Hoops Tonight - Suns-Mavericks reaction: , Ja Morant injury

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In Michigan one eight seven seven eight Hope and why or text hope and Why to four six seven three six nine in New York. In Tennessee redline dial one eight hundred, eight eight nine nine seven eight nine in Tennessee visit www one eight dot one eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. I am Jason Tiff. I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend. Happy Mother's Day to all of them

mothers out there. Very strange game in Dallas tonight between the Suns and the Mavericks. We're gonna break that game down in its entirety. I also am going to share my thoughts after all of the scuttle butts surrounding the John Morant knee injury, and then stick around for the end. I'm gonna go over some of the stats that I found that have updated from the Celtics Bucks series. Also a couple of quick housekeeping notes. Don't forget to subscribe

to the Volumes YouTube channel. Also look for a link in the description to this video to subscribe to our newsletter. It's a great place for you to keep up to date with all of the content at the Volume and has always follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you can see my film breakdowns that I do to support a lot of the stuff that I talked about on the show. But let's start with Dallas and

they're tying the series against Phoenix tonight. I told you guys that I predicted this series to go to six games, mainly because I trusted Luca to be able to overcome the massive talent disadvantage between these two teams, just with the way that he can control a basketball game and his ability to control the pace and the flow with his consistent good decision making, and ironically enough, he's still

not shooting the ball particularly well. That's gonna be the thing that's gonna be really freaky for the Sons in terms of the threat, the appropriate fear that they should have that they can lose this series should come from the fact that Luca, once again tonight we had twenty six points on twenty five shots, was not efficient. Was missing that step back three that he goes to. He's been hitting that in his playoff career over our guy

Carson pointed that out on TikTok the other day. He's one for ten tonight, and there's a version of this story again. I'm still picking Phoenix to win this series. I believe they'll win in six or seven games. But the threat here for Dallas to overcome them is what if that what if Lucas starts making some of these shots,

because that's when things could get really, really dangerous. He his ability to consistently make you pay for sending double teams, but to victimize mismatches makes them such a huge problem. And I'll use an example a stretch of the game there in that third quarter when he was attacking Campaign. So Campaign had a really rough night tonight. He's actually

a pretty decent backup point guard. But Dallas has been really good sliding their feet and containing dribble dribble drive guys this entire season, and they've been putting him in a bind. Chris Paul's foul trouble obviously was an issue. We'll get to that in a little bit. But when you play guys on the floor that are small, like Campaign is, you just know that Lucas gonna go after him. You know that Lucas gonna make a concerted effort to make you pay for having a player like that on

the floor. And what was super interesting is no matter where they had him, even if it was in like they're weird, kind of like little matchup zone that Phoenix was doing, Luca would just bring the ball over to where Campaign was there and then attack him. And he's so good like Campaign was pressuring up on him, but he Luca almost has like that Nicola Yokich esque spin move where I always talk about how post players one of the biggest things we train them to do. We

do this with high school kids with the pad. You know, the pad that you hold. You want to kind of air on one side of the body because most post offenders do something like that, especially when they're trying to front before the post entry, but they spin off on the other side. You're supposed to feel where the defender is and spin to that side. It's kind of like a license to use your chicken wing to like when you spin, you can use your shoulder and elbow to

create more separation. And Luca was just doing that time and time again. If Campaign stayed behind him, he'd back him down and get into his post moves. If he would press up, he'd spin off of him and go all the way to the rim and then he you know, and Luca has a gift for this with a pump fake. But what he would do is they put a shooter, a good shooter one pass away, like Dorian Finny Smith was incredible tonight. I believe he made eight three point shots.

They had put Dorian Finny Smith one pass away and Luca would kind of back down cam and then just go up with the pump fake and then out of the pump fake immediately make the past because on that shot fake, the guy guarding Dorian and Phinney Smith would come over to help, and it was like the best way to catch him in between that stunt. We call that stunt doubling it if you don't want to if you don't want to actually give up an open shot, but you want to dissuade the offensive player from feeling

comfortable you lunge at him and then come back right. Well, Luca was catching them in the lunch to get to open shooters. It's all just part of what makes him such a dynamic half court surgeon. The way that he is. It's one of the biggest reasons why I value Luca's skill set so much compared to some of his peers around the league's. Obviously, his defensive issues are gonna have to be addressed, although he's been a lot better defensively in the last two games. Dallas in general has been

way better defensively in the last two games. That's the reason why they've been as successful as they are. We've talked about this at length on the show. Avoiding Phoenix's set defense, getting cross matches in transition so that you don't have to attack Michael Bridges every time. Everything about what Dallas does is predicated on what they do on the defensive end of the floor. And you know, one of the things that they've been doing it almost kind of reminds me of um of the Utah Jazz series.

They're doing a good job of making it so that they don't give up too much and switches to DeAndre eight and by crowding him by stunting a lot of all year long, Dallas has been a gimmicky defense in the sense that, like they know, they don't have the personnel. They don't have Phoenix Suns personnelit they don't have Boston Celtics personnel. They don't have six wings on the on the roster that can guard multiple positions. That's not what

they're working with. They have a handful of really good players. Reggie Bullock and Dorian Finney Smith are fantastic two way players. They were ten for seventeen from three to night too between the two of them, which is awesome. Those two guys are obviously your stereotypical traditional great defensive players Dorian Uh Reggie Bullock can do lock and trail stuff, so he's great to but on guys that run off of screens for shots right there. He's also Bullock is very

good with ball pressure and being disruptive. And then Dorian Smith is just He's not quite the level of a Michael Bridges, but he's a similar archetype of players. Super long wing with super long arms that bothers really good players. I remember watching Dorian Phinnie Smith back in like two thousand seventeen or two thousand eighteen do a number on Lebron James in a game in Dallas, and I was like, man, this guy has physical tools at the wing position defensively

that are just really, really difficult to deal with. But Dallas, outside of those two guys, has a lot of offensive minded players, and Jason Kidd is just on a really nice job of of talking them into committing to the defensive end of the floor and bringing it on that side of the four and competing, and they've stifled a really really good Phoenix Suns defense in the last couple

of games. A lot of you know, after the first quarter, we saw Monty Williams talk about this and this is something that I hit on heavy last night in the show. If you guys remember dribble contained, I did this whole thing talking about how Memphis has a huge weakness with dribble contain and how it's one of the most valuable skills in the NBA right now. Well, one of the things that's been really hurting Phoenix in these two games

is they're giving up easy dribble drives. If you guys remember that opening quarter interview after the first quarter of their interviewing Monny Williams, and he specifically talked about we have to do a better job of keeping the ball handler in front, because when we don't, we have to help too much. That's when they get out two shooters.

And I think the I think the Mavericks made fourteen threes in the first half or something crazy like that, you know, compared to I think Phoenix had only made five, So like massive advantage in the three point shooting element of the game, just because they were getting dribble penetration. And that's where Phoenix, and this is part of the

dynamic of going on the road versus at home. Dribble drive defense is so much about just sitting in a defensive stance and moving your feet, and when you're feeding off the energy of the home crowd, it's just easier to do that. And Phoenix is running into the classic problem that happens when you go on the road. You still have to compete defensively the same way you did at home. There were stretches at home where it looked like Dallas was helpless against their defense, especially late third

early fourth quarter of Game two. They have to find a way to recapture that I believe they will when they get home. The last thing I wanted to touch on from this particular game was the Chris Paul foul trouble thing. And you know, for a player in Chris Paul, who's famous, like his reputation is smart decision maker, you know, the adult in the room, the guy that you can trust to have the ball in his hands. And we're coming on a couple of really weird games here, seven

turnovers in game three, then the foul trouble today. We'll talk about the foul trouble in just a second, but you know, with Chris Paul's playoff resume, there's some weird stuff like this, like the all the decisions at the end of that crazy Oklahoma City game that he tricked off and may or may not have tricked off the series he has, Like there was that weird moment in the bubble in Game seven where like he was scoring and switches over Robert Covington time and time again, and

then on the last possession he like panicked and throw the ball to Shake Gils just Alexander and almost turned it over and like and you're just like the so strange for a player who's typically so dependable in these situations to have some black marks on his resume in the playoffs, and you know, and it's just it's just confusing because there's no excuse for the decisions that he

was making today, Like do I love that six foul? No? Like, yeah, technically on the offensive rebound, he kind of reached in on Jalen Brunson, But I thought it was a really really weak foul in a playoffs setting. But at the same time, you know that there are two different kinds of scenarios that take place on a basketball court. Scenarios where you take the whistle out of the equation entirely, or scenarios where you make the ref make a judgment call the second you decide to reach in and hit

him on the arm. Like that, you have now put the ref in a predicament. He now either has to blow the whistle and call a foul on you to foul you out of the game, or he has to ignore you hitting an offensive player on the arm while he's shooting. I'll give you an example. Luca don Chech middle of the second quarter. I believe he already had two fouls. I think at this point he was trying to avoid his third foul. Devin Booker's isolating him on

the right wing. It's clear that Devin Booker is going to try to attack the rim on Luca with the sole intent to either get a wide open lay up because Luca will give him the lay up because he's in foul trouble, or to try to draw that additional foul and Luca, So what does Luca do? He looks over at the refs, shows him his hands, puts his hands behind his back on that possession. He didn't keep his hands behind his back the whole time, but he was making a statement to the ref, I am not

going to reach. Keep that in mind, don't call foul on me. Then Devin Booker did a hard dribble drive to the left and Luca slid with him, took the drive in the chest and fell over and drew an offensive foul. He is now playing the psychological game with the ref. I know him in foul trouble. I know you're watching me. I know Devin's hunting me looking for

a foul. I'm telling you right now, I'm not going to foul h And even though even though he might not even had legal legal guarding position like that offensive foul was a kind of a fifty fifty call, right, But he was winning the psychological battle with the ref

by showing his hands the way that he did. There was a time where the Lakers did this back in two thousand nineteen with with Brandon Ingram and Kuzma and Lebron when they did the same thing in a game against James Hard At the entire game, they're like looking at the refs and showing them their hands the whole time. It's the psychological game, right. Let's go back to Chris Paul's fifth foul. Okay, you have four fouls in it's early second half. You know you only have two left.

You get a stop and get a rebound, and you dribble up the floor, deliberately veer into uh Jalen Brunson's path and stop and a collision happens and there's bodies all over the floor. Again, Yes, you have a chance to draw a foul there, but you have put the referee in a predicament where he has to make a judgment call. You put him in a predicament where he has to decide, am I calling a foul on Jalen or am I calling a foul on Chris, and are

you gonna get that call? Sometimes yes, but you put yourself in that predicament had you've done nothing and dribbled the ball up the floor. Yes, you take away the potential reward of drawing a bullshit foul on Jalen Brunson, but you also take out the possibility of you picking up your fifth foul. That's poor decision making. I thought, at least five of the six fouls against Chris Paul tonight we're good calls, and even the sixth one it

was close. That's just poor judgment. He knows better, He's been in too many of these games to do that. And again, it's like, I trust Chris Paul. I think he's gonna pull through. I think Phoenix will win this series. But like, it's really strange to have a player that's historically as dependable as Chris do reckless things like that in that type of setting. Just really really strange. Again, and Dallas has a chance. Never count out Luca. They

absolutely can win this game this series. Their defense has gotten considerably better. That's a huge thing that if they can carry that with them to Phoenix, they have a real chance to win. Lucas Steel hasn't shot well. That's their chance to steal Game five as Luca goes into Phoenix and shoots really well. But Phoenix is the better team. They have two of the last three games at home. The smart money is still on Phoenix at this point. All right, let's move on to this John Moran thing

for a minute. So obviously this came out while we were recording the show last night, so we didn't have a chance to really react to it. But okay, so John Moray goes on Twitter and shares out this video of like Jordan Pool seemingly pulling on his knee while he's planted. I didn't see another angle of this video where it doesn't look so much like he pulled as much as his hand was just there and jaw's knee kind of buckled a little bit. It's hard to say,

you know. And then, and obviously John Murray ends up deleting the tweet. You have. Memphis is coach come out and basically insinuate that it might have been done intentionally. Obviously, Jordan Pool comes out and says, I was going for the ball. It's your textbook, he said, he said, type

of situation right now. My initial interpretation is, you know, like, obviously it's possible that that Jordan Pool pulling on John Morant's knee was responsible for the issue, But there was also a play earlier in the game where John Morand was closing out on a shooter on the three point line on the left wing and appeared to slam his knee the same knee into the shooter as he was going by, so that very well may have called it. It also could have been an issue he's been dealing

with for a while. We don't know. But the bottom line is is like there's there's a gray area and some of these things and then there are like clear black and white type of issues. To me, the Dylan Brooks issue was so black and white. Clearly knocking the dude out of the air, clearly attempting to to hard foul a player that was flying. It was obviously a

dangerous play to me. That was so cut and dry, has to be ejected, has to be suspended, super dirty, have absolutely no respect for play or anything involved in it. Right then there's like, if I'm ranking the dirty fouls in the series, that's a clear number one. Then there's a significant drop off to the Draymond thing. The Draymond thing was dangerous, hit a guy in the face. I thought he loaded up and did it on purpose, and

then he dragged Brandon Clark out of the air. However, it was clear that Draymond was trying to gather Brandon Clark so that he wouldn't make the layup and get an hand one. It was dangerous. I thought it deserved

the ejection. But it was a clear, significant level below the Dylan Brooks thing because he was obviously not branching into that very very very dangerous play that Dylan Brooks uh did on Gary Payton to Gary Payton the second, So I thought there was a clear delineation between those two. To me, the Jordan Poole thing is even further below the Draymond thing. One. I've played in a shiptown of basketball games in my life, and I've played against dirty players.

I have never, ever, ever, ever, ever seen a player do anything from totally similar to that, grabbing a guy's knee while it's planted and trying to pull it out of whack. I've never seen that before, and so because of that, to me, it's it's kind of like a benefit of the doubt type situation. We're looking at Jordan Pool, a player who does not have a history of making dirty plays. To me, these series is are so physical with the away guys are grabbing arms and shoulders to

get leverage on people. Right, Like the chicken wing is an example. Like to me, it's like a swim move. A defensive en tries to get around an offensive lineman by kind of like swimming around him. Right. I thought Jordan Pool was trying to pull himself closer to John to try to get a hand on the ball. I didn't think it was intentional. Was there a chance that it was intentional, Yes, but we can't jump to that conclusion.

To me, it was safe to jump to that conclusion with Dylan Brooks because it's a play we've seen often in basketball history. It's a play we know is dangerous. We we know it's so dangerous that it's an unwritten rule amongst basketball players that you're never supposed to do that. This is a an entirely different situation. I hope Jaws okay. I hope he's able to play tomorrow. We don't know.

There was reporting that he might not play. I hope he's able to play the the To me, the John and knee situation is a separate topic from the Jordan Pool situation because I don't think it was intentional. But for the sake of the series, obviously I hope they come back. Obviously I hope he plays. One last note, do not count out Memphis if they don't have Jaw. Are they a lesser team? Yes, um what I favored Golden State. Yes, but I was gonna favor Golden State

even if Job was at acent. The thing is is, there's a reason why Memphis was so successful this year with Jaw off the floor, and it had a lot to do with the fact that Jaw was their weakest defensive player. They were about five point nine points per one hundred possessions better on defense without Jaw this year. As a result, they actually had a better net rating

without Job this year. As I said so many times on the show, I don't translate to that to the playoffs because in the playoffs, elite, high end shot creation becomes so much more valuable. So I'm obviously gonna heavily value Jaw and that predicament. Just look at this series. Nobody on Memphis can create a shot sept for Jaw right, So I don't think that Memphis Grozies are better without jaw However, they are a different type of good team

without him, they go to another big wing. Usually in that role, they become much bigger, much more athletic in terms of like their overall size and athleticism profile the line up. John Moran is a freak athlete, but he's not a freak athlete on the defensive end of the floor in terms of like covering a ton of ground and keeping guys in front and that kind of stuff. So Memphis becomes a better defensive team. They become more

imposing physically without John Morin. So that is their opportunity to try to drag out this series is go big without jaw and just try to physically dominate Golden State. Still in picking Golden State, I still think Golden State now would draw out if if he does end up missing the series, Golden State is gonna win this series in five games, I believe, but it's still gonna be

an interesting game. I still expect it to be a dog fight because Memphis doesn't become a bad team without Jaw, They just become a slightly lesser different team at that point. All right, before we get out of here today, I wanted to quickly touch on some of the metrics from yesterday a Celtics Bucks game. Obviously, this is something I've been keyed in on all series, particularly to the difference between the way the teams are performing in half court

versus in transition. It's so much of this comes down to Boston's offensive decision making. It controls the pace of the game. We talked about this a lot in last night's show, but all the data tells us that Boston is a significantly better half court team. But Milwaukee has managed to steal two games in transition. Like that's where this this whole series has been determined to give you

an idea. So for the entire series, the in transition Milwaukee is averaging one point four one points per play compared to Boston averaging one point zero to four points per play. So literally, Milwaukee is winning this series in transition, and it shows in the stats. They won Game one, they were twenty points better than Boston in fast break points. They lost Game two, they were even in fast break points. They won Game three, they were ten points better than

Boston in transition. They are winning this series in transition in half In the half court, Boston has consistently been the better team. Obviously, they were the better team in the first two games. We talked about that, but it's the question was if we go to Milwaukee, will Milwaukee's half court offense get better? No, it actually has been worse. It's it was worse in Milwaukee than it was in

the first two games. So last in yesterday's game, Milwaukee average zero points seven six points per half court play. Boston average zero point eight one. So Boston was the better half court team in Boston. They've continued to be the better half court team here in Milwaukee. What does that mean? What that means to me is that's how this series is going to be determined. Boston has demonstrated that that is in it, that is a replicable skill

to be the better team in the half court. Not because Jan this is the best player in the series. He's also probably the best half court creator in the series. But Boston has far more players on the floor at any given moment that can drive, that can dribble, drive, pass, and shoot, and that combination makes them much harder to guard.

Boston has our Milwaukee has some more traditional spot up guys, guys that aren't grade at attacking closeouts and things along those lines, so so much more is on Janice and Drew Holiday's plate to create shots. Boston doesn't have that problem because they have more offensive talents surrounding Jayson Tatum. Right. But this is how the series is going to be determined. If Boston takes smart shots and can stay in the

half court, they will win. If they continue to get wrapped up in poor decision making, quick three point shots off the dribble, just overall sloppy offense, they will continue to let Milwaukee get out in transition and they will lose. You know that I I picked Boston to win this series in five. But the reason why this is up in the air is Boston has killed themselves in two of these games and transition that's where this thing has been. That that's where this series has swung. And the issue

is is that's controllable. If you're Boston, that's just take care of the basketball, make smart decisions, don't get those kinds of things. But if you're Milwaukee, the way that you win this series is you run at all costs, push on every possible possession because in the half court you are not scoring against this Boston defense. You know, Joannice, and I mean this is a compliment to him. Um, I think Janice is on a tear by himself at

the top of the league. I think this reminds me of Lebron Circle two thousand thirteen, where it appears that there's a definitive gap between Lebron and the next guy. I thought Lebron was the best player in the world from two thousand twelves to two thousand twenty without interruption, but right around two thousand fourteen when k d rose and then obviously in two thousand fifteen when Steph Roze,

it got close. And obviously, even though I thought Lebron was better than those guys, I thought they were kind of in the same tier as him, and given night, they were capable about playing him right with Janice, it kind of feels like the way it did with Lebron in those first couple of years when he was at the top the league, where it's like, who is the second best guy? Is it Kobe? I mean yeah, but Kobe was nowhere near as good as Lebron In two

thousand thirteen, was it, you know, Katie? Yeah, but he's still he's a baby. He's not quite developed yet, Johanna seems for Jhannice, it's a different dynamic because he's kind of fending off guys that are established guys like Katie and Lebron and Steph. Right, but Janice isn't a tear by himself at the top of the league right now. We have to just acknowledge that based on what we're seeing on the floor. The interesting thing is is Boston

is still having a massive impact on him. Boston has held him to fifteen percent below his regular season true shooting percentage. He's shooting forty eight point nine percent in true shooting in this series. That's insane. Not true shooting is just literally your field goal percentage but weighted with three point shots and free throws. That's all it is. But it's incredibly impressive what Boston has done to him.

That said, he's been able to impact the game a ton, just with his relentless attacking of the rim, in his playmaking, in his defense. He's averaging thirty one, eleven and nine in this series, which is in obviously not efficient, but he's putting up the impact metrics and as I have said, credit Boston for the lack of efficiency. If they did it to k D, they were obviously going to do it to honest they're the best defensive team of this era.

I've said that many times, and it was really and honestly was kind of nice to hear JJ Reddick and Tim Legler say the same thing on the pod that they did the other day, because obviously those guys have a lot more credibility than I do because they've been around for a long time, they're established be guys. I wasn't saying that for poops and giggles. I'm literally a guy who covered the Lakers for the last two years. All my Twitter followers, for the most part, our Lakers fans.

I don't stand to gain anything by advocating for the Celtics. But what I do do, guys, is I put in the work. I watched a ship ton of tape. I watched it almost every game twice, okay, And when I was digging into the tape and when I was digging into the numbers, we are seeing things from this Boston defense that we have never seen before from any other team in recent NBA history. Okay, so I'm just acknowledging what I'm seeing with my eyes. That's why Boston was

a minus two favorite before this series. To Janice is credit he has in so great that he has overcome that to the extent that he's been able to pull out a couple of games. It actually kind of reminds me of Lebron in the two thousand fifteen finals against Golden State, them taking a two one lead on the strength of greatness from Lebron or in this case, your honest inefficiently. Remember Lebron was horribly inefficient in that series because Golden State was loading up on him. Jannice is

dealing with the same thing now. But eventually, the better team that consistently gets better shots is gonna take over. And that's what I think is gonna happen in this series. I think Boston is gonna win Game four tomorrow. I think they're gonna win. I think it'll be a relatively close game, but I wouldn't be surprised if Boston won by ten fifteen points. And then I think they're gonna go home and win Game five in Boston in front of their home crowd, win big. I think they'll win.

I think they'll have control of that game. And then I think they're gonna go into Game six in Milwaukee, and that offense, all all of the offensive things that Boston will have figured out, I think they will have taken hold, and I think they'll be consistent there, and I think they'll be able to go on the road and win a game there. I think bos and wins the series and six. I know people think I'm crazy, but I'm just paying attention to what I'm seeing in

the numbers. I'm paying attention to what I'm seeing in the film, and I'm trusting that I am also not I'm not like stupid enough to think that Janice isn't capable of overcoming that. Of course he is. Lebron damn near did it. In two thousand fifteen. He went in Game five in Golden State and had another crazy, you know, forty six point game or something, and it just wasn't quite enough. And maybe maybe Honest is capable of that.

You know, one of my friends de Monrangoula was talking on Twitter yesterday about how, you know, Joannice might have to average fifty to win this series, and he's right, he might literally have to average fifty, but he's also capable of that. That's not out of the realm of possibility. That's just what he's gonna have to do. You know, Johannese is gonna have to put up put up other worldly performances down the stretch of this series to win. He just also might be capable of doing it. I

just I'm still picking Boston at this point. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. I sincerely appreciate your support. As always, we will be back at tore the final buzzer of Warriors Grizzlies tomorrow night, and I'll see you guys. Then the volume