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you guys are having a great week so far. We're gonna get an instant reaction in for Eastern Conference Finals Game two as Boston goes up to oh On the Indiana Pacers. Gonna break that game down from the perspective of both teams, and then we're gonna do a mail bag at the end of the show today. So drop
as many questions as you guys like. Let's have some fun, Let's go all over the place, drop some questions in the chat, and Paul, our producer, is gonna text them over to me and we'll do a mail bag at the tail end of the show. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to a brand of YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason Lts. You guys
don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed where if you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight, then keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments. We can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the postseason. Last not at least before started. I want to talk to you guys about game time. They've got an amazing ticket buying experience. I had a great experience with them earlier this year as I went to McHale Center to watch the University
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as two taps. It's fun watching games on TV, but nothing beats being there in person to see these guys, and nothing beats intense, high stakes basketball. So get out to the arena to see these guys. See Anthony Edwards, C Tyres Halliburton, see Luka, Dancid, c Jason Tatum. Make sure you guys get out there and check it out. They also have things like flash deals and zone deals. I like the Zone deal idea. You just pick a section, game Time chooses the seats for you within that section.
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like I expected it too. After watching the film from Game one again, as I talked about, I thought in Game one that Boston kind of got outplayed and specifically just wasn't sharp on the defensive end in a bunch of different phases. We went over a film session yesterday where I kind of showed you guys, the Specifics just really struggling with communication and execution in their switches. So anytime Indiana would just run multiple interchanges, you know, and
they Indiana go's fast. I showed some examples in the film session were like in a four second span or in a six second span, they'd get to like three or four d double handoffs, or like three or four different cuts and screens in different interchanges, right, And like Boston just wasn't very sharp there. And then the second piece of it was the pick and roll. They really really struggled handling Tyres Halliburton and Miles Turner in pick and roll.
Right.
And so one of the things I talked about was, they get this win in the win column, but they're also gonna get embarrassed when they go look at the film. And so they should come into game two with the requisite level of energy and just kind of passion to rectify that situation.
Right.
And Like, it was a little rough in the first quarter tonight, specifically when it came to handling the switches, but then they settled down. They had this awesome defensive run to start the second quarter. In particular, in that run, that twenty to zero run that spanned the end of the first quarter into the early second quarter, they went from down twenty seven to twenty two to up forty two to twenty seven. And in that span, Indiana was trying to attack their switching by just throwing the ball
down to the post. And their guards were holding up in the posts, they were fronting the posts and forcing turnovers. They were getting out in transition. Jalen Brown was just unbelievable during that run. He was unbelievable in the entire game. And you know, there were a couple points where the Pacers kind of made little runs, but Boston seemed to
be in control throughout. Was very, very different than Game one in the sense that I thought Boston just like actually asserted themselves thoroughly outplayed Indiana in one in a very impressive fashion. Remember the specifics that we talked about were communicating and executing switches better, which they did a much better job. The second piece was the pick and roll piece, right, So the direction that Joe Mizula went,
which I thought was fascinating. He actually went with Jaylen Brown on Miles Turner instead of Jason Tatam, although Jason Tatum also spent time on Miles Turner during the game, and then they went with Horford on Siakam. And what was fascinating about that is it put all of the scoring pressure on Siakam both in pick and roll and in their switching situations. The main reason why is Boston ran a lot of centerless lineups in this game by
virtue of the wrist injury to Luke Cornett. It was a lot of like the four starters plus but with Horford off the floor and there'd be Ohheber set in there, right, or they did some with Sam Hauser as well, but a lot of these like small groups where they did a lot of switching. And in those groups that again, when you look at Indiana, when Indiana is healthy, and when I mean healthy, I mean like the Tyrese Haliburton
that we saw at the beginning of the season. They have two guys that can beat switches, right, because Siakam can beat switches and Tyrese Haliburton can beat switches. But Tyrese his first step just isn't as quick since he's had his hamstring injury. Was kind of starting to get it back, and then it seems like he might have aggravated it tonight, which is obviously frustrating if you're a
Pacers fan. But because Siakam is literally their only matchup attacking forward that can do damage to switches, it just puts all of the scoring pressure on Pascal Siakam, both in ball screens and when they'd go to their switching attack, and for the most part they did find in ball screens. There were a couple of pick and pop threes that Pascal Siakam hit in the early third quarter, but other than that, like they kind of had that under wraps right and so like. As a result, it turned into
a lot of trying to attack in isolation situations. Like I said, the Pacers really tried to force the ball into the post, especially in that first half, and they just couldn't get any anything going. Siakam was the one guy that they were able to get going. And don't get me wrong, he had an awesome game. He cooked everybody in the post with you know, short little face up jumpers, turnaround jumpers, quick driving moves to the basket.
Like Siakam had an amazing night. But the flip side is is because of the fact that you had Horford on Siakam and you had Turner with a wing on him, and because of the fact that they went to so many centerless lineups, it was just a lot of that type of ISO attack. It kind of removed the Haliburton ball screen from the equation. And he was also kind of unaggressive in this game. Which part of that I think was the switching. Part of that was probably whatever
was going on with this hamstring. But even though Siakam went off, you pretty much held everyone else in check and.
Got out of that with the win.
And again I want to shout out specifically Derek White, Drew Holiday, and Oh shaper Set, especially in that twenty zero run there that spanned the late first and early second. Those guys all held up really really well against massive size mismatches in the post and it was a big part of how they got so many stops in this game. So smart adjustments from Joe Mizzoula in going small and putting a keeping Horford on Siakam throughout and then two just better execution in their switches led to a much
better defensive performance and a comfortable win for Boston. On the offensive end, literally everything was built around attacking Tyre's Halliburton. The vast majority of action that Boston ran in this game was two man game with either one of the J's and one of the guards, meaning Derek White or
Drew Holliday. Right when the guards were on the ball, it was about getting Tyre's Halliburton to try to navigate over the screen and contain a guy like Derek White or Drew Holiday on the drive right, spend most of the time on Derek White. There was a sequence in the third quarter that I thought best demonstrated this, right.
Both of them were. One of them was on the left wing.
I think one was at the top of the key if I remember correctly, but it was Derek White ball handler Tatum setting the screen. Nie Smith is on Tatum, right. Nie Smith doesn't want us switch off of Tatum. Haliburton's chasing over the top because Derek White's an excellent three point shooter and he can't just duck underneath the pick.
He's been torching people with that for that all postseason, right, So on the boss grin on the left wing, Nie Smith kind of lunges and throws a token little you know, kind of like a dig down at at Derek White. But then he recovers back to Tatum, and so as Haliburton's chasing over the top, Derek White just easily gets all the way downhill and gets a layup. Very next possession, they run the exact same thing.
This time.
Nee Smith is thinking, I gotta help because Derek White just got a layup, so he sinks down into the lane and they effectively double team Derek White. Derek White pitches it back to Jason Tatum, there's a close out from the wing. Tatum toasts that guy off the dribble,
gets in the lane and dunks it. Like essentially, you're damned if you do damned if you don't, if you're aaron Ne Smith, because you didn't help Derek White got a layup, you did help Jason Tatum got a dunk, and so like that's kind of the predicament that they're in there with Tyree's Halliburton on Derek White. And then when the Wings had the ball, so like it like think of that as like an inverted ball screen, right, So you have a forward essentially running a ball screen
with a guard setting the screen. If Halliburton hedged, they would just try to drag the hedge out as far as they could so that it was a tough close out, and then Derek White or Drew Holliday would slip out of it to the top of the key and they get wide open catch and shoot threes out of it. Jaylen Brown generated a couple of threes for Derek White that way, Tatum generated some threes that way too. They just did a really nice job dragging that hedge out.
And then if they didn't drag the hedge, like if they just switched. So like if if Halliburton showed on that hedge and then whoever was guarding the forward, whether it was aaron Ne Smith or Andrew Nemhard recovers and just stays home and just stays home and switches on to Derek White or jew Holiday, then Tatum would just kind of methodically back Tyres Aliburton down into that fifteen foot area and just get to those short range jumpers that he can make. And obviously he made a got
going in that third quarter stretch. Tatum had a rough start to this game but had a good finish at the end. But like that was really the gist of it. Everything for Boston centered around attacking Tyree's Halliburton, either in ball screens where he was guarding the guard or in inverted ball screens where he had to hedge, and they just really don't have an answer for that. And that's a big part of Tyre's Aliburton's passivity in this game, right,
Like you're just you're wearing them out. You're just wearing them out by making them work on the defensive end the entire game. In general, I just thought the Celtics had a really good offensive night in terms of aggression towards the rim and decision making when they got there. That Like again, like I said at the beginning, they got out played in Game one and won. Anyway, that's
not what happened tonight. The Celtics took care of busit light up to their potential and they outclassed the Pacers as they should. They're a better team, and they took a two zero lead. Jalen Brown was just, I thought, just a wrecking ball athlete in this game. He was flying around everywhere on defense. He had good on ball possessions. He was jumping passing lanes and getting out in transition,
running his lane in transition. In general, he was flat out toasting people off the dribble and getting into the lane and drawing multiple bodies and throwing kickout passes. He did it in like just straight iso situations. He did it a lot of work in semi transition. He had this like double crossover move. I think it was on Siakam along the left wing when he got all the way into the basket, he grabbed a couple of offensive rebounds.
He had to play early where Aaron E.
Smith was trying to box him out, but he's just smaller and not as strong, and Jalen just kind of swum around the baseline, got in there and got a little hook shot off in the lane. Again, I thought he was the primary driving force of a lot of Boston success tonight, and he was the guy that was really running the offensive end of that twenty zero run. We talked a lot about the guards and the job they did on defense, but Jalen Brown was unbelievable on
offense during that twenty zero run. I thought he just completely dominated this basketball game on both ends of the floor. So tip of the cap to him. And again they needed it because Jason Tatum had a little bit of a rough night until the end and Jaylen Brown more
than made up for it. And then lastly, Derek White his ability to run those ball screens with the jas and that means like duck under the pick, hit the pull up three, chase over the top, get downhill, either make decisions or get all the way to the rim and finish that. In his ability to run those inverted ball screens where he could set a good pick and then pop to the three point line and quickly get his feet set and shoot or make decisions out of it driving the closeout. That is just a huge asset
to this offense. It felt like every single three he hit tonight was huge in terms of the momentum situations in the game. Really really impressive performance from Boston on both ends of the floor on the Indiana front. So Boston has basically solved your offense by virtue of putting
all of the onus on Siakam to score. That's what we talked about earlier, right, Like in he has to score it because Horford's in a drop, they're for pressuring the rim, and Siakam's popping out to the three point line, right, So, like he's got to hit those pick and pop threes. He's got to find a way to score if if Horford recovers to him on the roll, right, and then when they go to when Boston goes small and they switch everything, He's the one guy who can consistently get
quality shots against size mismatches in straight iso situations, right. So, like it's a testament to how important his addition was. And that's why I love the trade at the time, Like I love the idea of like a offensive initiating like playmaker in addition to a matchup attacking forward or a matchup attacking anything.
Right.
Like that's even why like Kyrie irving alongside Luka Dancics, right, because Luca can be the engine of the offense and generate all these quality shots, but Kyrie, like he can just he can just go get a bucket, right, and he can attack specific matchups and just create something out of nothing. Same kind of thing with Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokich. Jokich is the offensive engine. He runs everything, and then you've got this guy that can go get a bucket right, And so Siakam is kind of amounted
to that for Indiana. But it's the reality of the limitations of this version of Halliburton, which is back before he heard his hamstring at the beginning of the season, I thought he was pretty good beating switches, and it's because he just was so good the long strides. He had a lot of like scooping layups where he'd like beat someone off the dribble and then kind of take like a little bit of a wide route and go
up high. He was really good with the floaters, but he's just not getting downhill as easily in this playoff run as he did before his injury. And so again that's the ultimate version of this team. If the Pacers are gonna achieve something greater in the future, it's got to be both of them. It's got to be Halliburton at this like peak version of himself as like a scoring playmaker, and then to Pascal Siakam as that matchup
attacking Forard. Heading back to Indiana, I think they can get one based on the strength of their chaotic ball and player movement and the crazy pace that they play at and the home crowd. Like India's unefeated at home in this playoff run right now, but Boston is undefeated on the road too, and so like if Boston doesn't relax, which by the way, they have a tendency to when they get a lead, but like, if Boston doesn't relax, like this thing could be over in four, I'm gonna
go ahead and stick. I'm gonna go with Boston in five for right now, just simply because I do think Indiana has the ability to get one at home on the strength of their home crowd. But this could very easily be over in four games. Deeply concerning that Tyres Halliburton's hamstring has flared up again because they just have no shot without him. All right, let's get to the
mail bag before we get out of here tonight. If Haliburton is out, are you worried about Boston facing a much tougher team in the finals after coasting through the East. Here's the thing, this is the beauty of a seven game series. So like, yeah, there's something to be said about an adjustment if they go from I mean, the main thing is just you're gonna be going up against
a much better defensive team. Like Cleveland did not have the wings to throw at Tatum and Brown, right, Like Indiana doesn't really either, Like Aaron E. Smith does a good job, but he's kind of undersized, right. Like, same thing goes for that first round matchup against the Miami Heat. Like with Jimmy Butler out, they just didn't really have like the wing athleticism to hang with the Jay's right, So like it'll be an adjustment when they get to the finals and all of a sudden, it's you know,
Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards, or it's PJ. Washington and Derek Jones junior. Like you're definitely stepping up a level in competition. I mean, I don't even think Celtics fans would be crazy enough to think that that any of these three teams they've played or as good as some of these teams out in the Western Conference.
That said, like Boston's also on that level.
Like throughout it all, like there's multiple things are true, Like has Boston had an easy path through the postseason?
Yes?
Is the Eastern Conference substantially weaker than the Western Conference, Yes, But Boston is also a Dame good basketball team who's every bit as good, if not better than those teams in the Western Conference. So like will there be adjustment, Sure, but that's the whole purpose of a seven game series.
And also, like you get rewarded for your success in the regular season, Like there was some of its luck, Like I thought if you ranked the top five teams in the East, the other four after Boston all ended up in the other side of the bracket, so they only had to face one of those teams, which is good fortune. Sure, but like you got that by virtue
of the success you had in the regular season. Same thing goes with the home court advantage piece of it, because, like let's say it's an adjustment, but you also have home court and home court in the NBA Finals. Whoever comes out of the West, it's gonna be a lot of guys who have never played in the finals. Whereas for Boston, Derek White's been there, Jason Tatum's been there, Jalen Brown's been there, Al Horford's been there. They've got
a lot of guys that have been there before. So, like I would argue the home court piece and then them having finals experience, while the outside of Kyrie Irving, you're just not getting that out of the out of the Western Conference piece of it. I think that that Boston is gonna be fine in that regard, Like I don't think it's gonna come down to Boston adjusting necessarily. I do think that that could be a factor, but I think it's more likely just going to come down
to is Boston going to reach their ceiling? Are they gonna have good decision making on offense? Are they gonna bring consistent defensive effort? Is Jason Tatum gonna be able to go toe to toe with whoever the best player is that comes out of that Western Conference team. Like, if Jason Tatum runs into a Luka Doncic, let's say I think Luka Doncis is the second best player in
the world. Is Tatum gonna be able to win that matchup the way that he badly lost, Like because he badly lost that matchup against Steph two years ago, right, So, Like though, those are the things that I think are going to play a much bigger role for Boston than the adjustment period. Do you think that part of Tatum's inconsistency on offense is that he doesn't have a reliable spot that he is comfortable with, for example, the Jokich
houk shot or the SGA mid range. So I think that most of this just comes down to approach for Jason Tatum. And what I mean by that is, like, I actually do think that Tatum is capable of getting to a consistent spot on the floor where he can be profoundly efficient consistently on a possession by possession basis.
For me, that's the block, Like I would love to see Tatum just work off the right block, cleared side, like that be his like go to spot on the floor to operate that That's what I'm hoping for him in the in the long run, I think that part of his skill development has been overly focused on tough shot making. And the thing with tough shot making is
there's real value in it. There really is. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like it doesn't matter, like and it's come through for Jason Tatum in a lot of big ways over the year.
I remember I remember him hitting a.
Huge right shoulder fade away from like twenty feet to ice the Bucks in Game six of the twenty twenty two Eastern Conference Semifinals. Like he's gone to tough shot making in situations that have come through for him, and
there is value. But to me, the value of tough shot making is rescue possessions, meaning like there's five seconds on the shot clock and I just need to get something up late game situations where it's like we're you know, we're within you know, fifteen seconds left and I need to get a shot, or like they're switching everything and we're not getting anything open in our ball and player movement, so I just need to be able to get to my spot and knock down a shot like those those
are coverage beaters too, Like if you're going against a drop coverage and a guy dies on the pick, Like, yeah, you need to be able to hit a pull up jumper. But like Tatum just leans on him too much, Like it's it's pull up jump shots makeup damn near half of his shot diet.
And that's a problem.
That's that to me is that is leaving meat on the bone, that is playing away from your strengths, you know what I mean, Like Tatum, I know this is a this kind of is a strange comp because Lebron
and Jason Tatum are very different players. But like Lebron developed an over the top shot making game, but his best trait was he was bigger and stronger and more athletic than everybody, right, And so like the vast majority of Lebron's work was done in athleticism based plays, whether it was transition attacks, attacking out of the post, you know, like getting downhill and ball screens, and then Lebron would use pull up shot as like a as like basically
a ceiling razor. And that's kind of what I want to see Jason Tatum do now. I think he'll need a little bit more pull up shot making because he's not the straight line. He's not as like quick off the off the first step as Lebron James was, obviously, but Jason Tatum is one of the biggest and strongest forwards in the league. He has the ability to guard
centers in the post. He can demolish players with size mismatches, and so for me, it's just about kind of tilting some of his shot selection, like taking it from like if you just take two or three of those possessions a game where you take a pull up jumper and you turn those into physically aggressive moves towards the basket, that to me will dramatically increase his consistency on the
offensive end. But again, like when we have these conversations, I think it's important to remind ourselves that Jason Tatum is a Swiss army knife that does a lot of really useful things for a basketball team. And this is not one of those things where it's like, oh, his jumper's not falling tonight, so now he's useless.
That's not what it is. It's just he is. He plays.
He's into more inconsistency by relying too much on his jump shot when he's not particularly good at it, and like outside of like a month spanning late December to January this year, he was a bad pull up shooter. He so, like it's not a huge surprise that I think my microphone might have just crapped out. Again, let's see, we're okay. But like outside of like outside of that like month month and a half there, Like he's he's
a bad pull up shooter. So it's not a surprise that like he gets into these situations and they're more inconsistent, right, But like in terms of like where I think his spot will be in the long run, again, I think it's in that right block cleared side trying to go to work using his size advantages. Would you ever take a coaching job for a college program or the NBA?
I would never take a college job just because, like a couple of things, if if you are an assistant at the college level, you almost like a good portion of your workload becomes like clerical work. It's a lot of like checking on the kids' grades, like recruiting visits,
scouting visit like things along those lines. It's a lot of that kind of stuff, and obviously as a head coach there's a lot of that kind of responsibility as well, especially on the recruiting side, right, And like, for me, like I love basketball, I want to focus on basketball. So like, to me, college doesn't really satisfy that specific need. I think there would be just too much non basketball
related side of the business. I would love to coach in the NBA one day, but it's just completely unrealistic.
Coaching is very much a fraternity. Everyone is very like it's it's so in order to get into that side of the business, you have to like take some job in a film room somewhere and just grind and grind and grind and maybe just maybe you'll get an opportunity to be an assistant somewhere one day, or maybe you'll have some sort of connection, but like chances are like, as much as I'd love that opportunity, it's just unrealistic
and so it's not something that I plan on. But to answer the question, if the Charlotte Hornets called me tomorrow and was like, hey, do you want a position as one of our end of the bench assistants, I'd be like, fuck, yeah, let's go.
Let's do it.
Just because for me, I just like nothing as much as I love talking about the game, nothing beats the competitiveness. Nothing beats like being in a locker room, being with those guys and trying to achieve the ultimate goal and going after a championship of whatever type it is. But again, it's unrealistic, so it's not something I plan on. What's the biggest difference between this series and the Knick series for the Pacers where the Knicks also went up to
I'll keep it really simple. Boston's a much, much, much better basketball team. Would Darius Garland be a good fit for the Lakers? I let's just I'm gonna put it this way. I saw this moving around today. To me, Austin Reeves is like ninety ninety five percent the basketball player that Darius Garland is. You could argue he's a better playoff player, and he costs a tiny fraction as much, and he's already on the roster. So like to me, any sort of deal for Garland would require the aggregation
of salaries and sending out too many good players. I think the Lakers would get worse, So I fly don't like that kind of deal. Who would guard Jalen Brown for the MAVs or the Wolves. So I think what they would probably do if it was Dallas is I think we'd see PJ. Washington on Jason Tatum, and then I think we'd see Derek Jones Junior on Jalen Brown. But I could see that matchup getting moved around quite
a bit. Kyrie Irving has defended guards so well in this postseason run that I think that Kyrie, you could handle probably the Derek White assignment right, And then I think they probably try to hide Luka Doncic on Drew Holliday, and they probably used Drew Holliday a lot as a screener.
The thing is, this is the problem with Boston, and this is one of the reasons why like everyone, you know, like everyone keeps writing off Boston and saying the Western teams are better, and like I may pick the Western Conference team, but like whoever comes out of that the West, Like, even if I do pick them, it's like a fifty five to forty five kind of thing. Like I think Boston is damn good, and I might end up picking Boston. I'm not sure. We'll see when we get to that point.
But one of the main reasons why is because Boston just presents massive matchup problems for everybody. Like it's kind of like the Tyre's Haliburton piece, Like you're you're putting Tyres Haliburt on Derek White. You have to put him on Derek White because Drew Halliday will punish him in the post, and like you can handle the Derek White problem with more team based concepts, but like that's just the problem. Derek White's freaking amazing and you're putting Tyres
Albert on him because you just have no choice. And like that's just the reality of the predicament that Boston puts you in because they have so many damn good basketball players, you know, like they have four dudes making over thirty million, and it's not like, oh, they're on bad contracts. They all deserve to be making at least that much. And then Derek White is the one guy who doesn't, and he probably deserves to make thirty thirty five million a year based on what he does on
both ends of the floor. So like Boston just super super talented, and those are the problems that they can those are the predicaments that they can put you in. In terms of the Timberwolves. My guess is that they probably put Jayden McDaniels on Jason Tatum and Anthony Edwards on Jaln Brown. But again it's the same kind of thing. I think you'd see some interchangeability there. That would be an interesting series for the Karl Anthony Towns kind of
fit in terms of the matchups. And I wonder how often the Wolves would have to go small and put Nikhil Alexander Walker on the floor. Did players get Did players used to get this much shit for poor performances in just one game or is it happening more now with more exposure in today's NBA. I've noticed this in general over the years with Twitter. Everybody wants to take victory laps or admit they're wrong after one game, which is like absolutely crazy to me. I mean, even just
in the last round. Let's see, like Dallas lost Game one and won the series. Denver lost Game one and led by twenty in Game seven in the second half, Right, what was the.
Need?
The Knicks went up two oh and the Pacers ended up winning that series. So like in general, when it comes to the postseason, like I am a big believer and like no matter what you think, don't react to anything until you've seen multiple games and you've seen all the adjustments. Like let's say Indiana wins Game one without
that you know, crazy Jalen Brown shot. It's like you could be like, oh my gosh, they can't guard pick and roll, and it's like, actually, they were able to come up with some adjustments in literally one game to be able to mitigate a lot of the issues, just a lot, like just take Cornette out of the rotation, although he Missoula was forced to, but like, take Cornette out of the rotation, put Horford on Siakam and all of a sudden, like you're just in a better position, right,
So like another one too, Like I went back and looked through the film and Minnesota I thought, played one of their worst defensive games of the postseason against Dallas in Game one, and so like, I just think that we see a more desperate Minnesota defensive effort in Game two, and I think Minnesota ties the series. And so now who knows, Like Dallas is in commanding position and they
very well might end up winning. But in general, I just don't understand the overreacting, and especially when it comes to the individual players. Like my thing is like I think criticism without praise is empty, and praise without criticism is empty. Right, So, like I have to be critical of Ant for the way he played in Game one one because I'm also the guy that praises him heavily when he plays well, right, like I have. It's just
like with Jason Tatum. I've been very critical of Jason Tatum over the years, but like, he was awesome in Game one in so many different ways aside from the shot making. And it's like to me, like, I have my biases. I do. I'm not gonna sit here and lie to you, Guys, I emotionally, as a fan root for the Lakers. Right on a non emotional level, I have players that I'm a fan of and players that I don't like particularly well, right Like, for instance, Luca is one of those guys.
I've never been a huge Luca fan.
There's some things about his game that bother me, the way he constantly complains that the refs bothers me. Sometimes the twenty five thirty dribble possessions into an iso. I watched a game in the regular season this year. I want to say it was against the Pacers where where Luca literally got the opening tip and ran four consecutive straight ISOs without passing the basketball to start the game.
And it's like, there are part there are.
Things about that that as just as a basketball fan, I'm not a huge fan of. But at this time, like I try, I genuinely do try to fight against those things and to try to be as objective as I possibly can. My thing is like, I'm not gonna lie to you and say that I'm, you know, perfectly unbiased.
I'm not.
I have my biases, I have my likes, I have my dislikes. I'm just gonna try like hell to do the best job that I can I do. To put it simply, I take this job very seriously. The fact that you guys actually come to me and listen to my analysis, that you actually care about my opinion, I take that as a as a huge compliment, and I take that responsibility seriously. I want to make sure that I do this job the way that it's supposed to be done. I'm not perfect. I'm gonna fuck up a lot.
I say stupid shit sometimes. What was the one I had at the beginning of the last round where I said the Lakers might be. The h that the Wolves have is the same, the same chance to beat Denver as the Lakers do, Like the Lakers did, Like that was stupid. I make mistakes like that's That's kind of just how it goes. But I'm gonna just do the best I can and we'll see. I feel like I'm better at it than I was a few years ago, and hopefully I keep getting better at it over the years.
Tatum Garner's so much attention from defenses, do you think this opens up Brown for games like this? So to put it simply, like there are usually aggressive coverages lined up for the other team's best star, and there's usually
traditional coverages lined up for any sort of supporting star. So, for instance, take Minnesota, like Anthony Edwards is getting high drop coverage, double team and ISOs like he saw a ton of that against Denver, a little bit of a little bit of it in Game one against Dallas where they're like really loaded up and digging down into driving lanes high drop like Ant's coming off of those ball screens and settling. He's not being as agg aggressive as he needs to be. But so much of it has
to do with the coverages. Right when it comes to like the gameplan piece of it, then you look at Karl Anthony Towns and it's like, yeah, they will throw
the occasional double team to him in the post. But like when they run Hoorn's chest and you know Ant dribbles off the cat on the left elbow and cat comes off of Nazor or Rudy Gobert on the right elbow and they throw the ball to him, they're not double team him or trapping him like he's he's getting traditional coverages, meaning he's getting the same coverages that every other team gets, right, And like a lot of that is or every other player I should say gets, And
so a lot of that is like Jylen Brown is going to have a certain different level of difficulty than Jason Tatum.
That's a fact, right.
And Like if if Boston ever did trade Jalen Brown, like let's say four years from now they do, or let's say they have like another disappointing loss two years in a row and then and then they end up trading Jalen Brown, I don't think they will. I think Jaylen Brown will be a Celtic for a long time. But if Jalen Brown goes to a team and is the best player on the team, his entire perspective on
the game will change. Instead of getting the Aaron E. Smith point of attack assignment, like he's like right now, he's getting Andrew Nemhard right, Like instead of Tatum getting Aaron E. Smith, Like if he was the best player on a team, maybe he gets Aaron E. Smith for the entire game, you know, like and he has success against Aaron E.
Smith too.
I'm not trying to say you can't, but like, let's say it like the Minnesota assignment, Like, if they end up having to leave a lesser defender on one of the jas, who are.
They gonna do it.
They're gonna do it on Jaln Brown, right, So like there is some reality to like the to being lower in the pecking order and that making things easier. But again, as I used to always say with Jamal Murray, in my opinion, when it comes to basketball, your value is your value to your team. And regardless of what theoretical situation where Jalen Brown is on some other team and he's getting tougher coverages, Yeah, we can talk about that
in terms of ranking players, but I'm Boston. He is the number two, and so he does get favorable matchups, and he does get favorable coverages, and so he does get to cook. And that's just the reality of his impact on this team. Would the Celtics fare better against the Wolves or the MAVs? Oh, that's interesting, I would say, man, that is a really that's a really interesting question to kind of think of, to kind of talk through it.
The I think that the MAVs are a little bit more of a load up offense, whereas the Wolves are a little bit more of a stay home offense. And the big part of that is the Wolves have better defensive personnel down the roster. The mass are really good defenders. Derek Jones Junior is an excellent defender. That rim protectors are excellent defenders.
PJ.
Washington has done a nice job in this postseason run. But like Minnesota can go to lineups where they have like Rudy Gobert on the damn floor with Nikil Alexander Walker and Anthony Edwards and Jana McDaniels, and they just have like, like just unbelievable defensive personnel everywhere, and so they can do what they did to the Suns which is like stay home off the ball and try to make you play one on one or two on two. And so I think Minnesota is a defense is more
capable of making Boston's offense struggle. But I also think that I think that Dallas's offense is better than Minnesota's, and so, like I think, I think there would be different strengths and weaknesses and challenges for both matchups. I would man, that is that's a really good question. I'm sorry that I don't have a better answer for you at this point, but we will definitely get into it
once we get further into the Western Conferent Finals. I really want to see how the Wolves defense bounces back tomorrow night.
Again.
I thought they were really bad in Game one, and I'm just curious to see if they just come out and throw just a hilacious defensive punch and how Dallas
responds to it. Do you think this t Wolves team is like the twenty twenty two Celtics, an ascending superstar and dominant team defense that's actually a really good comp A lot of people don't like Celtics fans you probably remember, but like a lot of people around the league think of this Boston team as as like kind of the same type of team as the twenty twenty two Celtics, and I very much don't like to me, the twenty twenty two Celtics were not as good offensively, but they
were just they were a team who hung their hat on the defensive end of the floor. I saw the twenty twenty two Celtics throw some of the craziest defensive punches for entire games that I had seen from teams
in recent NBA history. Like to me, that twenty twenty two Celtics team wasn't as talented as this Celtics team, but like this Celtics team is almost a victim of their own talent in the sense that they can oscillate an effort, they can be inconsistent, and like the twenty twenty two Celtics, they just played so damn hard every single night. It really came down to some bad rim decisions hurting their transition defense, and then Jason Tatum just kind of fell apart in the finals, and that was
really the only things that went wrong for them. Someone wants to know my thoughts on Joe Missoula. Here's the thing I think Joe like, but what drives me crazy with Joe Miszula is just the entire offensive approach from Boston, where there's very little hierarchy. There's very there's very like
quick decisions. There's a lot of like settling. There's a lot of like let's just find uh, like run up the floor on quick action and take a take a three within like without even getting like a paint touch. There's a lot of like inconsistent offensive approach from Joe Mizula, and like, you know what's I talked about this a
lot with Darvin Ham. Like to me, one of the most important elements of a head coach in the NBA is possessioned by a possession accountabil What I mean by that is like deeply valuing every single possession and building the habits that will carry you in the NBA finals because or in the NBA playoffs, because once you get to this point where you need to win sixteen games in two months, so much of it comes down to like like execution and avoiding mistakes and like not having
these two three minute stretches where you lose your damn mind.
And like one of the characteristics that is that is really like kind of uh encapsulated this Boston team over the last two years under Joe Mazula is a lack of value of the individual possession and extended stretches where they lose sight of their identity and play down to their and play down to their competition, and so like, to me, that is on Joe Mizoula, and like when you focus too much on the big picture and like our overarching shot value and all those different kinds of things,
Like to me that that that fails to drive home the bigger picture topic of what you're gonna need when you place the best when you play the best teams
down the line. So, for instance, let's say you end up playing Minnesota in the finals, Like, that's gonna be a tough series, and in that series, you need Jason Tatum to be awesome because a lot of the stuff that Boston does offensively rue guys like Drew Holliday, through guys like Derek White, through guys like Al Horford, a lot of that is gonna work at a much lower level of effectiveness against Minnesota's defense and so or even Dallas's defense, and so so much of it is gonna
come down to, like Tatum's gonna have to take the reins of the offense, and so like part of it to me is like I would I wish that Joe Miszula had done more work over the course of the season at just kind of building out at least some sense of hierarchy. That's not to say that you don't want Jason Tatum to get the ball moving around and keep everybody involved. And for the record, I think he's awesome at that, and I think that's why he's such
a perfect fit for this team. But like, I do think that there's just been a little bit of a lack of accountability in terms of their consistency of defensive effort and their consistency of offensive execution. And I do that to Joe Mizoula, so like not my favorite NBA coach, But at the end of the day, like I don't think he's going to be the main driving force of whatever this outcome is in this postseason run. It's gonna
come down to the players. They have the talent. I don't think I think it's unfair to put any sort of blame on Joe Mizoula, even if I'm not necessarily a fan of his coaching style. Would you rest Porzingis to the finals. Now, yeah, there's just no reason not to. Unless Porzingis strictly wants to come back so that he can build his rhythm and conditioning, then that's fine. But like you certainly don't bring him back unless he feels
one hundred ready to play. Has Minnesota faced a defense with the tools that Boston has, Yes, they're facing it right now. The main reason why is, like Boston, they Boston is not super athletic at the center position. Al Horford's a good positional defender, and christophs Porzingis is a good rim protector when he's in a deep drop coverage. But Porzingis is not overly quick and can struggle sometimes when he has to come out to the level of the screen Lively and Lively and Gafford are both like
really really athletic centers. And so I think that I think that Minnesota has I think that Minnesota has a like Dallas, excuse me, Dallas. I think Dallas has better rim protection than Boston does. But Boston's perimeter defense personnel is outrageous. And like when you go one through four, only Minnesota can can say that they have I think
better defensive players on the perimeter than Boston does. Like having Drew Holiday and Derek White, by the way I talked about it tonight, like they held up in post up mismatches extensively in this game. They can guard bigger players, they can guard smaller players. Derek White's one of the best shot blocking guards in the league. Jalen Brown can be this deeply profoundly impactful defensive athlete. Jason Tatum obviously, as we've talked about so many times over this playoff run,
is this deeply profoundly impactful athlete. So like, I don't think Minnesota is faced at defense that has Boston's perimeter personnel, But I think Dallas between the Derek Jones junior on the ball and those centers, those super athletic centers around the rim, I think Dallas has had a little bit better rim protection. But you're right, I mean I think Boston's I think Boston's defense would give Minnesota some issues.
And by the way, Porzingis would be a massively important part of that series, and they most likely would run a deep drop coverage to try to keep Porzingis at the rim to continue to shut things off from and kind of the way that Dallas has all right, guys. That is all I have for tonight. As always, a sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. No show tomorrow morning. We're just gonna run this mail bag as
a breakout. I have a scheduling conflict, so I'm actually unavailable during the day tomorrow, but the mailbag will be up as a breakout, and then I will be back tomorrow evening after the final buzzer of Games two of the Western Conference Finals.
I will see you guys. Then the volume