objection. It has Sentimen. Sentimen announced that

GP two actually fractured his left elbow from that. Just a pretty brutal play and fall all around, like honestly borderline clothes line to the head. So Steve Kerr talked about that, gave his thoughts on the play from Brooks. So let's hear that now. I don't know if it was intentional, but it was dirty. And U you know, playoff basketball, it's gone. It's supposed to be physical. You know,

everybody's gonna compete, everybody's gonna fight for everything. But there's a code in this league to code that players follow um where you never put a guy's season slash career in Jeffrey like taking somebody out in mid air and

clubbing him across the head, ultimately fracturing Verry's healthful. And this is a guy who's been toiling the last six years trying to make it in this a leading UM finally found a home just you know, playing his butt off this year UM in the playoffs, you know this yet being the time of his length, and guy comes in lasting across the head into there. He broke the code on Brooks broke the code. That's how I'm Steve. Obviously there's a lot to unpack their ker has that.

I don't know if it was intentional, but it was dirty. Quote he talks about Brooks breaking the code, talks about just obviously how devastating he is for g P two individually, given his journey. So given all that, what's your initial reaction to that from Kerr and thoughts on the play overall? Man, Steve Kerr is a great basketball coach, but he's an

exceptional human being overall as well. And I'm really glad that he was able to eloquently lay that out because I tried to say something similar earlier in the show, and I think it just carries so much more impact coming from him, and it was so important for him to say that. Look, guys, like I've talked about Gary Payton a lot on this show, like in a lot of ways, Like, you know, him and I had a

similar goal and we followed a similar path. We both came up through junior college and then went to four year schools. He was better than me, And you know, I'm I have I met peace with knowing that I didn't make it because I wasn't good enough. I don't lose sleep because I feel like I got screwed over or because I felt like some things didn't go my way. That we're supposed to go my way. You know, I

met peace with that. Gary Payton. You know, I've been rooting for him ever since him and I crossed paths in our college basketball careers, and and I've been rooting for him over the course of the the last few years.

I wanted the Lakers to sign him a bunch of times, and you know, like Steve said, like that's that's a tough journey, especially when you go that route, like there's a it's a completely different route than the route that uh um to the route that like a Lebron James goes through coming up as like a high school superstar and getting recruited, like the grind of trying to make

it in professional basketball. Like you know, I I know a bunch of guys who are currently going through that grind overseas that have goals to try to make it back over here. I've got a buddy from two on, a guy named Bryce Cotton that I played with growing up, who briefly was in the league and now he's in Australia fighting there. Like there is like a kind of like a brotherhood that exists amongst all of these basketball players that are trying on this journey and it is

so incredibly difficult. And when you get that, when you get that call and you get that opportunity, it means so much. And like again, like I told you guys earlier in the show, and I and I mean it from the bottom of my heart, like you don't play with that, you don't play with that. And most importantly, like to Steve Kerr's original point about there being a code, I'd argue that code extends down the line like in your local pickup game up at the y m c A or up at the l A fitness or wherever

it is that you play. If a guy's going up for a layup and he's mid in mid air and you don't have a legitimate chance to block the shot, you let him go. You don't, you don't, Or if you foul him, you foul him in a way that's not dangerous. You reckless swinging or tackling or undercutting of a player that is flying towards the basket is completely

out of line at every level of the game. And Dylan knows that, and he willingly made a conscious decision at that point to risk Gary Payton's basketball career, and he severely injured him, and he probably won't play again in this playoff run. And quite frankly, I have no interest in seeing Dylan Brooks play again in this playoff run. So you touched on it a bit there. I mean, obviously, the first reaction has to be empathy for Gary Payton,

the second and what this means for him. But that last comment there, what do you think is an appropriate punishment for Dylan Brooks beyond obviously just the injection it's hard because, you know, again to Steve Kerr's original point of intentionality, I don't think Dylan Brooks intentionally tried to hurt Gary Payton, but he did intentionally make a decision that he knew carried a high risk of hurting Gary Payton Jr. And so from that it's almost like a

reckless endanger type of deal. So, I mean, here's the thing, I think you should be suspended. The length of the suspension is super complicated because if you suspend him for the remainder of the playoffs, Memphis will freak out and probably have a right too, because that's a pretty extensive punishment for a play that, again, intentionally, he wasn't trying to hurt him, right, but it was the risk involved. I would I would suspend him for the rest of

the series, though I think that's fair. He's gonna miss somewhere between what three and five games. That's a reasonable suspension in the sense that it's not so egregiously long that it's you know, borderline like reactionary. But at the same time, it's like, hey, if you're gonna if you're gonna try to beat the Warriors about Gary Payton, congrats, you're gonna beat him Withoutdylan Brooks now because he's the one that took him out. That's that's the way I

would do it if I was in charge. Yeah, And I mean that is significant. It's pretty rare, I would say, to see a multiple game suspension in the NBA for one individual play. But this is play grant as it gets, I would say. So. Another obvious important component of this is that Gary Payton the second although his journey has been so improbable and whatnot, and he hasn't always been the biggest name, he has become a very important member

of this Warrior's rotation. He started both Games one, and to play twenty three minutes in Game one at times look like the best counter maybe defensively, I would say, actually, certainly, uh for John Morant on the perimeter for this Warrior's team. So how does this impact them in terms of their effort to win this series, their rotation, and just the overall basketball product we're gonna see from the Warriors. Well, that last thing you said is the most important thing.

Like he is specifically in this matchup was vitally important for Golden State. So I mean that they're like the more the more we stare at this situation, it just is even more egregious with the with the passing second. I mean, look, here's the deal. A lot of Gary Payton's minutes we're getting taken out of Jordan Pools minutes. And my guess is they won't dip into other parts of the rotation too often. I think it'll just kind of his minutes will just be dispersed among the guards

taking on a bigger workload. But you did see in that fourth quarter they went with Damian Leo little a little bit. I like Damien Lee. He's a solid wing. He's actually been in and out of the rotation for Golden State a lot over the of course the last

couple of years. He's a big athletic to guard. He's got a good amount of strength to him, a little bit more like heft, like physical hefton, meaning like ability to hold his ground in physical mismatches, which may actually end up being an advantage in this specific series without with how strong Memphis is. But my guesses you'll see little doses of Damian Lee here and there, but for the most part, his minutes will be dispersed among the

other guards on the team. Alright, Well, obviously again devastating news, not just because I mean, it's terrible to see anybody go down like that, and it's really unfortunate to have a lead to an injury. I do particularly love watching GP you play and it is an unbelievable stories just ruck on that front. All right, we have another clip from a member of the Warriors team not on this series though, of course, we have The Draymond Green Show

here at the volume. Everybody should go listen. It is I think some of the most engaging sports content out there. He gave his predictions for Maths Sons and had an interesting take. So let's take a listen any stretch of the imagination. And so I'm gonna admit, this is a tough one for me to pick. It's a pick um. I feel like it's a coin flip. Both teams are really good. Do I have to pick one? If I have to pick one, you have to pick one. I'm gonna pick They're underdog. I'm gonna go with the MAVs.

So Jason Draymond even said before the series when he made that pick, he thought the Songs would win Game one, so he is not off path with his prediction there. What are your thoughts on that very very bold take from Draymond. You know, it's not bold to pick Luca to win a playoff series. You know, I absolutely think Dallas has a chance, but I think they're an underdog for a reason. Phoenix has a ridiculous amount of talent.

We've talked about it extensively on this show. The thing that makes it really really hard is like, you know, I look at specific things with that are sustainable, right, and generally speaking, I'm gonna look at shot quality. Now. What I noticed after two games of the Nets Celtics series was Brooklyn could not generate good shots. And as soon as I saw that, I was like, okay, I've seen almost a hundred minutes of evidence that Brooklyn can't get good shots. This series is over. They can't win.

That's all she wrote. It's over, right. You know, I'm always gonna wait at least two games before I make that type of call. But didn't love the shot quality they got in Game one. Seemed like Phoenix was getting easier shots consistently every time down the floor. There's some adjustment things that they could do. I thought Phoenix did a similar thing that Golden State did too. Phoenix did a similar thing that Golden State did to John Ran tonight.

They consistently let they tried to turn Luca into score, stayed home on all of the off ball reads for the most part, and especially as the game progressed, and I think, what what did Luca finished with? Like forty five points or something like that, but it was, you know, never really threatened, right, So obviously that's the strategy that

they're going with. So they're gonna have to find some way to have Luca be more effective so that they have to start sending help because that's when the ball starts moving around, and that's when Dallas gets especially dangerous. Again, Dallas has a chance to win, but Phoenix is demonstrated throughout the entire season that they're the best team if you pay attention to personnel. They have the most talent

top to bottom of any roster in the NBA. So the challenges set in front of him, and then half home court is obviously an issue as well. Phoenix's home crowd is is a very his crowd, and and you know, not that you don't trust Luca in those environments, but definitely a bold pick from Mr Draymond and if I if I felt like messing with him and his pick was wrong, I tell me needs to be fired afterwards.

But I'm just yeah, it is bold. And obviously the Luca factor is so important there because in terms of playoff production up to this point, he is historically unrivaled. I mean it's over thirty three and basically nine and nine on almost fifty nine percentury shooting across the three postseasons we've seen, and just the ability to impose his will as the score and playmaker is versatility. Possession after possession is wild, and obviously it's what makes him so great.

So I actually made a TikTok for us today at the volume of the top five guys left in the playoffs, who I would most want for the rest of this run. I had Luca to behind only Janice. Where do you think he would be for you in that conversation? Oh man, that is a good question. Carson Steph had a rough nighty and tonight he's having trouble taking care of the basketball. He's just definitely now some of this is the foot right.

So like again, I I I want to wait to make like a final call on steps decline until next year in training camp. But you can tell he's struggling to get separation to generate his own shot compared to when he was in his prime. So whereas like Luca is, you know, very clearly at the peak of his powers, I think John, this is a clear number one. You know,

Tatum obviously complicates that list a little bit. I might even Potatum a little bit ahead of Steff, but I'm not sure, you know, I think I trust stepped more in a big game, but in terms of like day and day out the rest of the season, I think

I'd take Tatum. Uh. Here's the thing with Luca, man, Like he just keeps coming, Like awful, awful start against Phoenix downten Oh had a couple of sloppy turnovers through the ball, Like I had a floater that he missed short there down ten zero, looks like everything's bad, but he just kept coming and next thing you know, it's like here's a run from Dallas and he you know, I tweeted this out and it's I've texted this to

you guys actually, and it's the truth from my perspective. Like, to me, it reminds me of watching two thousand eighteen Lebron in terms of just command of the half court offense in the sense that like he's initiating everything. The defense knows exactly what he's gonna do. They know exactly the like the spots on the floor he's trying to get to. They know exactly what passing reads he's looking at. You know exactly what his scoring reeds are, and they

just can't do anything with it. You know. Obviously it lacks that athletic pop that Lebron had and some of the defensive pop, but you know, like it's he's majestic to watch in the half court. He's becoming one of my favorite players to watch, and I would agree with you. I think he's probably the second best player left in this playoff run. Yeah, it is a remarkable skill set and I just think he is on the trajector to

be greatest offensive players we have ever seen. He kind of has everything that you could look for in that respect. We've got one last clip here. You have been a huge believer in the Celtics and specifically their defense, calling it the best that you've seen. It was a really stellar bounce back game from them in Game two, big win obviously email Doka head coach touched on that improvement from game one to game two. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. See even and that

level of physicality has been increased. Yeah, guarding the way we have been all year, and even in game one, we felt we were okay in the half court, but we're just sloppy and you know, turnovers trans transition that we gave up kind of helped them as far as that, so we knew we could be good again in the half court. It was more so good offense and take care of the ball, but offensively, I think us getting

downhill attacking a little bit more. You know. The point is they have good rain protectors and they you know, crowd the paint, but it's not Will Chamberlain out there. As guys. We can get downhill and attack and and you know, we got guys that can finish and so uh still missed a few dump offs and robbed tonight, Uh, a few dump offs the al as well, but obviously much better getting downhill and attacking Lopez tonight. Jason, what

are your thoughts on that? For me? Ma, you know, you me and the rest of the team here, we do a show that covers the NBA, and I think it's one of the best compliments that we can have when we see NBA coaches and personnel end up saying the same things that we say after we've done our homework. You know, those are all very specific things, Carson, that you and I talked about extensively over the course the

last two days. Their half court defense was excellent in the in the in offense, their decision making and taking care of the basketball lead them to transition opportunities where Milwaukee killed them. They you know, we talked about how they struggled with how to attack the paint, and one of the things I thought they did a much better job tonight of was being selective about when to drive driving when they I mean when they tried to finish.

Obviously you have to consistently drive, but they did a much better job of selectively decide when to try to challenge Janice or Drew or Joannice or Brooke at the rim versus kicking out two shooters and things along those lines. We did this whole thing with shot charts, and they came out in the first quarter attacking from the mid range. So like just like everything that you and I talked about, Boston went out and executed and it led to a

sixty five to forty win. And you know, there in the first half, I should say, it's the point being like, that's that's exactly, That's exactly what what made me so confident about this team from the beginning of the year. They're the best defensive team that I've seen in this era. They switch everything and they stagnate. You Milwaukee had assists on fewer than half of their made field goals. It turned through Holiday and Janice into isolation players all night long,

and both of them struggled in that role. Although Janice got going a little bit there in the third quarter. Everything went exactly as I expected in this particular game. Now, the most encouraging thing that I saw from that clip, and you there was another quote. I can't remember it exactly off top of my head, but Jayson Tatum said that they were really upset with the way they played after Game one and they knew that they were capable

of playing way better in game two. And to me, that rings to the confidence argument and the discussion we had about Janice and the aura that he has and the way that he can inflict almost like a fear on the other team, and I thought it was really telling that Boston was like, no, that, like, we know we're better than we played. We're gonna be fine, Like, let's go out there and kick some masks, and that's

what they did. So again, I I'm excited to dive into the film and see what I think is translatable forward, because I thought Milwaukee did figure some stuff out offensively in that second half, although they still only had forty six points in that second half. But again, uh, just this is a team that's very confident. They're well coached, they have all the pieces they need to win the title. There's a reason why they're favored in this series. I

expected them to bounce back tonight. I bet some money on it. So I'm with I'm happy with my Celtics pick at this point. But I still where I was wrong is I thought this is gonna be a quick series.

I thought Boston would get them out of here in five. Uh. Them dropping game one automatically brings up the predicament of a Game six in Boston and the fact that they're they're not gonna go win two games in Milwaukee, right, So like, you know, it's just one of those things where it's gonna be a long series, and obviously longer series favor the bigger, stronger athletes. That gives a massive

advantage to Janice as things go along. So I've I'm still on the Celtics, but I'm at this point I view Milwaukee as a significant threat to win the series in a way that I did not before the series. So obviously we hear that clip from Udoka, and I think he was regarded as one of the most impressive coaches in the league this year. Do you think Boston has a significant coaching advantage and do you think that's something that really matters and can impact this series? That's tough.

I mean, Mike Budenholzer is a very good coach as well. Mea Yudoka's knew. There are a lot of things that I like about him. I think he has a unique ability to challenge his players and in a way that they relate to. You know, if you get a David Blatt in a room and him screaming at guy's a being like you're never boxing out and you're never doing this, and you're never doing that. They just kind of like shrug at him and they're like, get this old dude

out of here. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Kind of deal. But hem, Yodoka, guy who's been in the trenches, you know, in the n b A. I think that especially recently, you know, like he may he's not an exceptionally old person. So like, I think that that resonates with those guys in a in a real way. And you know, talk to any Celtics fan, what would they tell you was the biggest weakness of the Celtics over the last couple of years. They tell you toughness. Now,

I thought it was more extensive than that. I thought they were missing primary offensive creation and a lot of that. You know, all the reps they were able to give Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown over the last couple of years were a huge part of them kind of blossoming the way they have at the end of the season. But toughness absolutely was a factor, and they're suddenly one of the toughest teams in the league. And I think that.

I think it's a combination about Horford coming back in here and instilling some of that and then also uh Email Yudoka. But the question of him having a coaching advantage or where does he stack up with other coaches in the league. It's hard for me to realistically make a claim on that front this early and Emay's coaching career. I'd want to wait a couple of years. Alright, Well, we've got one last quote for you here, Jason, as

we play, That's what he said. We don't have a sound on this one, but we have the words, and they are pretty glorious. This is from massaiou Jerry on the Lakers interest in Nick Nurse, which obviously we have heard about. Quote, I dream like they dream. I want Messy, I want Ronaldo, I want Kobe Bryant so they can keep dreaming. I dream too, Jason, what's your reaction to that. I'm just glad that that I want. I want teams around the league to make jokes at the Lakers expense.

They're literally, dude. It's it's insane. Their run like a mom and pop shop. It's the craziest thing in the world. Now we have these Phil Jackson rumors coming out. The Nick Nurse thing never made any sense from the beginning, because even if they wanted him, they would have had to have made a trade for him. And the last time we saw coachings raid in the NBA, believe was Doc Rivers and there was a first round pick involved in.

The Lakers have so few assets that are tradeable that it would have made no sense to give up a draft pick for a coach, especially for a team like this that has Lebron James and Anthony Davis on it. Not that a coach isn't important, because it is, but a coach is definitely less important to a Lebron James team than it is to other teams around the league. So that was just like pie in the sky, like insane stuff. I don't know if that was coming from

Clutch or or what the deal was. But now we have this Phil Jackson news, a guy that's probably watched like four NBA games total in the last eight years, and now he's gonna be making advisements about which coach that they should hire. I just you know, and I have Laker fans coming up to me too and saying things like, you know, like, uh, you know, like Phil Jackson is one of the greatest coaches of all time.

Yeah he is. That's great, but he's retired. Like in the game is very different now than from what it was the way it was when he was coaching. And do I think he could make recommendations as it pertains to like like the personality of a head coach. Sure, but the Lakers have an x AS and ose problem,

they have an offensive organization problem. Those are things that need to like, what really needs to happen is, you know, Genie Buss needs to find a qualified and competent president of basketball operations and then let him make every single basketball decision. That's literally, it's literally that simple. I've had Laker fans be like, who who should Genie consult that guy?

Find a guy, a smart, currently employed, currently ambitious, currently hard working basketball executive, plug him in as your president of basketball operations, or I don't know, make you can make Rob Bolinka your president of basketball operations if you want to, and put him underneath him. But at the end of the day, you need your basketball decisions coming from a basketball guy. And Phil Jackson right now is more of a smoke payote guy than he is a

basketball guy. And so I just don't understand the point. Yeah, well, I was gonna say, Jason, I think what you're really under selling is feels ability to light incense in the locker room and give every player a personalized book recommendation so that they can learn about themselves, because that's what he brings the table, and at the end of the day, that's the most important thing. I think. Yeah, and Lebron would have another stack of books that he'd read the

first page of on camera and then not finished. Alright, guys, that is all we have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate your support as always, Like I said, make sure you subscribe to this channel, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter, make sure you subscribe to the Draymond Green Show, make sure you subscribe to my Twitter feed, and make sure you subscribe to the Lakers Tonight podcast feed just in

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