Hoops Tonight - Steph and Warriors trounce Luka and the Mavs

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having a productive and successful week so far. I was so incredibly wrong on the two game seven's in the last round, as I backed off of my Celtics pick after six games of clinging to well five games of clinging to it, and then I was so wrong about the Suns. But I've gotten the first two games of these two series. Is dead right. As is always the case when you're trying to make these predictions, you're gonna be right. Sometimes you're gonna be wrong sometimes super interesting

game tonight though on a bunch of different levels. We're gonna get into all of it, and then at the end we're gonna bring Carson on. We're gonna talk more. Warriors in the Weeds were also going to get into I watched a ton of film on Celtics Heat tonight this morning. I'm gonna get into the stuff that I learned from that as well. To stick around for the end. A couple of quick notes. Make sure that you guys liked this video and subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels

so you don't miss any more of our content. Make sure you follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. I have a video that I'm working on right now that's not quite finished, but that should be out tomorrow morning. That's gonna go over some uh specifics of adjustments that the Celtics and the Heat can make in their series. It's a great place to see the video content that

I do, so follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. Alright, so I'm from Tucson, Arizona, which is just down the street from Phoenix, and so I've had quite a few uh friends and family that were bummed that the Phoenix Suns lost. I personally was excited for starters. I have no emotional attachment to the Sun's I think the Sons have done a horrible job of trying to expand their reach down to Tucson, even though it's right down the street and it's a metro area of over a million people.

Feels kind of like a missed opportunity. But I was excited that Phoenix lost. I thought they were kind of an arrogant type of team. But most importantly, the Dallas Mavericks I think are a much more interesting matchup in this setting, and specifically this matchup between Golden State and Dallas I find to be very interesting because both of these teams are so remarkably different, not just from each other, but from everyone else around the league. Dallas is the

quintessential modern basketball team. They do not care about traditional centers, traditional coverages. They don't care about traditional offensive sets and high motion, high ball movement, all of the things that just about every basketball coach since the dawn of this sport has leaned heavily on. What Dallas has done is created a play style and a roster that is spe typically designed to succeed in this environment. Last tear. Last time we saw a team that did something similar to

this was the two thousand eighteen Rockets. Switched absolutely everything. Everybody on the floor was a switchable defensive player that can knock down threes. And then they had base core

spacing concepts. Right shooter in each corner, shooter on the wing, you know, five out, or if they'd have a guy in the dunker spot right and so they Dallas has followed that same concept where it's all just mismatch hunting, pick on the weakest defender on the other team, Alternate ball handling responsibilities between one super nova that's a star and then a handful of other guys that are capable

of spelling the star for stretches right there. The quintessential modern basketball team, as forward thinking as you could possibly imagine. Golden States also different from the rest of the league, but in a way that's impossible to replicate. Like remember when the Atlanta Hawks drafted Kevin Horder and Trey Young in the same draft to be like they're Stephen Clay. Do they play anything like the Warriors? Not not even

remotely close that. As a matter of fact, they play more like the Mavericks than they do like the Warriors. It's because in order to play the way the Warriors play, there's a certain commitment to selflessness and weaponizing your own attention and keeping the ball moving and keeping yourself moving as a player. That's really difficult to replicate because there's just not that many players who do it, you know.

I think the closest thing as a guard to replicating what step has done in this era is Dame Lillard, and Dame Lillard doesn't do anything nearly resembling what Steph does off the ball or weaponizing attention, staying moving, creating

baskets outside of that static isolation environment. Right. And so what's super fascinating to me about the series is you have this, you know, incredible kind of like like anomaly in basketball in the Golden State Warriors versus arguably the most forward thinking modern basketball team, both very different from the rest of the league, both very different from each other, and I expected to be an incredibly interesting series as

a result, I expected Golden State to win tonight. I was fortunate enough to make a little bit of money on FanDuel in the process. That five and a half line was very safe as it turned out. Um, I would actually wouldn't even be surprised if Golden State jumped up to zero in this series. But I do think that Dallas demonstrated some stuff tonight that that kind of backed up some of the reasons why I was confident in them and having a chance to win this series.

To be clear upfront, like I was super confident in Boston, Like I think Boston is going to beat Miami, and I feel very confident and I'll be shocked if Miami wins. These two teams I find to be very close. I leaned Dallas, I picked Dallas, but I won't be the least bit surprised if Golden State wins. And that's gonna be the interesting thing to track as we get further into the series. I want to start with Golden State's offensive process because I find it to be very interesting.

I remember when Steph got into the league and he really started to ascend in two thousand fifteen, right there was this buzzword that started getting thrown around by Warriors fans gravity you guys may or may not remember that Warriors fans are certain that you have And the gist of it was this idea that Steph attracts lots of

defensive attention and it creates opportunities for other people. And at first I had a hard time reconciling with that because I wanted to be like, uh, all of the stars in the league dictate multiple defenders, and they do. You know, Lebron and Janice and k D and all these guys, all of the bigger you know, um, you know, swing forward superstar type of players are all great at applying rim pressure. And when you apply good rim pressure as a dominant athlete, you're going to collapse the defense.

But there's a huge difference between the way that those players dictate defensive attention and the way that Steph dictates defensive attention. So the way I like to call the refer to it because a guy like Lebron, or a guy like the Honest, a guy like Katie also have gravity and makes what Steph does so interesting. Not just step either, it's Steph and Clay and Jordan Pool, but

they have what I call reverse gravity. What's so unique about what they do is they drag defensive players away from the basket, and as a result of that, it opens up a boatload of opportunities at the rim that aren't even that don't even resemble rim opportunities for any

other team. The vast majority of rim opportunities that other teams get are finishing in traffic or drawing the big man under the basket and dropping it off to someone in the dunker spot, or maybe if you get like two or three closeout attacks, you might get somebody who gets a free run to the rint. Golden State, it's like wide open dunks and wide open layups because the paint is vacated, because the defensive attention that Steph draws

is away from the basket. And it's always been super unique to me to see the way that that manifests and always manifests in a bunch of assists, because typically it's a bang bang play out of a three on two or out of a four on three that leads to that. How many times tonight did you see Steph come off of a trap and drop it to Draymond and Draymond rolled down the rim, you know, pulling a help defender from the wing and a kick out to

and Andrew Wiggins three. It's the anatomy of the Golden State offense right well, manifested in a dominating paint performance. It's the funniest thing about the Warriors. They've become popularized as the team that that is like the three point revolution, right, But they're really not a high volume three point shooting team anymore, not even remotely close to what they were.

I mean, they are a high volume three point team relative to old NBA teams, but compared to the rest of the league, there are a lot of teams that take more threes. Dallas was getting them up tonight, not making them either. But what Golden State does is they weaponize their three point shooting better than anybody to create

advantages elsewhere on the floor. Dallas did a really nice job scoring in the paint when the game was over, but at one point, Oden State had a forty two to twenty advantage in paint points, and that's one thousand percent driven by that reverse gravity. Golden State was seventeen for twenty one from two point range in the first half. Think about how insane that is. Compare that to Boston, who at one point was like ten for thirty eight from two in a game in like Game one of

that series against the Bucks. You know, for the vast majority of teams going against great NBA defenses in the playoffs, it's really difficult to score in the paint, and it's really difficult to score at the rent. And this Golden State team has no trouble in that department because of

their ability to weaponize their three points shoot. And I was really really impressed on everyone played well in Golden State offensively at that Jordan Pool was great, Clay Thompson made some shots, but Clay Thompson kind of is what he is at this point. I feel like Jordan Pool and Staff are the more of the offensive fulcrum at this point. Andrew Wiggins, you kind of reminds me if

Spencer did what he in the set. They're very different players, but in terms of their reliability, Golden State fans will tell you that, you know, three out of four nights he's kind of a vagabond or unreliable on the offensive end, but then he has that big game where he's confident and he's knocking these shots down. I thought he was excellent tonight. Um Stephen Jordan Pool both did a really nice job of putting pressure, especially in transition, just getting

up the floor and creating shots. The Golden State offense was humming and Dallas did not do nearly a good enough job on that front. We will talk about that in a few minutes, but I didn't want to start to move on before we go into anything with Dallas. I want to talk about Golden State on defense. You know, I talked about before this series that Luca would be able to get any matchup that he wanted, and one of the things that I and he, especially early in

the game, I thought Dallas got whatever they wanted. They just couldn't make any shots. They came out the gate getting wide open threes almost every time down the floor, and they just weren't making any of them, which is gonna happen. It's actually in a in a new environment, switching your matchups, going from a defensive team like Phoenix that's more traditional versus a swarming, faster, quicker defense that Golden State has, and it clearly affected them, and then

also going on the road to a new arena. But what I thought Steve Kurry did a really nice job of was switching up his coverages. You know, early in the game, they didn't send a ton of help to Luca on his isolations when he was attacking people. They were stunting and doing things. But then what he would do is he just switch that up almost every other possession.

And I really saw this in the second quarter. It was like, this time, we're going to jump Luca while he's in the middle of the move with a double team. The first guy I saw them do this really well against was Golden State had some awesome defensive performances against Yokis in the regular season, And what they figured out is like when an offensive player is in the middle of a move, they're unaware of what's happening around them because there in the middle of the process of the move.

It's like when you're in a video game and you press like the spin move button in Madden, It's like, once the spin move is started, until the spin move is stopped, you can't really do anything right. Like that's kind of the idea, and they would like Yokich would be posting up on Draymond or whoever it was he was guarding, and then as soon as he would start his spin move, like that's when they would jump in because they know that while he's in the process of

that spin move, that's when he's most vulnerable. They were doing that to Luca tonight they were doing that to Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwitty, but sparingly. They'd leave him alone on one possession, make him feel comfortable. Then the next possession down that's when they would jump. That's sort of like keeping teams unstable with your coverages is a great way to keep a guy out of rhythm. They mixed in zone. They mixed in at one point of

Boxing one, and thought I thought it was interesting. Luca would basically kind of bring the ball over to which part of the zone he felt most likely to attack, and then he kind of backed down there in the against their two three zone that they were running there. But that's where the boxing one was genius, because then Luca would bring it over to Steph to try to like back him down at the top corner of the zone. But then that that one in the box and one

would be right there being disruptive. That kind of constant shuffling of your defensive coverages is what makes it's It's what you have to do in these settings to prevent people from getting comfortable. I thought Luca in that first quarter was way too comfortable, and Golden State did a much better job disrupting that as the game progressed, and it will be really interesting to see the way that

they had just over time. You know, we're gonna talk about Luca here in just a second, because he really was feeling things out tonight, and I'll kind of get into that further in just a minute. But juxtaposed with that was Steph Curry. There was no feeling things out from Steph Curry tonight. He was aggressive from the jump that I talked a lot about his shot profile and the fact that he doesn't take as many you know, two thousand sixteen Steph shots as he used to Probably

it's two things. It's he's coming off a midfoot spring and he's not quite athletically what he was last year. And with Jordan Pool's ascent, they have so much offensive talent on the floor that you know, shot selection has a lot to do with what your personnel is. Like, Like, even a guy like Luca wouldn't take nearly as many tough shots if he was playing alongside another star and you could disperse those responsibilities enough, they're cut A lot

of times. Those tough shots are are like punts, their way of like just punting on the possession, but giving you a decent opportunity to score in the process. I thought Steph had a lot of that two thousand and sixteen audacity tonight, running up the floor and transition and taking threes off the move, wild step back threes where he covers a lot of space. It's important for him to demonstrate that because that's what convinces Dallas to want

to trap him on those screen and rolls. And I have in my notes and we're gonna get a little bit further into this later, but one of my biggest adjustments that I want from Dallas is to not trap as much because Steph isn't what he was in two thousand and sixteen, at least I think it remains to be seen over the course of the series. Still the

he's a super duperstar. Still think he's you know, every bit is great, you know, in terms of his overall impact, But without that high end shot making, I don't think you have to trap him as much. What I would do is I would as he's coming off of these screens, are off of these dribble handoffs or anything off the ball, I would just switch and if you're big Man's on him.

I would press up into him and make him drive past you, because I think it's an easier rotation on the back line at the rim than it is to rotate out of a trap thirty feet from the basket. But again, there's a reason why Jason Kidd and everybody, for whatever reason wants to keep trapping Steph Curry, and it's fear for everything that we've seen in Steps to Client and guys like Warriors fans. I I feel like a good half of Warriors fans are very aware of

the fact that Steff has been declining. But then there's the other half that's in denial. Guys. It's in the percentages. He's not shooting nearly as well over a massive sample size compared to what he used to be. Still a superstar, but he's not shooting as well. But the audacity taking the tough shots, that is what keeps the fear alive.

And the fear is so necessary to continue the panic chasing, to continue the trapping, to continue the things that allowed that reverse gravity to take place, so that all those paint opportunities are there. And so I think that I told you guys before the series, the best opportunity for Golden State to win us, for Steph Curry to be the best player in the series, for him to outplay Luca, and for him to try as hard as he can to replicate two thousand sixteen Steph. And we're one game

in and he did it tonight. I thought he was definitely better than Luca tonight, and I thought he was definitely closer to that two thousand sixteen version of himself in terms of the way he approached the game compared to what he's been doing of late. Round one goes

to Steph Curry Lucas. Round one was weird. I joked before the game in my preview that he reminds me a lot of Lebron in the way that game ones are basically a feel out opportunity for him, and you could almost see him just trying stuff just to see what works. He was pretty bad tonight. I believe he had six turnovers. Wasn't seeing the help defense really well. We talked a little bit about Golden State in the way that they mixed things up on him. I got

blocked a couple of times. It was. I thought he did some over penetrating and getting into the teeth of the defense too far, But at the same time, like he also wasn't playing much defense. Looked a lot more like the Luca from Games one and two in Phoenix that it did from the Luca in games six and seven against Phoenix, And that's kind of becoming a staple for Luca in this playoff run, which is so weird because in each of the last two playoff runs he

came out guns blaze against the Clippers. But like, I don't know if it's just him aging and maturing faster than we expect, or if this is actually a little bit of recklessness on his part, because you guys know how I feel about tricking off playoff games. These series, especially when you get to the conference finals, like these series is are decided by the tiniest of margins, and so doing something like tossing a game away to feel things out, I think it's bad strategy. I used to

say that with Lebron all the time. I thought they tricked off game one against Phoenix last year, feeling things out as Anthony Davis got outplayed by DeAndre Ayton, you know, And like that's what Luca did tonight. He came out there and was loose with the basketball loose with his decision making, we uh, poor effort on the defensive end, And all I can hope for his sake, if you're a Dallas Mavericks fan, is that he did process enough information, that he did learn enough from this game to make

the necessary adjustments. But for what it's worth, in that first quarter, before Golden State really started swarming, Dallas was getting really good shots. And so it's gonna be important for Dallas too, and Luca in particular, to understand what Golden State did to him as the game progressed with the mixing up coverages with the swarming and make the

necessary adjustments. But if there's one player right now, I've said before that I think Luca is in that conversation with your kitchen Stephan, Lebron is the best offensive engines and all of basketball. I actually would probably lean Luca number one. I expect him to to figure that stuff out over the course of this series. All Right, we're gonna bring my guy Carson on and we're going to get a little bit further into the details of this series.

How's it going, Carson? Fantastic? Jason, how are you? I can't complain? Man, now, That's just what I love to hear. Well, obviously you touch on where Lucas stands in that conversation for best offensive player, best offensive engine on the planet, And obviously that was a really big reason that you had confidence in this MAVs team, just how unstoppable it seemed he would be in this matchup and why you

ended up picking them to upset the Warriors. So not an ideal start for that pick in terms of result tonight. On a scale of one to ten, how concerned are you about your pick for the MAVs to win this series over the Doubs zero? Um. First of all, in gent Well, in general, I'm never gonna overreact to a Game one. I was very confident Golden State would win tonight, even though I leaned towards Dallas in the series. The only reason I said a four last night with Boston

was because of the Al Horford thing. Like Al Horford is so important to so many things that Boston does on the court that him being out is is a huge problem. And I heard I heard some reporting today that he might miss Game three two, that that he might not be able to clear protocols until Game four unless he registers a certain number of negative tests, which is up in the air, right, So like Boston has this like a serious personnel thing that throws off my

pick a little bit. But like, what did I tell you guys? I expected from game one? I expect to gold State to win. I expected Luca to feel things out and be sloppy. I didn't see. I I saw some specific things like I saw. I saw Steph show flashes of scoring that I haven't seen much from him in this playoff runs. So that's good. That bodes well for Golden State. I thought Steph in particular held up well against switches. I thought Jordan Pool did not hold

up well against switches and defense defensively. I thought that. I thought that both Jalen Brunson and Luca kind of had their way with Jordan Pool. But that's to be expected. But it's a good thing for Golden State that Steph held up really well. I thought. I thought there were a couple of fouls he got called for that were bs where he held his position and and played well

uh defending the ball. So again that in attacking Steph Currans, which is has always been a fool's errand because he's consistently been one of the most underrated defensive players of

this era. He but the thing with Steph Curry that people forget is that he's freaking strong, Like he's He's six ft three and stout, and so even though he's not the quickest player in the world, just him having effort on the effort and focus and attention to detail on the defensive end automatically makes him a plus defender. But yeah, like there are positive things for Golden State, but I also loved dallas shot. Cality, What did you like, Carson. Did you think that Dallas was able to get quality

shots tonight? Yeah, I thought for a lot of the night they were. And I also think that I completely agree with you on the point in terms of Luca having that feeling out process and it never really feels like he's in a spot where he's not getting the looks that he wants. And you know, there are some shots with him that are closer to toss up propositions with the difficult shot making, but it always feels like he's in control when he wants to be. And obviously

it's a really poor shooting night Dallas. They go eleven forty eight from deep. It's not like the Warriors had a phenomenal shooting night on the other end, but still you expect that to level out, and that is so important to what Dallas does offensively. So I think I'm with you in terms of a never overreacting to a game one and be not thinking that if you play this game ten times, Dallas is scoring more than eight seven points and most of them just as a matter

of shot making variants. Like, I think this was definitely on the very low end of outcomes there. But is there one thing that you look at that you think you expect to change the most going forwards, to be the most different from this game as compared to the rest of the series, just in terms of your confidence with that outcome Dallas's defense, I think, I think you know, and there there are some very clear differences between the way that Golden State plays offensively in any of the

teams that Dallas has played. I mean, we just talked about this to open the show. Golden State style so incredibly unique that you know it's gonna take an adjustment the most a couple of a couple of specific details. So Phoenix, for instance, runs a hyper traditional offense. They are pick and roll heavy. They have a traditional big, They have a playmaking guard that looks to pass before

he looks to score. Even there to guard that they have playing like literally mirrors his game after Kobe Bryant. So like they're very vintage style of offense. Golden State and everything that they do with like Golden State spaces the floor and makes Dallas covered ground defensively in a way that none of the teams they've played so far has made them defense. In addition to that, Golden State

is amazing with off ball action. And I'm not just talking about Draymond at the top of the key, you know, looking for Staff coming off of the screen. It's more complicated than that. They'll have like like, for instance, if st is in the corner and they're doing a dribble handoff with Draymond with Steph coming off and you know, uh, even if there's two players involved, like Pool and Staff will be They'll have like Wiggins and Clay on the other side of the floor, like set a pin down

or a backscreen for each other. And when they do that, the defenders that Dallas has that are supposed to be in help side will be navigating that little two man game between Clay and Andrew on the other side of the floor, and so Steph will like come off of that dribble handoff, draw the two defenders and swing it over the top to Looney or to Draymond, whoever it is. And instead of there being someone under the basket to help on that role, there's nobody there because they're dealing

with interchanges on the other end of the floor. So Golden State that runs such a sophisticated offense that it's definitely gonna take longer into this series. This is why, like I expect Boston to win Game two, I I would not be the least bit surprised of Golden State went up two oh in this series. And then Dallas started to build steam later in the series because Jason

Kidd is an incredible defensive coach. They Mavericks have demonstrated an ability to pick up on coverages Like Phoenix ran a half dozen different variations of pick and roll and dribble handoff with all these cops, all these complications, and by the end of the series, like Phoenix or Dallas had just solved them, they had solved all of them. Now they may not ever solve them entirely the way

they did with Phoenix. I feel almost a thousand percent certain that Golden State's not gonna have a twenty seven point half at some point in this series. But that said, I do think Dallas will get better at tightening up those defensive rotations and getting better at being in the right spot. And most importantly, like I talked about earlier, I think at a certain point they're gonna have to

stop trapping every Steph Curry, pick and roll. And instead of doing that, which is giving Golden State that four on three advantage that they have literally a decade of practice executing, what I would do instead is I would hard switch, like almost like a show that turns into a switch with pal or cleep by whoever it is that's in that action, and then basically tell them like I don't give a damn if Steph drives right past you, but you have to push up into him and force

him to drive, because helping at the rim and rotating around the shooters is a lot easier than the then rotating out of those traps thirty ft from the basket. And so I think I think Dallas defensively like obviously they're gonna shoot better as the series progresses, but defensively, I thought they had a lot of room for improvement after tonight. Well obviously see how they respond there, But I think you're absolutely right and highlighting just the difficulty

of them dealing with the off ball movement. And there were so many spots today where it was just beautiful streaking cuts to the basket nearly uncontested by the Warriors. A lot of that set up by off ball screens and everything that you talk about, and that's always been central to their offense. Like back in the hay to remember, they would outpace the rest of the league by like in terms of just cut possessions per game, and this

year they were numb or one there again. And a lot of that is empowered by steps off ball gravity, what you talk about with the attention that he demands with traps and all that, and just how that enables the freedom of movement and just attract so much defensive attention. So tonight he only had twenty one. It wasn't an overwhelming statistical output from him, but you said you felt like he was the best player on the floor. You certainly felt his impact in creating those quality shots for

his teammates consistently. So, Jason, do you think Steph will be the most impactful player in this series? I don't think so, because I think Luca will, over the course of the series, get stronger and stronger. That said, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Steph was, and if he is, then gold State's gonna win. It's it's really that simple again. Like, like, guys, I also think Luca has passed Lebron at this point, So I'm not this is not some sort of relitigation of Steph's career

or some sort of insult towards Steph. I Lebron and Steph are my two favorite players of this entire era. I think they were there. I think they were the two best players of this era. I've you I view. I have just an unbelievable amount of respect for those

two guys. It's just it's the year two and these days step shoots about thirty from three in the playoffs, and Luca is ascending into superstardom just like Steph was back in two thousand thirteen and two thousand fourteen, right, So, like it's it's just the way I feel about the times.

It's the question of the series will be does Steph have one last ultimately great playoff run in him, Because if he does, they're gonna beat Dallas, and they very well maybe Phoenix or Miami orho excuse me, Miami or Boston, whoever comes out of the Eastern Conference, right. That's that's the the name of the game here is is it still? Is it still in Steph's window or is it not? And we're gonna find out. But like the thing you gotta worry about with Luca is one, he's big and strong,

so he thrives under physicality. So as the series progresses, he gets stronger, especially since he has a size advantage over basically everybody on Golden States roster. And then secondly, he wins with his brain that hit the guys like Luca, the guys like Lebron, the guys like Yokich, those the guys that are wired as those high end playmakers, they always get stronger later in series. I can't tell you how many times in Lebron's career he'd be trailing in

a series and come back to win. They were trailing, what you know, in that Eastern Conference finals against the against the Bulls. In two thousand eleven and two thousand twelve, they were trailing against the Pacers, then they were trailing aginst the Celtics, and then they were trailing against the Thunder in the finals, like they were trailing against the Pacers again in two thousand thirteen, and in two thousand thirteen they uh they fell behind to the Spurs three

games too. Like Lebron was constantly behind in playoff series, but then in game five, six and seven, he'd always be the best player because he's just constantly processing information, absorbing all of the adjustments and the things that he knows when in the chess match of the NBA Playoffs, and he gets stronger as the series progress. That's that's what's gonna happen with Luca. It's not that Steph doesn't

do that as well. I thoroughly expects Steph to be every bit as good at the end of the series as he is early. But Luca everything's grated on it, like everything with him is a different like transition, like he's always going to be a lesser player early in the series than he is later in the series. I agree with you, and it's not that it's a massive margin.

But I feel like we just have to look at the recent resumes, the consistent brilliance of Luca's playoff production and just not understate that it is literally over his playoff career thirty two nine and eight on fifty percent try shooting. And this is something we've talked about before.

There's a difference between the direct imposition of Luca physically on ball, commanding the game as that maestro, manufacturing shots for himself, kicking out to wide open teammates for three because he collapses the defense every time, and Steph Yes attracting a ton of attention but having some of the inconsistency in terms of shot making and at the end of the day his teammates still having to capitalize on his gravity and create for themselves. So certainly both guys

are fundamental. They make their offenses what they are. Luca also though in these playoffs this is before tonight, but the maps had been eighteen points pern under possessions better with him on the floor. It's just in every way he has been the more dominant player as of late.

He has been the more impactful player in terms of volume, physical imposition, and I mean, like you've said, it doesn't feel like there's any answer for him in this series, So I think we need to default to the guy who would have been the answer before the series at this point, and that to me is still Luca Dodge. Yeah, and I wanted to to read a couple of numbers

to you guys. I tweeted these out earlier, but uh, in terms of Dallas is shooting, because I thought they get quality shots tonight and I think they they finished like ten for forty two from three or something like that. So these are These are the Dallas role players on wide open threes in this playoff run. So I remember that's at least six ft from the nearest defender, which Dallas generate just a ton of these types of threes.

Maxie clebent on four attempts per game, Jalen Brunson forty percent on two attempts per game, Dorian Phinney Smith forty six percent on four and a half attempts per game, Davis Barton's forty percent on one attempt per game, Spencer Dinwood percent on one and a half attempts per game.

Reggie Bullock, who's basically their best shooter, is only thirty five percent on four and half attempts per games, So like you could argue that he's due for some positive regression, like the kick to wide open Shooters game for Dallas has been absolutely deadly in this playoff run, and it just didn't work tonight, and that that's one of those things like Golden State. Also like and again, you always

gotta you gotta check for your blind spots. And every time I make a pick, just inherently, even though you guys know, I try extremely hard not to be biased. That's something that I work hard at. I do the work. I don't just make a pick and then just stick to the pick. I'll watch film and and and I to be honest, I don't care about the pick. I don't care if people rub it in my face if I'm wrong. That's why I picked Milwaukee and game seven, even though I was on Boston for the first five games.

Like I care more, to quote a colonism, I care more about getting it right than I do about being right. And so from that standpoint, like I just want I tried to check my blind spots. And maybe in this case it's Golden State. You know they're they're clay Thompson can obviously shoot a lot better than he did Tonight's Steph is capable of explosive games. I mean Draymond Green. Actually, I thought he did a decent job looking to score tonight,

but he's capable of more. But I thought Dallas in general vastly underperformed their shot quality tonight, and so I think over the course of the series that would get better for them. Regardless of what we think in terms of that progression to the mean and talking about Luca is the best guy in this series. It was not a great night for them, and it was not a great night at all for Luca individually. And there was a photo going around. I'm sure many of you saw

it of Luca. It kind of surfaced this morning, but I think we can assume it was last night out with boban on the town in the Bay, sipping on a beer. So should he have not done that? Should he have not gone out for that brew last night? Jason, what do you think given the result? I I think Luca having a beer before the game? Um even Okay,

so I think it was I think it determined. Somebody found out through a Golden State redded page that it was from yesterday, but even if it was the morning of that would that would be the most on brand thing from Luca ever? Or like what what was it Hukah done Hitch this offseason? But like, you know, the thing with Luca is he We've talked about this before, like the dude, the dude doesn't operate under normal you know,

professional athlete like standards. Like I've I was literally thinking during the game tonight as I was watching, I'm like, there are these lineups on the floor, and it's like there are nine basketball players on the floor that are all in peak physical condition. Like arguably the most DOUGHI player on the floor not named Luca is Draymond Green.

And he's not Doughey, like he's he's just big, you know what I mean, And like and like Lucas just he looks like a fish out of water in a lot of cases in the sense that like he's just sticking out like crazy on the floor. Is this one guy that doesn't you know, that doesn't look like he's

in the same physical condition. I mean it's really the simple guys like a sixteen announced beer that like let's let's let's pretend it's a cours light something light right, like it's it's still at sixt announces that's still like a hundred fifty calories, right, or like a hundred forty calories like you have to those at dinner. That's that's the hefty amount of calories that you're taking in, right.

So Like, my thing is like, I don't think there's anything wrong with consuming alcohol in the day before game. All the all the pros are like drinking wine and stuff like that, but man, when you start putting down a few beers, like I feel like, I feel like that just makes it hard to keep the pounds off. I have a lot of thoughts here. I think he

touched on very good stuff. It's incredibly on brand. And if I were to go with the most on brand things an NBA player could do would probably be Zion doing a Mountain Dew commercial, Lebron posting a picture of a book that he is on page one through twenty of and lupa down in some bruise publicly before one of the biggest games of his NBA career. I love it. It's his thing. And also, by the way, he's a Slav and he's out there with another Slav and I

come from yugoslav blood. Jason, my dad or my grandpa grew up in Yugoslavia. Yes, he's Croatian. My middle name is Velamir. And those guys aren't gonna lay off the bruise. Really, it's a miracle that he wasn't hammered off. Shlivovitz, I think so for it. And one more thing. Luca is a legend manufacturer. He has the personality, the confidence, the swag. We all saw the clip of him after Game five now where he says, everybody you know acting tough when

they're up. He was laughing at the suns throughout Game seven. He lives for the legendary moment and so how amazing would it have been if that in at surface and then he dropped fifty Like that would be a hilarious story that you hear about him for decades. So I love it in every way. You will hear no Luca drinking beer publicly criticism for me. I think it's great Luca. Luca and Steph are two of the biggest psychopaths in the entire NBA. It's I again I I. I texted Ryan,

our producer before the show. I was like, I'm so glad Dallas one because I find this series to be so much more interesting than that boring Phoenix team against this Warriors team, and like again you just there, they could not be more different. And the way that like Steph is there are no inefficiencies with Steph, Like I guarantee you there's not a thing that goes in his body that doesn't improve him as an athlete. You know

what I mean. Um, I wouldn't be surprised, like like comparing those two are They're so different, but at the same time up here they're both like legitimately I want to murder you, like they're like like I want to I want to embarrass you and and trounce you and and step on your name and make you go home and feel like you don't belong in this league and

and that dynamic. I think you're gonna have moments from both of them in the series where they it looked like on an early missed free throw from Steph that Luca said something to him and then Steph looked back with a kind of an intense look and said something back. I couldn't tell exactly what he said, but I wouldn't be surprised that they got into it a little bit as a series progressed because their personalities do clash on

a lot of levels. But all I can say is, as a basketball fan, I am so stoked for this series and I hope, I hope Luca drags it out, and I hope it's a six or seven gamer because I can't get this matchup. I'm one with you. The contrast in era in terms of the superstars, obviously the rising young guy and the possibly descending all time legend and style, as far as the team's personality, all of it, I think is so much fun. And I hope that this is a long and very exciting series, and I

think that it should be. Let's talk about the other series for a second, because obviously we're one game deep into both conference finals. Now we have Game two of the Eastern Conference Finals tomorrow. Celtics went down in Game one. Jason, what do you think is the biggest adjustment that they can make going forward in this series? So there are two, but I'll focus on one here really quick because I'll say the other one is a Miami thing because I

think it relates to Miami as well. Um So I have a video that I'm gonna be coming out with probably tomorrow morning because I cut a ton of plays together, uh Boston, And again we've talked about this. Teams don't want to switch early in this series a couple of reasons. They want to avoid having small guards jockeying for rebound position with giant players all night long because it's fatiguing, right.

The other thing, too, is you want to keep your rim protection as close to the rim as possible for rotations. So like if Robert Williams, for instance, on a simple dribble handoff ends up getting switched onto Gabe Vincent and Gave Vincent just dribbles over to the other wing and then swings it over to Jimmy Butler and then Jimmy Butler drives to the basket. Now Robert Williams is stuck on a shooter on the other side of the floor

and he can't help at the rim. So they're like little dynamics like that that are why teams don't want to switch. But at the end of the day, like you can still help off of another player to help on a Jimmy Butler drive, and most importantly, you're forcing Jimmy Butler at that point to score over defenders. At least there there is a clear line. It went about about eight minutes into the first quarter where Boston, chasing over the top of all those dribble handoffs was working

like disruptive working. And it's a combination of fatigue from Game seven and some of the stuff from UH, some of the stuff from just how difficult it is to

chase over the top of screens. But right around that eight minute mark, like Tyler Harrow actually checked in a few minutes prior, but Tyler Harrow got going, and he got going with the fact that all of a sudden, Derek White, the same guy who was doing in a easing job fighting over those driple handoffs for the first half of the first quarter, he just suddenly started getting

caught on the screens. And there is a clear delineation in shot quality between what what Miami got when Boston was switching versus when Boston was in their drop and and and they're eventually going to they just simply have to eventually start switching these handoffs because at the end

of the day, Miami's biggest weakness is shot creation. Outside of Jimmy Butler, you as the Celtics have like four dudes who can create their own shot, right like Marcus Smart can, Jalen Brown can, Jayson Tatum can, like even Peyton Pritchard is like he's just as capable of creating his own shot as like a gay Vincent, right. Like, So at the end of the day, play to your strengths. If you get into that contest with them, you can

force them to become an isolation team. And like, wait till you see this video, guys, And again, if you gotta follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt I'll be releasing it tomorrow. I have dozens of examples all lined up that demonstrate exactly what I'm talking about. Miami got great shots against Boston's drop and they're just gonna avenge. And this is a team now some of its personnel, because obviously without Horford out there and Marcus Smart out there,

it's easier to switch. But the reality is that they were doing it still with like they were still doing with Grant Williams and Robert Williams in the back court and those actions and those guys could very well still be playing a lot when Al Horford and Marcus Smart come back. So some of it is just strategy type stuff. And one of the things that they did, you know, and and this is this is I only saw it once in the game, but they have to do it

more frequently. But there was a play where where Tyler Harrow is working on the right wing and he brings the ball up the floor and he calls for Robert Williams's man to come set his screen, and he did that deliberately, and it was Bam by the way. He did that deliberately because he knows Robert Williams is gonna drop. So he knows if Bam comes up and sets a good screen on Derrick White, I'm gonna get a wide

up and shot well. On that play, in the corner was Jayson Tatum guarding someone else for the heat, I can't remember who was, and Robert Williams. When they called for the screen, Robert Williams looked at Tatum and pointed and said you go, And so literally Tatum ran up with Bam and Robert Williams just ran over to get Tatum's man, and Tatum jumped the handoff or jumped to the screen, and so instead of instead of Tyler Harrow coming off of that screen and being freed up and

having space to operate. He came off that screen and Tatum was on him, like on him, and immediately Harrow had to pick up his dribble and Tatum knocked it free and ran down the other end and had a lay up. And so here's the thing. If you're obsessed with keeping Robert Williams at the basket at for the fear of at the expense of any switching, then you need a pre switch and you need to send Tatum up there or Brown up there, whoever it is. But

those are those little details, Boston. This is a Miami team that struggles to create shots if you let them operate with an advantage that and there we went. Did a whole thing on this last night. Miami is an advantage offense. Everything they do is predicated on getting lesser offensive players with separation from a defender so that they have opportunity to succeed even though they are lesser offensive players. And so at a certain point, you were playing into

Miami's advantage every possession that you dropped. Now they went switching late in the game, and when they did, what happened Jimmy Butler relentlessly attacked Peyton Pritchard every single time down the floor. They would run action with gay Vincent, either a dribble handoff or a high ball screen, and it was like Tatum on on Jimmy Butler and Peyton Pritchard on gay Vincent, and they would get those switches,

and then Jimmy Butler would score on Peyton Pitcher. And he had some baskets, but there were there were some tough ones in there. He took a spinning fade away that Peyton Pritchard defended perfectly. He just knocked it down. And what I'm saying is I'd rather have them make that then them get the easy shots against your drop. And most importantly, Peyton Pritchard won't even be out there as the series progresses, especially in game two. In Game two,

it won't be Peyton Pritchard. It'll probably be Marcus Smart and Peyton Pitcher broll and be out there for a few minutes. So it's a it's a simple adjustment that Boston has to make at some point if they're going to take away Miami's biggest advantage. Let's slip this to the other side. What's the biggest adjustment you think the heat need to make. So I'm not gonna call it an adjustment because they already made the adjustment. They made it to start the second half. But in the first half,

Miami was very conventional defensively. They still did a lot of switching. They would be willing to put Bam off on drible hand offs or ball screens and things like that, but they were not anywhere near as aggressive. They weren't they weren't applying full court pressure, they weren't stunting and doubling and playing passing lanes. In that second half, Miami came out with unbelievably aggressive defense, jumping every single passing lane,

applying a ton of ball pressure. And the reason why that's so specifically important is because of the fact that Boston's biggest offensive weakness is their ability to manage a basketball game, their ability to to do the things that

a point guard normally does. The job of the point guard is not just to feel the flow of the game, which we've talked about extensively on the show, so I'm not gonna get into it again tonight, but what another job for the point guard is navigate ball pressure and get you into your offense, get the ball up the floor against someone who's pressuring you, and get the ball to whoever it is that's starting the action. That's their job. And on this Boston team, because they don't really have

a point guard. Marcus Smart is a defensive point guard, but he's not an actual point guard. As a result, all of those point guard responsibilities are falling to Jayson Tatum, Jalen Brown and last night's game, and then in Marcus Smart as well when he's actually available. And so the more Miami presses, the more they're aggressive, the more they're up in their passing lanes, the more they're they test

Boston's biggest weakness. Now I expect Boston to eventually settle down and figure that out, but I think Miami's best chance to win this series is to continue to press as much as they can, and then on offense, anything that Boston is not switching. So usually if Daniel Tys is on the floor, Robert Williams, just anything, any action that Boston is reluctant to switch. Continue to hunt that stuff because they're getting great looks when they go up

against Boston's drop. All right, last question of the night for you here, related to that same series, who do you think has a bigger game tomorrow, Jason Tatum or Jimmy Butler. That's a good question. Uh. Statistically, it could be a number of different things, Um, because Jimmy Butler is putting up just unbelievable monster numbers right now, and he's so good at manufacturing scoring numbers just by grinding out points at the free throw line. And in transition,

we did a whole thing on that last night. Um, Tatum, it looks like it looks like Miami is gonna do everything they can to attack Tatum and get the ball out of his hands. And I believe they did that specifically as an adjustment because in the first quarter, Tatum was doing an amazing job getting middle penetration, getting into

the paint, and kicking too wide open shooters. So I think I think it's very possible that Tatum doesn't have a dominant statistical game because it's gonna be difficult to score against Miami's defense with the amount of attention they're paying to him. But here's the thing. If Tatum does exactly what he did in that first half last night, in the second half, meaning just take care of the basketball, and navigate the ball pressure better, even if it even it ends up not being you and you get the

ball after you get the ball across half court. It's just like for him, it's just managing the game, continuing to draw defensive attention so that your teammates can make plays, continue to get dribble penetration as much as you can, and then continue to be the dominant defensive player that you are. It's very possible that he has and five but is the best player on the floor tomorrow. So it's hard to say what will manifest in the box score. But I expect Boston to win tomorrow, and I think

Tatum will be the best player on the floor. How confident are you in his ability to not force the issue, to remain patient, to remain in control, to make those good, un selfish decisions, to play within the flow. How likely do you think it is that he actually executes in that way. I am confident that he will for stretches. I'm just also confident that he will continually devolve into that, because I mean, he learned that lesson against Milwaukee, but

then he did it again last night. You know, like it's just the we've talked about this before, Like Tatum and Brown have gotten better as playmakers, they have, but they have a natural tendency. We did a whole thing on this literally in the first round against Brooklyn. Like, no matter how much, no matter how much you improve as a basketball player on the margins, you have your core ide entity. Like my core identity is a score. It's always been the way I've played. Kind of matches

some things in my personality. My personality, I have a very narrow focus. I am not good at multitasking. I'm not good at seeing. I'm not observant of what's happening around me, but I'm very good at the things that I'm specifically focusing on. So my personality matches that of a score, because when I'm on the court, I am relentlessly attacking you and trying to score the basketball. Over

the years, I've gotten better at making reads. Over the years, I've gotten better at kicking the shooters and things like that. But no matter what, there's no amount of work I could put in into playmaking to become a great playmaker. Like that's the guys who are wired like that are

a different personality. They're more you know, they they tend to be more like upbeat personalities that are very like outgoing and like Lebron or a magic right, they're usually like high energy socialites that that that are very friendly and outgoing and at the same time they're they're great with divided focus and they have great awareness of what's happening around them, and they those guys have to fight their natural tendency to be aggressive. Remember with Lebron, it's

like Lebron keeps passing up the shot. Lebron keeps passing up the shot. It's like Lebron had to fight that to get to the point where he was more aggressive. Right, Well, that's the situation here with Boston. Like Tatum has made leaps as a playmaker and as a decision maker, but he'll never be a natural with that kind of thing.

He'll fight that for the rest of his career. And so he could come out in Game two, Game three, and Game four and be excellent running the offense and then come back to Miami for Game five and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he had another stretch like that. I mean, dude, he had six turnovers in that third quarter. Six Like that's that's a complete combustion. There were he had three consecutive pick sixes, three consecutive possessions where he came down to turn the ball over

for run out dunks or layups. So, like you know, for everything that he learned against Milwaukee, he regressed in Game one because that's just kind of gonna be his natural process. I I don't think there's any chance that ever goes away, but I do think he'll be good enough to win the series. Alright, guys, that is all I have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate your support. We will be back tomorrow night after the final buzzer of Celtics Heat. Don't forget to like this video. Subscribe to

the Volumes YouTube channel. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt for video content. I'll have a Celtics Heat video coming out tomorrow. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys support rocking with the show. I will see you guys tomorrow night. Volume