Hoops Tonight - Suns blast Luka & Mavericks, Harden & Embiid struggle as Heat thrash 76ers in Game 5

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packed show. Tonight, we're gonna break down that blowout that the Sun's just put on the Mavericks, and then we're gonna break down the blowout that the heat put on the Sixers, and then we're gonna do some previews for tomorrow, which I think is gonna be a really really interesting night of basketball. Then if you guys stick around for the end, we're gonna talk a little bit of Lakers and specifically the Genie bus interview and some of the issues that I have with the things that she said

to Bill Plashki of the l A Times. A couple of quick housekeeping notes before we get started tonight. Make sure you liked this video and subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel so that you can stay up to speed about all this stuff we've got coming up on the horizon. We're gonna be live every day this week. We're gonna push through uh this this stretch here in the conference semise and the Conference finals, So make sure you come

back after every big game. We will be here with breakdowns in the weeds as well as films up as we get further away from the games. And let's not least follow me on Twitter. I underscore Jason lt. It's the best place to stay up to speed with the video content that I put out that supports all the things that we talked about on the show. But we're gonna start about the Suns, and you know there's a theme here tonight. I like to have a theme to the show if I can, if there are enough things

that line up. And there's a postgame quote from Rik Spoelsture tonight, Um, I can't remember off the top of my head to who the gentleman was who asked the question. But someone asked Eric Spoelsture about, you know, fighting through screens.

I talked about how after game four or late into game four, because Philly had some really interesting counters to the front and back help system that Miami was using to guard m B, they had some interesting, interesting counters, and so they were fighting through those switches more are avoiding switches as much as they could to try to keep BAM on and beat. And so someone asked Eric Spoulsture that basically was like, hey, it looked like you were trying to keep BAM on, Joel not switch as much,

Like what's the deal with that? And and spoil Sure kind of went on a little rant for about a minute where he basically talked about how you know, you do game plans, You study the film, you come up with the scheme, and you implement that strategy and practice, and then you go out into the game and you

try to execute. And he talked about how more often than not, you get out there and a lot of the stuff that's in the game plan either immediately doesn't work or you don't get much of a chance to try to implement it because of circumstances that are out of your control. And he said, but there's one thing that we did control tonight. Eric Sposter said, we made multiple efforts all over the floor, and he said he basically talked about how that's what ends up being the

controlling factor in most cases. And we do talk schemes on this show, and we spent a lot all of you guys who've been listening though that I we like to get into the weeds there, but it's just one of those things where more often than not, that ends up being the determining factor. And one of the interesting things that happened that that specific circumstance applies a lot more to the Sixers game because the Sixers came in

and completely mailed it in tonight. But I also thought it was interesting as it relates to role players in the difference between the way these two teams, Dallas and Phoenix have looked at home versus on the road. Phoenix is two and three on the road in these playoffs kind of reminds me a little bit of the two thousand eight Celtics who struggled to win on the road early in their playoff run, although they had some key

pivotal wins just like the Sun's team has. They had a huge win in Game six in New Orleans, and they had a huge win in Game three in New Orleans when that series is tied at once. So I know that they're capable of that. But why is it do you guys think that you know, one guy on their home floor feels a certain amount of comfort and confidence, and then when he gets on the road, it doesn't

feel the same. And it generally applies to role players because most stars around the league are kind of immune to that kind of thing, right, And I have a theory. There's no exact science. My theory is that like players derive confidence from hustle plays and from defense. I've always told my high school kids that I coach, because it's the same thing I used to tell myself when I

go through a slump. When you're not shooting well, if things aren't going your way in the things that are out of your control, focus on the things that you do have control over. Defend like crazy, try to make plays because if you make plays in maybe it's a big offensive rebound or running the floor and transition for a dunk or a layup or a defensive rotation where you blow up a play that makes you feel good about yourself and that's what gives you the confidence to

then knock down the shot in your next opportunity. And I think it's easier to work hard on defense and to make hustle plays when you're at home because you're feeding off of the general energy of the crowd and the endorphant Russian everything that comes from making a big play in front of twenty people. So that's my theory. But for whatever reason, in this series, Dallas in particular,

but it's affected Phoenix as well. They have these different punches, right, And I always talk about how in any playoff matchup, you have like your best punch and you have your worst punch, and you're gonna land somewhere in between on most nights, right, But like maybe the worst punch for the better team is lesser than the best punch for the worst team, and that's how you lose games. That's how a series goes to six, or goes to five, or goes to seven, even though the better team is

you know, going to end up winning the series. And so this has been one of those series, Dallas is best punch what they which they seem to only be capable of throwing at home, particularly on offense, the ability to knock down shots and guys on the perimeter creating their own shots for whatever reason, that punch is good enough to beat the bad punch that Phoenix is throwing

on the road. But then we go back to Phoenix and it's like Dallas is overmatched because Phoenix is best punch, which they are most likely to throw at home, is way better than what Dallas can throw, in particular on the defensive ent fix at a level defensively in their containment tonight that was not even recognizable compared to what

happened in Games three. In Games four, there was some interesting strategy stuff like, for instance, like Phoenix and Dallas in particular are implementing two very different strategies with how

to handle perimeter initiators. So Dallas is trying to get the ball out of Chris Paul's hands and trying to get the ball out of Devin Booker's hands when they have a chance and they want to rotate around in the back, and that's been a consistent strategy for them all season, all year long, they've been a double and

recover team. That's what they've fed on during the last two thirds of the season when they went on their defensive run, whereas Dallas on offense, Phoenix strategy is like, we're gonna single coverage Luca and we're gonna stay glued to all these role players and if Luca beats us going for forty points, so be it. And they're two different they're very unique strategies in a bunch of different ways because it can blow up on you and either situation.

So for instance, like Phoenix went with the you know, and when they were in uh in Dallas, they went with that strategy and Luca beat him and Jalen Brunson beat him. Jalen Brunson got going and he beat they and they beat him, and then over the course of the game they had to send some more help and then everyone else started making shots. But then they got into game, they got into tonight, and you saw the other side of that coin. Luca looks comfortable. He's getting

whatever shots he wants. Jalen Brunson played pretty well in Phoenix for the first time in this series, after looking really bad in games one and two. Spencer Dinwoodie is still completely a wall. That's a whole other story. But what you saw is no one else was getting shots actually, but didn't going get going, don't Finnie Smith made eight threes in game four. Different type of player tonight. That's

the advantages. It throws everyone out of whack, especially against this particular Dallas style of offense, which we'll get to in a minute. You know, there's CP three, over the course of his career, has a reputation for being a slow player. He's very methodical and similar to Luke in a lot of ways. Like Luca, they're an inbound the ball and he's gonna walk the ball up the floor.

He's gonna get into the offense at like fifteen fourteen seconds, right, and by the time he creates his first advantage, there's only like six or seven seconds left. And so when he kicks the shooters on the wing, they have they can shoot and they might be able to attack the rim, but there's not enough time to continue to make multiple rotations. And that used to be an issue with Chris Paul as well. To Chris Paul's credit, he's been adaptable in

this Phoenix system. Dallas is thirty in pace this year. They strangle the pace of the game and they play incredibly slow. That's the way they play. It's the only way they play. Phoenix is eighth in pace, which is kind of remarkable with Chris Paul and the roster, and it's a credit to him quicker decisions, adjusting his game as he has aged, being more willing to seed responsibility. Now, seating responsibility is easy when you have that much talent

surrounding you. The pretty with lucas a little bit different, but it's interesting seeing the difference between those two styles because the quick style with Phoenix, if you get down the floor and you're initiating your offense at twenty seconds instead of fifteen, and you make that first, you compromise

the defense. With twelve or thirteen seconds left, now you're kicking it to the wing and he has time to attack that close out and further compromise the defense and then kick it to someone else who might have the best opportunity. That's where Phoenix is getting all their great shot quality, especially with Dallas, and how aggressive they're being on all of Chris Paul's picking rolls like a lot of trapping, a lot of trying to get the ball

out of their hands. So they're getting really good, you know, defensive rotation in that first action, and then they have enough time to do multiple things on the possession. That's the advantage of going quick. And this is this is where I have to be a little bit critical of Luca because and I think Luca is incredible, and I do think that it's important to add context here. Part to the reason why Luca is so heliocentric and so slow is because he has so much on his plate.

Jalen Brunson is gonna have a big payday this summer, and I'm happy for him because he didn't make nearly enough this year for what he did. But the truth of the matter with Jalen Brunson is he's not the same level of player as any of the other perimeter initiators in this playoff run. Like he's not even as good as like a Drew Holiday, for instance in Milwaukee. Right.

So the reality is is Luca has to have and Spencer Din what he we just talked about has been nowhere to be found offensively, and so Luca has so much on his plate. That's why he plays slow to conserve energy. To make it so that he's not sprinting as much up and down the floor. That's why he tries to save energy on the defensive end, although he's been better defensively as the series has progressed. He does that out of necessity. But there's a downside to that,

a couple of things. First of all, like we just talked about, when you don't make quick decisions, the possession starts slowly, you don't compromise the defense early enough in the possession, don't give your guys enough chance to to continue to make plays off of that. But secondly, it affects rhythm, and I think this is a big part of why the role players didn't play super well tonight,

why they haven't played super well on the road. Like when you have a guy standing on the perimeter holding the ball that long, it just throws you out of whack. You're standing in the corner for seventeen seconds and then finally the ball pops into your hand with three seconds left. It's tough. And again, like the thing with the thing with it from Luca's perspective is you have to acknowledge it's a product of a situation. And as far as

team building goes moving forward. That's something they're gonna have to address. And when it looks good, it looks great. Man, When lucas really cooking, when he's getting to his spots and he's making stuff, when the shooters he's kicking too are making shots, it looks great. It's not like James Harden.

James Harden used to do a version of this that was even worse because of the fact that when he would do it, he would always attack from the exact same spots on the floor and do the exact same move, so his personal efficiency and effectiveness would crater as series progress. Luca has a ton of variety. It talks, attacks from a ton of different spots on the floor. He'll mix in post ups, he'll mix in high isolations, he'll mix in pick and roll. He does everything, and that's great.

But playing at this pace has downsides. You could not score tonight. No one looked comfortable other than you and a little bit of Jalen Brunson. So that's the downside there. And you know, this is where one of the things that I've I've grown to appreciate. I've always been a lebron fan. You guys know that but like, as Lebron is aged and we're looking at this new crop of superstars, you start to see the reasons why Lebron is the second best player to ever play the game and maybe

the first. You start to see the reasons and the way and the way that they have allowed Lebron to separate himself. Kind of like Lebron is basically what Luca is, but he's capable of seating responsibility. Lebron, like the hell eocentric Lebron ball is way easier for guys to play with in the heliocentric Luca ball because Lebron is actually like desperate for other people to make place. He loves playing with playmakers. He wants to get rid of the

ball quickly. Lebron does make quicker decisions and then also he has the physical conditioning to thrive in an up and down environment. He does attack and transition all the time in a way that Luca doesn't, and he can be deeply impactful on the defensive end of the floor. And it's just kind of interesting because ever since Lebron won the title as a heliocentric guy twice basically two thousand sixteen and two thousand twenty. Ever since then, no one's been able to do it. Harden couldn't do it,

Luca couldn't do it. And I think you're seeing the reasons why you need the variety. You need the physical conditioning to be able to hold up. You also need to be able to change pace more. You can't just strangle the pace of the game. You have to have the ability to get into a flow sometimes so that your teammates can get going. When you remember those like two thousand seventeen Calves teams, they were going quickly in transition off a lebron pushing the ball and guys are

running the floor. There was a flow to it, and so those are the Those are the little details as Luca continues to develop that he's gonna have to figure out. One last note on this series CP three. He's in his first eight playoff games and this run he averaged

twenty three points per game. In the last three games he's averaged eight, and in that he had a disastrous seven turnover game in game three, and in game four he had this weird game where he was getting into foul trouble, making really silly decisions, gambles and things along those lines that we're above or beneath the basketball I Q of a player of Chris Paul's caliber, which just

really strange. And then tonight he was. Tonight Chris Paul was good, great on the defensive end, you know, did a lot of the stuff as uh as a playmaker that we expect from Chris. But his scoring just has fallen off. And I don't know what the deal is there, and I hope it's not anything significant. I hope he's

not hurt. There are some scheme related things there. Dallas is ever since the game to Debuckle when Chris Paul destroyed them at the end, Dallas is airing on the side of sending more attention to Chris more traps more uh more, two guys going with him on the ball screen, that more aggressive drop coverage. Is that kind of thing.

They're doing stuff to try to dissuade Chris. The thing that concerns me is if you're gonna beat the really good teams like Dallas is a puncher's chance, dark horse title contender, that's great, but you're gonna have to go through Golden State and then you're probably gonna have to go through Boston or Miami. Or Milwaukee, three really really good teams that are a lot better than this Dallas team, so that you're gonna need Chris to be able to score.

And one of the issues was is last year, in that postseason run, Chris was amazing until suddenly he ran into the team that was at full strength. He looked great against the Lakers without Anthony Davis, he looked great against the Nuggets without Jamal Murray, he looked great against the Clippers without Kawhi Leonard. But then all of a sudden, he ran into Drew Holiday in a full strength Bucks team that ran a really good drop coverage in suddenly

he couldn't score. And so that would be my my fear if I'm a Son's fan, is that Chris Paul seems to be tailing off a little bit now. The silver lining to that in the difference between this year and last year. I think Devin Booker is a much better basketball player this year than he was last year.

It's showing in his consistency. This guy is amazing every night, which is the hallmark of greatness, which we'll talk about a little bit later when we get into Joel Embid like give every night, bringing that same level intensity and and and impact. That's what the that's what the best guys do that differentiates them from the guys below. And so that is a huge obvious swing factor that helps,

you know, compensate for some of Chris Paul. But the other thing too is just mckel bridges is better, Kim Johnson is better. DeAndre Ayton was unbelievable today. He's got this like quick catch, turnaround jumper over his right shoulder that's completely unguardable. That's turned into a really nice release valve for Phoenix to try to rescue possessions. Phoenix is better than they were last year, so it it might not matter.

But my guess is because the rest of the league is better, because Boston is better, because Golden State is in this field and they weren't last year, I think they are going to need that out of Chris Paul. So it'll be really interesting to see if he can regain that form. Hopefully it's just a product of whatever weirdness happened in Dallas and hopefully he can shake it off at some point. If you're a Sons fan, all right, before we move on, I'm gonna kick it to a

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My favorite same game parlay this week is Boston to win Game five by at least five and a half points and for Drew Holiday to go under twenty one and a half. He's been great in the two wins, but in both Boston wins, Drew Holiday has scored less than twenty points. I think Boston is gonna put on a defensive clinic in Game five. That's how I think

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of the NBA. Let's move on to that absolute travesty of a basketball game that was Philly rolling up into Miami repeatedly getting punched in the face and doing absolutely nothing about it and just sitting there and saying, I'll take another one right here. That was just very very strange basketball game. And you know, like you guys know me, I like to get into the weeds. It's the way. That's the way that I like to break down the game.

I like to talk xs and os. I like to talk about counters, like to talk about coverages, and like talk about all that stuff. Here's the problem. I can't talk about any of that stuff if the team isn't trying. I can't talk about the way Miami's coverage was working or not working, or the way Phillies coverages were working or not working. When one of the teams mailed in

that basketball game. Think of it like this, Like James Harden, who is pretty you know, he has an established reputation as a guy that can shrink away from big games more often than not. Game four, what he did was the unusual circumstance, right. He was the best sixer today by a mile. He was the only guy that looked like he cared about what was happening on the floor. He wasn't fantastic defensively, but nobody was, but at least on the offensive, and he was repeatedly applying rim pressure

getting feed into the paint. Pretty Much everything James Harden initiated went well, and anything anybody else did went poorly. I want to give some credit to Miami before we move on. You know, Miami's a that you just know going into that game that they're not going to mail it in right there. Well coat, they're disciplined from training camp on their team that is committed to effort. I've been low on Miami all year because I don't think they have the top end talent to compete with some

of the best teams in the league. I think Jimmy Butler is probably like the sixth best player remaining in this playoff field, so I don't I'm not as high on Miami as other people. But if there's one thing you could say about Miami, They're not gonna leave points on the table. They're not gonna leave opportunities on the table. They are going to squeeze their sponge to get every drop of potential success that that team can get out, whereas Phieley feels like the exact opposite of that. So

credit to Miami. Credit Arry Spolstra. Jimmy Butler continues to be the best player in this series, even though I think Joe and Beads a better player than him. Overall. Yeah, like Jimmy has been the better player in the series. He's been fantastic. That well, we we're not gonna get into it right now, but I'm incredibly intrigued by a potential Boston Celtics Miami Heat Eastern Conference Finals. I think it's gonna be a defensive slug fest for the Ages,

but we're not gonna get into that right now. Miami is an interesting team. But today the story is Philly. Today the story is Philly in a too two series, going into a game where Miami clearly approached it as if it was a must win game, the opportunity to swing the series, whereas Philly seemed to go into it

like it's cool. We got Game six in Philly, We'll get him in Game seven, which guess why you're not guaranteed to get Game six, which is exactly why you have to treat Game five like a must win and come out with the requisite effort. It's just embarrassing from Philly down the line. Like I said, James Harden was the best effort on the table on the team. I gotta I have to be. I have to be very

critical of Joel Embiade today. And here's why. Because Joel Embiide fancies himself as one of the best basketball players in the world. Joel Embide thinks he deserved to win m v P. Joel Embiide thinks that when you guys are at the sports bar or at work, or wherever it is that you're talking basketball, they think he thinks that his name should come up first when you're ranking

basketball players. Here's the problem with that, Joel. There's an expectation that comes with that the guy that you're piste off got the m v P over you. There wasn't a single moment in that series against the Warriors where you felt like he wasn't caring that you that you felt like he was mailing in the game. And I get that he's injured. I get that he's banged up, he's got stuff going on with this thumb, he's got stuff going on with his face. But here's the thing.

Did anybody cut Steph Curry slack in two thousand sixteen for playing on a spray knee? Did anybody cut Lebron slack for playing with back spasm and nietendan nitis in two thousand fifteen? Did anybody cut Janice slack in two thousand twenty or excuse me, in two thousand twenty one last year when he sprayed literally inverted his knee in the conference finals. Did anybody cut him any slack when he fell down to zero to the Phoenix Suns in

the finals. No, because, again, no one's saying the injuries aren't a factor, but everyone's dealing with stuff. Jimmy Butler missed a playoff game in this series with the stuff. Everyone's banged up, Everyone's dealing with stuff, and no one's gonna cut you slack for your stuff, especially when you fancy yourself one of the best players in the world. This is the standard that comes with being in that conversation.

Is there any chance in the world that in Game five tomorrow you think Janice is gonna roll up into Boston and lay down and just get beat. There's no way I think Boston's gonna win big tomorrow. But I know for a fact Janice is gonna come out like the Tasmanian devil, trying to do everything he can to impact that game. And look, maybe that's the kind of guy em beat is. Maybe he's the guy that some

nights he feels that some nights he does. And Chris Haynes talked about in the broadcast, he talked about going up to him and shoot around, and in shoot around he said he was distancing himself from the team, not talking to anybody. Very short, short spoken, wouldn't what would would only make small talk with Chris Hayes, wouldn't elaborate on anything. Chris Haynes went over to the coaching staff and was like, is Joel sick? And they're like, no,

he's fine. So he was pounding today about who knows what, pounding about the injuries. I don't know, pouding about the m v P. I don't know. The guys from inside the n b A on TNT certainly took their chance to get all over and beat for uh for potentially pouting about the m v P, which is Look, I'm not gonna jump to that conclusion, but whatever it is that's bothering you, there's no doubt that like these kinds of things can have an effect on you mentally. But

here's the thing. All the guys at the top of the league also are dealing with that kind of stuff. And again, this is why I am so slow to push guys above established guys at the top of the league. This is why I want to see year in, year out success. This is why I waited till Janice is second dominant postseason before I put him as my guy that I think is the best player in the world. Like,

we start looking at the Joel and beat stuff. In his playoff career since two thousand seventeen two thousand eighteen, he's twenty seven and twelve in the regular season, goes down to twenty four and a evan in the playoffs. It's a pretty significant drop off. Twenty four points per game. Is not a dominant offensive player in the NBA playoffs. You know, Like, I'll cut you some slack for that Boston series two years ago. You're overmatch. Ben Simmons was out.

You had no business losing to the Atlanta Hawks. Ben Simmons or not passing up on a dunk or not, you have no business losing to the Atlanta Hawks if you swap Janice for him beat in that series. Does anybody think that the Sixers are losing to the Atlanta Hawks. It's just this is the standard. We have to hold the guys too at the top of the league. And look, and it's not just about the scoring. Like and Bead

was embarrassingly bad on defense tonight, embarrassingly bad. I have some clips on my Twitter feed you can look at he's just like passively kind of waving at guys as they come into the lane. He's not embraced. Miami can cannot score against Philly and the half court when Joel embiad is engaged as a ram protector. We saw that in games three, in game four. But the mark of greatness, the mark of being the best guy, is that you

do it in game five two. Maybe you miss shots, maybe your field goal percentage doesn't look great, maybe you have some sloppy turnovers. That kind of thing can happen on a game in game out basis, But your effort, you're attacking the basketball game that has to be the same every single night, and if it's not, you can't be in that conversation. And look, it's not over for

Joe and Bide. I'm not trying to This isn't like a James Harden situation where we have a decade of evidence that this that this guy just kind of struggles in these settings. This is that type of deal. But what it is is get another playoff round where Philly looks like they're probably gonna lose to a team that they were very capable of beating, and their best player

doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. And again it's like, maybe he goes into game six and he dominates, and maybe he goes into game seven and he dominates, and then you know what, I'll get up on here and I'll credit him for dominating. But the type of guy who would dominate Game six in game seven in the series is the same type of guy that would I'm in the game five tonight and attack the Miami Heat,

and he just didn't. It's just disappointing, Like you are mad that you didn't get named m v P, but the guy who got named m v P seems to care more about his team winning playoff games than you do at this point. That's a problem, man. And again, I I understand the injuries, but it's just try to convince Jimmy Butler, who missed a playoff game this year with a sore knee, that you should be cut some

slack because of injuries. Try to convince Janice, try to convince all these guys that have long dominant playoff runs despite having a bad injury. It's part of the game. Yours is not debilitating. Your lower body is fine, your mobile, you can move, you can protect the freaking rim, which is your job on this defense. It's just embarrassing, and

I'm just disappointed. I'm disappointed because you know, for a guy who's as ambitious as he is to try to be at the top, do you think he you think he'd take out a little bit more seriously, But it is what I'm sorry. I don't have more like in the details X and O stuff to get into in this game. I just don't think it's worth it. I don't think it's worth it when you have a team

that comes in and mails it in like that. So I mean, is a series over, No, But you'd be stupid to pick anybody about Miami at this point, because Philly is demonstrating to you right in front of us that they don't want it as bad. So there you go. It is what it is. But yeah, like I, at this point, I think you have to pick Miami, and I'm just disappointed in Joel Embid and I hope at some point he understands that this kind of performance is not okay if you're going to be considered one of

the top guys. Hi, it's Colin Coward. I started the volume to bring you some of the most apathetic voices in sports. While you're here, make sure you hit subscribe. Thanks. All right, let's take a few minutes to preview a couple of game fives tomorrow that are gonna be really interesting, one of which I think is going to be a very good betting opportunity. We'll get to that here in a minute. I want to start with the Bucks in

the Celtics. So I dove into a bunch of the film and I dove into a bunch of the numbers again this morning. I wanted to share with you guys what I saw A lot of it is going kind of as I expected based on the stuff that we saw before the series. So the story of this series that I've been harping on NonStop has been half court basketball.

Half court basketball is what wins NBA playoff series that because for the most part, over the course of the series, teams will figure out how to slow each other down in transition and they all understand that that's where the series is going to be won. So throughout this series, in every one of the first three games, Boston was the better half court team by a pretty significant margin, and that has continued into Game four. Milwaukee actually had

their best half court offense game of the series. They scored zero point nine four points per half court possession, which is actually an okay number. It's not a great number, but it's an okay number, and it's certainly a lot better than they have been doing. As as a point of perspective, that's almost twenty points per one hund possessions better than they did in Game three. Okay, here's the problem, though, Boston also had their best half core game of the series.

They scored one point zero nine points per one possessions excuse me, per possession in the half court. So another way to look at that To make it a little bit simple for you guys, if we had a hundred half court possessions, Boston was fifteen points better than Milwaukee in the half court in Game four. That gap has

considerably grown larger each game in this series. It's been the story of this series, and it's the reason why it was so confident in Boston to begin with a couple of other things that are not great if you're a Milwaukee Bucks fan. Boston finally didn't shoot well. They shot on wide open threes in the first round. They shot forty two wide open threes in the first three games of this series, and they were only six for seventeen in Game four, and it wasn't enough for Milwaukee

to get a win there. They finally got some of that like shot value, shot result stuff to go their way and it didn't work. And when you factor in that Milwaukee dominated on the offensive glass. They had a thirteen to four offensive rebound advantage. That's nine xt your possessions. I fe factor in they had a seventeen to eleven points off a turnovers advantage. So they won a bunch of these areas of the game that would theoretically put

you in a position to win. It just so happens that, hey, guess what, Boston gets stronger as the series goes along as well. They had their best offensive game of the series, and it was too much for them to overcome a couple of the things. Boston. This is what's insane. Boston in just the fourth quarters of this series is outscoring Milwaukee by thirty two point three points per one hundred possessions.

That's an outrageous number. So a lot of stuff going Boston's way in the metrics, stuff that I saw in the film, and I'll if you guys go to my Twitter feed, you'll actually see some clips that that demonstrate exactly what I'm talking about. But the shots that Boston was getting were wide open, like if you look at you know, so, Milwaukee's up eight to seventy in the late third quarter and Boston gets to stop runs out in transition, there's a quick swing pass, swing pass to

Derek White. He's wide open in the corner. It is a completely unguarded shot. The next possession down, Marcus Smarts kind of working his way into the lane and both uh Drew A, Drew Holiday, Ambrook Lopez are lingering around the basket. Al Horford is standing at the free throw line completely unguarded, and he makes it. It's a wide open shot. I'm not really sure what else you could expect to happen there. Then next possession down, it's Jayson Tatum getting all the way all the way to the

rim for a layout. Next possession down it's the one where al Horford gets the dunk on Janice where he beats him on a close out and there's no backside help and he dunks on everybody. Going into the fourth quarter, it's just open shot after open shot after open shot for Boston Celtics players. That's why that's manifesting is a plus thirty two point three net rating and fourth quarters,

Boston's shot quality is winning the day. Go on the other end, for Milwaukee, there are some good shots in there, but so much is reliant on Janice running people over and getting into the rim, which fatigue is starting to play a role in the series. Johannest is starting to show some signs that he is getting tired as the

series is progressing. You know, there's it's a lot of like Drew Holiday gets in the lane and picks up his dribble and he's completely swarmed by Celtics, but he happens to know in the back of his head that Brooke happens to be at the rim, and he turns and throws a blind pass up at the rim and brook Lopez catches it and dunks it. Again. Unbelievable basketball play, but it's a low percentage play in the sense that, like it required an unbelievable play from Drew Holiday to

get a basket. There, Janice working into the lane, pump, fake, pump fake. Finally, Jayson Tatum gambles and he can work in the lane and get a dunk or that beautiful pass he had when he was on the left block, and he works into the lane out of the post and hits brook Lopez underneath the basket on a jump pass. Like really impressive stuff, but it's hard. It's hard for Milwaukee to score, whereas the stuff Boston's getting is easy.

And generally, in a small sample size, you can beat shot quality difference, right if just because you happen to make them and they happen to miss them. But in any sort of significant sample size, the team that's getting the better shots is going to win, and Boston has been getting the better shots to their credit. That's why they went up bigg in that fourth quarter. That's why I think they're going to win game Game five at home. I believe Boston's a five and a half point favorite.

I would be on that side of the line. I think this game is gonna look a lot like Game too. I think Boston's gonna come out in front of their home crowd and have a little bit of a coming out party in this series because in the series they've been the They have them in the underdog, but they've been the team playing from behind for the whole time. This is their first opportunity to take a lead, and I think they're going to do so. Moving on to Grizz Warriors, so a couple of things. I I think

this is a really interesting betting opportunity. I think Golden State's clearly going to win the series. I expect them to close them out at six, but at home, especially without Job, if they continue to play big, all of that length and size and athleticism, feeding on the energy of that Memphis crowd, with the intensity and the urgency of being down in the series three games to one, I think Memphis I think this is a buzz saw type of game. I think this is a game that

won't necessarily be close. I wouldn't be surprised if Memphis won by ten or fifteen points. I think it's a good opportunity for Memphis to get one more game, not an indicator of the series. Still think Golden State wins the series. I just think this is a really tough, closeout team, a closeout game to win against a really good team. Golden State has won this series with their experience.

Their experience will obviously give them a chance, don't. It's It's not one of those things where I'm counting Golden State out. I just think this is an opportunity for Memphis to get one more win. A couple of notes that I wanted to hit on from Draymond Green's reaction

to this series. So first of all, he talked about I always like it when you hear these players mentioned things that we specifically talk about on the show, because one it's just as an Indica eight or that we're doing the work, that we're in the weeds, that we're watching the film, we're doing what needs to be done to actually know what's happening. On the floor, and so when you hear guys like Draymond come and say the

same thing, that's a good sign for us. It means that we're doing our job right, which is what we're supposed to do. So Draymond specifically shouted out rebounding in this series, which is what I talked about, was a

huge indicator coming into this series. Memphis was one of the most dominant offensive rebounding teams in the league, and half course settings, I think they were rebounding thirty of their own misses in the regular season, which is just an absolutely insane number, and that was gonna be that physical wear and tear raal element that I was worried about. Would Golden State be able to hold up physically in this series? And Draymond pointed out they've outrebounded Memphis in

all four games. That's an amazing accomplishment. And that's not done with their You know that it's not a physical mismatch for them that they're winning. It's straight up effort and just giving a ship more than Memphis to win that battle, because Memphis has the bodies to kill them on the glass and they just haven't been able to do so. A couple of specific guys that I think have been huge, you know, driving forces of this, and

we talked about this on or show. I told you guys Auto Porter Jr. And Andrew Wiggins and them in their athleticism and size crashing from the wing while guys like Looney and Draymond have been stuck in box outs underneath the basket. That's been a huge part of why Golden State has been able to win some of this rebounding battle. To give you an idea, with Auto Porter Jr. And Andrew Wiggins on the floor in this series, Golden State is grabbing sixty point two percent of available rebounds.

That's an unbelievable number. They're uh, they are uh gathering forty point nine percent of their own misses. So that's like every possession is basically one point five possessions almost because they're getting all of these additional offensive rebounds. Just a massive credit to those guys and the job they've

done fighting on the glass. And then, last but not least, Draymond mentioned another thing we talked about on the show, and that's the job that Steph Curry's doing on Desmond Bain now in Desmond Bain's defense, he's dealing with some

back stuff. That stuff is no fun. But Steph has always been an underrated defensive player, and he's done an amazing job guarding Desmond Band in this series and removing him from the series the way Draymond said he did has put a lot more of that shot making responsibility on Jaw, which is part of what has caused Memphis to struggle in this series whenever Jaw hasn't had the basketball. So I'm still picking Golden State, still think they have control over this series. I just think this is a

good betting opportunity. I think Memphis has a good chance of winning Game five behind the strength of their size and athleticism on their home floor. So again, plus two point five for a team at home that has the capability of beating Golden State like that, I think it's a good bet. And then I would bet on Golden

State in Game six to close out the series. All right, Last, but not least tonight, I want to complain about the Los Angeles Lakers because, as is always the case with a ship show, any anything or person or company or any entity that is a ship show has a has a remarkable ability to stay at top of mind because they can't help themselves. They can't help but be a

ship show. Even when all of the you know, competent folks are doing competent things over here, they just always find a way to jam their way into the conversation. And this time it was Genie Buss doing an interview with Bill Plashki from The l A Times. And there are two specific quotes from this interview that I wanted to hit on that I thought were super interesting. We'll hit him one at a time. So the first, this is from Genie again, quote, I'm growing impatient just because

we had the fourth highest payroll in the league. When you spend that kind of money on the luxury tax, you expect to go deep into the playoffs. So yeah, it was gut wrenching for me to go out on a limb like that and not get the results that we were looking for. I'm not happy, I'm not satisfied.

End quote. Now, I covered the Lakers for the last two years, so I'm intimately involved with this, with this disaster that has been and one of the big things that I've talked about is that the Lakers have a real chance to fix things this summer because you have all you need in terms of a core foundation. You have Lebron James and Anthony Davis. And let's pretend Lebron declined. I thought Lebron was the second or third best player in the world this season. I thought he had an

underrated season on a really bad team. But let's let's pretend, for the sake of argument, that in his twentieth season he'll be the seventh or eighth best player in the league, which I think he has a chance to be better than that, but let's let's pretend he's the seventh, right best player in the league. Anthony Davis, when he's healthy, is the probably the twelve or thirteenth best player in

the league. Right. So you've got two of the top twelve or thirteen players in the NBA, and both of them are two way players, and they represent your front court, meaning like that's your foundational defensive you know, that's your defensive foundation. Those two guys, you have an opportunity to bring in a good coach. You have an opportunity to make moves on the margins. You have two first round draft picks that you can spend this summer in trades.

And in the Russell Westbrook trade situation, we've seen lots of examples of pretty solid opportunities that have come up. The Charlotte opportunity, potentially going after the likes of Gordon Hayward and like Terry Rogier or even like a Mason Plumberly if you wanted to get a backup center, there's a bunch of options there that Indiana Pacers offer, centering around uh, Buddy Healed and Malcolm Brogden. That's a decent opportunity. So the Russell Westbrook trade it looks like it's materializing

into there might be some decent options there. Then that you also have Taylor Horton Tucker and Kendrick Nunn. Taylor Horton Tucker had a really bad year, but at his salary number, which is right around ten million, there's gonna be some team out there that sees some intrigue or some value there. And Kendrick Nunn at five million is a backup point guard. Obviously this year is really weird with his knee issues, but that's a player that somebody

out there might want. And if you factor in the two draft picks that they can attach to either of those trades, you have the ability to bring some talent in and then in addition to that, you've got you found some key rotational pieces last year on the fringes when you in Gabriel was a really interesting athletic forward. Stanley Johnson showed a lot of potential as a defensive

primary option. Austin Reeves, we've talked a lot about him, is a really really solid defensive player who's great at attacking closeouts and kind of a perfect fifth guy in any lineup as a glue guy. So you've got a core foundation here, but you have to make the right trades this offseason, and you have to make the right

free agent signings. And what I talked about was the only way that that's going to happen is if the people in charge, and in my opinion, the three people running the Lakers are Genie Bus, Rob Polinka, and Lebron James. Those are the three people that have the most power and influence in that organization. Those three people have to all acknowledge and accept responsibility for what happened, because the first step to fixing any problem is admit that you

were wrong. And the most disappointing thing over the course of this last couple of months after the Lakers season ended, is no one seems to be accepting responsibility. I've seen hit pieces directed at Frank Vogel. I've seen hit pieces directed at Russell Westbrook. Don't get me wrong, both of those guys deserve a lot of blame for what happened this year, but the most blame falls on Genie busses Lap. I'd argue she's first in blame. Rob Blink is second

in blame, and Lebron is third in blame. But those three are clearly the top three in blame. Lebron wanted Russell Westbrook. It was a terrible idea. Rob and Genie should have shut that down. If they had smart basketball people running the team, they would have shot it down. But they don't. They don't have smart basketball people running the team. The smartest basketball people are Jesse and Joey Buss and they just run the scouting department. That's why

you keep getting Austin Reeves. That's why you keep getting Tylor Horton Tucker. So why you keep getting Kyle Kuzma, So why you keep getting really quality players further down in the draft or even undrafted. Those are the only two smart basketball people in that front office. Rob Polinka, any GM worth, his salt would have immediately been like, Lebron, I understand, he's your buddy. Terrible idea. Can't go that route.

But Rob Polynk is not a smart basketball guy. He's an agent who was a friend of Kobe Bryant's who got the job because Kobe Bryant went to Genie and said, please give Rob the job. That's what happened, and Genie Buss from the top down, her entire persona has consistently been favor friends and family over the most quality qualified person for the job, which is precisely how you end up in a predicament where the guy in charge of your basketball operations is not a really smart basketball guy.

There is a we talked a lot about this on the show. There's a level of work diving into the film being like literally addicted to watching basketball, not just NBA basketball, but rural basketball in parts of the world that that the quality is not great, and Rob Polynk is just not That guy is more of a personality

than he is a grinder at this point. That's the predicament that they're in, and what I see when I see this quote, as I see Genie Buss taking responsibility for wanting to fix the problem, but not taking responsibility for the problem. And that's precisely what's wrong, which is exactly what has manifested. She's leaning on Phil Jackson. Now she's leaning on Magic Johnson. Now. Magic Johnson literally decided he had the brilliant idea, Let's take the basketball out

of Lebron James hands. We need more Lance Stevenson with the ball. We need more Michael Beasley with the ball. We need more Region Rondo with the ball, less Lebron with the ball. Please. That was his grand idea. And then then we have Kurt Rambis too, like this is. This was the other quote that Jeannie had defending Kurt Rambis in this article. Quote. I know that there's been

some unfair criticism of Kurt Rambis. I want to remind people he's been involved in the NBA for close to forty years, that he has been a part of championship teams both as a player and assistant coach. He is someone I admire for his basketball knowledge. Guys, again, this is why I talked about how like I played college basketball, that's a much lower level than the NBA, obviously, but that does not mean anything about me understanding the NBA.

There's any player in the NBA, any coach in the NBA that's playing basketball or being involved with basketball is not the same as being in the weeds of basketball right now. Kurt Rambis, at one point in time, was heavily involved in the NBA as a player. Then he tried as a coach and it went really poorly. Now he's a special advisor to Jennie. Do you think Kurt Rambis is on league pass watching ten games a night. No. Do you think Kurt Rambis Kurt Rambis is hanging out

watching games in Europe. No. Therefore, he is not qualified to make these decisions. You need basketball people that are in the front office, that are in front of computer screens watching basketball NonStop, especially modern basketball, so they understand

why things are working. That's why Kurt Rambis allegedly went into Frank Vogel's coaches meeting and literally said, quote unquote, we need to play more DeAndre Jordan's If you watched any NBA basketball over the course of the last few years, you would know that's a terrible idea. He doesn't because he didn't watch enough basketball. He should not be involved in player personnel decisions. Into Genie Busses point, just because you've been involved in the NBA doesn't mean that you're

a smart basketball guy. It's not the case. There are bloggers that never have picked up a basketball in competitive situations ever in their life who understand modern NBA basketball more than Kurt Rambis does. That concept has nothing to do with your playing experience. Ideally, you want both. Ideally you want someone who played in the NBA, coached in the NBA and as a grinder. But those guys are

few and far between. They're hard to find. Most players are done with their playing career and they want to work less as they should. They worked too hard when they were playing. But this whole thing just reeks to me of yet another example of the Lakers refusing to accept responsibility for why they're in their predicament, and it's exactly why. If you ask me, Jason, do you think the Lakers will get back into title contention next year? I say it's possible, but not likely because in order

for it to happen, you need competence. In hoping for competence from this Laker front office as a fool's errand all right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate your guys support. As always, remember a couple of housekeeping details. We will be going live every single night this week, so come hang out after the biggest games and we will be breaking them down live

here on YouTube. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter, and make sure you follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you can see the video content that I do to back up the things that I talked about on the show. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys support and we will see you tomorrow. The Volume