Hoops Tonight - Jokic & Nuggets beat Suns in Game 2, Harden & 76ers shock Celtics

a bloodbath of a series. I know who would have seen that coming between the Nuggets and the Suns in a big, a little bit of a predicament that the Sons are finding themselves in down two to oh. And then James Harden puts the latest chapter in his revenge campaign, a forty five point destruction of the Boston Celtics in Boston without Joel Embiid as Boston tricks off yet another game with late game execution. Lots of stuff to get into, you guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe

to the Volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason LT and if for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Don't forget. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, all right, let's talk some basketball. So you know, when the Lakers were engaged in a couple of nasty games, I should say, a nasty game with the Minnesota Timberwolves and then this

nasty series with the Memphis Grizzlies. There were a lot of people that were saying things like, hey, those two teams are terrible. Both of them can't score. Look at them. They they're not as good as these other teams that are playing in these free flowing series. And one of the things I said during that series is rock fights are a natural part of the NBA playoffs. Nobody is immune to them. You guys might remember in the twenty sixteen NBA Finals a certain very famous Game seven between

the Cavs and the Warriors. The Warrior scored eighty nine points in a game despite being one of the highest powered offenses in the league that year. The truth of the matter is, no matter what type of team you are, as soon as the game takes a certain type of energy, whether that's a physical game, where the refs are allowing a lot of contact to go where suddenly your skill shots stopped working. It devolves into this uber physical lots

of uncalled fouls. No one can make a damn shot, even guys that you expect to make shots and shots that they've made their entire career suddenly don't go in Nobody is immune. Now when you see two unbelievable defensive teams, every game is gonna be like that. That's what Lakers Grizzlies was right. This series, there's a lot more offensive skill and there's a lot of guys on the floor that have known to take some defensive possessions off for the sake of kind of saving their legs for the

offensive ends. So this series will have more free flowing games, and I will not be surprised if one of the two games in Phoenix ends up being a higher scoring affair, as a game takes on that certain type of feel. But no matter what, this type of game is the type of game that can happen a lot in the NBA playoffs, and more and more the further you get along, as you run into better and better defenses that are playing with more and more physicality, and intensity, and the

refs are letting more and more go. And that's where I think the Suns are in some trouble because one of the things that I've said consistently is that when you rely on pull up jump shooting as your primary form of offense, you have the potential to go cold. There is variance in pull up jump shooting. And here's

the problem. This series has been so physical, at least on the Phoenix side of things, that we are two games in now when they're not making their pull up jump shots, not nearly at the rate that they normally do. Devin Booker had a better shooting night tonight, but KD was way off. KD had a better shooting night. He shot forty percent on pull up jumpers in game one, but Devin Booker was way off. And here's the thing.

Pull up jump shots they look like these skilled type of shots, and they are, but they're massive athleticism play. If i am dribbling over the top of a screen and I've got a player coming behind me to apply back pressure, and I need to elevate over a rint protector that's coming up to contest, I need to get

a ton of lift on those shots. Devin Booker and Kevin Durant in particular pride themselves at for the way that they practice these shots at game speed, but they're used to playing a certain type of effort defensively, and in game one they weren't able to match that. The Suns came with a much better defensive effort. In game two, I thought Devin Booker and Chris and Kevin Durant in particular were f criminal on the defensive end of the floor,

But that takes effort. That effort drains your legs, and on the other end of the floor, when you need to get that lift into that tough pull up jumper, all of the timing is off. You're not getting as much lift, so you've got to compensate with more in your release. When you're putting more into your release, the entire calibration of the thing is off. I saw Devin Booker pull up a transition three in the first quarter that went three feet over the rim and karened off

the backboard. He was wide open. I watched Chris Paul I believe it was in the second quarter, come over a ball screen get tons of separation by the right elbow, elevate nice and high and shot it a foot and a half over the back of the rim, a shot he's been making his entire career. Pull up jump shooting requires a great deal of conditioning and lyft, and when you play in these super physical games, it's harder to get that lift. Nikola Jokic made seventeen field goals in

this game. Fourteen of them were in the paint. Go on your ESPN app or something where you've got a shot chart and look up Nikola Jokic's shot chart. Look at where all those field goal attempts are In a game like this that devolved down into a rock fight, where Jamal Murray can't make a shot, Kevin Durant can't make a shot, nobody on the floor can make the

normal pull up jump shots that they make. Who suddenly became the best player on the floor Nikola Jokic In Game four of that Lakers Grizzly series, when Anthony Davis couldn't make a shot and Desmond Bayning got cold and John Rant couldn't make a shot, and no one and Dangela Russell and Austin Reeves cooled off, Who is the one guy who suddenly was able to score. It was

Lebron James. That's why I look beyond you know what, Like there's a culture in basketball these days that focuses on the bag, so to speak, and the skill set and that stuff. Not only is it monumentally important, it's one of my favorite parts of the game, building out your skill set, building out all of that dribble package, going every direction, shooting off of any footwork, fading over both shoulders, step backs, you know, side steps, all the

little floaters and pop shots in the lane. They're all incredibly important. But at the end of the day, basketball is a contact sport. And as we go back, look at who ends up winning finals MVP every year, Right, Like Steph Curry is a finesse player that's kind of an outlier, right, But the year before that it's Giannis, like a dude who thrives in rock fights. The year before that, it's Lebron James, a dude who thrives in

rock fights. The year before that it's Kawhi Leonard, the biggest strongest wing in the on the planet, not named Lebron James. These kinds of guys thrive in this environment because it from the beautiful form of basketball into a different type of beauty, a competitive beauty that is the physical, knockdown, drag out fight. I thought that you saw an adjustment

that we talked about in our series preview. I told you guys that I wouldn't be surprised if the Nuggets ended up putting Nikola Yokic on Josha Kogi at the end of the games. And they ended up doing that tonight, bogged down the Sun's offense. I think at one point in the fourth quarter they were four for twenty from the field. And I mean, this is the most concerning part.

Like Chris Paul being out's a big deal. It's my father in law's birthday, and we were watching the game together tonight to celebrate and and he goes like, oh, I think they're better without Chris Paul, And I was disagreeing with him because I said, yeah, I know, Chris Paul is not having the same type of season that you expect from a player of his caliber with his resume. But the truth of the matter is it goes beyond

that off of Devin Booker and Kevin Durant. When they are applying that much pressure on those guys Chris Paul is a connective piece. If Kd's gonna hit Joshakog on a roll because Nikola Jokic is ignoring him, they're starting a four on three. And if that four on three is Chris Paul with Devin Booker, DeAndre Ayton and someone like you know, Joshakog or Tory Craig, you might be okay.

Or Damian Lee, you might be okay. But subout Chris Paul, an extremely high IQ great ball handler that can at least competently score on high quality shots, and you fill that in with another end of the bench guy that's a problem. Two guys on the consistently in the rotation down the end of this game for Phoenix were guys that would not make an NBA rotation anywhere else in

this playoff field. I told you guys before this playoff run that I still believe Phoenix can win a title this year, but it's next year that I'll be most worried about them, because they'll be able to supplement this with more NBA level talent. They're going to be able to bring in players that can do these jobs a little bit better. And this series is not over. But this is what I notice so far. Phoenix has to play their stars huge minutes to have any chance, and

one of them already broke down the Joshakog minutes. He's been great on the defensive end of the floor. He had a great night tonight defensively, but the dude just can't. The dude's killing you on the offensive end. They have no depth of offensive talent or that can play both ends of the floor, and they rely entirely on pull up jump shooting. Devin Booker can get to the rim. He gets to the rim better than most players at his position, but he's a finesse get to the rim guy.

He is a guy who beats you off the dribble with side to side moves and gets to the rim in a physical series where he's getting There were several plays tonight where Devin Booker's getting downhill, dudes are grabbing his arms. He's getting fouled, but every one's getting fouled. He's not the only one. It's not getting called for. All of a sudden, the massive human beings on the

floor suddenly become the most valuable now. Kevin Durant missed a lot of shots he normally takes and that dude normally makes, I should say, and that dude has had a lot of games in his career, big playoff games under hugely physical environments where he's been great. He's like Steph Curry, one of those guys that's somewhat immune to that stuff. But again, he doesn't get to the rim. It's all pull up jump shooting. So they will go

as pull up jump shooting goes. And if Kevin like this is what happened against against Boston last year, he wasn't making him in game one, and then he wasn't making him in Game two, and you keep telling yourself like, maybe they'll go in, but then he doesn't make him in Game three, and then he makes some of them in Game four, but it's not enough. And here we are two games and that problem is at the surface again.

I believe Kevin Durant will get going in Game three, in Game four in Phoenix, and I believe he will have an imprint on this series. I refuse to believe that KD will go out like he did last year. I think too highly of him as a basketball player, but as a team, that's what KD and Devin Booker rely on and it's a problem. And Chris Paul's out. So your aggregate ball handling and shooting has now fallen off. And Denver looks like they're in great shape because they

lost it. They won a game where nobody else could make a damn shot. I do want to give them a bunch of credit. The defensive effort was insane tonight. Aaron Gordon was amazing, Bruce Brown was amazing. I thought Jamal Murray did an excellent job on the defensive end to compensate for some of the issues he was having on offense. Nikola Jokis did a nice job just playing center field on everything. Denver deserves a ton of credit. Phoenix is in some trouble, man. I it just doesn't

They're not getting anything easy. There's no bread and butter that they're getting that You're like, oh, we're gonna get this eight out of ten possessions here in a big game, five down down the stretch, and that concerns me. They better. They need to get a good boost from their home crowd, and they need to and they need they're going to need Chris Paul to come back. All right, let's move on to that. Like what I think was one of the wildest and most embarrassing playoff losses that I can

remember seeing. This is a Boston Celtics team, by the way, that wasn't overly impressive in the first round that pretty much ever since the loss to Golden State about midway through the season, wasn't the same type of dominant squad that they were earlier in the season. Ended up losing that one seed that they you know, that I believe they needed. Of course they got bailed out by that

from that by the Milwaukee early exit. But this team is just they've been getting buy morel on reputation as of late, and a lot of the same ugly things that you would expect that we've grown to expect from Boston in certain situations came to the surface again in this one. Joe Missoula, for whatever reason, as this game denigrated into a five out contest again, take Joel Embiat out. Suddenly you've got James Harden, Tyree Smaxy right, two good guards.

You've got Tobias Harris, who was amazing defensively in this game, but as a guy who can make some plays off the bounce, had a big driving layup on Al Horford at the end. But then you've got two non factors offensively on the floor at all given at any given moment, whether it was you know, PJ. Tucker and Jaden McDaniel or Jalen McDaniels or PJ. Tucker and Paul Reid, there's no non threats on the floor at any given moment

versus a five out lineup in Boston. That was what Malcolm Brogden, Marcus Smart, Jason and Jalen and Al Horford, every single one of them is an offensive threat. And look, I was disappointed in Joe Miszula tactically for not getting the ball out of James Harden's hands when there were two non scorers on the floor. But let's forget about that for a second and just look at the simple fact that even if they're playing one on one all game long, how in the world do you lose that matchup?

You've got about twice as much aggregate offensive skill and about twice as much aggregate defensive talent in a five out drive and kick contest. And I put most of the blame on the defensive end of the floor. Like I went back and I watched every single Boston Celtics' offensive possession down the stretch. There were some bad ones in there, Like, I don't know why you're posting up Marcus Smart on the final possession. I don't really see

the point there. They were pretty late into the shot clock to attack there there was and every time they got into late shot clock situations, Doc Rivers did a nice job of sending doubles. Bosson was really trying to attack Tyrese Maxey. And there were a couple tricky things in there, right, Like they've one time Jason Tatum got switched on Tyrese Maxey and then like dribbled the clock out, and then James Harden was able to double and there wasn't enough time on the clock, so they ended up

throwing up. He ended up thrown up a crazy fade away. There's another play Marcus Smart gets Tyrese Maxey switched on to him, gets the switch he wants, and then passes out of it to Jaylen Brown who ends up like driving on on on somebody out of the corner. I think it was off of PJ. Tucker. So that like, there was some bad execution in there, but they got a lot of good looks. Malcolm Brogden shot a wide

open three that he missed down the stretch. Al Horford had a wide open three in the left corner that he missed. Malcolm Brogden had a wide open, wonderable pull up that he missed coming out of the left corner. There was a play where, uh, there was a play where Jason Tatum may or may now have gotten fouled on a chaotic sequence where he's right at the rim. There there was some bad had luck in there. But how in the world were you allowing James Harden to

work in single coverage? Every other team that we've seen it's like, oh, we're gonna ignore Josha Kogi and have Nikolay Yokiz just double team or come way up high and and and bother everything in Phoenix's pick and roll action. Oh you know Jared Vanderbilts out there, We're just gonna have Jared Jackson just ignore him and and just double

every single time. Like, how is it that you're letting James Harden just get to his step back and not either doubling him on these ball screens, telling Al Horford and these other guys like push up on him if he drives by you, we have help. We don't have to guard two of these guys. I just thought it was such a bizarre game. It was such a bizarre game, and I want to give James Harden credity. He made the shots and like the last shot he hit that

that step back three over over al Horford. Like, that's a tough shot, that's defended perfectly well, but you gave James Harden the chance for his elite shot making to carry you over the top if you press him and force him to drive there. He's driving into all this help, the help that's there because you don't have to guard two of the guys. There was a play. Do you guys remember that Tobias Harris three at the top of the key. That was literally, I want to say it

was Tatum in Horford in a Harris hardened screen. That's gotta be a switch. That's gotta be a switch. Instead, they ran a drop Tatum chasing over the top as as Harden's driving left. Just bit what is the number one thing you can use to beat a drop? Coverage? A pick and pop with a real shooter just throws it back to Tobias Harris. He's wide open at the

top of the key. Basically, Joe Mizoula and the Celtics allowed James Harden to play pick up basketball like he was at the YMCA down the stretch of this game, while on the other end of the floor, it was timely doubles, it was chaotic rotations, it was frenetic effort, and Philly just outplayed them on both ends of the floor. And James Harden just outfit those dudes in Boston. And again, like, here's the deal. My guess is that Joel Embiid sits out Game two as well since they got their split,

try to buy him some rest. I think there's a hefty chunk of days off in there somewhere too, if I remember correctly. With the schedule, Bostin's gonna beat the shit out of them in game two. I like, they're just better again, Like, look at those lineups I told you about. How does Paul Reed and PJ. Tucker with Tobias Harris, Tyres, Max and James Harden soundly outplay Jalen and Jason with Malcolm Brogden, Marcus Martin al Horford. That should never happen. They are twice as talented on both

ends of the floor. They should dominate Game two. But what happened in this game is everything that's so discouraging about this Celtics team, playing down to the competition, not recognizing the opportunity that they have. Milwaukee just lost to Miami. You were gonna play the winner of Nick's Heat. You were gonna be a monster favorite in that series. There are four teams in the Western Conference that are going to murder each other Lebron and Draymond and Anthony Davis

and Andrew Wiggins and Steph Curry. They're gonna beat the shit out of each other for six or seven games. You literally are watching the Nuggets and Sons doing it to each other. Then the winner of those two serieses

are gonna do it to each other. Beat the Sixers without Embiid, go beat the Heat or the Knicks and get like this is parting like the Red Sea for you to win the NBA Championship, and you were going out there and getting out played by James Harden in a phase of his career where he has no business doing that to you. I easily one of the worst playoff losses I've ever seen. I can't I can't even

believe it. That's all we have for tonight. We're gonna come back to tomorrow night breaking down Game one of the Warriors and Celtics series and excuse me, Warriors Lakers, and then I believe that's Nick's Heat Game two. And then Wednesday morning, we're gonna be doing a show with the Nerd Sash guys, the New guys, welcome to the volume. Those of you guys who remember Carson from our shows that we did, We're gonna be doing a show with them on Wednesday, and we'll dive back into both of

these serieses. At that point, I'm gonna watch some tape, try to learn a little bit more about how these series are going the way that they're going. But man, another bizarre night in the NBA playoffs. All right, guys, that is all I have. I'll see you tomorrow. Even the volume