Hoops Tonight - Steph and Warriors show out, 76ers bury Raptors, Mavs upset Jazz

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to be interesting blowouts. And then we had the back Burner game, the NBA TV game, the Utah Jazz at the Dallas Mavericks, an unbelievable, exciting performance. Lots of interesting stuff to get into there. We're gonna get into all of it. We're also gonna do hold or bail. I'm gonna tell you guys whether or not I'm sticking with my series picks from the matchups from yesterday. We are going to bring Carson on as well. It's gonna be a great show, but let's start with Golden State in Denver.

So Denver obviously has a boatload of issues. We're gonna get to that later. Um, the game wasn't even close, like that's there, wasn't remotely competitive. The series is over. You can go ahead and uh start making the tombstone for the Denver Nuggets. And yet I found this game remarkably interesting. Why because it felt like stepping into a time machine and coming out in two thousand fifteen in

Oracle Arena during the Rise of the Warriors. And I picked specifically two thousand fifteen because it was kind of before it became a more Steph centric show. Obviously, Steph was the m v P in two thousand fifteen. He damn sure should have one Finals MVP that year, and he was clearly a top three four player in the league. But there was another leap that he took as an aggressive scorer the following year, bumped up from twenty three

points per game to thirty points per game. The two thousand fifteen season was much more of like this new brand of basketball we were seeing, and it was catching everybody off guard. Teams didn't know how to guard it. It was super likable basketball. It drew in all these fans for good reason. Like I've said many times on the show, good Basketball, I'm always going to support because that's the kind of thing that helps with the health

of the league. But there was a very unique nature to the way that group played basketball, and they accepted this concept of the death lineup, which was kind of a modern iteration of small ball, right. And if you guys remember that lineup, it was Harrison Barnes and andreke Guadala with Draymond Gray and Clay Thompson and Steph Curry, and teams didn't really have any idea how to handle that group. So many teams around the league were still playing two bigs. They were too slow to keep up

with that line up. There was a ton of speed, but there were some very unique reasons why that lineup worked. And you saw that again in this game. In this series, the same lineup that pulled away in Game one, the same lineup that came back in Game two and then put the game away was a similar construct. Steph Clay and Draymond with a three and d wing in Andrew Wiggins kind of filling in for that Harrison Barnes role.

The only differences you're going with Jordan Pool instead of Andrea Godala, and once again, the Denver Nuggets couldn't do anything with them. And the reason why is because on the offensive end of the floor, there is a a very special brand of basketball that the Warriors play. It's selfless. Everyone is hunting for shots for each other there and this has been a this has been a persistent theme

throughout the Golden State era. If you guys remember, there was a famous play in the towards the end of the Kevin Durant run where one of the young players on the Warriors drove into the lane and Clay Thompson was on on the wing, Kevin Durant was on the wing, and Steph Curry was on the wing and all three of them were wide open, and if you guys remember, there's a famous photo, all of them were pointing at each other trying to get them to pass to the

other guy. Because there was this contagious culture in the team. It was make that extra drive and kick, make sure extra make that extra pass, make that extra play for your teammate, and as a result, it led to this infectious style of basketball that caused major problems for everyone around the league, not just in their skill on the perimeter,

but also the overall speed of the line up. Draymond Green is such a mobile big and when you put four really fast, really skilled players alongside him, they leave these slower, traditional teams in the dust and there's nothing they can do about it. The style plays not for everybody. There are certain guys that go into that program and it doesn't work out super well. I remember Kelly Ubre. This is a big issue. I've talked about this a lot on the show. For for whatever reason, in Golden

State it didn't work out for him. But before that and then this year when he was in Charlotte, he kind of recaptured that solid role player, you know, archetype that he had in the rest of his career. But for whatever reason, in Golden State it didn't work because it requires that high basketball like you. Everyone's very very smart. Kelly Bray is a good basketball player. Basketball like que is not a strong point. It requires unselfishness and a

willingness to make plays for your teammates. There are players that have not had not done well in that particular environment. But for whatever reason, the guys that go in there and fit it makes the whole thing work. And Jordan Pool just adds this whole other element to it. It makes it less heliocentric, not in the traditional way like guy up at the top of the key dribbling the ball,

but they're less reliant on Steph. Now, and the most important thing, and the only reason this lineup functions at all whatsoever, is they defend. And I want to give Obviously a lot of people deserve credit for that. Steve Kurt deserves credit for that. Each individual player deserves credit for that. But there are two guys that I want to specifically shout out about that, and that's Steph Curry

and Draymond Green. Steph Curry is six ft three, it's pretty strong, but he's a below average athlete and doesn't have the physical tools, the length, and athleticism to be a dominant defensive player. And he could have very well turned into the next name Lillard if he wanted to, if he didn't care, if he wanted to save his

legs for offense. But he was like, screw that, I'm gonna be the best possible defender that I can possibly be given the tools that I have, and as a result, it has led to this culture that has trickled down the roster. If you're a perimeter player, you're not off the hook on defense, and that's why it works with Jordan Poole in that group. Obviously, Jordan Pool has some limitations and so does Steph, and you can't have too

many of those guys on the floor. And there are obviously good defensive players in Clay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green that help make the whole thing work. But it's a huge credit to to Steph Curry in the tone that he sets and the way that that trickles down the roster. It's something I've been critical about with Lebron at some points in his career. And Lebron has been my favorite player in the league for a long time. I think he's a better basketball player than Steph,

and I think he always has been. But one of the things I've been critical about him with is, for whatever reason, he kind of seems like on a lot of nights, it's like, it's not my job to play defense. You guys figure that out. I have all this other work to do, and I'll defend when I absolutely have to. And it's not a big surprise that there are guys that have come onto Lebron teams and have not defended well because they kind of just get wrapped up into

his mentor like his old approach to the game. Steph's not like that. Steph sets a tone and everyone else follows suits. It's it's one of my favorite things about him, and it's I think he's the best leader in this era of NBA basketball. But the lynchpin of it all

is Draymond Green. He is the quarterback of that defense. Now, I don't want to got dive too much into the details specifically surrounding quarterbacking a defense, because we're going to talk about that in more detail later on in the show when we talk about Marcus Smart being the defensive player of the Year, But he does that for this specific defense. And then the most important thing that he does as a back line defender is he is a

master of understanding position and disrupting a player's base. How is it that at six ft six that he can

be so disruptive to these massive post players. I have seen him in the last couple of years completely and utterly fluster Anthony Davis in a single game playoff situation last year in the playing game, and then you saw what he did to Nicola Yokich tonight, literally frustrating him to the point where he lost his school and got himself ejected from the damn game in The reason why is because Draymond Green is the kryptonite to position post players.

We talked a little bit about last night. We talked about Jayson Tatum and the pivotal play that he made rotating around Kyrie Irving. Because in when you're in back to the basket situations, it's all about feeling where you're defender is. Is Is he on my left shoulder? Is here on my right shoulder. I'm gonna spend the other way

because that's where my advantage is with physicality. Guys like Nicola Yokits who aren't super fast, Guys like Anthony Davis that don't have a super quick first step, they rely a lot on body positioning in the post. Yokis way more than Anthony Davis even and so he's trying to figure out where Draymond green On is on his back. But Draymond green is always one step ahead of Yokich on. All those little pivots and turns, and he's pushing Yokich off of his bass and making every shot that he

takes around the baskets so incredibly difficult. Draymond is what makes that entire defense work. There are very specific details that I want to get further into with Draymond, but I am gonna save that for later in the show. I wanted to move on to Jordan's pool because his rise, in my opinion, unquestionably changes the way that we have

to evaluate this Golden State Warriors team. Ceiling he I've always wondered, you know, when you've got guys like Lebron and Stephane the League, guys like Kevin Durant, the impact they have on young players that come into contact with them.

You know, why is it that you know, you'll see a guy play with Lebron for so long and for whatever reason, he doesn't adopt the same work ethic that he does, or the same thing goes with Steph And I was wondering why that doesn't happen more often, Why a player wouldn't get around a star and kind of absorb in and and take on the same approach to the game that he does, and I'm not saying Jordan Pool necessarily did this because of Steph, but for whatever

reason Steph has there's a there is a Steph like nature to the way Jordan's Pool plays that has allowed him to become a player that fits so perfectly in this system. You know, Stephans struggled a little bit this year as the as the year has progressed. We've talked about it a lot on this show. His shooting percentages towards the last half of the season, we're about half

what they were at the same time last season. He wasn't getting the same separation on his dribble moves, wasn't able to make those crazy Steph Curry shots the way he used to, And there's a lot of reasons for that.

A lot of it was Draymond Green being out of the game, but a huge part of it is not having other guys on the floor that dictate defensive attention and the way that that frees things up for You talked about this a lot with the Mavericks and how Luca don Chech being out has been a nightmare for guys like Spencer din what he Jalen Brunson had a big game tonight, but Spencer didn't what He's having a nightmare series in the bigger role with more defensive attention

devoted to him. Obviously, Clay Thompson coming back helps a lot with Steph Curry, but Jordan's Pool brings that same type of defensive attention. When Jordan Pool is flying around off the ball, guy's panic chase him. You know who else they do that with Steph. When Jordan Pool comes off of a high screen and roll with Draymond Green, two guys go with Jordan Pool. You know who else they do that with Steph, And as a result, it's

freeing up both guys for easier opportunities. This is the best step has looked in this last half of the season. Obviously in small dosage, obviously in a minute's restriction, but Steph looks great and that's a huge part of what Jordan Pool is bringing to this table. Now. The one thing that gets tricky with Jordan Pool is his his defensive the defensive potential of these key lineups because of his lack of size. I had a lot of people ask me today do you think the Warriors can beat

the huge team? And there will be issues in those matchups. Think about a team like Phoenix. Okay, it's not just about DeAndre Ayton. I have no worries about Draymond Green being able to handle DeAndre Ayton. But what if your lineup has you know, Andrew Wiggins and Clay Thompson and

Steph Curry and and uh George and Pool. But the lineup you're going up against is Mikhail Bridges at six ft nine or six ft eight and Cam Cam Johnson at six ft eight and Jay Crowder at six ft six and super strong, you know, and and when when when the Suns go with more wings, are there gonna be issues in those lineups? And that will be the interesting conundrum because Jordan Pool plugged into that Andrea Guadala

roule role. While it makes them infinitely better offensively, it also takes away a lot of what they did defensively at the peak of the death lineup in the two thousand fifteen sixteen season. Now they're still defending really well with that group, but it's kind of dependent on matchups. The Denver Nuggets this we're gonna talk about them a little bit more just a second. The Denver Nuggets have

master ross of massive roster shortcomings. They don't have the personnel to keep up with a team like Golden States, so there are gonna be matchups further further down the line that can cause them problems, particularly with size. However, the size battle goes both ways, and a lot of it has to do with trolling the pace and flow of the game, which is something I talked about. A lot. Styles make fights, but each style has advantages and more often than not, it's not about which style is better,

it's about which style plays better. And so the advantages of the smaller Golden State lineup with Steph Clay, Jordan Pool, Wiggins and Draymond is they are incredibly fast, They can thrive in transition, they can do a ton of switching. They have unbelievable dribble drive creation. So when they get you on a string in a five out scenario, pass past, past, drive, drive, drive, kick,

kick kick, they get great shots every time. But if they get stuck in the half court a lot and a team is able to inflict their size upon them, they could have some issues. And so when people ask me, can this Golden State Warriors team beat a team that has significant interior presence, it's not a question of can they.

It's a question of will they. Will that group play well enough in the details and control the pay so the game so that the big team is caught and to track me, because if they do, they're gonna win. But if they struggle in those details and they get stuck in the half court and it's Chris Paul slowly and methodically executing on offense and the half court, that's when Golden State could have some issues. But it felt like stepping in the time machine. As a basketball fan,

you had to have loved that. There had to have been some moments for you tonight watching that game where it just felt vintage, felt like vintage Warriors basketball. I love their brand of basketball. They're They've got some of my favorite players in the league, and I love rooting for them. They're the team that I will be rooting for in the West, even though I don't I still think Phoenix is gonna be the team that ends up winning.

But it's good to have them back. And and Jordan's pool changes everything about the franchise changes, their current ceiling, changes, their trajectory, changes your five year plan. It's a bridge to hopefully Jonathan cominga and James Wiseman becoming better players. If you're a Warriors fan, you've got to be on cloud nine right now, even if you don't think you can win the title this year. I don't want to spend too much on Denver. They're dealing with a lot

of injuries right now. Uh, there's some internal among the fan base. They're kind of sick of Mike Malone. I've got to do some research on that. I don't know well enough what kind of issues they've had with him over the course of the year. But I would say, don't overreact to personnel shortcomings. This wasn't like a Lakers team where they had personnel shortcomings and the basketball was just hot garbage. This is a team that is vastly

outperformed their talent all season long. So I wouldn't overreact. But there's one specific thing I want to talk about with this group, and it's your ki. We have a habit as basketball fans of wanting to jump ahead of player development, and I kind of go the exact opposite direction on that kind of thing. You guys know me,

I'm a huge Lebron fan. I don't think Lebron was the best player of the league until two thousand and twelve, because even though he had this, his ceiling was as high as all the best players in the league at various points from two thousand seven to two thousand twelve, he wasn't a savant in in the dregs of postseason basketball. The way he became as his career progressed progressed. I thought Kobe was better than him from two thousand and eight to two thousand eleven, And for that's just my

approach to it. I when everyone's saying steps better than Lebron back in two thousand fifteen and two thousand and sixteen, I'm like, hey, cool it, guys, He's doing great. There's a lot of basketball left to be played in his career and just within these seasons, and we're doing it. We did it with the honest when he won his first two m vps, this is the best player in the league. And then you saw him in half court sets against Miami like basically neutered in his ability to

impact the game offensively. And he's made leaps since then and now he's very much in the conversation for best player in the league. But now we're doing it again with Yokich. There were a lot of really smart people that said Yoki was the best player in the league this year, the best player in the league, the best player in the league, that has Kevin Durant in it, that has Stephen Curry in it, that has Janis Antenna Coupo in it, that has Lebron James in it. It's

a ridiculous take in my opinion. And the main reason why is I look, and I know people get we love to, you know, praise people for succeeding in spite of a limitation. Right, It's like we do it with Steph and the fact that he's smaller. We you know, do it with Luca even though he's kind of like an out of shape, you know, white guy, and Yokich is the same thing. He's very slow, right, very methodical, and so we we kind of romanticize that like it's

a good thing. And don't get me wrong, like I too am incredibly impressed by his ability to impact basketball games as a slow man. But it is a real limitation on both ends of the floor. Really, Let's start on offense, where where is his strength. Really really fast teams that rotate really really well can disrupt him. You've seen the Warriors do that several times this year. I this entire last half of the season, when he would go up against really long athletic teams YO kids would

struggle compared to his nor moal effectiveness. He relies a ton on defensive or post positioning, and so defenders like Draymond, who are masters of post position defense, throw him off of his game. That's that's a limitation on his size. He what Anthony Davis when he has success against Draymond, what do you see him? Do you see him do these like really quick moves through the lane and big high hooks, and he's kind of tries to use his speed because that's the one single advantage he has against

Draymond in that environment. But Yoki doesn't have that speed advantage. Then we go over to the defensive end of the floor. I've praised him all year long. He's turned himself into a decent drop coverage big. That's great. It makes him a much more functional regular season defensive player. But the reality of the situation is when you run him off the floor in transition, he can't keep up. The Warriors

did it again tonight. They've done a bunch of teams have done that took over the course of the season. And then, as we've seen so many times, just like would you Go Bear, which we're gonna talk about later, in five out basketball, when teams really get to driving and kicking you to cover a lot of ground, and maybe you're not the maybe you're maybe you don't get to be the guy that helps at the basket every time.

Maybe you get rotated out to the perimeter now you're guarding a dribble drive, or maybe one of your smaller guards is suddenly in the backside help position. In five out basketball, that's slow foot speed that Yokich has becomes a huge problem. And so, yes, Yokich is incredible. Yoki's best is every bit as good as the best players in the league, but he doesn't get to his best as often because of his weakness to specific matchups, because

he has very specific weaknesses in his game. And for the love of God, can we please stop racing to be the first guy to say so and so is the best player in the league? Like I like I, I I don't know what that desire is, but for whatever reason, we're in a rush to crown the next guy. When there's like Kevin Freakin Durant at the top of the league, and Lebron James and Janis Antenna Kompo and Steph Curry. Even the climbed versions of Lebron and Steph I think

are better than Yokis right now. So we need to We just need to cool it on that stuff. That's all I had for that game. I want to move on to Toronto and Philly. So I talked a lot in the in last night's show about how you don't Nick Nurse had a very specific game plan, and I disagreed with some elements of the game plan, but they also just didn't play hard. For whatever reason, the Sixers played like the underdog, and a lot of that has to do with guys like me and everyone else out

there who picked the Raptors. I think they drank a little too much of their own kool aid, and they went into Game one with a lack of daisical effort and it was a problem. And you know, I had a similar thought often this year with Frank Vogel. You can't evaluate a scheme fairly or a game plan fairly if the guys don't play hard, because no scheme functionally works if guys don't a hard and so we got a better look at the Toronto scheme tonight with their

first quarter effort that came out guns blazing. I think they held the six or the seven points in the first five and a half minutes of the game, much much better defensive effort. But then everything fell apart as well as the game went along, and a huge part of that is because of that same coverage that I

criticized in game one. This needs to be a series for the Raptors where they throw the kitchen sink at Joel Embide every time he catches the ball, but when James Harden has the ball, they need to try to keep him in one on one situations as much as possible because he's not the same player he was in two thousand eighteen. Won't get into the numbers again, but all you have to do is look at the basic

tracking metrics. He's a significantly declined offensive player in isolation situations compared to the way he was in two thousand eighteen. He is most comfortable being a facilitator. He's wanted to

do that the last two years. He's always been at his best when he doesn't have to do the scoring, and he can just kind of sit around on the perimeter and get defenses to lean one way or the other so that he can make a pass and compromise you and Nick Nurses walking headlong into that problem, and they're just getting fantastic stuff on all of these overhelp scenarios. I'm really curious to see if Nurse makes an adjustment as the series goes along. I've been very critical this

year of Frank Vogel in his stubbornness. I tell you guys all the time, like a coach can't come into a situation with a philosophy. He can have some core philosophies, right, Like we try hard on defense. You know, we are on time every day, We work really hard. You know we box out every time. You know we Those are

core philosophies. But you can't come into a situation with a a scheme that you employed no matter what, regardless of personnel or regardless of situation, because not all situations call for the same scheme, and not all personnel call for the same scheme. Nurse is a super aggressive defensive coach, like outrageously aggressive. And there are things that I like about that, you know, his willingness to try crazy things like the boxing one that he used on Steph Currying

the two thousand nineteen finals. I'm a fan of his, you know, innovative approach to defense, but this is one situation where his aggressiveness is hurting him and hurting the raptors. This series needs to become a James Harden isolation contest at all costs because Tyrese Maxie is killing you right now. Joel Embid is killing you right now. And a lot of it doesn't have to do with Joel Embid and isolation situations, not a not a lot of it has

to do with tyres Maxi and isolation situations. It's all working out of initial compromising of the defense. Because of James Harden, They're starting to get easy stuff just out of having tires Maxie set the screen when that should just be a really, really quick and easy switch. But way too often they're sending two guys with James Harden and they're getting amazing stuff on the back end. I'm really really curious to see if Nick Nurse is gonna adjust.

We're gonna learn a lot, like I said, Like I said, a very critical of Frank Vogel for being stubborn. I thought it was the reason he got beat or the reason why he got fired. So now we're gonna find out if Nick Nurse is willing to make that type of adjustment. I thought the game really got out of hand for the Raptors in that second quarter, and a huge part of it was the way that Fred van Vleet and Pascal Siakam just completely fell apart offensively. You know,

the Raptors need this game to be in transition. They absolutely need the game to be in transition. And the only way that we're and I mean for them, they need to be out in transition. They need to be playing with their set defense. And too often it's been the exact reverse of that. It's been fully running up and down the floor in Toronto, trapped in the half court. And a huge part of that is they have to score,

because when they score, they can set their defense. When they set their defense, they have a better chance of getting stops. When they get stops, they can run. When they run, they get better scoring up tratunities, which allows them to then set their defense. It's a very it's a very like cascading effect and if one of those things, one of those links in that chain breaks, suddenly you're not scoring. Suddenly they're running, Suddenly they're getting better shots.

Now they're setting their defense, and now you're having an even harder time scoring. And so when Fred van Vleet in Pascal Seacom cooled off to such a dramatic extent there in that second quarter, the wheels came off and suddenly Philly got going in transition, you know, Fred van Vleet, it was weird. There was a sequence there in the second quarter where he got like five or six wide open jump shots in a row, and he didn't even hit the rim on his first like four or five

jump shots in the first quarter. Something happened there. I have no idea, completely lost. His rhythm is really weird, Like he had this weird hitching his shot. It looked like he wasn't following through all the way. He had like back to back completely wide open threes on the right wing, one that he shot to the ceiling like just unknown surely shot it really high in the air and then got offensive rebound ended back in his hand and he shot it like wide left, like a kick

or shanking a field goal. And like you could just tell like he got the yips all of a sudden in the same shots that he had been making all first quarter in all season just completely left his repertoire and it was disastrous for Toronto's offense. Pascal Ziaka missed three easy layups right around the rim to start the second quarter. He completely lost confidence in his jump shot.

There was a play where he did a pick and pop with Fred van Vleet and popped to the three point line, caught the ball at the top of the key. Joel Embiide was sitting at the charge circle just completely ignoring him, and he didn't even take the shot because

he completely lost confidence in his jump shot. Those two guys falling apart offensively completely disrupted the Toronto offense, made it so that they couldn't score, made it so that Philly was attacking and transition and it was disastrous for them. A huge part of that was Tyres Maxie had another quick, really quick shout out to him. He's kind of like

a one man transition attack. He's one of the fastest guards that we have in this league, and every time Toronto missed, he was just pushing the pace and was getting amazing stuff on that front. Before we move on

from this series, I do want to complain. I do want to complain for just a minute about Joel Embiid and the way that he's officiated and but before we get into that specifically, I wanted to show you guys a clip from Joel Embiad's postgame presser because he kind of got into it a little bit with Nick Nurse on the sideline, and this was what Joel Embiad had to say after the game. Oh man, he's he's a great coach obviously. Uh I got a you know what

he's been able to accomplish. And you know, I always been a big fan. But you know, I told him, you know, respectfully and told him to stop bitching about calls because I saw what he said. And Joel Embiad has been so like, I don't even know what the

will word is for this. I'd I'd say insecure. You can tell he's been a little bit insecure about this because he went on the JJ Reddick podcast the other day and was talking about how it was his intelligence and how smart he was that allowed him to be able to do these things to generate free throws and I think it's just a massive problem with the way that he's officiated. And for the record, I don't necessarily

blame him. I don't like his attitude about it, his whole obstinate like, you know, this isn't my problem, this is your problem. You guys are hacking me. This is all your fault. That thing is something that I vehemently dislike, and I'm sure most of you guys do as well, unless you're Philadelphia seventy six er fan. But it's not his fault. It's the league's fault. There is like it or not. Officiating is about making judgment calls. Nothing is

cut and dry. There's contact on every single play. One of the biggest things that pisces me off when people start talking about NBA history is when they say things like, oh, there was no hand checking before. You wouldn't get fouled called for a foul for hand checking before two thousand four, Yes you would. Hand checking was put into the NBA rule book in the seventies. There was a rule in like nineteen seventy eight that said you weren't allowed to

impede progress with your hands. But throughout NBA history from seventy eight or whatever all the way to now. There's always been an ebb and flow with that judgment call. When a guy puts his hand on you, the ref decides whether or not he's gonna call it. It's not called every single time. At various points in NBA history, the game gets more physical or it gets less physical. It's never been one specific era where it was crazy. Everyone talks about the Michael Jordan's era and how crazy

physical the game was. It was from like to you know, two thousand three, But for the first eleven twelve years of MJ's career is pretty wide open. Not a lot of defense was being played. That that I've officiating has always been about the judgment call. And what bothers me is Joel Embiid and Nie She ates a lot of contact on every single possession, and if we're going by the book, those are offensive fouls, and I don't want

them to be called offensive fouls. All I'm asking is for the contact that comes in return the aggression matching the aggression. I don't want that to be called. You know, Lebron fans incessantly complained about him not getting foul calls. I have always thought Lebron was officiated fairly. Why because the dudes a bull in a china shop. Lebron James is beating the hell out of you on his way

to the rim. He's whipping you with his with his off arm, he's caving in your chest with his shoulder, and I don't want that stuff called offensive foul, But I just don't care that people hit him back. To me, that's the given the take, that's the judgment call. And to to Lebron's credit, he doesn't flop nearly as much as those guys. I know, he has a reputation for some super dramatic flops in his past, plenty of them

have made viral videos. But for the most part, when Lebron drives into the lane, he's not as you know, you know, uh, you know, he's not crazy with the histrionics. Joel Embiide literally on every layup around the rim, kicks both of his legs up like his heels almost touches. But when he's shooting a layup underneath the rim, because

he's flailing and screaming and trying to draw fouls. There was a play in that game where uh, Joel Embieve was posting up precious a Chua literally caves in his chest with a hard elbow right to the rib cage and goes up with a hook shot, misses it, but it's off the short part of the rim and lands right back in his hands and presses. Chua gets turned around and press She was just standing there with his arms up, and Joel Lemie goes up and lightly bumps

into Precious his arm and gets an hand one. No call at all for the massive elbow to the chest, But we're gonna call Precious for the slight little bump under the basket. And again I'm not saying call the foul and the chicken wing. I'm not saying that. I'm saying, let some give a little take a lip. If you're gonna let Joel Embiad initiate a ton of contact around the basket, you have to let people hit him back.

If you're gonna start calling Tiki tach fouls on every single time a player touches him around the basket, then you have to start calling Joel Embiad every time he does a drop step. And I know you don't want to do that, And most importantly, it's bad for the flow of the game of basketball. This is a take I've had for a long time, and Philly fans get super upset about it, But this is the reality. It is important for the health of the game of basketball for Philly to lose if it's not in this round

and needs to happen in the next round. Why. Because this kind of basketball is a terrible television product. The pace of the game gets strangled. You're constantly watching Joel Embiad and and James Harden go to the free throw line. No fan of any basketball in the entire world likes watching Joel Embiid, the biggest most athletic freak at the center position we've had in ages, kick his legs literally like he's a flailing jump shooter when he's shooting layups

underneath the basket. It's bad for the game. I love Joel Embiad's game. I just want to see him play basketball. I love James Harden's game. I just want to see him play basketball. I don't want to see this foul drifting. It's It is absolutely bad for the game of basketball. All Right, I'm off my soapbox. We're gonna bring my guy Carson on and we're gonna play some games. How are you doing, Jason. I'm good, buddy, how are you?

I'm fantastic love to hear you on your soapbox. I think you know, I think you're in the right there. All right, So we are going to play a game. It's a pretty simple one called good call, bad call. I'm gonna present a decision to you. You tell me if it's a good call or a bad call. We're gonna get right into it with the heavy stuff here, the hard hitting question good call or bad call? To name your dog after yourself, as the great Anthony Edwards did with his dog Anthony Edwards Jr. He named his

dog Anthony Edwards Jr. Oh yeah, he did. Twitter sensation Anthony Edwards Jr. Okay, I I I only have one rule with dog nay names, and it's it can't be a person name. Like it has to be at all, Like it has to be like at the very least in the gray area of what might be considered a person name. But like when you're getting into it, like you can't name a dog Anthony, Okay, Like come on, that's that's completely ridiculous, all right, Anthony Everards just lost

some points in my book. I gotta say, really, I feel like there are human names that could be dog names. I can name my dog Bruce. You know, I named one of my dog Hudson. But I have to disagree with you here. I support everything that Ann Edwards does. He's my favorite NBA personality. He's got it all. He's a dog, he's hilarious, he's honest. So all right, I

think it's a good call. All right. I'm gonna admit that I'm a hypocrite here because I've got a I've got a female dog in her name is Casey, so I think that's uh. I have now been caught with my foot in my metal. I'm a hypocrite. People names are okay. I'm just not okay with Anthony. Okay, fair at least showed up to it there, all right, good call or bad called Jason for the Nets to bring back Ben Simmons as early as Monday, which is now

a possibility. I'm gonna go with good call. I watched a lot of film on the Celtics and the Nets today and there was a considerable amount of defensive breakdowns on the back end. Huge problem that the Nets had, and we'll get into this a little bit deeper later in the show, is Kevin Durant wants to guard Jason Tatum, and I disagree with that from a strategy standpoint, But Kevin Durant is a very important part of their defense

with his ability to disrupt shots around the rim. And if he keeps getting dragged out to the perimeter on these double teams of Tatum and on these you know, Tatum bringing the ball up the floor as a point guard while guys like Jalen Brown are driving to the rim with no help, it's going to be a problem. So you have one of two things that you can do. You you can put Kevin Durant on someone else so that he can be more of a helper around the basket,

But then you need someone on Tatum. And so getting Ben Simmons is just a guy who can do what Kevin Durant does defensively on the perimeter. So that Kevin Durant can do what Kevin Durant does defensively around the basket, it would change the dynamic of the Nets defense in this series. And so I think if if Ben Simmons is ready to go and the medical staff doesn't think that him playing, could further compromise his ability to play

next year. You gotta bring him back. How much does that raise the nets defensive ceiling and just make their job easier winning the series because obviously stopping you know, those high level scoring wings is so important. And then you got a pretty darn good defensive wing Tanem with Simmons and Katie out there. Absolutely it It is a huge, huge ceiling razor. You know, Brooklyn had no trouble scoring

against Boston in the half court. I've heard a lot of people say things like, oh, they wasted a good Kyrie game, And my thing is, like, have you watched Kyrie's playoff career? Are you expecting him to go out and lay an egg in Game two? I mean, he might, It's not like it's it's not like it's out of the realm of possibility. But like Kyrie has like multiple three four game stretches in his playoff career where he

just doesn't miss shots. So like, there's the Kyrie absolutely is still going to be a factor in the series as it goes along. And Kevin Durant again, We're gonna talk about this a little more later. Kevin Durant had a disastrous game, like utterly disastrous. He was fumbling the ball all over the court, making so many mistakes. He had a bad defensive game as well. Kevin Durant is gonna be so much better. But I talked a lot

about four of the series. I said that the Brooklyn offense was one of the best offenses in the league, and the Boston defense was one of the best defenses in the league. And then on the other end of the floor, Boston is a slightly above average half court offense and the Brooklyn Nets are slightly above average half court defense. So if I could turn Brooklyn's half court defense into a good the half court defense, that could

be a huge swing in this series. So I think the Ben's I've I think the Ben Simmons thing would be a massive change for this series. Alright, So as we talk about this series and specifically some of the defense of Dynamics, Marcus Smart was given deploy today. They had a whole thing with Kerry Payton coming and did it on the TNT broadcast. So, Jason, is that a good call or bad call? I feel bad saying bad call because Marcus Smart played the best possible defensive season

that a guard could play. Yeah, so I hope let me just I'll just I'll just say it, Marcus Smart, unbelievable season. One of the best guard defensive seasons I've ever seen. Kudos, man, you deserve an award. But the you know who really put me onto this was Joel Embiid. And this is what frustrates me so much about his foul drifting because I like so much about him as

a basketball player. And he was talking with J. J. Reddick about how big man should win Defensive Player of the Year, and he made a case that swayed me and I agree with him, and his case was our job as the big man on the back line of the defense is two quarterback the defense to call out coverages. We're supposed to memorize the plays that the other team runs so that we can call them out so that

the other guys on the floor know what's coming. The defensive role of the big man under the basket is so remarkably important and carries additional responsibilities over what the

guards do. You know, It's like football, like you could have Oh, b J come out and just have the best season of receiver could possibly have, but I wouldn't give him offensive m V P because the the the role of the quarterback in navigating the game, the flow of the game, his role making pre snap decisions and trying to determine where the blitz is coming from, and trying to just determine whether or not they're going zone coverage or man coverage, or whether or not they're trying

to disguise that coverage. There's so many important responsibilities that fall on the lap of the quarterback that it's to me, it's kind of impossible for a quarterback not to be the m v P of the league. They have to be in my opinion. And so it's the same concept here.

And you know, I'll give you an example. So like, for instance, when I was in college, we would run a specific uh a pick and roll coverage on the left side of the floor and on the right side of the floor, and then when we were in the middle of the floor, we'd run a completely different coverage. We had to. We literally would spend the entire week before the game memorizing the other team's plays because when you don't know where screens are coming from, they catch

you off guard. It is extremely difficult to navigate screens when you do know where they're coming from. Especially for a guy like me it was six ft six, I had a hard time navigating over screens. It's really hard for bigger guys. So you it helps to know where they're coming from, and the job of the big man behind the play, because when you're picking up the point guards, the point guards coming up the floor. So Marcus Smart's guarding Kyrie Irving tomorrow, Kyrie Irving's bringing the ball to

the floor, He's picking him up a half court. It's he doesn't know what's happening behind him. He doesn't know what kind of coverage or what kind of screen action Kevin Durants using to get open on the week side. He doesn't know if they're setting up some kind of backdoor lob. It is the job of Al Horford, whoever it is in that position for the Celtics on any given possession, to call out what coverages are being used,

to call out the play that's being used. So I I tend to agree with Joel Embi that it has to be a big man, and so because of that, I would have gone with somebody like a a like a Rudy Gobert, or or like a bam At a Bio or even Jaren Jackson before I go to someone like Marcus Smart. And the last thing I'll say about it is like, I know, as the league moves into

this five out era, perimeter defense becomes remarkably important. But it's not like the old days where you'd put Bruce Brown or Bruce Bowen excuse me, on the other team's best player and have him guard him the entire game, or put you know, metal world piece ron our Test on the other team's best player he guards him the whole game. Teams are so smart now that like it's pretty rare for you to attack the other team's best player with your best player. They're gonna find some way

to get him off of you. And so unfortunately that perimeter defense player, even though they are still extremely valuable, they're just not as valuable as that back line guy. And I'm always going to go that way. So I would have given the Defense Player of the Year to Rudy Gobert this year. So you're not just talking about pure guards. They're like if there's a wing like Pete Kauai, who obviously won back to back depois same So you know, I used to advocate all the time for Lebron to

get Defensive Player of the Year. And I was wrong about that, like just to just to come straight out because I didn't understand that yet. And two kudos to Joe l Embiid for breaking it down in a way that I thought was so important. And it's funny because I had all those pieces of information. I had access to those pieces of information the whole time, but I just didn't put two and two together. Like I literally played college basketball in that setting. My center was a

guy named a Tais Olivierira. He called out every coverage and I just didn't put that together. And and and so I was wrong to advocate for Lebron in those years. Kauai should not have won it in those years. The quarter and you know, unless, and this is the difference, unless within the Spurs system, Kauai's job was to be

the quarterback of the defense. I just don't think that was the case because it's very difficult for a wing to be in the correct spots on the floor to be able to call out coverages and so and just listen, like you listen to the big guys on the floor, even even when they're not miked up. You can hear them yell ice, ice ice, So you can hear them yell drop drop drop, you can hear them yell their coverage out. I loved how they miked up Joe LMB tonight. It's kind of a perfect little uh set up for

this conversation. So you can kind of see the way Joe l m B navigates that over the course of the game screaming out you did there were there was a sequence where he was like yelling out double double double. He's literally telling where the screens are coming from, where you know how many screens there are. His job is so incredibly important, and and that that that just has to be factored in in this kind thing. I think. So, who would you have given deepoint to you this year?

Rudy Gobert? Bam, bam. You know we're gonna we're gonna talk more about Rudy Gobert in the Utah Jazz here in just a minute, because I know when everybody when I say that, I know all of you are immediately going to, hey, this is horseshit, The the jazz suck. How can you give it to Rudy Gobert. But Rudy Gobert is not the reason why the Utah Jazz defense sucks. Will get into that in a minute. The only reason I'm not getting into guys like bam at a bios

he didn't play enough games. Jaren Jackson Jr. Was amazing defensively for parts of the season, but also he played a lot of his minutes with Steven Adams, and I think Steven Adams was more of the quarterback for them. I think Jaren Jackson Jr. Could be a Defense Player of the Year in the future. To me, like it's kind of an imperfect field of candidates, kind of similar to the m VP debate. You're picking a flawed candidate.

But I'm gonna pick the flawed candidate that I know is one of the best defense players in the league, and it's gonna be Rudy Gobert. How do you stay healthy? Would have gone to dreamlond H. So what we're sort of your thoughts on that MAVs Jazz game today then, so you know, there there's a persistent need among basketball fans around the world, especially on Twitter, to make fun

of the Jazz at Rudy Gobert's expense. He's he's the punching bag and I fell into this too a little bit before I started covering the league more closely, back when I would only see Rudy Gobert and small doses and special credit to a guy named Ben Dao said, who covers the Jazz and you guys got to check him out if you're not already following him. But he sent me a ton of film and broke it down for me in detail, the specific flaws that the Utah

Jazz defense has. But the gist of it is they are a terrible defensive team around Rudy Gobert, and as a result, very simple actions utterly compromise the Jazz defense. And as a result, you see these guys scoring at will, and you see Rudy Gobert kind of seeming hapless and ineffective, and it's easy to just immediately go that route, like, oh, look at Rudy Gobert, his man scoring every single time. But like at the end of that game, they just

took Dwight Powell off the floor. They put Maxine Cleber in the corner, and they had four guys that could shoot around him, Spencer Dinwoodie, Jalen Bronson, Reggie Bullock and Dorry and Phinney Smith, and then what they would do is have the ball on one of the wings, usually the left wing, and they put Maxine Cleber in the right corner. So at that point, Rudy Gobert is in a tough position because he's the help side defender, so he's got to be there to cover for the drives.

But Maxine Cleiber is in the corner and he's made a bunch of threes already tonight. But Spencer Dinwood, he's going right around his man to the basket. Jalen Brunson's going right around his man to the basket. So if Rudy gober Are guards Maxine Cleber in the corner and Spencer din what he gets six wide open layups? Are you guys gonna suddenly decide to not slander Rudy Gobert. Rudy's doing his job. There's no defense in the league that should allow one drive and kick to get wide

open three after wide open three. In the NBA playoffs, no defense worth their salt should do that. There were a bunch of plays where Boyan Bogdanovich is literally ten ft away from Maxine Cleiber in that corner and doesn't bother to rotate over and guard the shooter. They're like, that's just embarrassing effort defensively around Rudy Gobert, their tissue paper at the point of attack, giving up straight line drive after straight line drive. To you know, Jalen Brunson

is a great player. We're gonna talk about him here in a minute. Spencer Dinwood, he's having a rough series, but he's you know, he's he's Those two guys are not high level perimeter guys. They're not Kyrie Irving, they're not Donovan Mitchell, they're not Morand and they're just getting to the paint every time they want, and Rudy Gobert has to step over and help. And it's an easy

kickout for a three point shot every single time. And like I talked about all the time, your defense should be able to give up a straight line drive, but you have to rotate on the back end at the very least make them pass it around three or four times before they get a wide open three. It's like, you know, Luca, Luca dont needs to go buy all

these guys a steak dinner. Because I said on the show the other day that I didn't know that they could win a game without Luca, and I thought their only chance was Luca coming back in Game three and pulling this series out in seven games. And the Jazz might have just nuked even that because they had no business losing this basketball game. But this is it, you know.

I don't know if it's Quinn Snyder's fault that their weak side rotations are so bad, or if it's just a lack of commitment, or if it's a personnel issue. I mean, it could very well be a personnel to shoo. Mike Connolly is a small guard that doesn't cover a lot of ground. Jordan Clarkson is a good scoring guard. He was killing them tonight with that little short step back in the lane, a little eight foot step back,

but he's not a great defensive player. Boyan Bogdanovitch is actually okay in isolation defense against bigger wings, but he's not good covering a lot of ground on the back end. It's really Rudy Gobert covering for his teammates, and in the dregs of the regular season, when they can run drop coverage all night long, and when Rudy Gobert because teams aren't scheming appropriately for it. He can sit around

in the paint, they're gonna have success. Guys like Dwight Powell played the vast majority of of minutes at the five for this team over the course of the season. So for a lot of like the day in, day out regular season stuff, that's Dwight Powell, that's Rudy Gobert sitting under the basket and they're shutting him down. Game one of the series, they played, uh two shifts of Dwight powet at the start of the quarter. Then they

tried to bring him in for offensive defensive swaps. But Dwight Powell was on the floor for a lot of offensive possessions in that fourth quarter and it caused him problems. But you know what you do in the playoffs, You make adjustments. They made a simple adjustment. They went away from Dwight Powell. They went smaller with four scoring of guys that can shoot in max and clear but big who can shoot. And that was all it took to completely and utterly compromise Utah Jazz defense with a pretty

average group of offensive players. And so I I have to I have to come to the defense of Rudy Gobert here. He is still, in my opinion, in that top tier of defensive players in the league. I think it's him and Draymond, two very different guys in a lot of different ways. I think Rudy obviously has the better set of tools. Draymond I think has the bigger defensive basketball brain. But those two guys are the best defensive players in league. Rudy Gobert is still every bit

in that conversation. He just has a garbage defensive team, and every time they stuck on defense, he's the one who gets blamed. Last shot that I wanted to to have on this particular game was Jalen Brunson. Jalen Brunson average eight points a game in the Clippers series last year. He was utterly shut down by Nick Patum. Could not create his own shot, and you know it'd be easy to get discouraged there, and he had a pretty rough

game one. I talked a lot after that game about how much more difficult it is to be a primary offensive option than a secondary offensive option, or a secondary offensive option then the third defense or offensive option. Look at how bet Spencer didn't what he is it has been in this series and he's just stepping into a secondary role. But Jalen Brunson was awesome tonight. And this is the other part of the Utah Jazz defensive scheme

to drop coverage. A lot of what Jalen Brunson was getting was just here comes Max and clear, but to set a screen and you know, or Dwight Powell to set a screen. And there's Rudy Gobert dropping into the paint and here's Jalen Brunson shooting a wide open jump shot at top of the key and he's knocking it down and it was just unbelievable from him. You know.

I was things were getting bleak for for Dallas and they needed something to just inject a little bit of life into them to get them to the light at the end of the tunnel that is Luca don coming back. And they came out again tonight with just an unbelievable defensive performance and then maxin Kliba and and and Jalen Bronson just took the game home and Spencer didn't what He also had a huge spinning hook shot in the lane. For having a rough night, he made a huge play

at the end of that game. One last really really quick note on that game. You guys always hear me talk about the value of rim pressuring forwards. You know, when little guards struggled to create their own shot in playoff series, it's always these six eight, six nine guys that could turn their back to the basket that end

up having success. And I didn't think it was a coincidence that when the Utah Jazz offense was faltering late, they were able to throw it to Bogdanovich and he was just taking turnaround jump shots over smaller defenders and he was making them. That's a huge value piece in these types of matchups. It's a it's actually a huge thing that's missing from the Warriors offense. They don't have that big wing that they can dump the ball too in the post and he can create shots for himself.

That's a a weakness on a lot of teams around the league, but it is a strength of this particular Utah Jazz team. It's not gonna be enough, but he's a guy that if you could poach him from Utah, he's a guy that I'd love to have on a roster as just an option to attack mismatches in these late playoff series. Alright, guys, before we head out of here for the night, we're gonna bring my guy Carson back on for holder bail. Yeah. So, like you said, Jason,

we're playing holder bail. We played this yesterday. We're checking in on your pre series predictions and seeing if you want to hold or bail on any of these. We're gonna start with Heat Hawks. You took the heat and five before the series started. They dominated Game one. Are you holding or bailing on that? Absolutely? Holding? Um. They might even sweep him. We'll see. Atlanta seems to be coming. A part of it seems a little bit a little

shout out to p J. Tucker. Watching the film from that game, I couldn't help but be reminded of the way he physically caused problems for Kevin Durant in last year's playoff run. I think one of the most common things that happens with championship teams. We see this with the Lakers in the last couple of years, and you've seen it a little bit with the Bucks this year, and you saw it with the Dallas Mavericks in two

thousand eleven after they won with Dirk. They undervalue what their role players bring to the table and how it helps them win, and you know, I think it was. P J. Tucker was a great get for Miami. He's a very very effective playoff player and it's been cool seeing him have success again in another environment. Yeah, all right, speaking of p J. Tucker and obviously what he meant to the Bucks last year, you took the Bucks in four to sweep the Bulls. They did squeak out Game one,

probably a little too close for comfort. Are you holding or bailing with that prediction? So I'm holding with the Bucks winning the series, but I am bailing in the sense that I do think Chicago is going to get a game. I think they figured out some stuff defensively in Game one that they can that they can ride forward. And you could not have gotten a more disastrous offensive

game from all three of their stars. We talked a lot about the zach Lavine and and and uh um and to Maarda Rose enforcing shots off the dribble rather than making reads to their teammates. And then Vivussovitch was getting wide open threes all night long and he went to for ten. So there, there's there's some issues there that I think they've they'll be able to overcome one last note on this series. You know, Chris Middleton had a rough Game one, and Drew Holiday was really inconsistent

last year's playoff run. If you guys remember, he was pretty bad offensively throughout the entire series there throughout the entire run, and then he had some good defensive moments in the finals. You know, I talked a lot about how the Bucks run this year was gonna be harder,

and it will. They're gonna they're they have an easy first round series, but they're gonna have to go through Boston after this, and then after that they're gonna have to go through either Philly or Miami, and then after that they're gonna have to go through a much better version of the Phoenix team that they that almost beat them last year. And so the inconsistency from Chris Middleton

and Drew Holiday is not gonna fly. Those guys are gonna have to figure out a way to bring their best more freak only or I think this Bucks team is gonna get beat at some point down the line. Yeah, And it did feel like that was a huge question kind of throughout the early goings of the playoff run. Is last year was what the Bucks get that consistent production those two and obviously they got it when they needed it most. But definitely agree with you there. All right,

Well you mentioned the Suns. You took them to sweep the Pelicans before the series. They were pretty convincing throughout Game one and a win. Are you holding or bailing with that prediction they're gonna sweep him? Um. I wanted to give a special shout out to CP three here while we were recording the show, because we came on last night before that game ended. I don't know if you saw that video, Carson, but CP three one on a run. We're like about six or seven possessions in

a row. He just ran high pick and roll with JaVale McGee and DeAndre and it scored every single time, like every single time against the against the good uh Pelicans defense. And you know, I can say all the usual stuff like I can't believe he's thirty seven years old and he's still doing this. Oh you know, he's

the point god, all the blah blah blah. The thing that I want to say is like, you know, basketball in so many ways gets over complicated, but there are in and it is a very complex game on a bunch of different levels, but there are simple things to it, and like Chris Paul is such a savant at understanding what works and what doesn't in the high pick and roll is such a simple action, and teams have a certain number of options that they can go to guarding it.

It usually involves either overplaying the roleman or over playing the ball handler. And when you're playing the ball handler, either either involves taking away the drive or taking away the dump shot. And that in that sequence, it was like every time they went under the screen, he just pulled a three and he made him every time they went over the screen, he just kind of methodically worked his way through the lane, and uh, he made a

couple of layups. He had like a crazy little fade away along the right along the right block, and then there was a play where like he kind of stunted at the screen and then old back and both guys came to him and just easy little bounce pass to

JaVale McGhee. Now he's dunking, and like it's just he made it look so easy, and it's because like even though he's not the fastest guy, even though he's not the biggest guy in the world, even though he's not even necessarily like like his three point shot can be inconsistent from time to time. The dude is just a is. He's one of the smartest guys in the league. You know, the guy that I compare in the most to his Lebron. He's point guard Lebron, you know what I mean. So, yeah,

I shout a special shout out to Chris Paul. Yeah, I mean you said, it's just like the making it easy. It's to control the poise out of the pick and roll and just the fact that you know, like, yeah, I'll average thirteen a game in the regular season or whatever, but he can easily kick that up to twenty at will, because it's just he gets a good look out of the pick and roll every single time, and you trust his shot making so much. All right, now we've arrived

at the grand daddy of them all, Nets Celtics. You took the nets and seven before the series, Jason, are you holding or bailing on that? I'm holding. I'm gonna still go with Nets and seven. Um. I have a bunch of thoughts on this this particular series, but we're gonna get into this in more detail after Game two, I wanna I want to just hit on one thing with with Kevin Durant, because he has to find a way to be better defensively, and some of that was

his effort and focus. He was just I think he was a little shell shocked in Game one, not in like, oh, I'm nervous kind of way. I think he just I think he just kind of tried to ease his way into the series and got kind of punched in the

mouth a little bit. But he has to find a way to be more impactful defensively, and with how often the Nets are double teaming Tatum, which is on almost every possession, I don't see the point of putting Kevin duran on Tatum because it's hurting them in the sense that he's not available to help on the back line.

And you can't even though Tatums, even though Durant's your best option to throw at Tatum, if you're gonna double team in any way, you can get away with a lesser option on the I talked a lot about how they made a handful of really big mistakes at the end of that game, and I looked back at the

film again. Boston's offense utterly fell apart in that fourth quarter, and a lot of that was on Tatum and I'll get into that more tomorrow, but you know, but because of tatum struggles, they were struggling to score, and there were a handful of plays where Jalen Brown killed them and it was just sloppy defensive mistakes. There was a Bruce Brown had a bad clothes out on Jalen Brown where he drove by for a dunk. There was a

play they literally missed a free throw. Nick Claxton was shooting a free throw, so your defense should be set and on the play, Kevin Durant and Nick and Kevin Durant his job is to get back to the paint. He was above the key, Claxton was above the key, and on a free throw, Jalen Brown drove right by everybody and went to the basket and got an easy layup with no nets on the back line. That's like

just stupid, sloppy laziness. But it's also that bad scheme of having Kevin Durant away from the basket for too long. And then on the second to last play when it was one one eleven, right after Kyrie makes the step back literally really, Jaylen Brown is facing up on Bruce Brown on the right wing and Kevin Durants guarding Jayson Tatum all the way on the right side of the basket.

They have al Horford run up off the ball instead a screen four Tatum away from the play literally on the left wing, thirty five ft from the basket, and it's a Horford Tatum little off ball screen. Kevin Durant Nick Claxton both run all the way out thirty five ft away and there now we're playing three on three and there's tons of space, there's nobody at the basket, and Jalen Brown just literally takes an easy move to

the basket. I think it ended up being Gore on Drag who was in help and he stood no chance at stopping Jalen Brown. So there was there were some huge defensive breakdowns at the end of that game that I thought were just a product of really poor strategy on the part of the Nets. I think they're gonna be able to clean that stuff up, So I still I still lean the Nets, even though they tricked off game one. I still think the Nets are gonna come back and win this series in seven games. All right, guys.

That is all we have for tonight. As always, I appreciate your guys support. We will be back right after the final game tomorrow night. I will see you guys. Then the volume