Hoops Tonight - Steph & Warriors are back, Grizzlies epic comeback, Jazz crumble

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of playoff hoops. They just keep coming, don't they, one after the other. We're going to get into everything from this night of basketball, including getting into a little bit the Brooklyn netson Boston Celtics game again from last night, a little bit deeper, and then at the end, for you guys who stick around, we are going to get into an updated list of what I think are the

top five contenders in this field. Obviously a lot has changed as a result of injuries, which is unfortunately just the way things go in the NBA playoffs, and it does have a significant impact on who ends up winning the title. And we will be getting into that list at the end, but let's start with the Warriors and the Nuggets. So if you guys remember after Game two, I talked about why I was never in a rush to elevate a player to the status of being considered.

You know, those stamped guys at the top of the league, the Lebrons and the Kevin Durants and the Janice Is and the Steph Curries and those guys who have done it at the highest level time and time again, and for whatever reason, there's always a race to put people there. And the big reason why I am slow to put people on that list is because I understand the process of getting to that point. There's failure in that process.

Janice lost embarrassingly in the bubble and in the year before he really really struggled against Toronto to create his own shot against that crazy defense, especially after Kawhi Leonard switched on dam There was pain and loss that led to him understanding the total sell out that it takes you. You have to be willing to give everything on every

single possession in order to win a championship. And these guys have been through these moments so many times that they've earned a certain level of confidence in these environments. Steph Curry and Draymond Green have been playing playoff basketball for a really long time. You know what, They've done a lot done on the road to gain to UH underdog on the road game three up, two games to nothing with an opportunity to end the series, and they

know how those games go. They know that sometimes you're a little you're a little bit behind in some of the effort areas of the game because you're not as desperate. That's just human nature. It's not something that you're going to blame them for, right you know that there's gonna

be runs in the game. Golden State controlled that game throughout, and there were several moments where Denver got back into it by making plays on defense and getting out in transition the way that they do so well, and Stephan Draymond just knew that that was all part of the process, and they knew they would have a chance at the end to make a handful of plays and get out of there with the wind. You know, Steph Curry is

not close to he Foot injuries are especially bad. I broke my foot the year before, the summer before my second season playing in college, and it was a nightmare for me coming back because that's your plant foot. You're planting on it to make every explosive move that you make as a basketball player. And even beyond the healing process,

there's like a mental side of it. You have to rebuild confidence in that foot, the trusting it to hold when you take off right, and that process can be stressful and it and it does affect you on the court. Steph Curry came back fast. I guarantee you that if this was a regular season and he suffered that same injury in October November, he probably takes his sweet time to get back on the court. But he had to come back because of the playoffs, in the situation that

was taking place. He had to do his minutes restriction in the playoffs. He had to build up his conditioning in the playoffs, and you saw that affect him especially tonight. Nicola Yokich is really slow. We're gonna get into that here in just a second. There were a couple of plays and drop coverage there in the second quarter where he stayed with Steph stayed in front. It was just back pedaling and Steph didn't have that quickness yet to

make that move to get by Yokich. But you know what, Steph knew that the game was still there for the taking, and he knew that if he could just do it once, the game would be over. And right there at the end, Warriors up by three, same exact play. They've been running all night long, ball screen with Draymond Green at the top of the key, and he just reached down and just once hit the gas and dusted Yokich for a layout.

Now they're up by five. Time out Denver, we go the other way where another injured Warrior is up against it. I've been talking a lot with Draymond's back injury about how I told you guys, I thought it would be about the second round before Draymond really got his legs underneath them to the extent that he was at his peak when he was healthy. Right, and Draymond on a

big possession where Yoki has had pretty good night. Yokis Doug deep himself because he's a very good player, and he made a lot of plays tonight, and he had a lot of things going. He had some crazy tough shots over the top of Draymond Green. But Draymond new, we're up five. I just need one stop. I just need to make one play. And He's had Yoki's number all series long. He's had Yok's number throughout that entire matchup.

And yokis went to spin back and Draymond does does what he did has been doing to him all series, beats him to the spin and bumps him off balance. Yoki kind of juggles the ball a little bit, Draymond takes it away, and the game is over. And those two guys, even though they're hurt, even though they're working their way back from injuries, even though they're on the let's call it the other side of the hill, they had the savvy to make the necessary plays to win

the game. I'm not saying that Yoki doesn't have that savvy, and he certainly will at some point in the next three or four or five years. The pain of all these losses will build up into Yoki as he rounds out and limits his weaknesses to the point where he

can have a better impact in moments like that. But that's the that's why I've always have the utmost respect for these guys who have been there and done that so many times, because when things get close late, they can tap into that experience and that confidence that the guys beneath them don't have because they just haven't been there enough, even when they have physical limitations. Which takes me to the defensive end of the floor for the guards,

because we watched another team tonight. We're gonna get into them later, a Utah Jazz team that has a really, really, really all world talent at guard and Van Mitchell, who's got good size and good strength, freakish athleticism, physical tools that vastly out you know, he's got a significantly better set of physical tools to use than Steph Curry does.

But Steph Curry is a significantly significantly better defensive player. Tonight, Donovan Mitchell was getting absolutely barbecued by Spencer Dinwiddie and just about every isolation situation could not keep him in front. It was embarrassing for an athlete of his ability. And Steph Curry has been one of the most underrated defensive guards in the history of the NBA and is consistently brought up as some sort of like detriment to his game,

even though he's put in the work. And I want to take you guys back to two thousand fourteen in the summer for Team USA, and one of the subplots of that team was Stephen Clay's defense, and they struggled a little bit early in the tournament, and one of the lot points of that specific UH Team USA was would Steph and Clay be able to guard well enough

to get minutes on that team? And over the course of that tournament they developed that that set of habits and that devotion to the work, and it's stuck and what happened the next season They won sixty seven games and won an NBA Championship, about as big a leap as you could possibly imagine. Now, there was a big part of that. Steve Kerr came in and really revolutionized the Warriors offense. Mark Jackson had Steph Curry and Clay Thompson on ball a lot more, particularly Steph on ball

a lot more. UH. Steve Kerr was obsessed with passing total number of passes in the game, and he had them moving the ball a lot more and Warriors basketball was born. But a huge part of that was Stephen Clay and then embracing the defensive end of the floor like it was the most important part of their games. And I think you saw an interesting juxtaposition tonight between those guys who are not great athletes at their position and other guys around the league who are great athletes

at their position who don't make that same commitment. And I hope that when this Warrior Warrior's era is over, which who knows when it's gonna end with all this young talent that they have, but when this Warrior's era is over, I hope that we look back and remember why they were as successful as they were, really really impressive when uh really important on a bunch of different levels.

Because Steph Curry did look limited, and getting this series over quickly, buying Steph more time to build up his conditioning and get his legs underneath him before a second round matchup is going to be very important, and so they took care of business tonight, a huge win for the Warriors. We are going to bring my guy Carson on and he's gonna go over the biggest questions of the night, just like we did last night. So we're

gonna bring Carson and we'll get started out well. Jason, you mentioned just the incredible run that the Warriors have had overall and how that will be remembered. It's obviously being extended here and they continue to kind of roll through the series. Tonight was obviously the tightest game, but they still come out with a win on the road and they're up three. Oh. Pool had another uber efficient seven, Clay had twenty six, Steph had seven, So Draymond was

phenomenal defensively. With the level of the Warriors are playing right now, should they be the title favorites? So interestingly enough, I discovered today thanks to you guys, that the Warriors are actually the title favorite in Vegas amazingly enough, But that's the way injuries can change things. So I really start to look down the line at what they what they bring to the table as a basketball team, and

whether or not they check all the necessary boxes. Now, there is no perfect basketball team in this yield for the record, even that uh, even that Phoenix Suns team when they're fully healthy, they don't have the rim, pressuring wing offensively that they can go to that gives them a little bit more reliable offense in late game situations. They check every single other box extremely well, but even they have some holes. The Warriors have holes, but they

also have a ton of strengths. You know, we were gonna get the Utah Chats are gonna be uh get punching bags often tonight, as they should. That was an unbelievably embarrassing loss on their home floor. But to me, what happened to the Jazz kind of sets the tone for what the theme of this show is for me. And and like the way that you know, these these kinds of basketball ideologies kind of carry over from series to series around the league because they're just truths about

the game of basketball. Just like we were talking about last night's show about how the theme was Biggs versus Wings, right, and how I'm always going to value wings over big players, right. Well, I you know, there's this obsession in NBA basketball with the stars. So what happens when you watch ESPN and you see on the bottom of the screen it doesn't say Jazz versus Mavericks coming up next on ESPN or t NT or whatever. It says Donovan Mitchell versus Luca

don Chich. It's part of the way the league is marketed, and there's good reason for that. They're obsessed with the stars, but there are these responsibilities that have to be filled on the basketball court that when they aren't filled, it can be absolutely disastrous. It's like in football with the offensive line. I'm a huge Dallas Cowboys fan of the volume just actually brought on my guy Vatched Lombardi to do a Dallas Cowboys show, which I'm very, very excited about.

But you know what would happened a lot with the Dallas Cowboys. They'd go play a big game in the regular season, maybe you know, at home against Green Bay or something, and they'd have Dak Prescott and they'd have Ezekiel Elliott, and they'd have a Marii Cooper and they'd have everybody healthy, and they lose, and a big part of it would be Tyrone Smith was unavailable, or Zack

Martin was unavailable. Unavailable, these were all world offensive linemen for the Cowboys, and when two or three of their offensive linemen would be injured, almost everything they tried to do would fall apart. And it's because the unsung heroes of the game of football are the line players on

both ends of the floor. You've seen unbelievably good quarterbacks look terrible because a defensive end that they can't block to the line play and who wins that battle in the trenches is a massive indicator of who's gonna win a football game in the NFL, and the same thing goes in the NBA with the guys who do the dirty work. It's like the Lakers this here. Lebron James and Anthony Davis played together in twenty one games this year, So I mean, again, that's disastrous compared to the eighty

two that they should have been available. But in those twenty one games, they were bad. They were eleven and ten. That's I think they might have been ten and eleven is what they're right around five h I can't remember the number off top of my head. But the reason why is they didn't have an offensive line, and in this particular season, Lebron James and Anthony Davis didn't feel

like being the offensive line themselves. They didn't feel like embracing that dirty work to the extent they did in the season, and a huge part of why I believe in this Warrior's team. So much is. Yes they have Steph, Yes they have Clay, Yes they have Jordan Pool, but they also have all these guys that are just devoted to that dirty work. Draymond Green, he might as well be an offensive line in and of himself. He's like

five players wrapped into one. There's arguably never been a player in this era who brings as much to the table on the margins to help teams win games then Draymond Green does. And that value is look at how look at how Draymond Green and his ability to disrupt Yokich completely strangled any and all chances that Denver had to be competitive in this series. One matchup, one player. Now, if I replaced him with Kevan Looney, do Steph and Jordan Pool and Clay Thompson get the job done? Still? Maybe?

Probably actually, because this Denver team is really limited. But Draymond Green, with the singular matchup, in his ability to disrupt Nikola Yokes turned this into what's probably gonna be a sweep. That's the type of value that Draymond brings the table. Then you go down the roster and there's a ton of guys like that. You've got You've got guys like Andrew Wiggins, who are devoted to the defensive and Gary Payton Jr. Has been kind of cool for me to see. Gary Payton Jr. And I played together

a lot in college against each other. I played against him when he was at a prep school called Westmind Prep, and then we were both on the same All conference team and we played in Scenic West Athletic Conference up in Utah when we were both in junior college. And then the year after I left, he ended up being Player of the Year in that conference because he developed

into a really really solid ball handler and passer. And but his original contribution, the reason why he made the All conference team when I was playing against him and Juco was what he did on the defensive end of the floor. He was on a team jam packed with talent at Salt Lake Community College, and his job was to guard the other team's best player. He picked me up full court all game long. Was just up in my airspace the entire game. His job was to take

me out of the game. That was his value that he brought, and that value, that elite skill of his, he has now taken it into the n b A and carved a niche in this league. He's an offensive lineman just like I was talking about earlier, and I just have the utmost respect for those guys. But the steph In Pool thing, because the biggest weakness with this particular team is their lack of a rim pressuring wing.

You know, well I'm not. You know, there's there's a defensive element of what a wing brings to the table, covering ground on defense, helping with rebounding, running the floor, and transition. But on offense, it's the ability to throw the ball to a guy with his back to the basket within ten or fifteen ft of the rim, and his ability to get a quality shot when it's a physical fist fight of a game and the stuff that the guards are doing aren't working or the jump shots

aren't falling, and that is the weakness. But Jordan Pool, in his rise into such a dominant offensive guard, adds a little bit extra firepower to that front that kind of compensates for that a little bit. So the question is do I think the Warriors can win the title? Should they be the favorite? I still say no because their biggest their biggest specific weakness right now is interior

uh size, right, Draymond can handle yo kids. But what if they've run into a uh, you know, a different type of matchup where because yokis right now is too slow to take advantage of of a foot speed with Draymond, what if they run to someone like Joel embiad or if they run into someone like DeAndre at and there are other matchups down the line that could be a problem.

I still lean towards Boston as a team that has a fewer weaknesses and fewer holes, but I would absolutely say Golden State in light of the Devin Booker injury, is the favorite in the West. Yeah. And it's interesting in terms of betting odds. I mean, right now on Fandel, it's not just the Warriors, it's the Warriors by a little bit there plus two seventy. Next is the Celtics

at plus five hundred. I think it's really interesting when you talk about the offensive lineman concept and just the plethora of God as you do everything, and obviously Draymond is the epitome of that, not just on this Warrior's team but in the NBA and has been for more than half a decade. So just looking at sort of the scope of his career, what he's accomplished and who

he is right now? How many names do you think you would take, let's just go in the league right now, with this version of Draymond before him, if you are trying to construct a title winning team. Oh man, so

you're talking like not just ranking defensive players. You're talking about like ranking him as a player in the league just as like drafting, right, But if you have the specific goal of winning a title, right, because obviously there are guys who will have maybe more ceiling raising ability because we saw what Dramond looked like when he had to try to like initiate offense without staff a couple

of years and ago. It wasn't very pretty. But if you're trying to build that ultimate winning basketball team, where does Draymond go? That's an interesting question because there's there are two factors that that kind of complicate that. One is just how many talented players there are in the

league right now. Like I encourage you guys, if you're ever board, if you're like sitting on an airplane, you're waiting on the tarmac and you need to kill fifteen minutes, just like take your notes out on your phone and try to jot down the top thirty players in the NBA, and you'll be amazed at the guys that won't make your top twenty or the guys that will make your top fifteen. That's how stacked the league is. That's the one thing that complicates it. The other thing that complicates

it is fit. Draymond Green had nine assists in the first half tonight. He is there's an element that he brings to the game. He does something that I that I call hunting shooters, which is a very important concept within basketball because rhythm is a thing that that disrupts any offensive basketball player. And sometimes if you're playing with the wrong group of guys, guys can get out of rhythm. When there's not a player on the floor that's conscious

about hunting shooters. For example, Donovan Mitchell, Donovan Mitchell is a very poor decision maker as a perimeter initiator. He is not aware of the psychology of the other shooters on the floor and the way his decisions and the decisions that he makes have an impact on those guys because if he gets hunting, if he gets to hunting his own shot, he can actually shoot other guys out of rhythm. What Draymond does is every second that he's on the floor, he's actively hunting shooters. Oh, I haven't

gotten steff a shot in like four possessions. Let's try to get Steff a shot. Okay, STEP's been a rhythm, but Jordan Pools standing around. We need to find something for Jordan Poole, Clay Thompson, same kind of concept. He's he's the best player on that specific team at making sure that all of his shooters are always comfortable and

in rhythm. So that's a huge value point. But again, the value that Draymond brings with those guards is different than if you dropped him with like Lebron James in like a healthy, centric top of the key type offense, or like the Luca Donchets. That's not to say that Draymond wouldn't be impactful in that system, but those two factors that the stacked talent in the league and Draymond's

specific basketball fit with Golden State makes it complicated. But with the Warriors, you could argue his impact on specifically the ability to win a championship. His impact is easily top fifteen, top twenty in the league when you factor in all those things that he brings the table with

that specific basketball fit. I think all Draymond discussions are really interesting just because it feels like he is so polarizing in the sense that there are people who attributes so much of his success to situation fit, and then there are people who just think, well, the guys of basketball genius. He makes ultimate winning players on both ends

of the floor. I think, obviously there is a middle ground, like he is greatly enabled by the fact that he does have the kind of shooting and creation around him where he doesn't have to try to play any other role, because I mean, the guy you know scores seven points a game for a reason, peque Draymond. Draymond was a little bit different, but nevertheless the fundamental aspects of his

skill set have always kind of been the same. I have to ask you just out of my own curiosity, because I love GP two and I think, like, even playing twenty minutes a game, I think he's like borderline all defense this year because his contributions in those minutes were that great. Is he the best defender who you've ever played against? Or if not, who is? Oh, that's a good question. He was absolutely, unquestionably the best defensive

player that I ever played against things are complicated. Like I, I performed well in my games against him, but it was a team effort. Like I had and eleven in a game against him. I had another like eighteen and eleven in a game against him, But like it's always a team effort. It's like I in the in our offensive sets, they would do a lot of switching. Gary Payton would get off of me. I wasn't like a perimeter initiator. I wasn't a guy that was breaking people

down off the dribble. I was like a face up big so it was more of like a turning face and jab step and I would shoot a lot of threes and things like that. So if it wasn't a it wasn't. It's never as complicated as like the way I played basketball now as like a guard who dribbles and and and initiates from the perimeter is very different from back then. So like nowadays, I wouldn't have a chance in hell at scoring against Gary Payton Jr. Like

I just the'se it's just a whole other level. But um, but yeah, he was easily the best I ever went against. One other note really quick on on the Draymond thing. You're seeing a couple of different kind of defensive concepts

that the that are happening around the league. Look at how spread out Dallas has uh Utah right now, and the middle of the floor is completely wide open, and as a result, you're seeing so much of like Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwity operating with just a ship ton of space around the elbow, beating people off the dribble

and getting to their little step back jump shots. Then you watched like Philly and Milwaukee and every when they're playing against Chicago and Toronto, the paint is completely clocked because that's the way that they have to be guarded. That's kind of specifically what I'm talking about. Like Draymond's playmaking and his ability in the short role adds a ton of value in this kind of five out system where when he's operating in the middle of the floor,

he's so good at making those types of reads. It be and I I guarantee you, because Draymond so great, he would figure it out. But his impact in a system like Philly or or Milwaukee where the teams that are guarding them are packing the paint more would it would be interesting just to see the way Draymond would play in that kind of setting. Yeah. Absolutely, And I'm and again that is part of the kind of never ending question with him is how would he look in

a variety of different situations. But I don't think that we're gonna see it. He seems pretty happy to be a warrior. I gotta say, Jason, I love the humility, but we don't need to talk about switching and j g P two getting off you. You You dropped twenty five on his head, that's the story. And they even inflate that number up to thirty. Why not, come on, it's an all defense caliber NBA guy. You had fifty on

and it was. All I'm gonna say is as I my my one liner in all these situations, I have way too much respect for these guys to ever put myself on their level. He's a million times better than me. If he played me tomorrow, I wouldn't be able to get a shot off. I'm enhancing them then, I'm saying that you dunked all over him. If anybody ever asked me, all right, let's switch gears here, because we had really a pretty unbelievable night of NBA action overall and a

shocking results between the Grizzlies and the Timberwolves. Heels are up twenty five with fifteen minutes left and they lost the basketball game. Grizzlies now up to one in the series. So what's the biggest story here? Is it an epic Memphis comeback or is it a Minnesota collapse. This was a really, really interesting game, and it absolutely was a Minnesota collapse. However, there were some very concerning things from Memphis.

When we get to our top five contenders later in the show, you'll notice Memphis is conspicuously missing from that list. And the main reason why is this is their first playoff run where they have some real expectations where they're expected to make the conference finals. When they play Golden State in the next round, Golden State will be favored, but you know, in theory, based on their regular season success, Memphis was a better team, and so it gets it's

it's more complicated than that, right now. Um, the they played three games and this post season run so far as a team that is a favorite in the first round, and they've come out straight up flat in two of the three games. Then they came out flat in the second half after they battled all the way back to make it a game going into halftime. In Minnesota, they

came out flat in the second half. So out of six halves they've played in this post season run, they've come out really flat and low effort, in low energy in three of those halves. And that's a huge problem because I've always talked to you guys about the margin for air and playoff series, how complicated and how difficult it is to win a playoff game, and you know, in the playoffs series, and to win multiple playoffs series and to win an NBA championship, and you cannot afford

to be a sloppy team. We talked about this all the time with the defensive rating, right when we're tracking teams in their effort at night in the night out in the regular season, Memphis seems a little too loose to me. I talk earlier about the pain of losses and how it builds scar tissue that makes you fight and scratch and claw to an extra extent. I thought it was a huge swing factor in the two thousand twelve NBA Finals. The Thunder were favored in that series

going into it. A lot of people were picking them they ran through the Western Conference. The Eastern Conference was considered weaker. Everyone saw the Heat struggle mightily as to get through the Boston Celtics. There was a lot of there was a lot of hype surrounding that Thunder team. There were like little details guys like, you know, miss free throw late in the game, and here comes Shane Battier just flying around a box out to get an

offensive rebound. That makes a key difference in the game. You know, Lebron because of all the pain and suffering that he had had taken with the losses in the previous years, and the way that he fought through that series. That that scar tissue makes it so that you don't come out flat in three out of six halves in your first meaningful playoff run as a team with expect patians. And that's that's why these young teams usually don't get it done. And that's why I have Memphis outside of

my top five. You can't come out flat like that. Patrick Beverley, this is the star of the star of Memphis is John Morey. He's their best player by country mile. Patrick Beverley went at his throat to start that game, and John wanted nothing to do with it. Was giving

up drives to the basket, was fouling him. Patrick Beverley, come on, man, like I love Patrick Beverley's great role player, very very important player, a guy that I think has become undervalued around the league because of some slander throwing his way, because of all of his antics. But he has no business offensively attacking your superstar and just getting buckets on him in a meaningful playoff game. And so the memph the Memphis thing is a whole other that

that that their time is coming. They have a lot of talent. They're gonna be fine, but there there there are issues there with their approach that they have to figure out. There's a there's almost like a you know, because they're very confident team. They talk a lot of trash, right, but you'll notice teams that lose and ugly fashion, teams that suffer that scar tissue. There's a lack of that. You noticed Milwaukee wasn't talking any trash during last year's

playoff run. Why because they were humiliated the year before and they were humiliated the year before that they lost four games in a row to the Toronto Raptors team. Right, they don't. They don't have They have a a respect and a fear, a healthy fear of losing, and Memphis does not have that yet, and as a result, I think it's gonna get them beat, probably by a team like Golden State. Now, the interesting thing in this game was Minnesota came out and played really, really good basketball.

I've been talking a lot this year about their perimeter defense and how good they are at guarding teams and keeping them out of the paint with their perimeter players, and the fact that their interior presence, even though Carl Town's is not a great defender, they defend the paint really well because they defend on the perimeter. They only gave up four points in the paint in that first quarter.

They had the game under control. And on nights like these where these games overlapped like this, like I have to do an instant reaction show after of the last game of the night, So like if a game's over, I'd like to turn it off so that I can get into the next game and try to figure the

details out for that particular game. There were two times where I was like, oh, Minnesota, has this a couple more minutes, I'll be able to turn the game off, and then they immediately just gave up a fifteen run in the first half and then ah run spanning the third and fourth quarters, And I thought that the devastating

factor there. What did I tell you guys in the play in the playoff preview and in in all of my Minnesota Timberwold stuff that I did during the regular season, I told you my biggest fear with them was their decision making. Can car can Anthony Edwards and Daniel Danigel Russell, can they can they execute in these environments? Can they make smart decisions? And they did extremely well in the playing game, and then they did extremely well in Game one.

I thought Anthony Edwards out executed John Morant, but things kind of came off the rails in the second half of game too. And even though they played well to start Game three, at the end when these runs were happening at the late end second half or end of the second quarter and then end the third early fourth, it was Anthony Edwards and Ind'angelo Russell making poor offensive decisions and taking bad shots that led to Memphis getting

out in transition and taking that game over. And so that's the issue that's the part that Anthony Edwards in D'angela Russell gotta figure out, like they've got to figure out that in these environments, it's it's less about feeding off the crowd. It's less about you know, it's less about looking out for what your rhythm is, and it's about making quality basketball decisions. Because this series, to me, is about who's got a hold of the rope. They're

a lot closer than they than they look. Now. If both teams have a hold of the rope and they're both pulling, Memphis is better, so they're gonna win. That's why I picked them to win in five or six games. But what's happening throughout this series is at various points a team is letting go of the rope entirely. We talked about that with Memphis at the start of those three halves and then tonight twice with Minnesota, and then in the second half of Game two they at it.

They can't. These are young teams that don't understand how hard it is to win these series, and they get unfocused and they let go of that rope. So the next step for for Minnesota has to be either because I think they're gonna lose this series, there's a devastating loss. I wouldn't be surprised of Memphis one in five. Now, that's how that's how disastrous that collapse was, and how that can impact the team mentally coming into this summer. Then one of the things for them is the ants

growth as a decision maker. But it may be worthwhile trying to find somebody to come in that's a little bit more of an adult in the room, so to speak, that can help put them in positions. I don't know if there's somebody like Rudy, like Ricky Rubio that they could track down. He played in Minnesota in the past. Those are the kind of guys that I would be looking for. Last last note on this game from tonight. When Minnesota had Memphis in the half court, they really

struggled to generate shots. John Murray had a rough night scoring. He did have tennis sis and a big part of that was his decision making down the stretch of the game. To his credit, in the two Memphis wins, he's been good making decisions. But Memphis has a problem creating shots in the half court against good defensive teams. As I've talked about, Desmond Bane is a slasher and a shooter, but he's not great at creating his own shot off the dribble. Jaren Jackson Jr. Can be a bull in

a china shop. And John Murant the paint is packed on him right now, and so he's not getting easy layups that bolster his offense as well. His best thing that he can do right now is driving to the teeth of the defense and kick out two shooters, which he needs to do. But when you're looking at some of these other contenders on the list, when we're looking at Boston and Golden State in Phoenix and Dallas and Philly, they just have better options to go to in the

half court. And so because of that, I think Memphis is almost like they still have a puncher's chance. But I'm just about off Memphis as a team that's capable of winning the title at this point. I can't hear Carson right now, so we're gonna move on to our next question. So the Carl Town's only attempted four shots tonight, it's three or four. Had some defensive moments as a back line help guy, blocking shots off the glass and things of the of that nature. But this is yet

another really really weird Carl Town's playoff game. And when we look down the list of Carl Town's playoff performance, this kind of seems to happen more often than not. And so the next question we had was can Carl Town's be a franchise cornerstone? And you know there I even go a step further, can Carl Town's be one of your two best players on a championship team? Because look at the archetype of a big man as the second best player on a team. We're looking at Anthony Davis, right,

textbookcase in the bubble. So in that playoff environment, there were moments where Anthony Davis struggled to create his own shot, particularly in the Miami Series. But he has this massive weapon that he can bring to the table and that's what he does. As a defensive player. Anthony Davis is one of the top three or four defensive players in the entire world is about of basketball and so when things are not working for you, like tonight Carl Town's,

his guards weren't looking for him enough. Jaren Jackson was stifling him in his isolations. The paint was packed, so there wasn't a lot of great opportunities for him to go to work, and so his offense was kind of removed from the equation. And yes, he made some plays as a back line defender, but he doesn't he doesn't make enough impact in that area of the game in

order to be effective. And then a huge problem tonight, especially in that second half run, is he's not fast enough to keep up with Memphis when they're going up and down the floor. And so the thing with Kat, unless he drops some weight and figures out how to be a more dominant defensive player, I'm not sure that he can even be the second best player on a championship team. Now. Thankful he's already in a number two position here behind aunt An. It's going to be developing,

but that might have to be the way. If there's a pathway for Minnesota to win with Cat, or for a team to win with Cat, He's almost better served as like the big man on a team that has two perimeter stars on it, because I'm not sure that he brings enough to the table from a talent perspective when his offense isn't working to win a championship with some of the flaws that he has. One of the things that I think really stands out is if you just look at Cat's last few games. I mean today,

it's eight points on four shots. As you mentioned, Game two, it was fifteen on seven shots in the plan. Obviously he had foul trouble, but it was eleven on three of eleven shooting. So it's not just the lack of production, it's the lack of assertiveness. And when I watched Cat, I mean, I think in terms of el said he's one of the most offensively gifted big men like dare I say ever, I mean, his versatility as a score

his playmaking is incredibly distinct, I think. But do you look at that lack of a servedness and think like that's a major issue with him as a player at times because it seems to come and go a little bit. So you know, this is the difference between like a Janis and the Cat because the paint, the paint is packed. So like, there's two reasons why Carl Town's only took four shots tonight. It's the decision makers looking him off. Like there was some flat out atrocious shots from a

and from Delo. Down the stretch of that game, there was there was a transition three that Delo took along the right wing that was contested from about thirty feet that like you know, pickup game, you'd get yelled at, let alone in in an NBA playoff game for a guy who wasn't having a great night, right, So like

that's part of it. But I think Carl Town's was looking at the paint being packed, Jaren Jackson was pressing up on him a little bit and taking away that jump shot, right, and so I think it was just I think it was a classic passivity thing. It was like I don't think I can score here. There's too much stuff going on in the paint. I'm not getting to my jump shot, and I'm not a good enough passer to make people pay on the back end. What am I gonna do? Okay, well, I'm just gonna set

ball screens and pop to the three point line. Right. That was kind of like his approach, like what does Janice do? The honest is like, oh, there's four bodies in the paint. I'm gonna try to run them all over and like chances are they won't call anything. If they do, it'll be a foul on them. Like you know, I might get one or two offensive fouls a game.

But that's part like there's there is that it's like a it's almost like a like a a stubbornness, but in a good way, like I refuse to go down with I'm not attempting four shots in a must win playoff game at home, Like I have to find a way to impact this game offensively, even if I start to like muck things up running into all that traffic. So yeah, I'm with you, man, it's an aggression issue.

But I think I think he's seeing the four and seeing that he's not having opportunities, and so he's just deciding he's just given up, rather than being like, Okay, how do I make myself an impact in this game offensively? Right? So you mentioned it with Kat and obviously you've talked about with Yoki. It's just sort of some of the

defensive liabilities of these star offensive big men. So just philosophically, would you rather have a guy like Cat who obviously you know, can have these monster offensive nights, but like you said, if he isn't, then isn't positively impact in the game defensively in multiple other ways, or a guy like Bam who isn't that kind of lead offensive option. But it's such a weapon defensively, such a cerebral guy. That's an interesting question. I take that a step further.

Would you rather have Cat or Rudy Gobert. There's another question that I would ask, now so, and that's that's that's really really interesting. So, uh, I would still take Cat over Rudy because Rudy is so so, so incredibly useless offensively. But Bam has shown enough of that flash offensively that I would absolutely argue that Bam is a better basketball player than Carl Towns and is a more valuable player in this type of setting. You know. A big part of that is, like I said, like Carl,

like Bam. Bam is one of the worst midrange shooters by percentage in the league this year. I know he has that capability, but it's like, so Bam can go cold and become a lack of a threat on offense.

He's more of like a guy that they almost they almost use him like Yokis right, Like they see they'll they'll do like a have him run to the elbow and do all these dribble handoff actions with like Jimmy Butler, with Duncan Robinson or Tyler Harre always kind of like in that yo control high post kind of ball handler. But and so that's the way he impacts the game offensively.

But even if he did nothing else for you on on offense other than be basically a you know, a vertical spacing threat and a guy who can do dribble handoffs at the top of the key, he can be monstrously impactful on the defense. Event like like a huge problem. It's one of the biggest wrinkles of this upcoming series with embiid if they close out the Atlanta Hawks, right, So I I would I would absolutely go with a

guy like Bam. He's he's like a star offensive tackle, kind of like what we were talking about earlier with with Draymond Green. Alright, well, you mentioned Gobert in this conversation and he and the Jazz did fall again tonight. They're down to one to the MAVs. Luca don Che has not seen the floor. Jalen Bronson has dropped more than thirty in consecutive games. So, I mean, we've explored this question in the past, but what's most to blame

for the Jazz is failures. This is why I set this up as the theme of the show because it is that lack of that offensive line for basketball, it is that lack of the guys who are willing to do the dirty work. As is always the case, Rudy Gobert becomes the punching bag on this stuff, and Rudy Gobert is a deserving punching bag on the offensive end of the floor, the dirty The secret is. Yes, we talked about Dallas scoring at will, which they did, and

we'll get into that in just a second. But another huge part of why doubt Utah is struggling so much in this series is they can't score against Dallas's defense. And Dallas's defense is pretty gimmicky. Now they they compete to an an alarming extent. Like I have so much

respect for those guys in their devotion to defense. I talked about their earlier with Stephan Clay, like you've got Jalen Brunson, Spencer Dinwoodie and Maxine Cleaber on the floor with two good defenders, and Reggie Bullock and and Dorrian Phinney Smith. But you've got three average too below average defensive players that are functionally running a very very very effective playoff defense because of them, just caring enough to

sit in a stance and keep people in front. And one of the big problems is they're running these actions with Rudy Gobert and it'll be Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley at the top of key. They're gonna switch and they'll get you know, Donovan Mitchell onto Max and Clarbert or something like that. But Rudy Gobert is utterly useless attacking that mismatch on the interior, and so you still have the spacing problem of him being on the floor but clogging things up around the basket, but he can't

punish you for putting a smaller defender on him. So that's one of their biggest problems. That is then allowing uh Dallas to get out in transition and get easy stuff. But on the defensive end of the floor for Utah, it's literally, to a t, the exact same thing that the Clippers did to them last year. We talked earlier about the concept of the way these different teams are

playing defense based on their opponent. Right, You've got teams like you know, Milwaukee and Philly where teams are really crowding the paint because they're more of a brute force, physicality offense. But these five out skilled offenses, teams like Golden State, teams like this Dallas Mavericks team, or teams like the Clippers last year, they put you in a really tough predicament because it's all the same defensive principles.

Right Like, if I have a guy dribbling on the at the top of the key or on the left wing, and there's guys spacing to all the spots on the three point line, just a classic five out offense. Even if that happens, the principles are the same. The guy helps out of the week side corner and then you rotate around. Dallas is doing the same thing for the most part. Utah is running more of a four out, one in type of concept, but it's a similar it's

the same defensive principles Dallas is do. Dallas is helping out of the week side corner and rotating around. There were a bunch of plays today where when Donovitch Donovan Mitchell got going, they would just double Donovan Mitchell. Donovan Mitchell would pass, and then you would just see all the Dallas Mavericks defenders just kind of rotate over one spot and suddenly everyone's guarding somebody. Again, it's just basic

defensive principles. But against Utah, when Jalen Brunson or Spencer Dinwoody has a straight line drive to the basket, you have Maxine Cleber in the weeks side corner, and you have Realdy Gobert step over to help in that same rotation doesn't happen. And so you literally saw in a must win game at home, you have to win that game because Lucas out and in a must win game at home, they the Dallas Mavericks made thirteen threes in the first half, I believe, on twenty five attempts, and

guys like they were all wide open there. If you're a Utah Jazz fan, you should not be sitting at home tonight or driving home from that game thinking, man, I can't believe they shot so well. That's really unfortunate. No, no, no, you gave professional basketball players wide open threes. Max and Cleber just made like seven or eight of them in game two. What did you think was gonna happen? If you let him sit butt naked at the three point line all night long, He's gonna make them all game

and he did. I think he made three or four in a row before he finally missed one, and like like pivotal because it happened time and time again. Big run. They get it back to within eleven. Early second half, here comes Max and Cleber just runs up basic dribble

handoff with with with Reggie Bullock. Rudy Gobert is the one guarding Reggie Bullock and he SAgs off of him and the guy I think it was Donovan Mitchell that was guarding Cleiber was lazy on the switch and Reggie Bullock got a wide open three and knocked it down. They went on a run in the fourth quarter and got it back within seven. Jalen Brunson just walked right down the floor beat somebody off the dribble. Remember who

was I think it was Mike Conley, and then Rudy Gobert. Uh, Rudy Gobert stepped over and as soon as he did, Josh Green just cut out of the week side corner. It was an easy drop off for a layup. They were getting easy baskets, good playoff defenses. You'll notice they

usually only get scored on in two scenarios. They'll get scored on because a super duper star makes an incredibly tough shot over a contest, or they'll get scored on because they made three or four defensive rotations on the same possession and finally someone got an open shot after it was driving kick and swing and swing and driving kick and swing and swing like three or four times around the floor that before finally somebody misses the rotation.

The Utah jazz. We're getting beat on the first action dribble drive. There's an easy kick out. And the guy that I have to be super critical of here is Donovan Mitchell. Talked about this earlier with Steph Curry. Steph Curry limited off a limited physical tools relative to the position. He's about six ft three, not overly quick, not overly

vertically athletic. He's strong, but he's not like Jack's like Donovan Mitchell stronger right, Donovan Mitchell's taller, has like a forty vertical significantly quicker, significantly quicker laterally, he's got all of the tools to be a all defense player. And spencer Dinwoody, who is in terms of perimeter initiators in this playoff run, he's in the bottom set. He's shooting

like crap in this series. Down the stretch of that game, Spencer didn't what he was just looking Donovan Mitchell in the face and just driving right around him to the basket. It almost every time down the floor. It's embarrassing and one of You know, the Jazz are an interesting predicament here because they have to rebuild, you know, series not entirely over, but like they're in trouble because Luca could theoretically sit out Game four now because you like your chances,

there's absolutely no reason to rush Luca back. You're a better basketball team than the Jazz without Luca. That's the predicament for Utah and lucas a top five or six player in the entire world. So they're they're they're probably gonna lose, and when that happens, they're gonna have to decide how they move on from here. And yes, they have a Rudy Gobert probably makes too much money to be a player who's useless offensively. Again, his defensive criticism

is completely unfair. He does He's one of the top three or four defensive players in the world any even in perimeter situations. I didn't like, guys are gonna make step back fade aways against every defensive player in the league, including Rudy Gobert, and a lot of the shots that they would make on Rudy would be like leaning one, like fade aways in the lane. That's just greatness from

offensive players. But his limitations on the offensive end of the floor put you in a tough predicament with how much space he takes up in your cap, and so that's an issue. But a big part of it is Donovan Mitchell. Now there's intel that he doesn't want to be in Utah long term, but Donovan Mitchell is never gonna be able to be a cornerstone of an NBA title contender until he embraces the defensive end of the floor.

And hopefully going home early again this year will help build up some of that scar tissue to get Donovan Mitchell to start caring enough about that stuff to do the job. Because the dirty little secret is if Donovan cared about defense and they brought in one more good defensive guard and one more good defensive wing, they might be able to make this core work. But I mean, there's like a commitment from the top down, a cultural

thing that they haven't embraced yet. That's really interesting that last coment that he made there, because I was gonna ask how complete does this roster overhaul knee to be? Because obviously people look at the Donnie Gobert element, but it's if you have guys who you're paying a combined forty plus million in, like bow Yon and Conley who aren't being willing defenders, who aren't being dirty work guys, and you lost really kind of their ultimate dirty work guy.

And Joe Ingles. It's just kind of remarkable that here they are. They were the most efficient offense in basketball this year, and yet they're getting really embarrassed. I mean, this is an embarrassing performance to be down to one with the Mass without Luca. But do you still think then that it's more of an issue of identity and committing to playing both ends that it is, like really personnel, it's both. I mean, like, for instance, like who who's

Dorian Finney Smith on this roster for the Jazz? You know, like almost every really really good playoff team has that guy. It's you know, it's Andrew Wiggins for the Warriors, It's it's Dorian Finney Smith for the Mavericks, It's you know,

it's Mikhail Bridges for the Sons. All of the really really good teams in this field have this do it all six eight to six ten forward that guards the other team's best player and does all this important stuff right, Like Donovan Mitchell is not having success against Dori and Phinney Smith. He has to get him switched off of him. So you could do a soft rebuild, target a guy like Dorian Phinney Smith and then just hope the hope that eventually Donovan Mitchell will will embrace that defensive end

of the floor. But it gets a little deeper than that. Like Donovan Mitchell is also just a really bad decision maker. Like his he doesn't hunt shooters, he's not aware of the of the of the field, of everybody else on the floor, and it kind of seems more like he's just did I get some airspace? Okay? Time to rise up.

He's got a little bit of the Russell Westbrook can under him where he's when he's when when russ was in his prime, I mean where like he's so incredibly athletic and teams are so paranoid about him getting downhill to the rim that he kind of can get to a jump shot whenever he wants, and that's a blessing in a curse. It's a talent, but the curses, it's not always a good time to pull up off the dribble to shoot a jump shot because it's not just about your This is the thing that used to always

kill me with James Harden. When when when Darryl Moorey would be like, oh, he's averaging one point to two points per isolation possession, thus he is the greatest scorer of all time, and it's like, actually, it doesn't matter what James Harden scores per possession. It matters what your

entire team scores per possession in a playoff setting. And Donovan Mitchell might be able to his analytics team might be able to tell him that his pull up threes off the dribble are generating one point something points per possession or whatever it is. But the reality is is the Utah Jazz offense sucks right now. So it goes deeper than just what Donovan can get with his own shot. The entire organism is broken. I would say that there's enough bad juju surrounding this Jazz team that I would

go with a total rebuild. It's kind of like with the Lakers. Like with the Lakers, there's a lot of intel, like, oh, Carmelo wants to come back. Oh Dwight wants to come back. It's like, if you bring them back, don't be surprised if there's a similar vibe in the locker room next year. There was clearly something toxic, not personnel related. Those guys all got along, but there was something toxic with the

Lakers with their basketball this year. It just wasn't functioning in the only way to do to you gotta clean house. And so that's kind of where I'm at with the Jazz, Like these guys an't like each other, except for maybe Rudy and and Donovan, right, But like there's the guys seem to have good chemistry aside from that. But it's just this is a fundamentally broken concoction of basketball players. And so from that standpoint, it's like the recipe is

already so screwed up. Don't start adding other ingredients in it to fix it. Just throw out the whole batch and start from scratch. Al Right, Well, let's move on here to a team that is still kind of trying to figure out that makes of ingredients themselves. A little bit didn't play today, but we have some thoughts from Big boss Man Colin Cowherd on some of the fundamental issues with the Nets. Let's take a listen to what

he had to say. Two years ago. These guys went on a podcast with each other and both were quoted saying, we don't really need a coach. Okay, that's delusional. Here's one thing. All dynasties football, basketball, and baseball. But let's stay to football basketball. All dynasties have had in common one thing. They've all had legendary coaches. Jason, what do you think of that? And what do you really think

went wrong with the Nets? So the Nash thing is complicated because you know, we got into this a little bit last night, but there are legitimate shortcomings there, like you shouldn't be able to to disrupt this Brooklyn offense to the extent that they have, that to the extent that Boston has in these last two games and the chess match. Here is Nash has to figure that out.

Part of me wants to withhold some of the Nash criticism until this series is over, because it isn't over, Like there's a pathway here, Like you win Game three at home starts there, that's one single achievable thing, beat the Boston Celtics on your home floor. Then Game four here comes Ben Simmons. Ben Simmons gives you a significant defensive weapon, if nothing else. We talked earlier about the concept of the offensive line in basketball and these role

players that fill all these dirty work positions. The Nets don't have a lot of that, and Katie and Kyrie aren't super super into that sort of thing. So having a guy like Ben Simmons who does that kind of thing, that's an influx of talent that that helps significantly on that front. If you're turning some of those some of those minutes that are going to a Kessler Edwards into a Ben Simmons, that's a massive, massive upgrade. So there's still a pathway here. So I don't want to get

two ahead of. Like I talked about this last night, the conundrum with Steve Nash here is not it's not him running offense, it's more actions, specific actions like two player actions and three player actions and floor positioning to try to take advantage of Boston's over aggressiveness. That's the chess match that Steve Nash has to fix figure out over the next couple of days. As far as Katie and Kyrie go, they're not the first guys that are like this, Like there's a reason why Lebron wanted ty

Lou when he was in Cleveland. It was before Tyler now is a proven successful coach that rightfully has an ego, he should feel the way that he does. But when he was coming up in Cleveland. I don't want to say he was under Lebron's thumb because he wasn't. But he wasn't the kind of guy like he did. He was someone who was critical of Lebron. That was something that was chronicled in detail, and that was something that Lebron needed. But it wasn't It wasn't a true like

superior inferior type of relationship. It was very collaborative. And that's the kind of that's the kind of like trigger word here because the clip that Colin is referencing was I can't I can't remember if it was a podcast or an interview or what it was, but Kyrie and Katie were talking about the Nash Higher and Kyrie basically says something to the effect of, yeah, you know, like

my relationship with Steve is really cool. It's going to get deeper as the years go by, but like we don't really need like I could be the head coach one night, Kevin could be the head coach one night, and then like Kevin steps up and he goes like, yeah, it's a collaborative effort, and it's like, that's the part that's ridiculous. It's the egos of the stars in the room and then thinking I don't need somebody on the sideline that could potentially help me here. And that's that's

the issue. That's why I was talking about with the Lakers. It's so important for them to get a head coach this next year that has the cash a to be able to actually talk I don't say talk down to these guys, but to talk to them and actually have them listen, because they all have massive egos and they think they don't need to help. But I could also say that Kevin and Kyrie are massively undervaluing the importance

of the role players, like guys. Guess what the the Boston Celtics in the second half of this series, so the third and fourth quarters of Game one, third and fourth quarters of game too. In the second half of this series so far, the Celtics are scoring about a hundred and twenty six points per one hundred possessions. That's an insane number. Brooklyn's defense is utterly falling apart in the second half of these games. That's on part of its coaching, but a big part of it is personnel.

The Katie and Kyrie are under the impression that, like, hey, we're just gonna We're just gonna score because that's what we do best, and we're gonna win, despite the fact that everything we've ever heard in NBA history tells us that you have to have the ability to lock in in the half court and get stops. They had one decent stretch in the fourth quarter of Game one that they lost because of a handful of important defensive breakdowns. Jalen Brown had nine points in the last seven minutes

of the game. So even they're good defensive, fourth quarter had some catastrophic failures in it. They can't sit down and get They can't get the stops they need to win this series. So clearly there's an ego thing with Katie and Kyrie. They don't think they need an elite defense. They don't think they need a guy sitting in the chair that can offer something that helps them, and that's gonna perpetually be something that holds back people with pride.

It's said Lebron James is the second best basketball player ever in my position opinion, and has a realistic chance to pass MJ. One day, that dude literally looked at the Lakers and thought, we don't need these role guys. What I really need is another playmaker. And what he didn't realize was they won because they had all of these dudes like Alex Crusoe and Danny Green and Contagious Cobbo Pope and Kyle Kuzma who are dedicated to doing all the hard things so that Lebron and Anthony Davis

could focus on what they were great at. And that kind of like dissonance between those two concepts. It's pride is an issue and for everybody in the world, and this is the way it affects the star basketball players of the world. So given all those issues, you did still say that there is a path for the Nets to get out of this series, and it starts with winning Game three. What actually has to happen throughout this series in your opinion for the nets to still pull

it off. So it's this is where it comes down to Nash because Boston is is really, really, really aggressive in defense right now against Katie and Kyrie. Broke this down in detail last night. The gist of it is, unless they're dribbling thirty ft from the basket, they're never alone. If they put the ball on the floor and try to beat somebody off the dribble, help is coming early, and it's coming aggressively. It's not someone stepping in and

digging their straight up like aggressively helping. When they want to catch off the ball. As soon as the pass is thrown in, a second defender is coming over to try to disrupt on the catch. They are off the ball getting roughed up. There's Boston is throwing multiple bodies at Katie and Kyrie all the time, and as a result of that, there are openings somewhere on the floor. But there's two things that go into that. Part of

it is the the the approach to the game. Like Katie and Kyrie are both wired as scores, and so there are times where they look off open people to try to get to their own shot. There was a big play that I tweeted out in the second half

of last night's game. You find it on my Twitter feed where Kyrie beat I can't remember who it was that he beat off the dribble, but he beat somebody off the dribble and got into the lane and Patty Mills, one of the most dead eye three point shooters in the league, was completely unguarded at the top of the key, and instead of swinging it out to Patty Mills, Kyrie

tried to finish over three people and got blocked. So part of it is embracing and understanding that your role in this series is no longer to score, but rather to be a decoy. Essentially, take advantage of the ridiculous defensive attention that Boston is throwing your way and use that to get your really good offensive players wide open shots. Boston's defense will loosen. Then from there you can actually

go back to being a score. And then the second part of it is the Steve Nashville little decoy actions to man action off the ball with Katie and Kyrie to occupy defenders floor positioning, making it so that Katie knows if I catch here in Boston doubles there then I know that so and so is open. Dallas is so incredibly good at this. They are the best in the league in my opinion. The Brunson, Dinwoodie and Luca. They don't throw to open guys. They throw to spots

because baked into their offense they have release valves. They know, no matter what kind of hell trouble I get into, if I find myself in traffic, there's always someone in the left corner. Another big thing you saw it tonight, especially in that first half, they have a guy kind of like circle around to the top of the key, so they always have a relief so when they attack from the top, they always have a release valve right behind them. Kleiberg got a couple of threes out of

that early in the game. Uh that they got a ton of open looks right at the right around the top of the key. So that's Steve Nash's job. And I don't know how the heck this happened. But the Nets don't play again tomorrow, so they had two days off between game one and two, and they have two games off again between two and three. They don't play until Saturday, so you've got a lot of time here. Or for Steve Nash to really study the tape and try to come up with really easy counters for each

spot on the floor. When they double f Katie at the post, this is what we do when they double when they trap Katie on pick and rolls, This is what we do. When Katie attacks in isolation and they start throwing bodies, this is where people relocate. Those are those little details that Nash has to figure out. And for the record, guys, like if we go into game three and the same thing happens, that's when I buy into the the the the Steve Nash criticism, because that's

his job. His job is not to have it figured out by game one. It's his job to make the adjustments. And they got utterly slapped in the face and completely fell apart offensively in the second half of game two, and it's on Steve Nash to come up with an adjustment to make things easier on Kyrie and Katie in game three. Al Right, Well, we've obviously explored a lot of different teams throughout this show, and we've dipped our toes a bit into the who are the top tier

title contenders conversation right now? But I think we're ready Jason for the initial Timp's top five. So let's start with a five spot. Who are your top five contenders right now? Okay, So, like I mentioned earlier, I'm dropping Memphis out because I just don't think they're sharp enough and I don't think they're quite committed enough to just how hard this is gonna be. So I'm dropping them out. I've raised Philly up to number five because of and

I was really low on Philly. I expected them to lose in the first round and I was wrong about that, and a big part of it was Joel Embiad's jump shooting. He seems to be hot in that specific department. That is a massive wrinkle because that is their release valve in late possession type situations. And then Tyrese Maxi Tyres Maxie was the second best player in this first round series. Obviously it's not entirely over yet, but he's better than

James Harden, he was better than everybody on Toronto. Tyrese Maxi proving himself as an effective playoff player is an influx of talent that makes them more interesting. I don't have them at I don't think they're capable of beating Boston. I would still pick Boston, but they're more of a threat in my opinion than any of those other teams in the East. Because of Milwaukee and Chris Middleton getting hurt,

that's devastating. If he's out for a couple of weeks, they don't lose to Chicago, they absolutely will lose to Boston. They have no chance of beating Boston without Chris Middleton. That's a disastrous outcome there. So you guys know how I feel about Miami. I don't trust their half court offense enough. So I put Philly at five. Number four. I put Dallas, and this is something that people have to be prepared for. Dallas has a realistic chance to

win the title. Phoenix is dealing with obviously the Devin Booker injury. Golden State has some specific flaws, particularly on the wing. Luca is a rim, pressuring wing. He has a size and strength advantage against everybody on the Warriors roster, except obviously he's not gonna get matched up with Draymond often. Draymond is gonna be in a different role. But the only guy would be Andre Guadala that I would feel comfortable really making Luca uncomfortable. And the issue there is

his his neck is he's having neck spasms. He's having a bunch of issues there. So there's question as to whether or not Andre we will be dependable enough at this point, at the thirty eight years old to be able to do that, to accomplish that role. I one of my biggest concerns with Dallas all year was about that, was that their defense was kind of gimmicky. They were making up for a lack of personnel with effort and a scheme, and I was worried about whether or not

that would transfer to the postseason, and it has. I show there's a there's a clip on my Twitter feed. You guys can see, uh there's a quote, tweet and

tweet underneath it. There's a tweet of Donovan Mitchell getting barbecued by Spencer Dinwitty and then a clip of Mike Conley Jr. Trying to attack Jalen Brunson off the off the dribble and watch Jalen Brunson's commitment to sliding his feet and how he cuts Mike Calmley off on the drive three times in the same possession and forces to travel and like even though He's not the same athlete

that Donovan mitch It was. It is clear that this specific defensive scheme, even with this limited personnel, is functional in the playoffs because of how hard they play and because of their commitment to that that job. And so Dallas is defense in conjunction with what Jalen Brunson is doing right now and Spencer din what he has a third release valve. He's had a disaster series in terms of his efficiency as a secondary creator. He will be

more efficient in a third role. And Luca don Chitch has got has already shown that he can go toe to toe with Kawhi Leonard and be every bit as good as him. So I put that there a real threat. I have him at number four. I have Phoenix at number three. Obviously I had them as a clear number one before the Devin Booker injury. But without Devin Booker, there's just a new hole that has formed in a

team that otherwise didn't have any holes. He is their only guy really that can consistently create his own shot. You've seen, just like in the finals last year with Drew Holiday, there is specific defensive matchups that can really really disrupt Chris Paul to the point where he's almost ineffective as a scorer and he becomes just a playmaker kind of allah James Harden right now at this phase of his career, right, and so without Devin Booker, that

specific hole is something that teams can absolutely attack. Now, this is where Chris Paul the reason why I have them at number three and not lower is the intel that came out today that I saw was that Bookers out two to three weeks because the strain is considered to be mild. So the way I look at it, all Chris Paul has to do is keep this team

alive for two to three weeks. If he can do that, if he can beat the Pelicans, even if they're down two oh in the next round, if they can just get to the point where Devin Booker comes back, then there's suddenly the best team in the league. Again, Obviously, there are still wrinkles there. There's no guarantee that can beat the Pelicans. I would pick the Sun still, but

there's no guarantee that they can at the Pelicans. Obviously, when Devin Booker comes back, there's no guarantee he'll be a percent So that's why I have them down at three. I wouldn't write them off entirely, but I don't know that you could possibly consider them to be the favorites in the West anymore after that injury. Number two, I have Golden State. We talked about them in detail earlier, so I'm not gonna go too much further into it. The gist of it is, I'm specifically worried about them

in specific matchups. Will they be able to handle the interior presence if a team like Philly comes out of the Eastern Conference, or if they end up running into a Phoenix team that's healthy, will they have some issues there? So I have Golden State at number two. I still Boston at number one. I talked about this last night. I was picking them for two reasons, one Phoenix falling apart with their injury. But the key is they're the

best defensive team that I have seen. Again, that's just me, guys. Like in two thousand four, I was thirteen years old, so I don't have enough experience watching the Pistons to to understand whether or not that team was better. I

didn't I didn't have enough live experience. I've seen film, but I didn't have enough live experience watching teams before and my team in my time watching basketball over the course of the last a decade and a half or so, I this Boston Celtics team is the best defense I've ever seen. I've never ever seen a team that can cover as much ground and shrink space on stars the way that they can. They do not have a weakness that you can switch. Their best lineups do not have

a defender that's easy to attack. One of the weird wrinkles of this series is Kevin Durant is not getting good looks in isolation defense against Tatum. They're a handful of possessions you'll see on the tape very rarely, but there were four or five possessions in that game where Tatum did have Durant and single coverage and he's really

you can tell Durant's uncomfortable. He's crowding his space, he's applying physical pressure, and Katie can still get two shots, but he's usually just going to his jab step pull up and he's not making it right now. And that's a huge credit to Tatum and so Boston with their combination of being the best defense that I have seen in my time watching basketball, and Jalen Brown showing signs of confidence scoring in the playoffs, and Jayson Tatum embracing

the double teams and making plays for his teammates. I think they are now the team that has the best chance to win the title, and I'm picking them at this point. Obviously, that could change significantly based on a couple of injuries or a couple of things changing. Obviously, Boston has has dealt with injuries with Robert Williams, there's

no guarantee that they won't face something else. So this is kind of a sliding scale, But at this kind of snapshot moment in time, that's where I'm at all right, guys, that is all we have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. We are taking the next two days off. I have gone six days in a row of this and I'm completely exhausted. I need a little bit of a break. My wife's been out of town for a week two and I'm looking forward to spending

some time with her tomorrow. But if anything absolutely crazy happens, I will try to get some sort of instant reaction material out and no matter what, no matter how interesting, things get, over the next couple days. We will break it all down in its entirety on Sunday night, after the last game of the night. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys supporting the show, and I'll see you in a couple of days. The volume