Hoops Tonight - Nuggets-Lakers Reaction: Jokic & Denver OWN LeBron & LA, Lakers pushed to brink

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all three games from the perspective of both teams. Well, the las Age just cannot beat the Denver Nuggets. I really thought that'd get a couple. I was wrong. I think they're gonna get swept. I think they're out of here. On Saturday, we're gonna break it down. You guys know the jove before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel, so excuse me, to my new YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of videos. Follow me

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So Game three in the NBA Playoffs in the first round, in particular, those of you guys who've been around the show for a while will know what I refer to these games as I refer to these as the buzzsaw games, right, especially when the team is down to oh because there's usually a gigantic gap in urgency between the two teams. And then obviously you're shifting to the home you're shifting to the other team's home arena, and that typically leads

to more confidence in your lower level role players. That typically leads to sometimes a better whistle. Officials generally will get caught up in the emotion of a crowd. It's kind of like a human nature thing, right, And then also like that athletic advantage of playing with forced type of advantage that comes from that comes from the urgency shift that like the home crowd is just like cure scene on that like it just it just makes it that much crazier, right, And like I actually placed my

first three bets of the NBA postseason this year. I bet on all three home teams tonight, and I actually hit on the first two obviously, And I was flirting with a I've bet an alternate spread on the Sixers Nicks game, and as I was watching the Jalen Brunson Joel Embiid free throw shooting contest at the end of the game, it was definitely a little hectic, but I ended up getting out of there with that one. But anyway, the one team that managed to flip that script was

the Denver Nuggets. But like you saw the BUZZSA, the Orlando Magic completely demolished the Cavs on the glass, completely

demolished them, and not as much in transition, I should say they demolish them on the offensive glass. They demolished the Cavs on the offensive glass. They do a bunch of damage with their physicality and with Franz Wagner and Pala Bancaro just working at close shots around the rim, and the dynamic just shifts, their role players hit shots. It's a blowout, right, Like, obviously, the Sixers finally get some contributions from some of their role players, and some

guys hit some shots. They finally get some production out of Kelly Eubray, and they win that game convincingly. Right. But what I find to be interesting, and this is actually something that has been one of my biggest lessons that I've learned in the first round of this postseason and every year in the playoffs, I learned lessons, right, Like, we're always kind of learning not just about the game in general, but also as the game is changing as the years go by, as the NBA kind of moves

into the future. Right. But one of the things that has been a lesson for me in this first round throughout the playoffs is that the finesse guys are kind of getting their ass kicked, and they're getting their ass kicked by intelligent athleticism and strength, right, And that is like, like, even just look at the Wolves Suns matchup, for instance, that's the Suns team that dominated the Wolves in the regular season. Here we are in the playoffs and the

Wolves kick their ass twice. And that is a team that has a lot of intelligent size in athleticism, while the Sons are a finesse team and it's been an ass kicking right Specifically, the role players for the Lakers, D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reeves, Torrey and Prince like Spencer Dinwiddie, these guys are all like these finesse kind of like skill players on the perimeter, and they've run into these like athletic wrecking balls like Contavious Cabbo Pope and Aaron

Gordon and Christian Brown and Peyton Watson and they're just getting their They're getting their ass kt That's really been the story of this series. To give you guys an idea, non Lebron and Ad Lakers have one hundred and thirty one points and fifty six rebounds in this series. Non Murray Jokic Nuggets have one hundred and eighty points and eighty three rebounds in the series. That's the difference. Like, I think Anthony Davis and Jokich have been amazing basically

ever game. I think Murray had a poor shooting series, but hit a bunch of clutch shots in the first two games, and then I thought Murray was pretty great Tonight and Lebron James I thought was really good in Game two, pretty good in Game one, and pretty bad Tonight relative to his relative to what his box score numbers showed. But I think Lebron and Murray have been more or less on the same level, and Jokicchen and Ad have been more or less on the same level.

But it's been a complete and total ass kicking down the roster. This is crazy. Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Junior tonight had forty nine points and twenty five rebounds.

That's a Wilt Chamberlain Circle circa the nineteen sixties. Like that, that's the type of production they were getting out of their front court, not counting Nicole jokicch and I find it really fascinating and honestly like it gives me this like interesting perspective looking back at the twenty twenty Lakers, And I always knew size and strength was an advantage for that team, but I'm even seeing now just how much that matters at this point in the NBA playoffs, Right,

Like that team was built on intelligent athleticism and strength. Alex Caruso, Coentavious Caldwell, Pope Dwight Howard, right, even Kyle Kuzma, like even Danny Green. They were all big, strong, high IQ players, and that that next to Lebron and ad. Did they struggle in the half court scoring sometimes? Yeah? Did they struggle sometimes and go cold from the three

point line? Yeah? That was a big story going into the bubble in the in the seeding games before they got into the first round, and especially through the first game against Portland, right. But then like they just kicked everybody's ass with intelligent athleticism and strength, And I think I think that's even been exacerbated as the league has shifted more and more towards the towards the physicality side

of things. And that actually started in regular season this year, but I even think this postseason has been more physical and more just kind of like nasty and rock fighty than other playoff rounds that we've seen in the past. I think the entire league is shifting more towards that, And honestly, I thought that was the story of tonight's game.

Like Aaron Gordon just carried the Nuggets through that initial portion of the game when the Lakers were engaged and there was a brief stretch there too in the second quarter where Jamal Murray hit a bunch of nice pull up jump shots that I helped kind of keep the game kind of close. But Aaron Gordon was a monster in that first half. And then the Nuggets came out

in that third quarter. In just that first couple of minutes of the third quarter, they threw a really good punch just for a few minutes, and the Lakers let go of the rope. And then as soon as they let go the rope, it was over. And honestly, that was kind of as a as a person who roots for the Lakers. That was the biggest disappointing thing for me tonight, is like I thought, the Lakers straight up let go of the rope for literally, what is it,

five halves of this series? The obviously the first two games and then the tonight. In the first half, the Lakers kind of went toe to toe with the Nuggets for the most part, and like, what's crazy about it? And this is honestly, you know, I said this before

the series. The reason why I, even when the Lakers were up twenty, I never actually thought they had a substantial chance to win the series is because I knew that the Lakers were talented enough to go blow for blow with the Nuggets for spurts, and I thought they could get a game or two, but I never I never thought they could sustain against this team. And it's like they're literally like playing tug of war, and they let go of the rope in that second half and

then it just got turned into bad body language. And now it's like the effort craters and their defensive rotations are worse, and their execution on offense gets worse, and it just gets worse and worse, and then the bottom basically fell out. And I want to credit the Nuggets because they smelled blood in the water and they went for it. And you know, it's interesting because I was wrong about this series. I picked the Nuggets to win.

I thought they'd win in five or six games, but I really did think the Lakers would get one or two. And the main reason why is like I think this Lakers team is more talented and better than last year's team. They just have the continuity. They a couple of key role players had better seasons than they did last year. The five out offense kind of optimized all five of those starters to kind of play together and reach heights offensively that they hadn't reached. They were bad offense last

year with more or less the same guys. Right, they were a bad offense last year, and this year they were the third best offense in the league over the last forty six games of the season. Right, this was a good offensive team. And so I really thought they'd be able to do some damage, at least a little bit of damage in this series before they'd inevitably lose. Right,

And I was just wrong. They're gonna get swept. And I think kind of trying to diagnose that, I really just come back to I just think it's a really bad matchup. And what I mean by that is like Lebron and Ad are a bad matchup for the vast majority of the league. They're too big at power forward and they're too big at center. And they did a lot of damage this year to really good teams with that advantage. That's how they beat the Clippers so many times.

That's how they beat the Suns so many times. That's how they beat the Thunder so many times. That's how they beat the Bucks. You know, like they just perpetually were able to weaponize their front court as their supreme advantage. Right, if you were listing the advantages that the Lakers have, it's like lebron ad front court is number one on that list, and then beneath that, it's like really skilled offensive players around him that can kind of play in

that mix. Right, that's their advantage. But here's the problem. Denver is bigger than them in the front court. They just are like a Yokich is bigger than Anthony Davis. Aaron Gordon and Lebron are more or less the same size. Aaron Gordon's not quite as strong, but he's a little bit taller, right, and at this phase of his career is able to really match up with Lebron athletically in a way that when Lebron's twenty five nobody could. Right. And then Michael Porter Junior is just a bigger, better

basketball player than Ruey Hachamura. And so now imagine this scenario your best advantage as you try to inflict it on Denver, You're running into basically a bigger, stronger front line that you can't weaponize that against. Okay, so now your biggest advantage has been more or less mitigated, removed from the equation. Right now, we shift down to the rest of the roster, and that's where Denver's advantages kick in.

And it's like, oh wait, like Contavious call Well, Pope, maybe not as skilled as D'Angelo Russell, maybe doesn't have the high highs that d' angelo Russell can bring to the table, But on a night in, night out, basis as a two way player for the Denver Nuggets, he's

just a better basketball player tonight. KCP didn't put up big numbers, but how many times did you see ad try to make some move in the lane on your kitch and CACP come in and strip it down or dig down on somebody else, driving and pick and roll like he just is everywhere making plays Defensively, Aaron Gordon was an athletic wrecking ball in this game, causing problems. Michael Porter Junior just perpetually hitting big shot after big shot, grabbing big rebound. It is a mismatch down the roster.

And so essentially, if your biggest advantage gets canceled out by Denver and all of your secondary advantages are just not as good as Denver, then there's not really a pathway to victory anymore. Your only pathway is essentially variants, and you kind of got a little bit of that it in game two, right, Like, in Game two, you shot the ball really well and Denver didn't, and you

got close enough. But even then you couldn't close the deal because Denver's personnel on the defensive end is more versatile than yours, and they were able to make an adjustment to mitigate what you were doing offensively, play you into some of your worst tendencies, and then they walked you down at the end of the game and scored on eight of their last nine possession, right, And so that's the thing, Like, it doesn't really matter if the Lakers closed the gap in terms of their you know,

abilities as a basketball team between last year and this year. And I still truly believe that last year they threw the team together together at the deadline. They didn't have continuity, they were running a different offense, a lot of guys were learning on the fly. This year's team, same squad from training camp to now, new offense, better production. They are a better team than they were last year. But it doesn't matter because strictly within the context of this matchup,

they can't hang. And matchups are a huge deal in the NBA these days. Why do you think the Pelicans have the Sacramento Kings in the Golden State Warriors number. It's because they have lanky perimeter defenders to throw up against the smaller guard initiators for the other team, and those teams don't have the interior size to punish the Pelicans bad defensive front line. So it's just a bad matchup.

That doesn't necessarily mean that the Pelicans aren't. Like I think the Pelicans and the Warriors and the Kings are all kind of on the same level as basketball teams

in the aggregate versus the rest of the league. But when you put them against each other, the Pelicans can can just confront all of Golden State and Sacramento's strengths, and it makes it so that they're incapable of what the Pelicans go against the Kings this year six and zero or something like that, Like it was complete in total dominance, right, And that's kind of more or less

what I see between the Lakers and the Nuggets. Lakers had a lot of success this year against a lot of good teams, but this particular team has consistently had their number, and there's been nothing that they can do about it. And one last thing I want to say. I want to say about the Nuggets like this, this team has a basketball character in terms of their night in and night out effort and focus and energy like in the postseason that I think helps them avoid the

unforced errors that can occur in a playoff run. For instance, Boston, Boston tricks off a game against Miami last night playing some of the worst defense I've ever seen them play. Twenty seven of the forty three threes that they allowed Miami to shoot I thought were significant and defensive breakdowns like it was bad. Like that team, they have trouble

maintaining their level. They kind of oscillate up and down right, And so what happens is is like against a good team, when you dip down, you could take a loss, and that could put you in a predicament where now your margin for error is smaller. And Denver's just not like that. They always pull on the rope, and the really good teams might be able to pull on the rope with them and hang on for a while. But for the most part, Denver's not gonna give you ground just for

the sake of giving ground. They're not gonna give you ground with sloppiness. They're not gonna give you ground with inconsistent effort. They're not gonna give you ground with guys not accepting their roles and going off script and not doing their jobs. I loved that quote from Aaron Gordon after the game. I don't know if you guys remember, but the reporter was kind of trying to bait him,

you know. He was like asking him questions about the Lakers matchup specifically, and what is it about these guys that you guys give him all these problems blah blah blah, and he's just like, no, no, no, it's about us, and I am just trying to do what I can to help my team win. And what's interesting about that is Aaron Gordon, when he was with Orlando, he was all

interested in becoming this like versatile scoring forward. And what's so fascinating about what he's done in Denver is he's been like, the hell with all that they need me to basically play center while Jokic plays like point forward at the top of the key area with all this two man game and triuble handoff stuff and five out stuff, right,

and He's like, fine, I'll do that. You need me to just grab every offensive rebound and hut to the rim every single time my man turns his head and sprint up and down the floor and transition and guard the other team's best defensive forward. If that's all you need me to do, That's what I'll do. I was actually thinking during the game, like, no one would ever consider Aaron Gordon to be a top thirty, top forty

player in the NBA because of his statistical production. But if you actually just were to kind of just focus it down strictly to winning impact, he's probably a lot higher on that list than we give him credit for. There are a lot of guys in the league that put up big numbers in specific roles for teams that can't impact winning the way that Aaron Gordon does. And I like, like you, he is just he's just so useful and so impactful and so underrated in my opinion.

Moving on to the Lakers, just really quickly before we move on. Lessons have to be learned from this, and I'm skeptical about it because this is the front office that has consistently missed the boat on this kind of thing, right, This is the same front office. That was like, oh, KCP and Alex Caruso and Dennis Schroeder and all these guys missed some shots in twenty twenty one during the Sun series, So let's bail on him and find shooting. Oh wait, never mind, and we actually want a third star,

So forget about Buddy Heal. Let's go after Russell Westbrook. And they don't realize that Alex Cruso and KCP were two of the most important pieces to when they won the title, not because of them knocking down three point shots, not because of their offensive ceiling, but because of their floor.

And I've noticed that as the game has gotten more physical, it's more the floor that matters than the ceiling, because like when everything gets grinded down into the mud, it's everyone's playing like shit to a certain extent, you know, at least in terms of their like finesse efficiency. Obviously, the big strong stars like the uh the Nikola Jokicic's of the world are gonna thrive in those environments. But the finesse player like Jamal Murray, his shot making has

been key in the series. Go look at his percentages. He's been below fifty percent in every game. If I remember correctly, I think he finished tonight like eight for twenty one. He's been shooting poorly the majority of the series. That doesn't matter his floor because he's big and strong and he does find a way to hit some shots no matter what it like, all three games hit pivotal shots.

Forget about the percentages. He hit pivotal shots in all three games, right, Like KCP had a bad shooting night tonight, Who cares, he was all over the place. As an athlete, if your floor is high, that matters more in the postseason than your ceiling. And again, like, I don't have any optimism about the Laker front office about being able to figure that out because I genuinely just don't think they get it. But hopefully this year will be the

year that they learned about that. Danzel Russell, you know, it's been a really this is Delo is actually the perfect example of this theory, because Delo's ceiling is really damn high. You saw what he did in Game two when he was hitting shots. Go back into the postseason last year, Game four against Memphis, just massive three point shots in the fourth quarter because he caught a little mini heater in the fourth quarter that put the Lakers in position to win that game. Right, we all know

what a Delo's ceiling is. But Dlo's floor is so bad because he goes so cold and his decision making gets so poor, and he's so useless on the defensive end of the floor that he's like downright damaging like half the time. And so it doesn't really matter how highest ceiling is if when you need him in a big game like this, you don't know what you're gonna get, right, And like I we have to be critical because this is the same guy that said all season that he

wanted all the smoke. He literally said that. This is the same guy after Game two that said that he still believed his team was gonna win this series. He was writing checks and then he didn't cash them. He he put forth an abysmal two way performance tonight, zero for seven from the field, lost all over the place on defense. There's a video of him pouting outside the team huddle after the game, and I'm like, I I just never he never addressed his floor as a player,

and that was the problem. He's so worried about his ceiling,

and he work more on shooting, more on playmaking. I'm just gonna lean into being this highly volatile offensive player instead of addressing his weaknesses, which is his possession to possession focus outside of what he's doing offensively, outside of what he's doing with the ball in his hands, I should say, And that ended up being what basically did him in Again, here we are one year after he was played off the floor against Denver, and in two

of the three games, he's been downright destructive to the Lakers. Like they but if they decide to and we'll see what because the Lakers have a lot of stuff they have to figure out this obviously, and who knows if Lebron is gonna want to look somewhere else. Who knows if the entire ownership in front office group just wants to move on from the Lebron Ad pairing. Like, we

don't know what's gonna happen, Right. I thought Ad was for more or less great in this series to this point, and that obviously is an excellent kind of foundational piece to try to build around. But I mean, he's gonna be thirty one next year, right, and so there's stuff

that they got to figure out. But like, if they do try to run it back if they run it back and they go, hey, we're doing the ad Lebron thing again, that you you need to package d'angela Russell and draft compensation and whatever you need to do if it's more than one deal, and you need to bring in intelligent athleticism and strength to put alongside Lebron James and Anthony Davis, guys with high floors that maybe don't have the ceiling, because not only will that be better

for them in the regular season, but when we get into these rock fights, when we get into these physical playoff games, those are gonna be the guys that are able to play all right, Moving on to six Ers Nicks. You know, one of the things I talked about going into this postseason run is when it comes to Joel Embiid, his playoff history kind of comes down to a similar theme. Right.

He struggles with some of the aggression that the defenses bring to the table, and he'll have bad turnovers and he'll struggle to kind of bully his way to the basket, and he never really developed that like consistent like five to seven feet from the basket, like over the top game like Jokic has, and that I think has made his game a little bit more volatile, but he's been bad head for the most part because his jump shot hasn't gone in. That's been the primary issue. Every year.

He shoots pretty damn well for the entire regular season, and then he gets into the postseason and he can't

make a jump shot. And since he can't make a jump shot and he can't make the over the top shot, his game kind of falls apart, and all of a sudden, Al Horford's in his head and he doesn't know what to do, and now he's kind of like mitigated within that series, right, That's been kind of the story, but and beats potential for like a just a complete wrecking ball stretch has always been there because he is bigger and stronger than everybody, because there isn't anybody that can

actually guard him when he's playing confident and comfortable offensively, and he does have a very very very good jump shot. He's an excellent jump shooter, and he is capable of knocking down shots in the postseason. He just hasn't done it to this point, and so honestly, tonight kind of felt like him breaking through in a lot of ways. Now there's a lot to get frustrated about if you're a Sixers fan. Tonight, I did not think they had a good defensive defensive game. They really really did a

poor job guarding bruntson and all screens. Uber and Nick Batoum were just a little unfocused and getting caught off guard when he was rejecting screens or why when he would just kind of dribble around at the top of the key and act like he's surveying the floor, He kind of hit the Jets quick and beat him off the dribble. They were then out of position in their ball pursuit and committing fouls from behind. That was a

big issue. In the fourth quarter. There were possessions where Embiid was like glued up to Hartenstein on the weak side while Brunson's driving by Batooma on the other side. Like it was not a good defensive effort. Honestly, the only reason the Sixers won this game is they they shot the shit out of the basketball in that second half, and like specifically in the third quarter, Tyres Maxi and Joel Embiid were just spamming that pick and pop and

Embiid was hitting threes. And it started in the early third quarter with him hitting little mid range shots, and then towards the end of the third quarter he started hitting that pick and pop three point shot and it kind of bailed them out. And so honestly, I think it'll work to Nick Nurse's benefit because I think Nick Nurse is gonna be able to go into a film session with the team after this game and be like, Hey,

who won. This is great? You've played well enough to be up or you're down one two, but you've played well enough to be up to one. That's great. But we gotta be a lot better for game four. And I think I think we'll get much more of like a stuck in the mud kind of rock fight game in game four, And I think we'll get a better defensive effort out of the sixers in that game, and that that one is gonna be one where you're probably not gonna shoot quite as well and you're gonna have

to win a different way. Right, This is kind of the buzzsaw concept that we were talking about. It's why you got ham Payne hidden shots and Kelly u Bray a couple of shots like you get you get better production from your role players at home, right, Like that's that's kind of to be expected. Tyre's Maxy was awesome again, not his most efficient night, but he had a step back jump shot going, especially in that third quarter stretch.

Uh uh. You know, Tyres Masey, I think has been a it's been a clear uh success story this year in the sense that when Daryl Morrin moved off of James Harden and especially when he made the move more for draft compet and one useful role player and Nick Batoom, that put a lot of pressure on Tyree s Maaxy. Hey man, you're the number two, show us what you got,

and I think he's passed that test. With Flying Colors, there's a little bit of like a trash talking match that's starting to take shape between Maxi and Brunson too, Like the Brunton at an and one against Maxie in the second half are like Pump faked and leaned into him and held the follow through right in Maxie's face, and Maxi went back down on him on the other

end and his step back in his face and they're kind of going at each other and like he's got the confidence, he's got the natural ability in the postseason to him just comes down to a simple combination of jump shooting and downhill rim pressure. It's like the perfect complimentary skills. If you were both a deadly over the top shooter and a deadly downhill threat. It just puts every defensive player that tries to guard you in a bind.

He's done a really nice job on the Embiid picking pops of dragging his defender as far off to the side as possible so that it's a longer close out right, Like that is a speed element too. If you come off the ball screen and you're too close and to the pop, it's just an easier rotation for Hartenstein. Right. As far as the play with Mitchell Robinson and Joel Embiid, there's no defending it. It was a dirty play. He

was out of line. I'm glad that the league didn't eject him just simply because that'd be kind of a shitty way to win a series. Like if I'm the Knicks as a competitor, I want to beat the Sixers at full strength, and I want to beat them because Embiid did something stupid in the second quarter. I don't think Embiid was trying to hurt Mitchell Robinson. I think he was just he made a really bad, split second decision, a really stupid, unsafe decision because he was angry because

he got ran over. I think that's what it was. Doesn't justify it, but I that's to me a discretion thing. Yeah, ya, Levy a fine on embiid and you make sure he understands that he can never do that again. But I understood the league being like or the officials being like, we're not gonna kick and beat out in Philly in the second quarter or this game for something like that, or or whenever it happened its first or second quarter.

But like I honestly too, like the city of Philadelphia might have never let those officials get out of that arena alive if that, if something like that would have happened. Like there's a there's like a like by the book way of looking at that incident, and then there's like a realistic way of looking at that incident, and when you look at it through that from that perspective, I

understood what the officials were doing. A big part of this game too, just role players coming back and hitting shots. That's an important piece of it, right. The big one for me, though, is the defense on runs in and this is something that I think that the Sixers are gonna have to adjust in game two. One of the things that I really didn't like in this game is they were doing a little too much defending the action two on two and staying glued on guys off the ball.

And I understand, like Josh Hart's been hitting shots, and I understand like there have been guys that have made you pay over the course of the series from time to time, and obviously, like you don't want to just make easy reads available. But one of the things that was working in games one in game two is they were digging down a lot and making Brunton play in traffic, and he was getting into some precarious positions on the floor where he was surrounded by three four guys and

turning the basketball over taking extremely difficult shots. You're on ball. Defenders were doing a better job of pursuit tyres. Maxie in particular, had much better defensive games in Game one and two than he did in Game three. Right Nicks made some adjustments too. They were running Brunton off more zoom action, like out of the corner where he'd like come off of a him down into a dribble handoff, so that like it's not as obvious as as Brunson

just dribbling up the floor into a ball screen. But I still think there's a lot of area for improvement there for Philly, and they're going to have to have a better defensive effort in Game two if they're going to get this one. I do think best guess at this point, I think the Sixers will win Game four.

But like I came into this series thinking the Sixers were going to win, and the Knicks have shown me that that toughness gap is actually even wider than I thought it was, and I'm actually pretty concerned about their ability to win in Madison Square Guard and again, especially after what happened in Game two. And so I'm not gonna bail on my pick yet, but I will tell you guys that I certainly don't feel as confident in

it as I did before the series. Not that I felt super confident in the Sixers to begin with, but that is the team that I ended up picking. All right, moving on to Caves Magic before we get out of here for the night. Magic got off to a rough start in this one. They were playing in jumpers, right and left and the Cavs went up ten to three. Fronz Wagner ended up finally getting the lid off the rim with the corner three out of the left corner, and from there the Magic just basically took over Jalen

Suggs immediately. It's a three, and it's just like they just got their confidence and got going from there on. Offense, the story of this game and this entire matchup really and it's something that the Magic had been doing all season.

But Pawlo is basically your point guard, right and they're just running a lot of these like ghost screens with Jalen Suggs as man and you know, obviously there's like a hedge and recover element to that where Jalen Suggs was able to attack closeouts where like again we talked about this with Grayson Allen and the Suns in the Timberwolve series. But sug sets a screen, he slips out to the top of the key palette, throws it back to him. The hedger is like sprinting back to him.

He's hitting threes and driving out of that. He was getting really good rim pressure out of that. Also, a really good transition game from Jalen Suggs just flying down the lane, had a big dunk on a spot up at the top of the key when I think it was Darius Garland kind of lost sight of him off the ball, but when they were able to switch that, when Jalen got a really good screen and they were

able to get a switch. One of the things that I appreciated was like early in the game, Powell was settling for further away jump shots, and obviously he's at this phase in his career a little bit of an inconsistent jump shooter, but he's actually like pretty damn good when he gets closer to the basket when he's in there like that seven to fifteen foot range, And he finally started getting some better matchups and those ghost screens,

and he was getting downhill. Franz was doing this too, but getting closer to the rim and taking those short range jump shots. Like we too often we break down shot making into like three levels, right, it's three level scoring, it's the rim, it's the three point line, it's the mid range, right, But I actually look at more like four levels. It's like the rim, the three point line, long twos, which to me are an inefficient shot that you should only take when you have to. But then

there's like short twos. These are shots that are like inside of the foul line, you know, all around the basket, right, how Low hits seven of those, Tonight hits seven jump shots in that like seven to fifteen foot range, those are a lot easier those Like again, when I talk about pull up jump shooting, it's a lot about lyft. It's a lot about getting separation and getting lyft right. And so when you're doing that further away from the basket,

they just turned into really difficult shots to make. It's kind of like the James Harden story. His entire career is built on this like step back three that he can hit in the regular season. Then he gets to the postseason and it's like a super inconsistent shot for him. Why because Yeah, in a super physical and intense playoff game, shooting a step back jump shot from twenty five feet seventeen times, like however many times he takes it in

game is just really really difficult. Right, It's a fatiguing shot. But like, no matter how tired you are, if you get closer to the basket, you don't need as much lift to get a decent look there. It's kind of been what Kawhi Leonard has been so efficient within his career. He's not hitting nineteen footers every single time, He's hitting thirteen footers every single time. And that just imagine a

free throw. It's literally inside the free throw line, and you can imagine how much that kind of makes things easier. And Palow is just absolutely dominant in this game. And I think that, to me is where Plow's ceiling lies. His ceiling lies is basically like the forward version of Jokic in the sense that like he needs to bully his way in close to the rim and just get deadly with those like short range over the top shots, turn around jumpers over both shoulders, a hook shot over

his left shoulder. Franz kind of went to one of these today where it's like almost like a euro step into like a lean back, one leg fade away, but not from far, like from five feet from the rim like that. That is an area where you can get really accurate if you're shot making. And by the way, don't tell me that doesn't matter. That's the shot that makes Jokic the best player in the world. Like Jokic's ability to hit that shot is what has separated him

and Pallo is a supremely gifted forward. He is bigger than the vast majority of the players that play his position around the league, and that's where his advantage is. But he got going with those short range jumpers and he started hitting threes, and him hitting four of them in this game. Like I mentioned before, Jalen sugs nine for eleven with twenty four points. A lot of attacking off of those ghost screen actions. I think Cole Anthony had a really good second quarter shift. Markel Foltz did

some nice work off the bench as well. Again that's to be expected. You go on the road, your role players can struggle. You come home, your role players can play better. But as a team, they just had a much better jump shooting night. This is a bottom ten jump shooting team. They're tied for twenty third in the NBA in jump shot efficiency during the regular season, but they at one point two to two points per jump shot tonight completely flipped the script. Hit a bunch of shots,

bloom out right, not even close. On defense, a swarming effort from everybody, more switching. Cleveland went out of their way to kind of try to target Palo and early in the series, if you remember, like Palo and Franz when they were getting targeted in ball screens, they were almost like or since of paloin Franz and Paalo and Jonathan Isaac early in the series were almost like defending those ball screens, almost like in a drop coverage. And I mean, those are guys that just don't have a

ton of experience guarding like that. And so I was advocating early in the series for more switching, and they did more. They've been doing more switching as the series progresses, really since the second half of Game one. But Cleveland was going out of their way to try to attack Palo, and he held up pretty damn well. It committed a couple of fouls where he was just getting a little handsy, but for the most part, slid his feet, was contesting shots and was doing a good doing a good job.

This series, to me, feels like a series where the home team is gonna win out. Obviously, if Cleveland can steal one in Orlando, it'll be over quicker. If they steal game four, then this this thing's over in five. I don't think Orlando's gonna win in Cleveland at all. But I do think Orlando is a good chance to win all their home games. It kind of goes back to what I was talking about at the beginning of the show. This is the buzzsaw, right, but that buzz

saw is exacerbated by the athleticism. You know. The Lakers just don't have the athletes to be a buzzsaw for Denver, right, But Orlando sure as hell does to Cleveland. They are the bigger, more athletic team, right. They out rebounded Cleveland fifty one to thirty two. They were twenty one to eleven in fast break points, fourteen to five in offensive rebounds.

That is a complete and total physical dominance of the Cleveland Cavaliers. So again, this is where home court advantage matters. I wouldn't be concerned if I was a Cavs fan, because I literally don't think Orlando can beat Cleveland and Cleveland. But this could be a long series just based on how difficult it is to match Orlando's physicality when they're at home. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for

supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow morning. We have Jovann Buja coming on the show. The volume