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show for you today. We're gonna hit the two morning games from today, couple game fours one went to three, one, one, one to two two. We're gonna cover Knicks sixers as well as Clippers MAVs. You guys know the drip before we get started. Subscribe to a brand new YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason Lts. You guys don't miss
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let's talk some basketball. So, for the second time, in the first round out of the eighth series so far, I'm prepared to admit that I was wrong about a series. I picked the Sixers to beat the New York Knicks based on the idea that, especially over the course of the series, the Sixers would just have higher level shot creation, not rub On Jalen Brunson. I think Jalen Brunson has
proven that he's encroaching on that superstar tier. I think the guy he kind of kicked off this year's Damian Lothard, he basically took his spot as the second best guard a small guard in the league behind Steph Curry. Right. So it's not a matter of whether or not I respect Jalen Brunson. It's the fact that Joel Embiid, in theory, is a better basketball player than Jalen Brunson, although I believe Jalen has outplayed him, especially over the course of
the last couple of games. And then Tyrese Maxy just is a legitimate secondary star, legitimate secondary shot creator, and we saw that dynamic a lot over the course of the first three games of the series. As a matter of fact, that the Sixers completely dominated the ha half court battle. They dominated it one oh seven to ninety one in terms of points per one hundred plays. Right, so a sixteen point per one hundred play gap in the half court between the two teams over the course
of the first three games of the series. But the reason why I am officially off of the Sixers as a pick, and I believe the Knicks are going to close this series out most likely in five. Is that over the course of the series, the Knicks have actually
started to gain ground in that department. I talk a lot about this on the show, but there's like a perimeter battle that takes place in a playoff series because it's not like the regular season where a singular offensive initiator will run into a different direct defender or defensive scheme every single night. Right, you see the same top tier perimeter defenders on the opponent every single night. Right, You see similar schemes. If anything, the scheme gets tighter
on you as the series progresses. Right, And so take for Jalen Brunson for instance, like one of two things is going to happen. Either Jalen is going going to solve the defensive scheme or the defensive scheme is going to solve Jalen. It's a push and pull over the course of the series. And specifically, the Knicks in a big way won that battle today. They actually won the half court battle for the first time in the series.
They had a zero point nine to three points per half court play in this game and the Sixers had just a zero point eight five So flipped the script, and this time they have an eight point advantage per one hundred half court plays, and to kind of zoom in on some specifics. Brunson has looked more and more comfortable as the series has progressed. We talked about this in a film session that I did a couple of
days ago. But in Game three, Jalen Brunson had his kind of breakout game of the series, and they did a couple of specific things. He started rejecting screens more that kind of got him away from Joel Embiid. He did a good job of setting up his man in ice situations, which is a side ball screen coverage where they were flipping the angle on the screen, which is
helping him get more separation. And then they were setting screens further out towards almost like the logo, to help him have more of a runway before he has to deal with em Bead. I did a big film session on that the other day, so you can find that a little bit further back in our feed. But that kind of continued in this game. There's a little more switching in, a little more iso in this game. But Jalen has gotten more and more comfortable as the series
has progressed. Meanwhile, on the other end of the floor, the Knicks have kind of figured out how to guard the Philly actions. They shut down the maxium bid pick and roll in this game. As a matter of fact, in terms of actual ball screens where Maxie had a live dribble and Embiid came up and set a ball screen on him, they didn't score on it a single time in this game, at least unless I made a
mistake in my film session. They didn't score on it a single time in this game, and they actually abandoned it at the end of the game. They didn't run any Maximbad two man game over the course of the final minutes. They switched to guard guard screens with Kyle Lowry.
The simple solution there is they put Deuce McBride on Tyrese Maxey, and they put Og and Obi on Joel Embiid pressures that you have spent some time on Embiid as well, but for the most part it was Og on him down the stretch, and as a result, Og had the athleticism to cut off those driving lanes coming further out. And some of it too, was they kind of baited Maxi with back pressure and kind of bracketing him into taking tough shots and missing some of the
kickback passes to Embid. But they shut that action down and Philly went away from it. The Maxi Lowry ghost screens, they just did their job. So they're bringing Lowry up in because Brunson's guarding Lowry. They were hedging and recovering. But Brunson has a really hard job there on that hedge. He has to linger long enough to actually shut off the dribble penetration from Maxi, and he was doing that.
But when they stopped Maxi, they were walling him up and making the kickback pass to Lowry difficult, which was buying time for that windshield wiper rotation, and they were cleanly rotating out of it. And then the few times they went to Embid in the post down the stretch, they just doubled him with clean windshield wiper rotations. Again,
winchiew wiper rotations. I just use that metaphor because I just think of a winshield wiper like as one guy's rotating, the other guys rotating with him to prevent that easy kick. That's one pass away. Right now. There's some things Philly can work on there, like for instance, they frequently on some of these embid post ups had like Kelly Ubre and Tobias Harris both in the dunker spot, which you're
just making yourself easy to guard there. And Nick nurse Man, he's gonna watch the film after this game and he's gonna see a couple of major issues that he's gonna have to address going into Game five. But they didn't score on the emb double teams because they were able to easy rotate out of it. And so, to make a long story short, the Knicks are getting stronger in
the half court battle. That wasn't just in the numbers. Obviously, they won the half court battle by eight points per one hundred half court plays today, but schematically, the hedgend recovers working the OG and Deuce McBride, and the two man game is working with Maxi and Embiid and then the double teaming of Embiid in the post is working because they're so sharp in their rotations. So the Sixers
can't score in the half court now. And meanwhile, the Knicks are scoring a lot more easy in the half court than they were at the beginning of the series because they're starting to figure out how to get Jalen Brunson loose, and that's gonna be an issue going into Game five because here's the problem. They're also getting dominated on the margins. They gave up fifteen offensive rebounds today. The Knicks won the second chance points battle twenty one
to eight. Eleven of their twenty fourth quarter points in this game were second chance points. They kept leaving Kyle Lowry on either og Anobi or Precious to Chua, and he just couldn't keep them off the glass. I'll show you some examples on the film. And so, to make a long story short, like I think the series is over because the biggest advantage for Philly was they needed to win the half court battle and hold up better
on the glass. They're not holding up on the glass, and they're losing the half court battle, and we're headed back to New York in a closeout game and that Arena is going to be on fire, and so I think the Knicks are gonna win. Wouldn't be surprised if he got a little ugly in Game five. Now Philly's chance a couple things gotta go bigger to hold up
on the glass. Kyle Lowry's not giving you enough offensively anyway, I would just put Nick Patoomb out there, and I'd go with three forwards at the very least you have a better chance of holding up on the glass. Also, I would lean more into the tyrese Maxi Joel embiid
two man game. When he's popping, he is still open when Deuce is chasing him, and OG's kind of like hurting him in those pick and rolls, right, So, like Maxi can make some better passing reads there, and I think that's just a better option for them in terms of getting quality shots. They have to have better spacing principles, Like I'll show you some examples on the film here
in a second. But Tobias Harris and Kelly Ubray are just ending up in spots on the floor they can't help, and that's going to be an issue they got to address going into game five. And then lastly, Joelmbi just has to be better. The offense wasn't really his fault. When I went back to look on the film again, the spacing principles are bad. Maxie was missing him in some of the two man game situations. I don't necessarily
blame himbiid for what happened down the stretch. Offensively, but defensively, he was pretty bad down the stretch of this game, And like I get it, people are gonna be talking about this is gonna be a conversation surrounding Luka Doncic too, like whether or not he's hurt. You know, it's like, oh, Luca's knee is hurt, right, Joel Embid's knee is hurt, and there's no doubt that he's hurt. But this is a war of attrition. People are hurt all around the league.
Zion Williamson out of the lineup, Jamal Murray calf string questionable for Game five tomorrow, Jared Vanderbilt out of the lineup entirely. Gabe Vincent just barely came back from injuries. Out of rhythm. Karl Anthony Towns just barely back from injury. He's out of rhythm. Kawhi Leonard didn't play today. Damon Giannis both out this afternoon for the Pacers game. In Game four, Donovan Mitchell looks banged up. Everyone is hurt.
So if you're looking for that to be like something you can hang your hat on as an excuse, that's just not the case. The Knicks are literally playing without their second best player, Julius Randall, in this series, and so again, like Joelinbie just has to find a way to be better in these situations. He can't get out played to this extent the way he has by Jalen Bruntson. So Philly has a chance. They have adjustments they can make. I just don't think they're going to be able to
hit those notes properly in Game five. All right, let's move on to Clippers MAVs. So the Clippers go out to a huge lead early, right, they go up by thirty one. Then the MAVs come all the way back. They get a big time game from Kyri Irving. He has forty in this game. It's just a completely ridiculous hanging layup versus a triple team at the rim that gave the MAVs the lead there late in the game.
But then Paul George just hits this ridiculous, impossible step back three towards his right in the right corner over Derek Jones Junior. You know I talked about this after last game. Paul George hunts those shots too frequently, and that is not good because I think it's part of what leads him to have some more volatile shooting results, because like sometimes he hunts tough shots and he starts making them and then he just becomes im possible to
guard kind of like today. Right then he'll have days where he chases those shots from the opening tip, misses three or four of him in a row, and then he goes three for eleven with you know, like seven points or something like that. And so that's the kind of thing that can be a little volatile with Paul George. But there's no doubt that he has the ability to make those shots. And boy did he make a big one. I was literally thinking, like considering Kyrie's layup that gave
the MAVs the lead. That's one of the biggest shots in Paul George's career. Flip the dynamic of the game put the the the Clippers in front. When you factor in the amount of pressure that's on the Clippers, when you factor in the fact that if he doesn't make that shot and the MAVs go down and score, chances are you're going down three to one in the series.
Just a massive shot from Paul George and then down the stretch of the game, it was James Harden attacking Luka Doncic in switches and cleanly beating him off the dribble and then hitting floaters and scoop shots before he
gets to the rim. Because of some backline issues, the MAVs were happening having both maxically by MPJ Washington because they're concerned about Zuba from the offensive glass, we're not stepping out to contest the floater, and James was making the floaters and like because Terrence Man was on the floor and he was typically in the weak side corner.
And I'll show you guys some examples in film. You almost need PJ or MAXI to step up to contest the floater and have the other one of those guys just dive down and try to box Zubots out underneath a basket and give yourself a better chance to at least make James pass. And again, I know Terrence Man can shoot. He was three for six from three in
this game. But a floater for James Harden, especially when he's in rhythm, is a much higher percentage shot on a points per possession basis than the catch and shoot three for Terrence Man and so I thought that was something that Dallas can clean up going into Game five, Like when James Harden is attacking, they just need to do a better job of taking away those floaters. And so he scored on I think he scored four straight times, three or four straight times down the stretch of the game,
and then they got a couple of key stops. Terrence Man finally got to stop on Kyrie Irving a nice rim contest from Zubots as well that kind of forced him to miss a right handed scoop shot, and then PJ. Washington missed a corner three, you know, one of the shots that the Clippers have been trying to get him to take. And then the game was over, and so
big time clutch win from the from the Clippers. I'm gonna show you guys some film here in a second that kind of breaks down how I think the Maps can guard better when they get to when they get to game five, to guard that James Harden action better. The ugly stretches for the Maps. This is the second time in the series where they've come out the at the beginning of the game and just gotten completely blitzed.
And again, like Championship teams, they typically don't have those types of long lapses because you're eventually gonna run into a really good team that can just cause a major problem for you in those sorts of situations. I mean, how the Clippers have caused major problems for Dallas and they haven't been able to recover. They didn't recover at all in game one. They recovered in game four, but not not to the extent that they were able to win the game. And so that to me is a concern.
Luca's got to be better at the dirty work like this has been the swing of the series, right They the Clippers attacked him like crazy in game one, he got cooked. It was a problem. The Clippers attacked him like crazy in game two, he defended extremely well and they got the stops and it ended up swinging the series back towards Dallas. Game four, they go to attack him again and he's not doing his job. He also missed a key box out at the end of the
game on James Harden. This the Luca dirty work stuff is swinging the series back and forth. Now again. I know I said this about the Sixers series. I know mass fans are going to be telling you Luka. Doncic is hurt. His knee is hurt. That's why he's not doing as good in these situations. And I'm going to say exactly what I said after the Knicks Sixers game.
Everyone is hurt, Zion is out, John Jamal Murray is cas straing, questionable for Game five, Jared Vanderbilts out, Gay Vincent just back from injury, looks looks like kind of out of rhythm. Carl Town's just back from injury, looks a little bit out of rhythm. Kawhi Leonard didn't play today. Dami Giannis are both hurt. Donovan Mitchell looks like he's banged up. Everyone's hurt. The playoffs are a war of attrition, and so you're not going to get anything for Luca
being a little banged up. He has to find a way to play through it, and he has to find a way to be better in some of those dirty work areas of the game. And credit to Clippers, they're defending him really well. Terrence Man and Russell Westbrook are doing an amazing job on him. And then on the defensive end, you just have to find a way to protect him again, Like I get it, he can slide his feet and defend. He showed it in Game two, but in the aggregate he's been getting cooked. And so
a couple things pre switching. I'll show you guys an example on film where the MAVs did this to avoid Luca and a switch. That's one thing they can do. And then two hedging. Put him on a non movement shoot or someone like Terrence Man and just have him hedge and recover. It's an easy way to prevent a switch, which we really haven't seen that yet in this series.
So again, protect him on the on the defensive end of the floor, and then I know he's hurt, and I know that's causing some issues for him on the offensive end. It was another rough offensive game from Luka Doncic today, but he just has to find a way to play through that and going. I'm still picking with my I'm still sticking with my MAVs and six pick. I think they're going to go home or go to Los Angeles and win game five and close them out
in six. But as I said after Game three, the half court battle after Game three was dead, even the Clippers in the MAVs were dead even in points per points per one hundred plays in the half court. The main difference in the series through three games was turnovers. The Clippers were just having way too many turnovers and the MAVs were getting out in transition and getting the easy shots on them. The Clippers won the turnover battle today and they won the game, and so that's a
huge factor moving forward in this series. Paul George obviously big balance back game after a rough one in Game three, hit I thought the biggest shot of the game two that step back corner three over Derek Jones Junior. And then James Harden. James Harden's been really good in this series. And again, this is a guy who has a reputation of being a playoff underperformer, and he's been the most
consistently good Clipper in this series. And he took over the game down the stretch after Paul George gave him that initial cushion. So shout out to James Harden. He's been unbelievable. They are tied in this series because of him, and if it wasn't for him, they would be in a substantially worse position. All right, So you guys get
the point, like there's some area for improvement. There. But again, like no matter what, you got to stop leaving Luke on an island there, the pre switching and the hedging I think is a good way to get out of that. And then again down the stretch of this series, you got to keep the ball out of James Harden and Paul George's hands as much as possible. But I'm sticking with my prediction for now. I'm gonna go MAVs and six.
All Right, guys, that's all I have for today. Is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We're back with the Nerds tomorrow morning, Logan and Carson. We're gonna break down all the first round series. I will see you guys then the volume