Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry & Klay Thompson lead Warriors over Celtics; why Jayson Tatum struggled

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in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel here at the volume Happy Sunday, everybody. Although I am technically recording this right on the dot midnight on Saturday night, I did just get back from an ugly sweater Christmas party, so that's why I've got the reindeer clink in the beer mugs. The Boston Celtics had an opportunity to go into Golden State and send a message tonight, and instead the Golden State Warriors sent an

even more resounding message the other direction. We're gonna be diving into that game from a bunch of different angles. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore

Jason Lts you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then, last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops. Tonight, all right, let's talk and basketball. So we did a show earlier this week, if you guys remember, was after the Celtics went into

Phoenix and beat the crap out of the Suns. And if you remember, in that show, I said that I wasn't prepared to move them ahead of Golden State as my championship favorite. And the reason why is I've already seen the Boston Celtics dominated a regular season from January eight to the end of the year. Last year, they were the best defense in the league and the best

offense in the league. They dominated everybody, and yet against the Milwaukee Bucks team that was down Chris Middleton, they got dragged seven games against the Miami Heat team that was at a significant talent disadvantage against Boston. Jimmy Butler had a shot in Game seven to win the series, and then after being up two games to one over a Golden State team that was nearly as talented, but I still gave a slight edge to Boston. They got resoundingly beat in games four or five and six to

lose the trophy. It's never been about the talent for Boston with me, It's been about their ability to execute and avoid their personal pitfalls and weaknesses on the biggest stage against the best teams that directly attack those weaknesses. Why did I pick Golden State to win the title before the season. If you guys, remember I said they're the best combination of talent with management, coaching experience, and continuity in the league. Talent doesn't define a basketball team.

If Boston became a better execution team, better better at executing when the chips are down, they would become my favorite. But that's a significant chunk of what makes a good basketball team, and it's a significant weakness for this Boston team. I didn't care that Golden State got off to a rough start this year, and I didn't care that Boston was killing everyone on the other end of the league because we know what that Golden State starting lineup is

capable of. When the chips are down. We know Steve Kerr will give them the best possible game plan to potentially win in any matchup, and we know the gold and State vets will be locked into the details. They will execute the game plan. They will be sharp with their coverages, they will sprint back in transition defense, they'll compete in every rebounding situation. They will win in the

details of basketball games. Time and time again, in basketball history, it's been that type of team that wins the title and not the team that is the most talented. This was a massively important game for both teams. Golden State had an opportunity to remove the bad taste of a mediocre start to their season. It's kind of like the Lakers when they went into and beat the Bucks in Milwaukee.

It's like, really bad season, but they demonstrated their ceiling is still there when Lebron and a d play well, that's what this game was for Golden State, although on a different level because Golden State has more legitimate title chances because they're more talented, but Golden State, this was their win. You dominate the Celtics on your home floor, that sends the message that hey, look, we've been sloppy, We've been working through lineup stuff. We're trying to get

young guys in the loop. But when the chips are down, we are still the best. That's why it was important for Golden State. On the other end, for Boston, they're on a three game losing streak against Golden State. This was their opportunity to send a message that they believe they are better than the Warriors. But when the actual basketball started tonight, Boston wasn't sharp and Golden State was. Boston tried to win the game on the sheer power of their talent, and Golden State won by trying to

execute in the details. For instance, Clay Thompson big time night tonight. I think he had twenty five points in the first half, shot the lights out, But more importantly, from the opening tip, he did an outstanding job defending Jayson Tatum, something that doesn't show up on the box court.

He made uh there. There was a um an early possession where Jayson Tatum had the ball on the left elbow and Clay just got up into his airspace, made him feel super uncomfortable, ended up knocking the ball loose, and Golden State ran out the other way. There's another play where Tatum beat him back door, and it's like nine out of ten times you just concede that lap. It's forty eight minute game, a lot of basketball left.

You got beat No. No, Clay like sold out. I went to try to meet Tatum at the top of the square and blocked him. He sent a message early in that game that he was not going to give Tatum anything easy. He was all over him. It was peak Clay Monster defensive performance from him. But it's because Clay knew he wasn't gonna win the game based on him getting twenty five or thirty. He was gonna win the game by fulfilling his a personal responsibility in the

game plan, which involved Andrew Wiggins is out. I have to guard Jason Tatum. Jayson Tatum has been one of the best players in the league this year, but in our defensive scheme, if I press up on him and I make him feel uncomfortable and we funnel him into our help, it will test his decision making and he might make mistakes. That was his role in the game plan and he fulfilled it. Another great example was transition defense for both teams. Boston was giving up runouts like

flat out, like cherry picking runouts all night long. Not cherry picking, but it looked like cherry picking based on how open Golden State players were down the floor. There were two plays in the third quarter back to back when the Celtics were back within six where on one play, Jalen Brown is standing as Clay Thompson is walking past him, and instead of Jalen Brown sprinting back as was his responsibility with the floor balance because he was back, he

got out run by Clay Thompson. Wasn't even close easy dunk, very next possession, Marcus Smart three, top of the key, Jordan Pool contests the three. There's three Celtics behind the above the brake line, and none of them ran back. Jordan Pool was by himself for a layup. That's a detail. If you intend to send a message to the Golden State Warriors on their home floor that you thought it was a fluke that you lost to them in the finals, you have to come in sharp, and they weren't sharp.

They gave up nineteen fast breakpoints which is the difference in this game. And then on the other end, Golden State was super sharp time and time again. Boston was trying to get out in transition to find something easier than what they were getting in the half court, and Golden State was just sprinting back, communicating, getting matched up, and forcing them to score in the half court. Golden State dominated on the glass. That's about competing, crashing or

boxing out. I also thought, I mean, and this is this is another big part of why I picked Golden State to win the title this year. I think they have the best coach in the league. Their game plan was better. Boss ran drop coverage all night long. And again I know it's Blake Griffin, but you know, if you're gonna be a Celtics fan and complain about Horford being out, let's be clear Andrew Wiggins is more important

to the Warriors than Horford is to the Celtics. This year, the Celtics are plus fourteen per one HUND possessions when Horford is off the floor. Golden State is minus seven per one hun possessions with Wiggins off the floor. He's their second best player, and really they're only legitimately reliable two ways six eight wing right now. But like Blake, Blake Griffin all game long was too far back and

drop coverage. And you know what, it was the exact same thing that happened last year in the finals when it was Al Horford and Robert Williams. They were too far back in their drop coverage and the Warriors were hitting pull up jumpers over them all game long. As a matter of fact, I've i've charted a bunch of possessions when they played no center and they switched everything, they stagnated, Golden State got more stops and got out

in transition. They were minus fourteen and twenty eight minutes with a big on the floor, not counting the noahv only minutes at the at the end in garbage time, and they were minus four in eighteen minutes when they didn't have a big on the floor. So obviously negative in both situations, but they fared a lot better when they were switching than when they were running their drop coverage. It's a it's a it's a consistent schematic thing that

the Celtics do that I disagree with. I think it leaves it's I think it's a missed opportunity for their personnel strength. What makes Boston so good is they have literally like seven or eight players that can defend multiple positions and and dribble, pass and score. They should be the best five outs switching everything team in the league, and they are doing a lot more switching with Al Horford, which I think is a big part of their success

so far this year. Meanwhile, on the other end of the floor Golden States game plan, they were packing the paint and testing Boston's decision making, leaving shooters open, baiting Boston into shooting over help instead of making the right reads, which has been consistent problem for Boston throughout this last year.

I complained about that NonStop, especially in the second round series against against Brookes, against uh Brook Lopez and Jana Sintenna Cumpo and in the finals against Kevon Looney and Draymond Green. They were over packing the paint, giving wide open kickout opportunities. In Boston Celtics guards and wings were driving into traffic and trying to score over the top. Instead, when the Celtics drive and kick, they get quality shots,

they score more frequently. They're able to get back set their half court defense and get more stops when they drive and miss over help. They have bad floor balance because they have a guy under the ram who just missed a layup, and then they get run out on in transition and give up baskets. That happened again tonight. The Boston Celtics missed nineteen shots in the painted area. Tonight they were nine thirty eight. Jayson Tatum was four for twelve in the paint time and time again, just

trying to score over help. They're baiting them into it. It's a game plan thing for Golden State. There's a play there in that fourth quarter Marcus Smart driving into the basket, beats his man off the dribble. Kevn Louney's there and help. He ends up losing his dribble and his trapp gets the ball back and instead of making the kickout pass to a shooter, just tried to shoot over Kevin Louney and got blocked. It's like they can't

help themselves. It's like the ugly side of themselves that pops up when teams bait them into it, and they struggled to stop that. You know, I thought it was really interesting when I was watching the film back. There was a clip of Joe Missoula and a time out in the second half, and he said, quote unquote, we half to make better rim reads to get great looks. That that is something that we've literally been screaming on this show for seven months now. The bottom line is

is that winning basketball games at the highest level. And I'm not talking about winning in the regular season. I'm talking about at the highest level conference finals, NBA Finals, against the best teams, against other superstars, against teams that have been there and done that. It's not as simple as who has more guys who can score and who has more guys who can defend. We know Boston has

that over everybody. It's about forty eight minutes of hundreds and hundreds of basketball decisions, constant, unrelenting effort and attention to detail, getting back in transition every single time, boxing your man out every single time, being relentless about making the right read every single time, understanding the game plan dynamics that are at play. Like for instance, Boston has

been a good transition defense overall this year. They are sixth an opponent fast breakpoints scored per one hund possessions and their sixth and overall transition defense according to cleaning the glass on a points per possession basis. But here's the thing. They were good at that stuff last year too in the regular season, and then they fell apart in the playoffs. That's the difference between the highest levels

and the regular season. In those settings, teams will actively try to make you feel uncomfortable and get you out of your element, which can disrupt your rhythm, disrupt your confidence, and cause you to have slippage in the details of the game. Boston kind of loses sight of who they are in these settings. They see the Golden State jerseys and they kind of just denigrate back into an older

version of themselves. That's the problem. That's why I can't get all very I can't get excited about them dominating a regular season. They have demonstrated time and time again that when they see these Golden State Warriors jerseys, they forget how to play good basketball, good discipline basketball. And that's the difference between the way Boston has won over the last couple of years and the way that Golden

State has won for a decade now. When the Chips are down, Golden State leans on their commitment to the details time and time again, we see Boston gets sloppy when it counts, and we see Golden State execute. I wanted to give a couple of specific shoutouts, so uh, I thought Clay Thompson made really great reads all night against Boston's drop coverage. He's got a really good feel for where his defender is trailing the screen, so if he's got enough space to elevate right away, he can.

And then he's really good at using escape dribbles. So like you come over the top of the screen and you're not you don't have enough separation from the defender to raise up. You feel like he can back pressure you, but he's still lingering on the screen a little bit. Push that ball out in front of you, go to a spot that's five feet further and elevate. That'll buy you that extra bit of separation you need to get a clean look. It's one of the things that Clay's

best at. That's where almost all of his pull up threes come from. Um and then another big thing that he both him and and Steph were doing this but re screening. So with how far back Blake Griffin was, you know, and this is the challenge with drop coverage in general, you ask your guard to fight over the

top of the screen. That's difficult in and of itself, but what if he has to fight over the same screen three times because Blake is so far back that it's like, Okay, Marcus Smart fought over the screen, but then it's a retreat dribble, and we come over the screen again, and it's a retreat dribble, and we cover the screen again. And maybe Marcus Smart gets over at the first two times, but on the third time, you know, Looney turns and gets the angle right now, you get

the separation and you knock it down. Clay Thompson and Steph Curry were both really patient tonight, just making sure that they got the right looks out of drop coverage, and then Clay was outstanding with his defense on Tatum. As we mentioned earlier, you know, I was I was never worried about Clay Thompson even for a second this whole season, because we saw what he was capable of in the NBA Finals. We know that the journey back

for these injuries as a complicated process. He was going to eventually figure it out, and this was this was a home run type of performance for him to kind of hammer that point home. Um. Jonathan Comingia did some really nice work in isolation defense on Jayson Tatum when he was in the game. He had fourteen points on

nine shots, a really nice left handed drive. In the second half, he had a nasty dunk on Jayson Tatum where he tried to post him up and Tatum pushed him under the basket and he lost his dribble a little bit, and he elevated from straight vert from behind the backboard and got over the top of Tatum and dunked it on his head. That was disgusting. He continues to blossom into an incredibly exciting young prospect. Um Cavan Luni and Draymond Green. They defended the paint incredibly well

for the most part, without fouling. The Boston Celtics have shot just a hair under sixty percent this year in the paint, and the Uh and uh, Louoni and Draymond held him to fifty tonight. Um and then Steph Curry, you know, I don't, I don't. I'm running out of ways to describe the way he's playing this year. He also torched Boston's drop coverage time and time again. Thirty two six and seven. His shot difficulty was off the charts. The amount of like momentous, incredibly difficult shots that he

hit tonight was ridiculous. To go to go twelve for twenty one on the types of shots he was taking tonight is insane. I you know, I think he's been you know, I don't want to change my actual player rankings until the off season. It's kind of like a rule of mine. But in terms of my rolling regular season player rankings, I think step has been the best player in the world this year. The moving over the Celtics.

Speaking of incredibly difficult shot making, Jalen Brown thirty one, nine and three, and he made a ton of high difficulty shots. You know. As far as Jayson Tatum, we're going to talk about him in a minute. He's got some issues with Golden State, like Tatum or excuse me. Jaylen Brown has been very comfortable in this particular matchup and has had a bunch of big games against the Warriors.

He was great against tonight. Malcolm Brogden, excuse me. Malcolm Brogden's sixteen points, five rebounds, and four assists in twenty three minutes. His ability to keep his dribble alive while protecting the basketball mainly with like a really sharp behind the back dribble. It allows him to get to his spots really easily because a lot of a lot of players, when they see an angle, they need to gather the basketball, so they're kind of committed to their move at that point.

But like Malcolm Broden just keeps the dribble alive and waits for a defender to gamble one way or another, and then he's got a counter dribble back to the other side and he can go um. I thought he got really high quality shots through most of the night. I'm moving on to Jason Tatumoe just eighteen points four for twelve in the paint. Like we talked about earlier, this particular matchup against Golden State is very clearly in his head. He was really bad in the NBA Finals

for the most part. It kind of reminds me of, you know, because I think it's mental. It really reminds me of what Lebron and the Calves used to do to Damarta Rosen, where even regardless of what you think about Demarta Rosen in terms of his placement in the league, he's not as bad as he looked against the Calves in those series. That's the same thing with Jayson Tatum, Like he's been undeniably great ever for this entire calendar year, with exception of this Golden State Warriors matchup. Even if

you look at the Miami Heat series. In the Milwaukee Bucks series, Tatum had huge moments in that series. Tatum was amazing in Game six against Milwaukee. You know, he had a bunch of big games against the Miami Heat. He looked out of sorts that entire series, and he looked out of sorts again tonight. The and my theory is it's kind of like what Lebron and the Calves did DeRos in. It's like there's an aura of confidence that surrounds the Warriors and surrounds Steph Curry and that

they play with that can be intimidating. You know, like Lebron was crazy enough to roll up into Toronto and just be like, ma, I'm gonna take eighteen fadeaways tonight. You know, like he is so comfortable in that matchup that it rattled DeRos It. And that's kind of the

way that I see it. Steph has been so good in this matchup, and Steph in general, is this four time NBA champion that is arguably the best player in the world, that's been around the league for more than a decade, just an established force and the Golden State Warriors, you know, the most successful franchise of this era. It's intimidating, you know, because, like here's the thing. Everyone thought it was Andrew Wiggins that messed him up in the finals.

Well Clay Thompson did a similar thing to him tonight. It is not about personnel. You know, Jason Tatum has been lightening up good defenses all year long. He's been lightening up great defenses all year long. He's been seeing a lot of the same coverages that there is clearly something mental going off there, and you can see it because you know, he doesn't shoot confidently against him even when he's open. He had back to back miss threes

in that third quarter that were way off. Like he had like a nice little step back where he got good separation and good lift and it was like two ft long and a foot to the left. Damire put a hole in the backboard, you know. Like he had a couple of free throws in the fourth quarter. Celtics are down by eight, chance to get it back to six. He shoots the first free throw way long and then shoots the second free throw way short. That's mental. I

don't think that's about a schematic thing. Don't get me wrong. Golden State is trying to bait him into his specific weaknesses, but a lot of teams over help on the Celtics and try to do that. This particular matchup clearly has an effect on Jayson Tatum, and he eventually needs to get over it. Because I think Golden State is gonna come out of the West this year. He needs to have a big game against them to kind of remind himself of what he's capable of. In general, just kind

of zooming out on Boston. They need to improve in ways that are really difficult to improve on during the regular season. They don't need reps for the sake of reps. They have a year's worth of really solid reps this year where they've killed everybody. They need high pressure reps against great teams in high stakes environments. Kicking the ship out of everybody in the regular season is just not

going to help them there. They need to face their ugly side, this ugly side of Boston, which is there driving into help and shooting over the top of the defense and not getting back in transition, not being sharpened the details, that ugly side of them that shows up in these big environments. They need to face that and they need to beat it. And I don't think they're gonna get a chance to really face that again, aside from a handful of you know, maybe a matchup against Milwaukee, there,

another matchup against Golden State in the regular season. They're not really going to get a chance to prove that until the conference finals against Milwaukee this year. So it's tough. It's unfortunate because this was this was a great opportunity. And again, like if you go into Golden State and you're sharp in the details and you get back in transition defense and you make all the right reads and you just shoot poorly and they shoot better and you lose.

You go home and you're like, you know what they got us tonight. But this that's gotta be a frustrating loss. And I mean you could hear it a little bit in Joe Maszula's postgame comments when he was talking about testing their ability to make the right read, but like it was exceptionally disappointing because it looked just like last year. That looked like an extension of the NBA Finals. It

didn't look like a Boston team that had learned a lesson. Um, I'm gonna try to rewatch this game a little bit, especially once the once some of the data updates on some of the tracking services that I use, and we'll probably touch on this a little bit more later next week.

But that's all I have for tonight. We're gonna take Tomorrow off, Monday off entirely, and then Tuesday night we'll be going live again, I believe after the Warriors game that night, and then we'll break down a bunch of other games from Sunday and Monday as well as always. I sincerely appreciate your guys support, and I'll see you on Tuesday night. The volume