Hoops Tonight - Mavericks-Clippers Reaction: Harden & LA COLLAPSE, Luka & Dallas dominate Game 5

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After dropping that game too, we're going to talk a little bit about what we learned about Boston in the first round, a little bit about where the Miami Heat go from here, and then we have three mail bag questions, some stuff on Pala Bancaro and the Orlando Magic, some stuff on Team USA, and then some thoughts about load management in the sixty five minimum game requirement from earlier this year that got implemented, So lots of stuff to get into. You guys, have the Joe before we get started.

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teams have stacked up to this point. And then secondly, Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic or James Harden and Paul George in a must win gigantic playoff game series tied to to who are you taking? You're taking? You're taking Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, And I want to kind of dig into that concept a little bit, because, like, there are ebbs and flows in a playoff series, right.

I experienced this firsthand as a Lakers fan last year, Like, they won the first two series the exact same way, stole Game one on the road, kind of punted, Game two, dominated Game three, one, Game four in a super competitive way, kind of punted Game five dominated Game six. That's how they did the Grizzlies, That's how they did the Warriors.

It was the same kind of flow throughout those series, right, And Like, it's fascinating to me because we think of the regular season as being the oscillations and effort and the playoffs as being kind of super intense. But the reality is is, even though everyone's intensity picks up, there is no way to fake or replicate urgency. There's nothing

that changes your mental approach the way actual fear can. Right, Like, for instance, Dallas, in Game four, you're up to one, you kind of punk them a little bit on their home floor. In Game two, you win convincingly in game three. Game four was always gonna be a game where Dallas didn't have a certain level of urgency, but that the

Clippers probably would, right. But then there are these really big games typically five, six, and seven, towards the tail end of the series, especially when it's competitive, where the intensity is kind of consistent throughout and everything is urgent for everybody. And in those types of situations, like when I talked about the Lakers kind of punting game five in each of those two first round series last year,

they were a three to one in both of those series, so didn't have that urgency in those big games. But in a two to two series, or really any game six or Game seven, that intensity is going to be there, that urgency is going to be there. And the MAVs were just obviously going to bring a hallacious defensive effort tonight, especially after they didn't to start Game four, and they have good defensive personnel. I was thinking about this earlier Tonight. Derek Jones Junior.

an effective spot up player. He's a better three point shooter than you'd think, especially from the corners, and then like just has that kind of transition athleticism pop that he can.

and James Harden. You're like, maybe you might get it from him, right, and the numbers were jarring to give you an idea. The final tally Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncics forty nine points on forty shots, sixteen assists in two turnovers, Paul George and James Harden twenty two points on twenty five shots, eleven assists and seven turnovers. A gigantic chasm in production between your two primary shot creators. So the question is why why is that the case?

And I want to kind of dive into each individual player because I do think it's fascinating for Luca. To me, it's mostly about size and strength. He's so big and so strong he can handle ball pressure and intensity that allows him to get to his spots. Right throughout the series, He's been getting to his pull up jump shot whenever he wants. He's just been struggling to hit it, but he can actually work from other spots on the floor.

In that third quarter run, how many times in a row did we see Luca get downhill on that right side of the floor body Terrence Man had finished some sort of like push shot slash short bank shot that was within seven eight feet from the rim. Paul George and James Harden are literally incapable physically of consistently working to a spot that close to the basket.

to kind of play well regardless of circumstances in the postseason. Right, he also has the playmaking piece, right, So even though his pull up jump shooting just hasn't been there this series, and he did get far more comfortable as a pull up shooter in that second half, and that's obviously encouraging, and we talked about it throughout the series, like that's kind of been a risk that's been sitting on the table here this whole series, Like what if Luca just

gets hot and I do think he broke out in a big way in that second half, So I wouldn't be surprised if he has a good pull up shooting here a game in Game six. But either way, we weren't worried about his impact because he's gonna be able to make plays as a playmaker. That was how he did it early. Kyrie and Luca started this game off. They started this game not being able to make shots, but they were getting to spots on the floor, collapsing

the defense, making reads, picking them apart. Right, So, like, there's a really high floor with Luca in a big game. We know Luca has had bad regular season games where he just is floating all over the places on both ends of the floor and not engaged defensivelier on the glass, and blah blahlah blah. We know that can happen. I mean, helly, he kind of was a little bit like that in

Game four. But for the most part, in a big game, when the chips are down, you can just kind of trust Luca to reach a certain level because of his physical tools and because of his basketball queue Kyrie irving in that secondary role, he just has a history of being a reliable scoring threat. And also I think he's

underrated as an athlete, specifically with his speed. We're gonna talk about this in a minute, but in the first four games of the series, not counting tonight, Kyrie Irving attempted more shots in the restricted area than James Harden and Paul George combined by himself. Because Kyrie can beat people off the dribble. He has the best combination of footwork, handle, quickness, and improvisational audacious shot making in the entire NBA. Let

me just break it down to a simpler level. If you needed a single bucket on a single possession, who are you taking Paul George, James Harden or Kyrie Irving? Just take Luca out of the equation. Take I'm taking Kyrie. He's quicker, better footwork, better handle, better shot maker than both of those guys. And again, and when you put him in a secondary role like this where he doesn't have to carry the offensive load possession by possession, but just give you these short bursts of activity and be

effective in those short bursts, he's deeply, deeply valuable. Moving over to the other side with James Harden, he is a finesse guard that is an excellent playmaker and a good pull up shooter. And if he's allowed to get comfortable, especially in ball screens, he can pick you apart. And if he's got the step back three going and he

can find favorable matchups, he can get hot. But when the intensity picks up and when the physicality picks up to the highest level in the NBA playoffs, like many finesse players, he can struggle to get separation from his defender. He could barely get the pull up three off tonight and one like he was missing good looks. He was barely getting separate, and then it kind of take that

into the pick and roll element of it. If he's not cleanly shedding his defender and getting downhill with pace off of the ball screen, he's not going to collapse the defense. And if he doesn't colapse the defense, he's not going to be able to unlock his playmaking. I think it's really fascinating when you look at the top of the league, how frequently like the finesse oriented player instead of the physically dominant player, the physically dominant guys

run the top of the league. Who's the best player in the league. Nikole Jokic physically dominant player. Who's the second best player in the league My opinion, Luka Doncic. He is a physically dominant forward, bigger and stronger than most of the players that are going to guard him on any given night. Who's the third best player in the league. You're probably going with Jannison tenne Kumpo, Right. You're going with a big, physically imposing forward.

had eighteen by himself. So yeah, I said restricted airy early. It wasn't restricted area. It was five feet from the rim. But Paul George and James Harden combined for sixteen in four games. That means they're averaging between the two of them four attempts in the restricted area per game. That's not gonna cut it, right, Hyriet a team by himself, by himself. Luca's on a bad need. He had ten, which is more than both Paul George and James Harden. So, like, the reality is is we kind of like try to

pull a lesson from this. If your stars don't bring real athletic tools to the table, they won't be able to get separation against elite defensive players that are super locked in. I think it's really fascinating. I always talk about it with Steph Curry. Steph is the exception that proves the rule. He's the one guy that's not a supreme athlete that is going to crack the top ten players of all time that doesn't have a significant physical

advantage over his peers. That that's the separator. And again that's what makes Steph you know, such a unique player in NBA history. He is the one guy who was actually skilled enough for that stuff to matter. And even then it requiresired him embracing working off the ball as much as he could, having the best stamina as any of any player in the league, like he had to work extremely hard to get to that point. It's why

the Clippers need Kauai so badly. He didn't really pressure the rim very much, but nobody can stop a healthy Kawhi from getting to his spots, regardless of whether or not it's the playoffs, regardless of whether or not he's going up against an elite defensive player. As a matter of fact, Kawai seems to go up a level in those situations when he's healthy. It's a big part of why they probably should have played through Zubach more in

this game. He's a guy that had a significant physical advantage, probably had a better opportunity of consistently getting the defense into rotation. And so I think, I think it's just super super interesting because did any like I'm sure Clippers fans felt a certain amount of optimism, but outside of the Clipper fan base, did anybody think that Paul George and James Harden We're gonna outplay Kyrie in Luca do Today? I sent it out to the group, chatted of the

guys that helped make this show possible. We were talking about it, like it just was. It just felt like a safe bet to me. Two guys that kind of have a certain amount of resilience in these environments. Two guys where it's like, that's kind of the Paul George and James Harden experience. Catch him on the right night, They're unbelievable. Didn't James Harden have two forty point games last year in the postseason and two game winners, But

that wasn't the consistent result. That was like the occasional result, and that just I think is fascinating. Now, for the record, we know this Clippers roster was designed to have Kawhi Leonard as the hub, but he has now failed to hold up physically in three of the last four postseason runs and the other one he was completely unavailable because he was out for the entire season. We said before the year, man, this Clippers team really fascinating. But is

Kawhi going to be healthy? We said, James Harden trade Man, this is super interesting, But is Kawhi going to be healthy? Well, here we are a game and he's not. Again, even when he gets to this point and he's healthy to start the playoff run.

But the reality is is like they without Kawhi, they don't have that supreme athlete that can generate offense consistently. And then you know, whether or not Kawhi is going to be available is worked out outside of their favor every single year for the better part of the last half decade. So I just think it's fascinating, and I do I do think that there's a rhyme in or reason to this sort of thing. Like too often we talked about like choking, Like I don't think James Harden

and Paul George chokes tonight. They're just physically incapable of thriving consistently in this type of environment. That's just the reality. It's a thin finesse wing that's not particularly big or strong, and a finesse guard who's on the tail end of his prime and doesn't move as well as.

have been able to knock down enough shots. Derek Glively tons of energy and activity in his shift. His shifts, he was plus twenty four and twenty five minutes. A bunch of angry dunks. Just looks comfortable and confident in that playoff environment. Again, like the MAVs had two really ugly stretches of basketball to start Game one and Game four of this series.

post started the game. That little patented lefty hook in the lane that he's been killing people with, has drawn double teams, making good reads out of it. Really was the focal point of the offense early on. He had eight points in assist and an assist in.

But one of the things that was interesting is in that tail first quarter stretch and going into the second quarter, he started going to work on and they started running through Tatum and he actually got free for a pull up three at the top of the key because he ran bam through a screen. Again, bigger players can struggle to navigate screens. We saw that with Aaron Gordon, by

the way, on Lebron. It's a big part of what made that Lebron ad pick and roll so deadly in the Denver series is Aaron just kept getting caught on

the screen, so Lebron was able to get downhill. And bigger players they tend to be easier to screen and higher centers of gravity, and they're a little bit challenged when it comes to the screen navigation, right, And a lot of Miami heat possessions there ended in switches, and like Tatum, attacking out of the triple threat like against Haywood high Smith and just him being aggressive driving to

the basket. Really liked to shift there in that late first early second, and Boston was up thirty after sixteen minutes of basketball in this game, this thing was over. So I mean, I mean, it's hard to learn too much about Boston in a series like this. It's one of the largest talent differentials I've seen in a series in a long time. But there have been a lot of encouraging signs like the defensive response after game too.

I thought that was big time again, like too to sit in the room and be like, hey man, this isn't going to be good enough. We have to sharpen up, regardless of who you're playing. To hold a team under one hundred points per one hundred possessions for three three games in a row like that, super impressive. They absolutely barbecued zone. I talked before the series about how I wanted to see Boston kind of like handle some of

Spolstra's gimmicks well. Last year in the postseason, Eric Spolster ran the zone one hundred and fifteen times against Boston and helped them below a point per possession. This year, he only ran it twenty eight times because the Celtics shot seventy nine percent in effective field goal percentage against it and scored one point five to four points per possession.

So they took what was a weakness last year, their inability to solve that spolster zone, and turned it into a legitimate strength and played them out of it.

twenty nine point six. He was at twenty five point three in the series. The reality is Jaylen Brown and Derek White just had better matchups. So I totally get it, and he devoted his energy towards rebounding. Jason Tatum had fifty one defensive rebounds in the first round. Only Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic had more defensive rebounds in that first round. And then Sam Howser really impressed me in

this series. Shot forty eight percent from three on five attempts per game was a huge part of them busting Miami Zone. Really starting to show more confidence too in terms of like slightly contested shots and like movement based jump shots two, which I think is going to be an upside for him in the long run as well. And then he competes and does his job on defense, just a really useful role player. Now, obviously Boston's looking

at a much bigger challenge in the next round. I actually think Orlando is more capable of giving them issues. I still lean slightly towards Cleveland winning the series, just because they're a little bit more experien and they'll have Game seven at home, so Orlando has to I think Orlando will beat them in Game six, but Game seven is just it's a veteran team at home. It's gonna be a tough one for Orlando. Went like Donovan Mitchell

has way more playoff experience than Palo and Franz. Right, They've got Marcus Morris, They've got Tristan Thompson, like, when you go to Orlando, it's basically, you know, Joe Ingles and then a bunch of young, young, really young players, and so it's just it's hard for me to bet on Orlando. But should Orlando get out of that series, they're the team that I actually think has some potential to give Boston some issues. To be clear, I think Boston would kill both of these teams. I think they

destroy Cleveland. I think I think they would just do I think they would embarrass Cleveland. But Orlando is huge and athletic, and they play super hard, and they're really really good at home. So I think that could kind of That's what I'm gonna be rooting for, just for

a more interesting series. And honestly, I think it benefit Boston to play some more intense basketball games, like all of their peers right now are playing like intense, must win competitive basketball games like every single night, and Boston's been chilling, for lack of a better term, right, And so I think facing Orlando would actually be beneficial for them to kind of face a legitimate physical challenge to kind of get them ready for the conference finals so

that they're a little more primed up when they get there on the Heat front, I don't have much to say other than this, enough of this, make some sort of aggressive move to bring in more firepower. I'm sick

of talking about how good of a coach Eric Spolshra is while he's out there trying to make things work with a bunch of undrafted guys and a bunch of cast offs from other franchises. I'm a big believer in Heat culture. I believe in Eric Spolstra's abilities. I believe in their standards and expectations as a franchise. But at the end of the day, like it only works against teams that are fraudulent every time they run into a legitimate championship contender. Even with Jimmy and Bam, they just

don't have enough. And it'll be a damn shame if they finally do bring in some sort of real firepower and it's too late because Jimmy's too old. The window is now. It has to happen this summer. Someone will be available and they cannot get cheap. And no, I don't think Tyler Harrow is good enough, even with some of the flashes that he showed in this series. I don't think he's good enough to be untouchable in these discussions.

You have to have a bona fide star level shot creator in the backcourt so that you can go into a series and say, I've got three players that are top twenty five in the NBA that I'm giving Eric Spolstra so that he has a legitimate set of tools to use in this type of environment. They need to get aggressive. They need to make something happen this offseason.

Great show. So here's the thing. As much as Powell has been super impressive and I was digging into him his numbers, this morning, and he shot forty six percent on pull up jumpers through the first five games of the series. He's shown some higher level playmaking than I was expecting to see from him this in this particular type of physical playoff environment. He's fighting for good matchups and good position and just bullying his way to close jump shots close to the basket that he's hitting it

a high percentage. I've been super impressed with Palo, But the reality is is the by far among all the eight playoff series except for Boston Miami, so I shouldn't say by far.

Orlando's not going anywhere. Plow is ascending. The dude's a star. He's gonna keep getting.

it's just the league is stacked. The league is super super stacked with talent, and we've got other guys like Tyrese Maxi and Anthony Edwards that are thriving in the playoff setting for like real teams in real competitive series, so they're naturally going to get more of that spotlight. But everything will come in time. With Pallo, I'm a

big fan of his. Kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier in the show too, like he's got that overwhelming physical imposition, which is just a huge asset for a playoff player moving forward, Hey, Jason, other than Joel Embiid and John Moran, no other major stars this season seemed to have found the sixty five game a sixty five minimum game requirement to be an issue. I'm looking at predictions for all the awards and all

NBA teams, and they're all pretty much what i'd expect. However, in previous seasons, a lot of stars like Steph lebron kd only played around fifty games. Do you think do you think then that this was just a result of load management and teams being overcautious, and that injuries didn't actually increase since the two thousands. So I look at everything that happened this year almost purely circumstantial. Like Heavin Durant, someone fell into his knee last year and he sprained his knee.

and some years it doesn't. If I remember correctly, it was it twenty twenty one, Yeah, it was like three years ago we had a playoff run where like a bunch of people got hurt. I want to say it was two years. I think it was twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, Like it's super common for a bunch of people, Like occasionally, I shouldn't say it's super common.

To me, it's a total crap shoot. Like sometimes there's gonna be a year where five or six stars get hurt, and then sometimes there's gonna be year where everyone appears to be healthy. Right, Like last year was a relatively healthy playoff run. This year it's been more of a disaster. I don't really think there's much of a rhyme or

reason to it. I think it's just I think when you're zooming in on a small sample of a handful of like fifteen players that you consider to be like the the faces of the league, the superstar class, like that's enough of a small sample size that, like, you know, if one year five guys get hurt and the next year two guys get hurt, it can seem like some sort of gigantic difference when when in reality it's not right. So I don't, I don't. I don't think the league

has any issue with injuries. I think the sixty five game minimum requirement does help to a certain extent. But I think guys were just healthier this year, especially among some of the bigger names and during the regular season, right, and I think in this postseason run the injuries are purely circumstantial. I don't really read too much into it, to be honest with you. All right, last question, who

are you taking at Team USA as replacement players? Seems clear that embiiding KOI are not going to be able to I take Jalen Brown and j Dubb. So I think that Embiid is probably out, But I wouldn't be surprised if Kawi played. I mean, we're talking two months from now, and from what I understand, he doesn't have any sort of structural issue in his knee. It's just inflammation. So if he were to take like a month off and then ramp up for a month for training camp,

I think he'd be fine. And so I think Kawhi could still play. Jaylen Brown's an interesting option.

He's one of those guys that's not gonna blow you away on the box score, but the dude, when you just put him alongside four other really good players, he just he's just a really good connective piece on both ends of the floor. But again, I wouldn't be surprised if Kawai still played even on the embid front, like Joel Embiid like basically stiffed to the country of France

to play to play in for Team USA. So like, something tells me he's probably gonna want to hold up his end of the bargain there, but we'll.

just film from that series. And then I believe tomorrow night is we have another jam packed playoffs Slate. I think tomorrow night is Nick Sixers and Pacers Bucks if I remember correctly, So we're gonna be live on YouTube. I think it's a little bit of an earlier start with the way things shook out, so I think we're going I think the last game starts at nine pm Eastern, so we'll be going around eleven thirty pm Eastern Tomorrow night live on YouTube I will see you guys. Then the volume