Hoops Tonight - Steph & Warriors blow out Grizzlies, Giannis & Bucks dominate Celtics

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timp Happy Sunday, Everybody happy Saturday. I'm sorry. I saw something on Twitter earlier today talking about how it was a Saturday that felt like a Sunday, and apparently that's what's happening in my head as well. I hope all of you guys are having a great weekend so far, awesome day of basketball. Before we get to for far too much further into this, if we hear anything about what's going on with John randsknee, we will touch on it in the show. Obviously at this point, we do

not know anything. At this point, we're gonna start by talking some Warriors and Grizzlies. Stick around for later in the show. We're gonna break down Celtics Bucks as well as the two games from last night, which turned a couple of at the time boring playoff series into much more interesting playoff series. That's what happens when one team that wasn't playing any defense started playing defense and another team added their center who may or may not be

the best player in the league. So we will get to all of that. Make sure you guys stick around for the whole show. A couple of housekeeping notes, don't forget to like this video and subscribe to the channel. Check out our newsletter. You can find the link to that in the description to this video. It's a great

way to keep up with all of our content. And then follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt That's where you can see all of my film breakdowns that go through some of the we get into the weeds on this show a little bit, and it helps to see some video that backs up the things I'm talking about.

But let's start with Golden State and Memphis and before we get into some of the nitty gritty details of this game, I wanted to take a minute to talk about Jordan Pool because we've talked about him on the show before as a bridge, right, a bridge from two eras you've got, you know, It's it's so important when you're trying to have sustained success in the NBA to draft well and to make moves on the margins that keep your team filled with talent, and not just talent,

but new energy and new ambition. Right. And when you're talking about, like, for instance, the gold San Antonio Spurs team, it's not that Tim Duncan didn't care as he got older, or that Managed Nobley and Tony Parker weren't you know, as invested as they were when they were younger. But as their physical decline was taking place, they needed an influx of talent in order to bridge the gap long enough for the San Antonio management to try to bring

in a new crop of stars. Right. That's what Kawhi Leonard represented to them, And Kawhi Leonard obviously kept that ship floating, even to a greater extent that I think even Spurs management expected. But that's kind of what Jordan Poole has turned into for the Warriors. Right, You've got this existing core group of stars and Steph Clay and Draymond, and then you've got this future of stars. You know, Moses Moody looks like a very good, you know, three

and D type of wing. Jonathan cominga looks like Jeff Green right now, which again the question becomes does he become Jeff Green or Tracy McGrady from there, because Jeff Green obviously didn't have the consistent ceiling to really be as valuable in the league as we all thought he

would be. But Jonathan Coming has got all the flash of like freaky athletic six nine swing man who can guard multiple positions and you know, create shots off the bounce and pressure the rim in a way that a lot of guys through Golden State haven't been able to over the years. And then you have James Wiseman, who we don't know what the deal is with him, obviously missed this entire season. But they've got this new crop of stars and they've got this old crop of stars.

But you can't you can't tow both of those lines. It's a dangerous game to play. You get caught in the middle and it can be a problem. Well, Jordan's Pool is so good already that he represents a bridge between those two eras. But what's even more interesting to me is the specific way that he adds so much juice to this Warrior's offense. If you look at the Warriors offense and what made it so great in the two thousand tens, it was a combination of a bunch

of different things. It was Steph Curry and his ability to drag defenders away from the three point line. We talked a lot about guys taking defensive attention, but the vast majority of defensive attention that you saw in pre these years in NBA history was rim attention, right Lebron driving to the basket and everybody collapsing and him spraying

out to shooters. That's what you're used to seeing. Well, Steph did like an inverse version of that, where he was pulling guys away from the rim, and so suddenly Golden State was running these four on threes on the back end and getting layups and dunks NonStop because no

one was under the rim. Right. What helped make that work was guys like Clay Thompson, who was an excellent three point shooter but also a great movement three point shooter, and he was great at attacking close outs, and so he was great at capitalizing on the attention that Steph would pull away from the rim. And then Draymond Green.

Everyone knows what he does great offensively or defensively, but one of the biggest things that he's brought to this team over the years is his playmaking out of the short role. So when guys send two bodies to Steph, Steph just hooks it over the top to Draymond. He's barreling down the middle of the floor, and if guys come into him, he's great at making reads out of that.

That's kind of been the the traditional organism of Golden State Warriors basketball, and it's always been important to have guys around those three that are smart, guys that can make quick decisions in four on threes. One thing they have never had, though, is like a true straight line drive threat. Steph is very good at weaponizing his shooting to get past people, and that does apply rim pressure

to a certain extent. Same thing with Clay, whether it's pump bacon drive or just guys closing out recklessly because they're terrified in him rolling to the rim or Draymond rolling to the rim simply because no one's guarding him. They get that kind of rim pressure. What they don't get is what you've seen from John Rant in this series, which is me staring you right in the face and me just going right around you because you can't keep

me in front. They've never had that really athletic verdict, like straight line drive threat, and you've seen how much that can damage a defense. This is a very good Golden State Warriors defense. They can't do anything with John morand they can't do anything with him because they cannot keep him in front. Having that dynamic is a totally different type of offensive warping that comes on that creates openings for other people. Jordan's Pool is that guy for

this offense. He is the guy that can stare you in the face and hit a quick move and he's already passed you. But he's not just passed you because you were pressing up on his shot. He's not passed you as you're kind of slowly meandering your way into the lane. No, no, no, he is flying by you like a blur, and it just causes everybody to collapse around him. And what's amazing, he's actually a great passer, which is unusual for a player that age, especially a

player that is this polished as a score. A lot of guys that come out looking like this are more scoring focus, that don't pay as much attention to the flow of an offense and things along those lines. Well, makes it especially dangerous is he's doing these things with Stephan Clay on the floor with him. So when you've got Stephen Clay and Andrew Wiggins. By the way, a lot of people have a misplaced representation of of Andrew

Wiggins because of his career in Minnesota. He's turned himself into a bona fide three and D player, three point shooter on decent volume, of a great defensive player. But when you have Andrew Wiggins on the floor with Steph Curry and Clay Thompson, and you have a guy that can be a straight line driving threat the way that Jordan Pool does, it adds this whole other dynamic to

the offense. You know, when Steph would when Steph was in his absolute peak, every single screen and roll at the top of the key was a trap, Like every single time. No matter what, if you didn't trap step you're gonna get beat. Right. So, as a result, they were playing a ton of four on three. Well, you're seeing a little bit less of that as step has gotten older. Having Jordan's Pool be able to quickly compromise the defense with straight line drives is giving a lot

more four on three opportunities. But with Steph actually involved in that action, it's it's been super super interesting to see. And that's the that's the dynamic that's gonna make this team super interesting going forward because I think Jordan Pool is going to be an All Star one day. And so when you have a guy who right now is like at this moment, an All Star level player, that's a massive influx of talent, you know. That's that's that's

what is allowing this group to age gracefully. Clay Thompson had a big night tonight, but he hasn't really looked the same since his injuries. Draymond Green is still the same defensive defensive monster that he's always been, but he's never been able to recreate the offensive pop that he

had in two thousand sixteen. Right, So a lot of like trying to get back to the amount of talent that was there in two thousand and sixteen and two thousand seventeen has been a chore because of injuries and because of aging, which is just the natural order of things.

Having Jordan Pool come in here and play like this, that gives you time for Jonathan Cominga to have three four or five years to get better, for James Wiseman to have three four or five years to get better, and you not have to panic trade them in pursuit of instantaneous talent. So if you're a Warriors fan, the Jordan Pool thing just has to be so incredibly exciting for you. Let's get into the game a little bit though.

This was an interesting game. You know, Memphis, For as much as I've criticized them for not coming out serious a lot in this playoff from they came out dead serious tonight. That was what was so strange about them getting blown out the way they did early on in the game. Their dribble contained was fantastic. They were defending really well on the perimeter, and John Rant just went right back to what he did at the end of

Game two. He was just getting into the lane and making easy kickouts to guys and they were getting great shots every time they jump out to an eighteen to eight lead. Golden State had eight turnovers in the first quarter. That was part of that. You know, Golden State through this entire era, there's been one consistent flaw. It's they don't take care of the basketball, and a team like Memphis that runs really well, they're gonna put you behind the eight ball there. So Memphis jumps out to a

big lead. I have a personal theory. A lot of people disagree with me about this, but I believe that it's actually better to get off to a slow start than it is to get off to a fantastic start, because I'm a big believer in like, you have to really lock in, and when you really lock in, it's hard to get out of that zone. But when you get out of it, it's hard to get back into it. And so a lot of times getting punched in the

mouth is exactly what you need to lock in. And then the rest of the game you're so dead I focused. Whereas so many times you see something like that, like you saw from Memphis. They come out and for like six minutes they are locked in, but then they get a big lead, they let their foot off the gas and now they're getting punched in the mouth. And that was the dynamic that took place in that first quarter. But again it was John Moran. You know, we have

to stay a little bit positive on Memphis here. John Morand continues to be completely unguardable. There's absolutely nothing they can do with him. They can't even keep him from hanging on the rim. He's just getting by people and dunking on everybody. He's so good at like you can't help out of the corners because he's just so reflexive with his passes to those corners. That dude is a

flat out star. I said on the show a while back during the regular season that I thought John Morand was better than Derrick Rows, was better than Russell Westbrook, you know, like he's better than Donovan Mitchell, better than all of these guys that came up that where your your typical super freak athletic uh point guards. He's better than all of those guys. He's already a better shooter than any of those guys. That he's flat out a superstar.

But their biggest, their biggest shortcoming right now is they don't have any offensive creation outside of him if he's not creating something, nobody else on Memphis can. At the end of the third quarter, Memphis was down by twenty one points. Memphis didn't have a single player at that point in the game other than Jaw that either had more than ten points or more than three assists, so they didn't have anybody else on the team that they

could lean on to create. I know Desmond Bane is dealing with a back issue right now, and and that that kind of stuff is really hard to gauge how much it's limiting a player. But even when des m Baine was at his peak of health, he never was a great shock creator. He always was feeding off of attention dedicated to other people. He's more Clay Thompson than

he is C. J. McCollum. As I always say on the show, Jaren Jackson Jr. Has potential to attack mismatches, but he's so young and he's so undisciplined right now that he just doesn't understand how to read defense is well enough to use to really weaponize that the way you need to. He's kind of a bull in a china shop when he's attacking. When he's attacking those mismatches, so Jaws kind of stuck on an island trying to

create everything. And that's gonna be the big thing that Memphis is gonna have to address in this offseason if they do lose, is find somebody else that can consist. Didn'tly basically played the point forward role for them and start at the top of the key and try to help make decisions for people. But you know, for as much as I can complain about Memphis offense, it was their defense I cost him this game, specifically dribble contain. You know, we talked about this in the Minnesota series.

You know, Minnesota was one of the best teams in the league at keeping guys in front on the perimeter. I've talked a lot on this show about how, you know, back in the day, dribble contain was nowhere near as important because you had all these big guys around the basket. It had more to do with your rim protector, your help side defense than your ability to keep people in front off of the drive. I think ironically, the Lakers one playing a vintage style. They won having JaVale McGee

under the basket with Anthony Davis. They won with Dwight Howard and Anthony Davis even when they went small, you know, is Anthony Davis and Lebron on that back line. The whole that Danny Green was not super quick with his feet, wasn't great at keeping people in front. Cantabious called Pope was okay, not great, you know, Alex Crusoe was good at it. But they had a lot of guys that gave up line drives. They were is really good at

funneling you into their help. But as the league has evolved, now almost every team in the league is playing four or five guys that can all pass, dribble and shoot. Look at this Warrior's lineup when you have Steph Curry on the floor with Clay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole with let's just say it's Draymond. Those four guys can all pass, dribble and shoot really well, and then Draymond can pass and dribble really well. So if you get into a system where guys are getting beat off

the dribble, it's just one thing after another. Your defense is just all over the place. You can't hope to recover at that point. So at this point in the league, it's never been more important than it is right now to have guys that can sit in a defensive stance and at least make it hard for people to beat

you off the dribble. There's a huge difference between Jordan Pool dusting somebody at the perimeter and having a full head of steam towards the rim and Jordan Pool having to do two or three move and then a counter move because the dude slid once and he had to make a counter move and now he's spinning into the lane. Now he doesn't have it had his team. That gives much better opportunity for guys to help and recover off

of that. No one's no one's saying you can never give up a drive, but you have to occasionally make it difficult to get a foot in the pain. It can't be easy all the time. And what you've seen tonight, John and this is John Rand's biggest weakness right now, and it's the biggest thing that's gonna hold him back as his career develops. He's gonna have to really really adopt this side of the basketball. It's got the athleticism for it, but you have to contain John Moran is

offering absolutely no resistance on the perimeter. And again, Memphis, their defensive structure is kind of vintage. They used to play two bigs all the time. But even when they don't, let's say Jaren Jackson's down there or Brandon Clark is down there. It's kind of like Desmond pain is not a great dribble. Contain guy Tias Jones not a great dribble. Contain guy Dy Anthony Melton's okay, not great. John Moran is not a great dribble. Contain guy Kyle Kyle Anderson

is slow footed. They have a lot of guys that are great athletes, but in like a big athletic wing kind of way, not like a quick laterally keep people in front of you kind of way, and that that put them behind the eight ball NonStop in this game, especially against the Golden State team. You know, the way that they play with their ball movement, it's especially difficult because of the predicaments that they put you in because

of how threatening their players are off the ball. You know, it's not like like Golden States job guarding John Moran is different. It's like they just have to deal with this one guy that keeps coming at them from the same spot on the floor top of the key dribble drive. We had figure out how to contain that. We had figure out how to help and recover off of that. The Steph Clay Jordan Poole thing. Everyone's in a different spot of the floor each time down the floor. Everything

looks different, Each possession is unique. It puts an extra an extra tax on your brain and your ability to stay focused and pay attention during that time. I thought another huge element in this game it was Golden States shooting regression. They shot like absolute ship in game two. They were uh Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Pools, Steph Curry, and Clay Thompson combined to go seven for thirty six from three in game two and on the tape. When I watched the tape, great looks. A lot of really good looks.

There's some tough ones in there, but a lot of really good looks. Again, when you see shooting percentages, it's always helps to go back and look at the tape and just look at the quality of the shots. Was it one of those nights or was the team defending you really well? Memphis was giving up a lot of really good shots to great shooters, especially in that second half, and Golden State just wasn't making them well. Tonight, Wiggins, Pool, Steph and Clay went eleven for twenty one from three.

That's great positive regression. Clay Thompson looked fantastic tonight. You know, specifically with these types of injuries. I talked a lot on this show about rhythm, and I you know, I appreciated that. Draymond Green on his last episode specifically mentioned this because you know, again, those guys I played at the college level, but these guys are pros. They have a lot more credibility than I do. To hear them

say it, it carries more weight. But this is why I say that so off and like you have to you have to account for the fact that getting rhythm as a basketball player takes time, not just within the game, but also within a long span coming back from that many injuries. Being away from the game for as long as Clay has been, he was never even if he feels fantastic, even if you told me his body was more athletic than it was pre injury, it takes a long time to dial it in. Think about what jump

shooting is like. Again, if I take a three, I'm six six I have six ten wingspans. There's a lot of moving parts right long arms that like one slight millimeter mistake in alignment can mean a foot at the end of the shot. And if I'm taking shots from ft like it is a it is an exact science getting the ball to go through the rim often and if you are off by just the slightest bit, it can take a long time to really dial in those details. And so for Clay, you, especially as a Warriors fan,

you gotta bear with him through some of that. You gotta be willing to You gotta be willing to understand that he's working through something. I remember when I broke my foot between my first and second year playing in college, like, I played horrible and nonconference play even though my body was back, it was just that all of that timing stuff was off, all of that rhythm stuff was off. Then I got into conference play, snapped into gear and

made the All Conference team. But like if you looked at my numbers in the way I played in the first half of the season, I was absolutely horrific because I was coming back from an injury and it just takes time to get that stuff back. So seeing Clay look like himself again. And you know, one of the big indicators with Clay is audacity. Him and Steph Curry, it's always been about the shots that they're willing to take.

That's a great sign of where they're at mentally. And there was a stretch there in that third quarter where you could just tell Clay looked confident again. There was a play where he caught the ball in the right corner. He knew exactly what was gonna happen. He's like, I'm gonna pump thick. This dude's gonna a flying by me. I'm gonna get a look, and he actually missed it, but it was like you could just tell, like in

his head he was processing things at the right speed. Finally, later in the corner or earlier in the quarter, he made a one legged running three going into the lane and like popped through the net like it was dead on. There's no chance he was missing it. So seeing Clay get a little bit back, that's again we talked about the influx of talent with Jordan Poole. That's kind of like another influx of talent having Clay Thompson regained some of his form and obviously defense is another side of that.

He'll have to get a little bit better, but it's good. It's good to see that Clay looks good looking forward. In this series, I game threes are tough because I almost always favored the home team in game three. It's their first home game of this series. The teams are already somewhat familiar with each other, so no one's getting surprised, right, and generally speaking, the home team playing in game three is at in motivation advantage unless they happen to steal

both games on the road. But like if you're looking at Golden State, they lost game two, should have one blew an opper tunity. They lost game too, right, and so this was a great opportunity for them to come into their home floor and regain control the series. You knew they had a motivational advantage. Same thing was going on with the Bucks. They got absolutely destroyed in game two.

I know there was like kind of like a second half of things got a little bit more interesting, but they were down sixty five to forty forty, So they were going to come out on their home floor and want to and want to take care of business. This

is I always call this the buzz Saw game. It's one of my favorite games to bet, and yes, yes I bet on the two home teams today, but like, this is one of my favorite games to bet because this is the one game in the series where I think home court plays the biggest role Game three, regardless of what's going on unless the home teams up to oh already, Game four is going to be a different challenge.

Memphis is gonna go look at the film and they're gonna see immediately where all their missed opportunities were, particularly on the defensive end of the floor, particularly with dribble drive contained. They're going to come into Game four with the whole other level of focus. Now they will be the desperate team. There's always like a little bit of a flat feeling in Game four when like the home crowd always has a little bit less of an impact in that second game. Right, So this is good, it's

not over. I picked Golden State for a reason. I think they're the better, smarter team, and I think they have more creation. I think they I always look at half court like how well can a team succeed within the half court? And I always trusted Golden State more

in those moments but the series is not over. I told you guys, it's so important for Golden State to try to end this series quickly because of the way that Memphis can physically wear you down over the course of the series, crashing the offensive glass and stuff like that. By the way, weird a side plot of this series. Golden State has been amazing on the glass. Coming into this series, we all thought Memphis was gonna destroy them

down there, and they've been great. Special credit Gary Payton Jr. Before Garry Patton the second before he got hurt, and then also Andrew Wiggins and Auto Porter Auto Porter Jr. Again. And this is part of another thing with the way the game has changed. It used to be that the jet, like the average shot distance was so much closer to the rim that there were fewer longer rebounds. So what

became so important was big guys that could rebound. Right in the modern NBA, with how many long distance shots there are, shots are coming flying off the rim all over the floor, So guard rebounding, wing rebounding is more important now than it's ever been in the history of

the league. Having a guy like Otto Porter Jr. Who has just got like kind of a heat seeking missile for the basketball is a great asset, especially at his size, and him and Andrew Wiggins have been fighting and clawing for contested rebounds this entire series and it's neutralized as significant portion of Memphis's attack. But at the same time,

Memphis is gonna keep coming. It's like I've been talking about with the Milwaukee Boston series, like it's not about keeping you honest in front one time or even five times you have to, it's can you still do it on the nine, seven time on time when things really start to wear you down. So getting a three one advantage, taking it back to Memphis and closing this series out, that's the best way to prevent any sort of long term wear and tear that can take place over the

course of this series. So Game four is a big opportunity. It's gonna be a good game that these both of these games are gonna be on Monday night. Monday Night will be a super, super interesting night. We will absolutely be going live after the final buzzer the last game that night, and I can't wait because though game four in a two one series, that's always the big turning point. Are you going are you going back three one? Are you going back to two huge difference between those two situations.

Everything's gonna come down to who can who can sit in a stance and get a stop, who can keep somebody in front, who's willing to do that job, specifically with Jordan Poole, who can create shots other than jaw. One of the things that Memphis has been doing a lot, and they might have to do more, is have Highest Jones out there more, to have another guy on the floor that can kind of make decisions at a high

pick and roll especially. One of the things that's been working really well for Memphis is Jaren Jackson is shooting the ship out of the basketball. I think he made three more threes tonight, three or four more threes tonight. Him being such a threat in screen and pop situations is gonna get guys like Ties Jones downhill. They might have to play him more because they need some more offensive creation. But the flip side of that, that's another small guy on the floor. That's another guy who's not

a great defensive player. That's the predicament that Golden State puts you in. I talked about this in last night's show, like that our last show that we did good teams put you in predicaments where you have to make these types of decisions, and Memphis is going to be in that type of uh, in that type of position. But yeah, I still pick Golden State. And my guess is that this at this point that they'll win in six. My I, my I will predict that Memphis will win Game five

and the Golden State will win Game four. But Golden State should be gunning to try to end this thing in five before physicality becomes a problem. Before we move on to the Bucks in the Celtics, I just wanted to hit our housekeeping notes again really quick. Make sure you like this video and subscribe to our channel. Check out our newsletter it's in the description to this video. Great way to just stay up to speed about what's coming on the horizon for the volume, and then remember

to follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt. I regularly do the analysis that kind of backs up the things that I'm talking about on the show. It's a great place to kind of see examples of the things that I'm talking about. But before we move on, here's a promo for some other content at the volume. It's time to dig yourself out of that winter hibernation. Spring is here and it's time to get sprung with blue two.

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thank Fluechoo for sponsoring the podcast. All right, let's move on to Boston Milwaukee, which was an incredible game which I predicted to be an incredible game. This was the game that I thought Milwaukee would win before the series when I picked Boston in five, which obviously, as of right now is very much wrong. But as I told you guys after Milwaukee stole Game one, I expected this to be a super long series just because of the

dynamics of home court advantage. The reason why I liked Milwaukee's chances most in Game three was because it's typically the game where the underdog has the best opportunity to win. It's your first game at home in a series where you're already familiar with the other team, and you've played twice already too, you're almost always the more desperate team, even if you did manage to steal a game like

Milwaukee's coming from getting absolutely destroyed in Game two. They had a little bit of a fake come back in the second half. They were down sixty to forty at halftime in Game two. This was their night to come out in front of their home crowd and take a lead in this series, and they did. Now, it was super interesting in a bunch of different levels, and we're gonna get into all of it, because there was a moment where I thought Milwaukee was gonna blow them out

early in the game. I actually tweeted out I expected Milwaukee to blow them out because Boston was really sloppy in some specific areas that we'll talk about. Then we have this weird stretch to start the fourth quarter where Boston locks in and like you could just tell they were in a completely different brain space on offense and we're executing and getting great shots, and next thing you know,

they have a lead. Then you have this weird final possession for our second to last possession for Boston where they get back to back completely wide open threes to potentially steal this game and take a two one lead when you've played horrible all night long. And then it's amazing move from Jhannice to take the lead, get a stop, Honice defends Jalen Brown at the rim, and then they go down in and Drew Holiday has that little float

in the lane and it's over. Just like a crazy helter skelter up and down type a game on a bunch of different levels. But Milwaukee takes the lead. You know, I said, I said before this series that if Janice were to beat this Celtics team, I thought it would be an accomplishment on par with what Lebron did in two thousand seven beating that Detroit Pistons team. And I don't mean there's obviously there's differences. Lebron was younger than Janice at that point. For Lebron, that took his team

to the finals. I don't think the Pistons were the best team in the league that year. I actually think this Boston team is the best team in the league. But the similarities were just the huge talent disparity between

the two teams. That Detroit team I think had four All Stars the previous year, and all those guys were still very much at that level in two thousand seven versus a team where it was solid role players but no second star and kind of just one kind of heliocentric superstar that has the opportunity to potentially overcome the much better team. That's kind of the parallel that I was trying to draw there. And what happened was is Detroit was the better team clearly demonstrate I did it

for large portions of the series. But Lebron just reached down and touched a level of basketball that have not very many people in the world have ever done, and it was too much for the Pistons, and next thing you know, they were losing in six games. And that's the opportunity that Janice has here. They're not as good as Boston and any facet of the game. Boston's better at generating high quality half court shots. You saw that

down the stretch of that game. They got wide open shots almost every possession in that fourth quarter they executed fantastically well. Then on the defensive end they were locking in and making everything difficult on Milwaukee. But down the stretch of that game, Janice was able to create shots when there was nothing versus Boston missing good shots. But again, as I've always talked about jump shots, there's a expected value, but it's always up in the air. Sometimes they go in,

sometimes they don't. Getting to the rim, closer to the rim stuff is more dependable. Janice last two made field goals in this game. We're really nice to a little hook shot in the lane against Jalen Brown and then that awesome Euros step around Grant Williams for the game winner. Those are once he made the move, it's like that's

going in. That's a dependable move. Joannice overcame a clear talent disadvantage tonight with his own individual greatness and one a basketball game, and now he is a two to one lead against the team that I think is better. But we're gonna dip into a bunch of different parts of this game. I wanted to start with that fourth quarter. Let's start with you, honest in particular. And again it's

like you saw down the stretch of that game. They when they went to Drew Holiday in isolation situations, he had a couple of shots that he made, but for the most part, it was really difficult for him, and he actually got blocked on a bunch of his pull

up shots. They tried to run some screen and roll action with Drew and with Joannice on one side of the floor, and they would kind of meander into the lane, but Boston would compress around them and things weren't really open, and guys like Pat Connors and he made one corner three, but then he missed his last couple out from the perimeter. So they didn't really have anything working for them. But there was one thing that was definitively working for them,

and it was Janice Antenna Komba. Just imagine I think it was early fourth quarter on the right block against Grant Williams, the one where Keeby Brown had a freak out about about Janice dropping his shoulder. And we'll talk a little bit later about Janice and officiating. But and again, really quick note for you Bucks fans, not liking the way Janice is officiated is not the same thing as

not liking Janice. Those are two completely different things. Just because I love Lebron and I am totally okay with the fact that he does not get a lot of foul calls when he's trying to bullyball people all the time. But we'll get to that in a little bit. On the right wing, it's bump, bump, and then get into the lane for that hook shot over the top. That's a It was defended perfectly by Grant Williams. The only thing he could have done better is maybe flopped to

try to take a charge. But Janice just got to that little half hook in the lane that he made. And by the way, as I tweeted out, that little half hook, to me, that's the Honests go to move. That's the move that he can have to beat a set half court defense, not the fade a ways, not the one legged step backs, not the three wing shot. It's that. It's the let me just bump you once and then step into the middle and take that right handed hook in the middle of the lane. It's unguardable.

His release point is way too high. He can get it in any circumstance and it's a high percentage shot. He can He's not quite there yet, but I would imagine that he's capable of getting to the point where that is like a super super high percentage efficient go to move for him, something that he can go to, kind of similar to the way that same shot was

for Tim Duncan. But then he had like two spin moves on on on Jalen Brown in the lane, one where he got really good separation and got a dunk, and then the other one Jalen did a good job is sliding in front of him, and he went back to that little hook shot and made it. And then on the final possession, same thing. Nothing's open, didn't settle, did a beautiful like rip to the right and then a beautiful quick euro step to the left and got just clear around Grant Williams and he's right at the

rim and finishing at the rim. That's unbelievable offense down the stretch. He honest is the biggest rub on him compared to his peers at the top of the league is his ability to create shots in the half court. And is he as good as Lebron at it? No? Is he as good at as Kevin duran at it knows he is good at you know, Luca and Yokich and some of these guys at the very top of that list. No, but he has turned himself into a player who's very good at it. He's probably in the

tier right below those guys. And that's good enough for

your honest. When you're good, when you're as good at everything else in basketball as jannest Is is, you if you're as dominant defensively as he is, If you're as incredible in transition as he is, if you're as incredible as an offensive rebound or finishing around the rim, if you're as incredible defensively both on the perimeter and and help side, and as a leader, and physically and your ability to thrive in in fist fight type environments, if you're good at all of that, then you don't have

to be the best half court scorer in the entire league. But if you're very good at it, that's enough. And he is very good at it, and that's that's enough for him to be the best player in basketball. And that's what he is right now. We have to acknowledge that because he's demonstrating for us on a playoff stage. You guys know me, I was slow to admit that because I'm always gonna be slow. I'd rather be late to the party than disrespect established guys by bumping them

to the front before they deserve it. But Janice deserves it now. He has clearly demonstrated it. This is the second postseason in a run where he a second postseason in a row where he's clearly demonstrated that he's better than anybody else in this field. He's doing it, and again he has to do two more times. There's a

lot a lot of basketball left in this series. We're gonna talk more about Boston here in just a minute, but I had to start with jannest He deserves the shout out best player in the world, and he's half halfway towards stealing a series against a far superior team that was a NINUS two favorite. On FanDuel before the series.

A couple more quick notes on Milwaukee. I thought brook Lopez was a monster tonight, big double double, was crashing the offensive glass like crazy, and then especially early in the game, he kind of turned into an interesting release valve for Milwaukee in the half court, just throwing the ball to him on the post, even even against someone like Al Horford is a great post offender. You know, when you lose Chris Middleton, especially in rescue situations like

lake clock don't have time to run in action. You need someone to throw the ball too that can create a play. And that was kind of an interesting wrinkle tonight, the ability to throw the ball down to brook Lopez on the block. He scored there a couple of times. He had a big and one there in the third quarter. It's an interesting kind of wrinkle in this series. Then Drew Holiday was a monster again. That was the big swing factor in Game one. I told you guys, he

was the second best player on the floor. I'd say probably Jalen Brown was the second best player in the four today, but Drew Holiday was a definitive number three and he was definitely better than Tatum tonight. It's a

huge swing factor. We'll talk about Tatum in just a minute, but his shot making was huge again and he had a bunch of big shots down the stretch, had a big fade away along the baseline in the fourth quarter, and then he had the shot that kind of ice the game when Tatum fell over and he hit that kind of wild little floater in the lane. So another big one from Drew Holiday. But I want to talk

about Boston a little bit. You know, their offense was the story of this game in two different ways, because they were so incredible offensively in that fourth quarter and they were so bad offensively through the first three quarters. I told you guys that, you know after one of the big reasons why uh it hasn't gone as smoothly for Boston as I predicted before the series was they go through these extended stretches where their offensive decision making

becomes poor. And this was something that Emil Udoka specifically talked about before Game two, talking about early contested shot clock, early in the shot clock, contested threes off the dribble, and threes that don't come off of multiple driving kicks. And in this entire game, Boston allowed themselves to get psyched out. And for the record, this is a credit to Milwaukee's defense. Milwaukee's defense because it is so good

at specific things and we get other things. It can mess with your head, especially if you're like natural priorities as a basketball player are to attack that thing that they're specifically good at. You have to rewire yourself to make the right reads in these situations. That's the predicament

that Milwaukee puts you in. But almost immediately from the start tonight I saw the same kind of offensive decision making from Boston that I saw in Game one, driving into rim protectors instead of trying to get the rim protector out of position before attacking or kicking to open shooters quick three point shots and transition off the dribble and off the catch. Just a lot of them weren't

even open. And then, you know, some of this I got a credit Milwaukee with because you know Milwaukee's defense. We've talked about this a lot on this show, and Bucks fans are all like, no, no, no no, Milwaukee, their defense is actually good. It was just brooke up and no, no, it wasn't. Their Their defense was bad. They were literally twenty in the NBA after the All star break and defensive rating like there's you can't blame brook Lopez for

being a bottom third defense in the NBA. They were bad, okay, But again, as I've said, the way they were bad was they oversold to the paint and they gave up a lot of stuff on the back end. But again, it's not like the scheme was let people shoot. No, they have stuff built into their scheme to rotate two shooters. They just weren't good at it. They didn't do a good enough job when they'd sell out to the paint at spreading back out when the ball was popping around

on the perimeter to get two shooters. Tonight, they did a much much better job of that. Boston only took thirty three threes and I thought they forced a lot of those, so much better job from Milwaukee and this specific game at rotating around two shooters. But again, Boston bought into that or played into that a lot with

their own shot selection. In terms of their basketball i Q, they have guys and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart who are who have shown a lot of growth over the course of the last few years as decision makers. But it's not consistent, they still have stretches where they dip into it. I thought Tatum part of the reason why he had a rough night tonight was he was taking difficult shots instead of kind of letting

the game come to him. And then as he was, you know, when you're two for a live and two for twelve, two for thirteen, you almost feel like it's not your nights. You start really forcing the act in. But that was that to me, was what killed him. And you know, and again it comes down to the

transition element. So we remember in game one, um Milwaukee has twenty eight fast break points, and we talked about how Boston's defense and the half court was excellent, but they struggled defending and transition and a huge part of it was their bad shot selection. Well, game two they tightened all of that up. They only give up six fast break points. Well tonight they gave up twenty one

fast break points again. And my guess is that when I look at the data tomorrow, the half court defense is gonna be excellent, and my guess is it's gonna be in transition where they got killed again, which is a damn shame because it's like a proven winning formula there for them. That's right there on the table, like take smart shots, play smart offense. You will win because your defense is better than there spy a lot, so trap him in a half court game and you're gonna win, right,

And they did in the fourth quarter. That's the wild part. Down the stretch of that game. That entire fourth quarter, Boston's offensive execution was excellent. Guys were driving and kicking instead of driving into trap thinking trying to finish. Guys were passing on the early shot clock shots that weren't as good as other shots. Down the stretch, they were getting fantastic looks. Really, the only possession I had a problem with was Jalen Brown. So they're up one. They

get back to back winde open threes. I think one of them was for Jalen and one of them was for al Horford if I remember correctly, But they were both wide open shots. Both of them had a chance to ice the game. You missed them both, it happens, they go down. Yannice scores. Okay, so now they're up.

But again the shot Janice took was a really difficult like euro step through the lane, all time great move from an all time great player, but you're still getting better shots in the other end, right, like go down and execute, and Jalen went off script early possession, kind

of got a lane to the basket. Janice came over to help, and Jalen obviously saw him because Jalen didn't go straight up to the rim, he like tried to dive into Janice's body to drive contact and he ended up through it, throwing the ball right into the bottom of the rim. Turnover. Then they go down and that's when Drew Holiday makes the shot that puts him up three rights. But for the most part in that fourth quarter, up until that Jalen Brown possession, Boston was really smart

with their offensive execution. They took the right shots, and when they take the right shots, they're the better offensive team. They don't have the supreme offensive talent of j Honice, but what they do have is five guys on the floor at almost at almost any given moment in time, they have five guys on the floor that can shoot, dribble,

and pass. And when you have those things, that's when you get those awesome possessions where there's multiple driving kicks, and that's when you really get open shots against this Milwaukee defense. When they do that, that's when they're gonna have their best chance to win. But I thought that that fourth quarter was really telling. You know, there was a moment that where I'm like, oh man, Boston's gonna win this series in five because this was the game

Milwaukee had to win. Boston played like crap for three quarters. This is the game you have to win, and Boston almost stole it. That's what tells me right now, judging by what I saw in overall half court shot quality

through three games. Now Boston gets better shots. They just do Again, if if Janice is going to score forty two a game with bad shots, like with terrible opportunity and terrible spacing, then Milwaukee's gonna win, right And that's that all time great type of accomplishment that I was discussing earlier. But Boston's getting better shots, they should win the series. I expect them to win the next three games. One last note with Janice. I talked a lot after

Game one. At first, after Game one, I was kind of critical of Joanna's first shot selection, but then after I went back and watched the tape, I've relented and said that I was wrong and that in reality, Joannice is slowly starting to wear down the wall of the

Boston defense. That's the important detail. Like again, like guys at Gal Horford and Grant Williams, they are capable of sliding their feet and taking Janice's shoulder to the chest and absorbing it for a possession, and then two possessions, and then three possessions, and then four possessions. But around

that possession it starts to get kind of exhausting. And then there comes a point where Janice is staying at the same level of strength that he's always going to be a at and your defenders are just gonna start to be a step slow or be a little bit more willing to open up that shoulder rather than hold their ground right, And that's when things start to go through. I thought today was the first time in this series

where you really saw Boston's defense break. So they give up twenty two points in that first quarter, they give up twenty four points in the second quarter, they give up thirty four points in that third quarter. Janice was a monster in that quarter. I'll have to go back and look at the film. So again, you guys wanna are gonna wanta follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. Tomorrow morning, I'll dive into some of the film of this in particular. But in that third quarter, Janice broke

through that wall. Now all of a sudden, he's dunking everything. Now, all of a sudden, he's getting the free throw line. All of a sudden, he's starting to plow people over and they're not getting in his way the way that they were earlier in the series. It's an interesting thing to watch because again, that's why I thought this Again, I told you guys coming into this that I expected

Boston and win Game four. But for those of you guys who watched our last show, you remember I said, but they have a chance to win game three because they had three days off, and I thought that would give them chance to physically recover to the extent where they'd be fresh enough to stay in front of you, honest in this game. And what was kind of his ours. I thought Boston's defensive intensity to start this game wasn't great,

which was a whole other issue. But again, Janice has demonstrated that he can wear down this Boston defense over time, which is significant because you play again in two days, you know, and I expect Boston to win, like I said, but Janice's example, the honest's opportunity is to keep dropping that shoulder, to keep trying to run people over, to keep breaking down that wall, to have more of those

thirty four point quarters. That's how you're gonna have to steal one of these games down the line, because I do think Boston's going to get one in Milwaukee at some point, so you're gonna probably have to get another one in Boston, right, So that's the honest's opportunity. Keep breaking down the wall, keep wearing people down. So my prediction before the series was Boston in five. I thought they'd win their two home games. I thought they'd lose Game three, that they'd win Game four, and then I

thought they'd win Game five. Well, Milwaukee has derailed that by stealing Game one, right, but they won Game three, which I expected. However, I think the half court shot quality has demonstrated that Boston is the better team. I expect Boston to win Game four. I expect him to win Game five at home, and then I think they'll win Game six in a defensive slug fest back in Milwaukee.

But if you're a Bucks fan Janice has demonstrated that he is capable of overcoming that with his own individual greatness. The opportunity is there for him. Like I said, he's halfway there, a long way to go, but that's the chance. What's gonna win the best team in basketball or the best player in basketball. We're going to find out over the course of the next week. Hi, it's Colin Coward. I started the volume to bring you some of the most authetic voices in sports. While you're here, make sure

you hit subscribe. Thanks. All right, let's break down last night's games for just a few minutes. These two series is we're kind of snoozers compared to the Celtics, Bucks and the Warriors Grizzlies for a couple of different reasons. I thought Dallas really mailed in the defensive end of the floor the first two games, and against the team as good as Phoenix, that's just gonna make for some

uncompetitive basketball games, and that's what happened. And then of course with Miami, they just simply had the easiest path to this point out of any of the sixteen teams. I thought Atlanta was far and away the weakest link out of this sixteen team playoff fields, it was just really difficult to learn anything from them. I mean, look at the Pelicans as the eighth seed in the West and how much they gave Phoenix a run for their money, and how much better they looked on both ends of

the floor compared to that Atlanta Hawks. Teams just difficult to learn anything. And then they get into this next round and Joel and beads out and on a team like Philly, especially with Doc Rivers and the way he wanted to replace Embiid with like the worst starting center in in the league right now, it was just really difficult to get a feel for what that series is actually gonna look like when they had n't beat on

the floor. So let's start with Philly. In Miami, I the specifically was looking at the Mbat thing from two angles. How would Miami be able to guard him? And then would Miami be able to handle him underneath the basket on the defensive end of the floor. We'll get to

that in just a minute. So from the start, what I thought was really interesting is I was expecting them to try to keep bam At a bio on em beat as much as possible because of single coverage, and when they did try to attack, and when they did try to post up and beat against Bam, they did stay single coverage. There wasn't any sort of double team, and Bam did a great job in those settings, made him Bead settled for jump shots and Bead was not

getting good shots there. That's a great sign looking forward for the series with Miami on defense, knowing that they don't need to double team Joel een Bead on those post ups, right, But obviously Philly is gonna put you through the ringer of off ball screens, grible handoffs with Embiad, and screen and roll with James Harden, right. And so what I thought was really interesting is in all of those situations, Miami immediately switched those screens and we're happily

willing to put smaller players onto beat and switches. And the reason why is you could tell and they're they're an extremely well coached team who's extremely disciplined on the defensive end of the floor. What they would do is just immediately front. So if they ran a ball screen and there was a switch, whoever switched on too. Embiad would stay on his high side so that when Embiad rolled down to the post, he could go wherever he wanted, but there was a player in front of him disrupting

the post entry. And then immediately they would help out of the weak side corner. Because when someone is fronting you in the post, you have to kind of seal them like arm on their back and ask for a pass over the top. Well, that lob pass over the top opens up the opportunity for the defender coming from

behind to steal that pass. And then even when Mbiad would catch it down there, he would catch and immediately be sandwiched by the guy that was fronting him on the front side and the guy that was helping on the backside. Zomb would have to hold the ball high. He couldn't come down with it or he gets stripped. It was a really complicated situation for him down there. In Miami did an excellent job in all of those settings.

Credit to them for having an excellent scheme and then having a player in Bama at a bio that makes it so you can't attack them in single coverage. So you can't just come down the floor and dump it to him in the post. You have to run screening actions. But when you run screening actions, they just immediately snapped into that front with the backside help. And that's a credit to how well coached they are and how disciplined and committed they are to the defensive end of the floor.

You ever seen those videos, uh that would go viral from time to time of like NBA players synchronized where it'd be like three guys at the same time that would all start running on defense simultaneously, and it would almost look like they were mirror images of each other, Like three guys would all complain at the ref at the exact same time with the exact same arm wave, and those videos would go viral. That's the way Miami

looks when they're snapping into their defensive coverage. Is in any of these specific scenarios, like you'd see screen and Roll with Harden and embiid quick switch and be dives down to the post, and immediately you would just see Miami snap into position. Everyone would be exactly where they

need to be. Guys fronting the post, Guys sitting run under the basket waiting for the lob over the top, dudes are digging into their help lanes where they're comfortable closing out to shooters, just really really impressive defensive team. That's all great, But the problem is is all year long, I told you guys, I was concerned about Miami's half court offense, particularly down the stretch. This year, they really

struggled in that specific area. And the issue is is they don't have a lot of guys that are great shooters that are decision makers for them. So they have a lot of guys that can shoot. Tyler Harrock shoot Duncan Robinson, X True's you know, gave Vincent. A lot of those guys are knocked down three point shooters. Even p J. Tucker has shot well out of the corner. But the problem is is they don't guard p J. Tucker out there. They don't guard Jimmy Butler as if

you can shoot really well. They certainly don't guard Bamata Bio as if you could shoot well. And when you're gonna play the vast majority of your minutes with those guys on the floor, it allows guys to sink into the paint, especially teams that have a lot of size and so specifically, I was concerned based on what happened

in the NBA Finals. Anthony Davis ignored Bamata Bio and all because Miami runs an offense very similar to what Denver does, where it's a lot of like Yo Kich will be at the high post and it's a ton of dribble handoffs in ball screen is trying to get their guards going downhill over the top of him, and if guys go underneath, they stopping the ssue jump shots. If guys chase over the top, they continue to go

into the rim. It's really simple concept, but part of the reason why it works is you have to press up on Yokis because Yokich will turn and shoot on you. But the issue there too is if you get pressed up on Yokich, he can kind of spin off of you because he's so good with his body position that he'll get into the lane to The problem is with bam at a Bio, you do not have to press up on him at the high post in those situations.

And so I was always concerned that a real rim protector would be able to utterly flummix this Miami offense because they'd sink off of Bam and just sit in the basket and disrupt everything, just like Anthony Davis did. In the finals, which was a massive swing factor in that series. Obviously, Lebron was the most important player on that team, but in many of those postseason series, Anthony Davis as a defensive weapon was just a massive swing factor in those series. Well, and one exactly is I

would have expected tonight. So to give you an idea, the uh in Game one and two, Miami averaged forty seven points in the paint in those two games Game three with Joel embid playing points in the paint, So basically redunction reduction in excuse me, a thirty three percent reduction in your paint production based solely on having Joel embiad in there, which automatically led to them scoring in the seventies. And what you saw too is you could literally see it kind of the dynamic taking place on

the floor. Like Bam at the top of key dribble hand off to someone like Kyle Lowry. Kyle Lowry kind of gets downhill and beat ignores Bam and kind of like corals Lowry right right around the elbow and Lowry has to swing it to the other side at which

point and b drops back. Then it will be Jimmy Butler and he'll come flying off and and be kind of corrals Jimmy Butler until he has to kick it out, and then it'll be like Gay Vincent or Max Russ or somebody coming over the third time, and you just see him be kind of crawling everything from right around the charge circle because he just doesn't have to guard bam at a bio. That's the trouble there, and as a result, it led to these extended stretches where Miami

couldn't score. They had a five minute stretch in the first quarter zero points. They had another three and a half minute stretch spanning from the first to the second quarter where they did not score. They had a four minute stretch stretching into halftime and just after halftime where they went completely scoreless, and then spanning the third and fourth quarters, they had another four minute stretch where they

went completely scoreless. That's four separate stretches that were at least three and a half minutes long where Miami could not score a point. As a result, they at the at this last stretch, the last four minute score let stretched to stretching into the fourth quarter. All of a sudden, they were down by ten points. And you saw especially in that fourth quarter Phillies transition attack because where they started to get going, a lot of Tyrese Maxie grabbing

the ball just go on the length of the floor. Also, Danny Green terrible game too, but he was lights out. I think he was six for seven from three in this game. He's one of the best guys in league history at sprinting in transition to the corner where he and get three point shots there, and he was killing

in that specific area. It's more the more or less the same from what you expect down the line, Like James Harden good, not great, but he was great kind of getting guys into the right spot and making decisions, which is his one remaining elite skill at this point. And again tires Maxie that it's just so important as that soul transition force getting out after Philly gets stops.

Really interesting series to see. Moving forward again, Miami was bought a two zero lead by virtue of the Joel and Beat injury, so obviously Philly has a lot to overcome here. But if they can't figure out how to score on Joel and Beat in the paint with Bam at a bio on the floor, there could be some serious issues moving forward, um with Miami's ability to score, and they still have to notch two more wins against

this defense. So right now, I'm i'm I'm refraining from making a pick at this point because I'd like to see one more game, But after Game four I'll try to make a pick again. Originally, if I thought embiad was available for all games of the series, I would have picked Philly and six. But obviously just just tossing Miami two of games makes that really really hard to do. All right, let's quickly move on to Dallas and Phoenix for just a few minutes. So again this series, you know,

we talked a lot after Game one. I talked to you guys about the massive increase in degree of difficulty going from a really bad Utah Jazz defense to a really really good, excuse me, a really really good Phoenix Suns defense. Obviously, there was gonna be an adjustment period. There. You're adjusting two longer, more athletic defensive players, guys that are more committed to containing on the perimeter, better backside rotations. Utah was terrible at all of those things, so there

was gonna be an adjustment. But the interesting thing was there's another adjustment Dallas has to make, and I thought Richard Jefferson did a really nice job in the color commentary of explaining this specifically, but he talked about how against Utah, I think Dallas lulled themselves into a little bit of a sense of security over how good their offense was and their ability to carry themselves on offense. And the reality is that they succeeded the second half

of the season on the strength of their defense. They were very good defensive team despite not having great defensive Personality's credit to Jason Kidd, and it's a credit to their commitment on that end of the floor, particularly from guys like Dorri and Phinny Smith and Reggie Bullock, who Luca shouted out after Game three. Well, in games one

and two of this series, Dallas's defense was horrific. They gave up a hundred and twenty eight point nine points per Hunter possessions in game one, a hundred and thirty six point five points per one hund possessions in game two. That's awful. And in Game three, they just simply were more dialed in on that end of the floor, so much more effort, especially from guys like Luca more willingness to Yeah, you can save some energy, but you got to give a certain amount of effort to hold your

own here much better ball pressure. Reggie Bullock did an unbelievable job in this game. So did Dorri and Phinney Smith. They only gave up a hundred and three point six points per one Hunter possessions in game three. That is a massive That is a thirty three point drop from where they were in game two. And that's and as we've talked about, that's so important to what they do

on the offensive end of the floor. When you do that, it makes it so that because both of these teams play very slow, it's not a very up and down game. It's not like watching Issoda verse Memphis. These are two guys in Luca and Chris Paul that love to strangle the pace of the game, but there's usually a quick push after a miss just to get up into the

front court to maintain matchups. We talked a lot about this after Game two cross matches, the idea of in transition defense having to pick up someone that's not your man that leads to a predicament to start the next possession. Well, when Dallas gets more stops. Luca. There was a many there were many possessions where he's coming down the floor guarded by Chris Paul, coming down the floor guarded by Campaign, and he was able to quickly turn those into post

ups and get baskets. That way. Dallas has to get stops to reach their individual ceiling, and they were able to get a lot more stops in Game three and as a result, they were able to hang around better.

Maxi Clebo was awesome, you know, uh, you know, it was there's this interesting predicament earlier in the playoffs where it was like, Okay, do we go with Dwight Powell, who's a much better defensive player and it was kind of like a vertical spacing threat rolling to the rim, or do we go with Maxi Cleban, who's not as good of a defensive player but as more of a emmitter shooter, and how he can stretch the defense that way. And they ended up going with cleeb a lot to

try to punish Rudy Gobert. Right, But I've been really really impressed with Cleban's defense. You know, he's he looks small out there because he's been playing against two monsters. Right, he's been going against Dandra eight and against and against Rudy Gobert, so he's gonna look small, but he's kind of like a little bit more of like a wing than he is a big He's very mobile, he can attack close outs, he can put the ball on the floor,

he covers ground in rotations, and he fights down low. Obviously, he's gonna lose that matchup a lot of times in terms of the physicality going against guys that big, but he's done a really nice job and he's been absolutely vital to their offense in this series against Phoenix the Mouth. The Mavericks are scoring nine point five more points per one Hunter possession with Maxie Cleeb on the floor than they are without him. He's turned into a super, super

important player if you're if you're a Dallas fan. Again, I'm still picking Phoenix to win this series in six, but if you're a Dallas fan, you should be feeling a lot more confident about your chances to win this series after what happened last night. A couple of things. Defense was much better, and it seemed to be associated with efforts. You can kind of toss out those first two games in a lot of different ways to Luca

missed a lot of easy shots in the game. He's eleven for twenty five, but specifically in the first half when Dallas was playing pretty well, he was missing open shots time and time again down the floor. I do think Luca will shoot better in games as the series goes along, And most importantly, Jalen Brunson finally got going in game three. That was the concern. He was awful in games one and two in Dallas. You've got a little bit of Spencer Dinwoodie in game two, but not enough.

You need Jalen Brunson to be good in order if you'd have a chance to win this series. He was great. He had twenty eight points, four rebounds in five assists. If he can replicate that a few more times in the series, you've got a chance. And then, last but not least, the Suns I think are shooting better. They've got three players right now shooting over from three on decent volume. Jake Crowder is shooting six from three on six attempts. You have to think there's gonna be some

kind of regression to the mean there. Meanwhile, if you look at Dallas, is core rotation players, none of them are shooting over from three. Not that someone's going to, but if there's a chance for shooting regression in this series, it's far more likely that Dallas will shoot a little better than Phoenix down the stretch here. Then vice versa again remains to be seen, and as we always say, a lot of that comes down to shot quality and

how well defenses are playing. So obviously Dallas has to continue to defend and do a lot of things right. But the bottom line is that they have a puncher's chance now. It looked early after after two games that Phoenix was far superior. Dallas demonstrated in game three that they have a punch. It's a it's a it's a long shot, but they absolutely have a chance to win this series. Al Right, guys, that is all I have

for today. I sincerely appreciate your support. As always, we will be back tomorrow night after the final buzzer of the last game, and I will see you guys. Then the volume