Hoops Tonight - Tatum outshines Durant, Kyrie’s sh*t talk, Giannis squeaks by Bulls

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What an incredible first weekend of NBA Playoff basketball. Somewhat chalk in a lot of different ways. Home team is gonna end up winning, assuming that the Phoenix Suns closed the deal here, which I obviously expect them to do. The home team won six out of the eight games, um the favorite on seven out of the eight games because the Jazz were expected to beat the Mavericks without Luca Donte. But at the same time, we had a

handful of really exciting games. The series clearly appeared to be more competitive than we thought on on a bunch of fronts, and we learn a lot. The devil's in the details in these NBA playoff series is they're like chess matches. It's more about what you can learn from game one than it is about the outcomes. The outcomes do matter, but as a series progresses, as you've seen so many times over the years, a lot can change

over the course of the last few games. If a team figures out something and the other team can't match that, we're gonna break down. It's some capacity every single series that played out this weekend. We are going to start with the Celtics and Nets, and then after that we're

gonna bring my guy Carson on. We're gonna play some games, we're gonna talk about some playoff adjustments, and then we're also going to get into a little bit of drama with this Kyrie Irving thing having to do with fans, which is something that's been a very common refrain from NBA players over the course of the last couple of years, and I kind of disagree with their approach there. So I'm gonna give my two cents on that, But let's

start with the Celtics and the Nets. Obviously the most exciting game of the weekend, easily the most interesting series of the first round. I had this one going seven

to the Brooklyn Nets. I looked at this as on the when the Nets were on offense, this is one of the best offenses in the league versus one of the best defenses in the leagu And then on the defensive end of the floor, I saw it as a pretty average, too good offense with for the for the Celtics against an average too good defense for the Nets. And so I saw it is very evenly matched, and I thought it would come down to the stars, and that's why I was going to give the edge to

Kevin Durant. Round one was super interesting on a bunch of different levels. Kevin Durant had a really rough night. I want to start with the end of the game because that was obviously the most exciting part. So Kyrie has this incredible flurry, vintage Kyrie like he like he's with the Calves in two thousand seventeen or in two thousand sixteen, where he just starts making impossible shot after impossible shot, the Nets get a little bit of a lead.

The Celtics battle it back to tie it at one eleven. Think Kyrie makes another massive step back three over Marcus Smart and then the Celtics stole the game. On the last two possessions of the game, Jalen Brown beats Bruce Brown to the basket for a really nice lay up. They go down the other end double team. Kyrie Irving on the wing works around Kevin Durant. He takes an

impossible turnaround fade away three. That obviously, with Kevin Durant, you're always just holding your breath thinking it might go in. It doesn't. Eight seconds left, no time out. Here comes this kind of chaotic possession. Bruce Brown and Nick Claxton both jump out of their shoes and Marcus Smart on the three point line, which I thought was a really

confusing decision. Those last possessions are always really chaotic. Marcus Smart patiently hit I think he had already attempted nine threes in the game, instead of jacking up a silly shot, put the ball on the floor, made a read. He saw Tatum kind of cut right to that left block. On the cut, Kyrie reached, and as a post player, you're trained when you whenever you work on post moves, you feel where the defender is on one of your shoulders. If he's on your left shoulder, you want to spin

to the right. If he's on your right shoulder, you want to spin to the left. Tatum felt that Kyrie was there immediately pirouetted on the catch and laid it in at the buzzer. Just incredibly savvy play on a

bunch of different fronts. Jalen Brown attacking and transition, they're not forcing the action and kicking it out to the wide open Marcus Smart, Marcus Smart not forcing the shot, and then Jayson Tatum making that incredible play pirouetting around Kyrie Irving, literally stealing victory from the jaws of defeat. Because that was an unbelievable performance from Brooklyn. They played well enough to win that game. Just a handful of

plays at the end swing it. I always talk about how playoff series are a lot closer than people realize. Even when you look at series totals right like you look at a a four one series, you might call it a gentleman sweet, but usually you point to two or three games that are really really close. I talked about this with the Bucks in the Sun's last year.

The Bucks won four straight games to win that series, right, so you think, oh, Bucks dominant six game victory, they've solved the Suns, and they did on a lot of different levels. But there were two plays in two games in that series that it. There was the play where Devin Brooker. Booker was working on p J. Tucker into the middle of the lane and didn't see Drew Holiday coming. Drew Holiday took the ball away from him and threw the lob to Jhannice for the dunk. That was a

bang bang play that swung that game. And then later in the series there was an infamous player where Devin Booker's running the pick and roll with DeAndre Ayton and Janice kind of stunts up at Booker and Booker throws the lab pass and Janice turns around and makes one of the all time great defensive plays to snuff that out. Those are two plays that may or may not have swung the games that may or may not have swung

the series. In a seven game series, the best team usually wins, and you are going to give a team a certain amount of margin for error to make mistakes when you have seven games, but there are always a handful of moments that can swing this series one way or another. I'm still leaning towards Brooklyn. I'll explain why as we get a little bit more into the details here.

But if Boston ends up winning this series in you know, a tough game five at home or a tough game six on the road in Brooklyn, You're gonna think back to this one because this is a game that you very well could have one you controlled on a bunch of different levels, and you botched with just a handful of defensive breakdowns at the end of the game and some really good defense from Boston, and so those are always the little moments that you hope you can overcome.

But man, this was a game Brooklyn should have won. So I want to look at it on a couple of different levels. Let's start with the nets on offense. So a lot of people were pessimistic about Brooklyn's offense coming into this because some of the big numbers coming into this looking at the regular season were flawed. Because you've got Kevin Durant out for a really long time. James Harden straight up like shaving points because he was trying to get traded. Yea. Kyrie not playing in home games,

So a bunch of the metrics were really off. A lot of people were concerned about the way they run their offense. They don't run a ton of actions. They do some off ball stuff with Kevin Durant to get him catching on the move, but it's a lot of isolations, a lot of your turn, my turn, it's a lot of high pick and roll, it's a lot of it's kind of like the Lakers. It's more of a brute force offense of our talent as opposed to a very

scheme oriented offense. So between the metrics and that, you had a lot of people saying, I don't know if Brooklyn can score against Boston. But you have to look past that. You have to look at the specifics of the way the Boston or the Brooklyn offense has worked this year. With Kyrie and Kevin Durant on the floor this season, they've scored almost a hundred and twenty three points per one hundred possessions. They were one of the best offenses in the league with the two of them

on the floor. And yes, they don't run a traditional offense, but they don't need to because Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are comfortable being uncomfortable. They averaged tonight. If you look at their offensive ratings, specifically against Boston in this game, they scored a hundred and seventeen point five points per one hund possessions. That's an awesome number. That's an incredible number against a very, very very good Boston Celtics defense,

one of the best defenses we've seen at home. They were able to score. That's a very encouraging sign for the Nets, especially since Katie It and play particularly well. But I want to start with Kyrie because he played amazing. So if you guys remember yesterday, I opened the show with a little bit of a rant talking about just

how difficult playoff basketball is. We talk a lot about how the NBA regular season and the NBA playoffs are so different, and why I think that needs to be remembered when we're having conversations about players, because they are so different, and a certain type of player can have a certain amount of success in a regular season environment and then struggle in a postseason environment. We're gonna talk about this later in the show about DeMar Dea rozen.

For whatever reason, he struggles getting to the same looks that he gets in the regular season when he gets to the playoffs. When he gets the playoffs, it's been an issue through his entire career. For whatever reason, he struggles in that setting. And it's because the defensive intensity obviously steps up. There's a there's a there's there's way higher stakes that's gonna bring out more defensive effort. But it goes even further than that. It's the scheming, it's

the extensive game plan. It's every coaching staff is sitting down saying, Okay, we're playing this team. We want to make sure they do what they don't want to do on offense. And so when guys go into a series and try to play the way they always play, they're always kind of hit in the mouth. I mean, you even saw it a little bit with Kevin Durant tonight. Although Kevin Durant, this is the random exception to the rule, he is probably gonna bounce back because he always does.

But there are certain players that never can kind of get over that that lump. The defensive intensity, if the amount of physicality that the refs allow in the amount of scouting that that takes place makes scoring the basketball extremely difficult. So there are two kinds of players that succeed in these environments. Absolute brute force monsters think Lebron and Janice. Okay, guys where it's like, oh, we're having a fist fight here. Okay, Well I'm just gonna run

you over and I'm gonna thrive in this environment. If we want to have a fist fight for seven games, I'm winning that. Okay. Those kind of guys are gonna thrive in that environment. And then guys who thrive making tough shots. If within all this scouting and with all this defensive intensity, all this length and athleticism, all of this physicality, if all that exists for you on the floor is tough shots, who are the guys that are going to thrive in that environment? Guys who thrive making

tough shots. And you saw that with Kyrie tonight, unbelievable vintage shot making performance. It's funny because I'm a big believer in building isolation, moves off of the mirror images of each other, so that you're always a threat going both ways. On the big shot he made for one fourteen, He's got the ball in his right hand, and you're thinking two thousand sixteen NBA Finals harden and out dribble, step back to his right, pull up, you're thinking that

shot right. Nope, comes back to the left, in and out with his left hand. It steps back to the left. Marcus Smart was sitting on that right handed step back for Kyrie because that's his go to move in those situations. But too bad, Kyrie's got the mirror image down to got separation on Marcus Smart and knocked down the shot.

A lot of people are gonna be discouraged about the way that Kyrie Irving played because it was wasted right, And I kind of go the other way on that, because Kevin Durrett really struggled, and I tend to think that he's probably not going to struggle as this series progresses. It reminded me a lot of the early like kind of the like Game three in Game four area of the Milwaukee Bucks series last year, where Kevin Durrett was

struggling with getting mauled off the ball. So we were talking earlier about the two different guys that succeed in playoff environments, guys who thrive in physicality. So Lebron and Honice or guys who are incredibly high skilled, difficult shot makers. Right.

And one of the things that the Nets did tonight that I disagreed with, and it's gonna be one of my biggest adjustments for the Nets as they move forward in this series is they used Kevin Durant a lot off the ball, which is something he's done a lot this year. I did a whole video about it. How that's Kevin. That's one of the secret to the way Kevin Durant generates offense. He works hard for easy shots.

So instead of just getting into his dribble combinations and making stuff stuff happen in isolation, he'll kind of work you into the middle and wait for a pin down screen and he'll push you into the screen. He'll come flying off and he'll make a catch and shoot seventeen footer. He buffer. That's how he gets so efficient. All of the difficult shot making and top isolation situations is buffered by these easy shots that he works for off the ball.

But Boston, and this is special credit to Jayson Tatum and Grant Williams. They were the two guys that I thought did the best job in this specific area. Every time k D had the ball or didn't have the ball and was off the ball, they're hugging him, they're

grabbing him, they're holding him. Kind of reminded me of what the Calves and the Thunder did to Steph Curry back in two thousand and sixteen, like, Hey, when this guy gets the ball, there's nothing we can do with him, but we can rough him up and hope to wear him out. And I thought even when Kevin Durant got to the shots that he wants, typically he struggled to knock them down because fatigue is all always going to

play a role in those types of situations. Everyone always talks about like oh, we're just not making our shots tonight, or oh look at us, we're shooting really well tonight. Usually those two outcomes are tied to the defense. When a defense wears you out with physicality and takes away all your easy opportunities, even the ones you do get usually come when you're fatigued and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm open. Guess I'll raise up and

shoot here. But you're uncomfortable, you're out of rhythm because you haven't gotten a lot of easy shots in the game and you miss them. And so in that situation, like having Kevin Durant play off ball so often where he can be grabbed and held and roughed up. Think about how many times you saw Kevin Durant get knocked to the floor tonight, even on his dribble drives. They were just physically beating the ship out of Kevin Durant tonight.

You've got to find a way to get him out of those situations, even if it's not for the sake of the action you're running, just to save him the wear and tear. And so one of my biggest adjustments for the Nets moving forward is more Durant bringing the ball up the floor so that he avoid some of that off ball contact. The rests are always going to let a lot more go off the ball as guys are jockeying for position than they are on the ball. That's where you're gonna get the tiki tack, hand checks

and shoves and things along those lines. And so more Durant off the ball take advantage of the over aggressive defense, like if Grant Williams or Jayson Tatum's picking up Katie and half court pass it to somebody at the high post like Nick Lackson and cut off of him. Just classic give and go, anything to take advantage of the over aggressive nature of the Celtics defense. So Kyrie wasted a good performance. That sucks, I get it, But you've got Kevin Durant. He shot had more shots than he

had points tonight, which is almost never happens. This is one of the most efficient scores in the history of the NBA. Kevin Durant is gonna figure out how to have a big offensive impact on this series. And even with Kevin Durant having that nightmare performance, the Nets scored a hundred and seventeen point five points per one Hunter

possessions in this game. So they've shown that they can score on Boss in his defense and that is a huge indicator moving forward in the series, because I think things are going to get easier and easier for them on that front as Kevin Durant gets going. Moving over to the Celtics on offense, Tatum obviously was great. I don't want to dwell on him too long because I have a specific star of the game for the Celtics

that I want to hit on. But I thought Tatum played a really, really well rounded, superstar type of game. He was phenomenal on defense. We just talked about how he was working hard to be physical with Kevin Durant off the ball, using his length to bother him on the ball. They did a great job. He he did a great job defensively. On offense, he wasn't forcing things. He had a good, efficient game. He was absorbing the double teams when they came and was making easy reads.

Really really well played game from Jayson Tatum. My one concern with him, and this is something that's been kind of flaring up over the course of the last couple of months. The Nets did what every team has been doing with Tatum, hard denial every time he's off the ball, meaning the defender is literally not allowing him to catch and in on every action in isolation. They're double teaming him. So they've got to find some ways to work around that.

This is kind of opposite of the Kevin Durant thing. Have somebody else bring the ball up the floor, try to get Jayson Tatum the ball in specific spots where it's hard to double team, like the elbow, and where he can catch and go quickly before the double team gets there, have run the action so that the side is clear so he can catch and rip through, or get him in a switch on to one of the smaller players like Seth Curry where he can catch and just quick catch and turn and face and maybe jab

step jump shots, something along those lines. Find a way to get Tatum involved in the offense in the fourth quarter. Moving on to Jalen Brown. I thought he was the star of this fourth quarter. He had nine points in the last seven minutes. When everything was collapsing for Boston, when the nets were going on that run and when nothing was working, there was one thing that was working, and it was Jalen Brown putting his head down and

going to the rim. Just like I was talking about earlier, you either have to thrive in the physicality or you have to be so incredibly skilled that you can make incredibly difficult jump shots. Jalen Brown is not your incredibly difficult jump shot guy. But what he is is he's big, and he's strong, and he has an incredible first step, and even a good athlete like Bruce Brown, who was on him a lot there at the end of the game,

he can beat him to the basket. And there were a handful of pivotal possessions or Jalen Brown just beat Nets players to the basket. The Nets played really good defense in this game for the most part, but they're sloppy and some of the details they were bad at helping on Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown is not a great passer. The Nets have to do a better job of making Jalen Brown passed out of those drives. Huge possession of the game. Kyrie Irving makes a step back three to

make it one four teen, one eleven. Jalen Brown went right down and scored at the rim. Take any take any jump shot out of the equation, take any maker miss out of the equation. Put your head down and go to the rim and make a play. Huge play from Jalen Brown. He didn't make a single jump shot all game until late fourth and he made a huge three on the right wing that got them back in the game. I thought Jalen Brown was the unsung hero

this game. He also did a great job and help defense get a key block on Kevin Durant late in the game. He was flying around. Awesome game from Jalen Brown. One other note on the Celtics offense. I talked a lot about how because of the way the Nets play, they're they're gonna trap and double a lot outside, so you're gonna have guys making plays out of the short roll, Guys like Bruce Brown or even uh Nick Clackson from time to time just kind of rolling to that short

roll right around the free throw line. But the Nets always collapse there because they have great rim protectors and there's all these wide open corner three's available, and when they got him, I I the NBA hasn't updated the tracking yet it yet, so this isn't accurate. But per the track, per the shot chart, the Celtics went one

for nine on corner three's. That's something they've got to They've got to shoot more of them, and they have to be proficient on them, because that's the only way that you can make the Nets pay for sending two bodies at Tatum and collapsing at the guys that are rolling to the bass. Get off of those actions. So those are little adjustments for both teams. The Celtics can play better, particularly at the three point line. They've got to figure out how to get Tatum the ball in better.

Spots on the floor where he can't be get doubled. For the Nets, you gotta get Durant out of these off ball situations where he's getting roughed up, figure out a way to save the wear and tear. And then, last but not least, for the Nets, they gave up fourteen offensive rebounds tonight. Those are just little details. You gotta box your man out. We're gonna talk about this a lot for a bunch of the teams. Those are little effort and focus things that you can improve on

as the series goes along. Really really excited about this series as it progresses. I thought this was a blown opportunity for the Nets, but they're still very much in it. If you're looking for that silver lining, the Boston Celtics defense is the best defense in the NBA, and you had no problem scoring on them even in the crunch time moments of the game. I am still bullish on the Nets to win this series in seven games. Hey, hoops, fans, don't just watch all the NBA playoffs action, be a

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are gonna upset the Sixers in six games. Download fan Duel, America's number one sports book app today using promo code Jason T and place your risk free first bet for a chance to take home a w on basketball's biggest stage. Remember to use promo code Jason T for this amazing offer. We're gonna hit on the other three games of the day by checking in with our very own coach Jason. So can I ask you about some adjustments that you would make in each of these games? Given how Game

one went. We're gonna start with Hawks heat, which Miami just dominated one fifteen nine. So given that result, what would coach Jason tell the Hawks to switch up and fix going forward? They gotta play a little bit of defense, man, I mean I there are two different kinds of playing teams that I've seen over the course of the last

couple of years since this tournament has been incepted. You have teams like the Lakers and the Hawks, like very talented teams that for whatever reason are un serious all regular season and end up falling down there and have to fight their way out. And then you get the young, try hard team that's kind of out kicking their coverage and their talent to you know, a team that should be in the lottery, that just plays so incredibly hard every night and they just scratch and claw their way there.

That's like a team like the Pelicans, right. Well, the Hawks spent all season long b s ing around on the defensive end of the floor, even though the defense is what carried them in the postseason last year. Everyone thinks about Trey Young. Don't get me wrong. Trey Young is a great player who made a lot of great plays in big moments in last year's playoff run. But

it was their commitment to the defensive end. I know Clint Capella wasn't there tonight, but just of all the teams I watched this weekend, they were by far the sloppy ist in their defensive rotations. You're gonna give up drives. Every team gives up drives. Yes, the Hawks are gonna give up more drives because Trey Young is not a great defender, Bogdanovich is not a great defender, Gallinari is not a great defender. You're gonna give up more drives.

But they looked like a like a pickup basketball team or a men's league team rotating around on the black back end. They looked sloppy. They just looked like an un serious team. And guess what's gonna happen when you're an un serious team running into that Miami Heat squad that's out for blood, who struggled a little bit over the course of the last month and is trying to reinstill a bunch of those habits. Well, you're gonna get

your butt kicked. And that's what happened. So they've got to get they they've got to get some semblance of a functional defensive scheme working, or they're gonna get absolutely railroaded in this series. So from the Heat perspective, obviously they did a phenomenal job on Trey Young, and he had really just a brutal night and he was obviously a major focal point for them. So what did you think of how they approach that matchup and going forward?

Do you think that they stick with how they approached game one? Do you think they have to mix up at all how they cover trade? Just what's your perspective for the heat on that matchup. I loved their approach. I like Trey Young is the head of the snake you gotta cut the head of the snake off. You're seeing really quickly in this playoff run, just in this first weekend, and you're gonna continue to see it. There are players that are kind of made for this, and

there are players that aren't. And Trey Young is one of the guys who's made for this. But like you're seeing, Danilo Gallinari struggled to create shots in this tough, physical

playoff environment against Miami's defense. Bogoto, it is a guy who's had a lot of success in regular seasons over the years as a as a secondary shot creator, a guy who can run bench lineups and run primary pick and roll side actions, you know, to start possessions for bad teams in the dregs of the regular season, or helping the Hawks and the dregs of the regular season,

but it's harder at this level. And you're seeing what the Heat are doing is they're sending all their defensive attention towards Trey Young and giving him a nightmare night. And they'll be there looking at a boy on Bogdanovich and they're looking at Gallo and they're like, hey, beat us, let me see if you can, uh, let me see if you can create a shot for yourself off the dribble, and they just can't. Bogdanovich had a nightmare game. I think he was over eight, So really smart strategy from Miami.

I would keep pounding Trey Young as much as you can. If he has a disaster series, this thing is gonna be over in four games. All right. Let's move on to Sons Pelicans, where the Suns ended up winning one. They were suffocating defensively in the first half, up big, and then the Pelicans had a bit of a mini comeback. But obviously New Orleans a bit outmatched here in terms of record and probably personnel on paper. But after game one, what would coach Jason have them adjust for the rest

of the series. So, especially early in the game, I thought the Pelicans really struggled with the interior shot blocking presences of The Sun's Dedre Ayton and JaVale McGee both an amazing job. Jail McGee was awesome. That dude is like that dude. It was such a clutz for the first half of his career and was the butt of every joke. And he went to Golden State, learned how to become a winning contributor, did it again for the Lakers. He was actually a really good backup center for the Nuggets,

and now he's doing it for the Sons. I love that dude. I love his game. He was awesome the Pelicans. You know, you have two approaches there. You can continue trying to shoot over the really tall guy that's gonna block all your shots or make you throw up jankie stuff that you're not gonna make, or you can try to make them pay for overhelping in the easiest way. It's like like we're gonna talk about the Bulls and the Bucks. Here is shortly. You know, Nicolayusevitch took ten

threes today. That's what you gotta do. If they're gonna have Brook Lopez sit under the damn basket all game long. You gotta take those shots. Did he miss him? Yeah, and I hope he's gonna have to find a way to make them. But you gotta do the same thing

with Jonas Valancunas. You gotta do more pick and pop. The pick and pop is the perfect counter to a drop average because in a drop coverage, you're gonna have a guy like DeAndre and or JaVale McGee who's going to put himself between the ball handler and the rim, and then you have the guard chasing over the top of the screen, so you have basically two players staying

with the ball handler. It just happens to work when there's a guy rolling to the rim because usually the bigger athletic bigs can kind of split the difference between those two. But if you're a screener pops to the three point line, he's wide open every single time. And the Bowls, to their credit, did that with Nikolavuseovitch. The

Pelicans have to do more of that with Valenciona. I know he has a really slow release, I know he doesn't like to take a ton of threes, but you're either gonna sit there and try to finish over shop blocking all night long, or you can give Jonas valanciinas wide open threes, and I like that a little bit better. At the very least, you might be able to soften

up that interior defense and get some easier shots. All right, from the Sun's perspective, obviously a whole lot went right, but it did seem like kind of the one area that they were outmatched was on the glass. They were minus seven on the offensive boards, minus eleven overall, and the Pelicans were really just a great rebounding team this whole year. So is that like the biggest point of concern for you in this matchup, if anything? And how do the Sun's go about, you know, trying to negate

that advantage? Yeah, I mean, if I'm if I'm Monty Williams, I'm going in there and I'm ripping them a new one for not boxing out they. I think, Jonas, what I last that check? Jonas Callan, you just had nine offensive rebounds. I'm not sure how many he finished with, but that's just a completely insane number. You think after like four, there'd be a time out or you're screaming at your guys, And maybe that did happen, But to

be clear, this is all just for fun. Like the Suns are in absolute control of this series, Montie Williams is not sweating the slightest bit. They have too much talent. This is a bad matchup for the Pelicans as well in terms of the way they like to play. It's it's not the Pelicans have no chance. But if I'm Monty Williams and I'm looking for something to try to keep my guys engaged, I'm I'm just just dialing in on the box outs. That's gotta be the biggest adjustment

moving forward. All Right, Bulls Bucks last game of the day here for us was a pretty tight one down to the finish after the Bucks were up a little bit more convincingly early, ends up being six Milwaukee win. So what would coach Jason point out to the Bulls and say, this is what you guys need to adjust and fix going forward. So the same concept as we were talking about with the Pelicans. The Bucks did what

they've been doing all season overplaying the paint. Yeah, you know, Joan is kind of helping out of the week side Brook Lopez hanging out around the basket as much as he possibly can. The and I complained coming into this series that I was worried about the Bulls because they don't shoot enough threes. They attempt to ride around like threes per game in the regular season, which was dead last in the NBA, and the Bucks give up the

most threes in the NBA wide open threes. That is, they give up over twenty wide open threes every single game in the regular season, which was by far the most in the league. So I was concerned that the Bulls wouldn't be able to make the Bucks pay the way that they would need to. The weird part is is they took thirty seven threes tonight. To their credit, they took some really good ones in that pick and

pop type of scenario with Nikolavuseovitch. Not just in pick and pop, but also they had Voussovich when he was not involved in the accident action spot up at the three point line. Same idea like, at least make Milwaukee pay by giving up a wide open shot if they're going to overplay the paint. The problem was, of those thirty seven threes, they took way too many of them were pull up threes. And this is on both Levine

and Davar Dmarda Rosen. I thought both of them struggled with kind of understanding how to put their imprint on the game offensively, want to be aggressive as scores and went to be more willing to play make If you're gonna beat the Bucks, you have to have a boatload more catch and shoot threes on the week side. And I'm not just talking about the stuff with Nikolavuseovich, Damarta rosen And and Zach Levine. Have to be more willing

to kick out two guys in the corner. I'm really curious to look at this one a little bit more in the tape because is again, they took thirty seven, but from what I could tell, a lot of the ones they were taking were difficult, contested threes, not the kind of threes that you need in order to make

this Bucks defense pay. So my my biggest takeaway moving forward if I'm uh, if I'm the Bulls, is try to find a way to declutter the paint by just spamming pick and pop with Nicola Vusevitch and if you get into the lane and there's help, make the kick out every time. Trust your shot quality, Trust the fact that over the course of the series, even if you miss them in one game, you'll make these really good shots.

Don't do what Demarda Rosen and Zach Levine did and just keep trying to slam your head into the brick wall taking impossible shots, because all you're gonna do is keep missing, and now your confidence is gonna waiver. You like that that that's gonna be the If they make those reads, you'll soften the defense to the point where now you can get higher quality shots and then you

can get going. If that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely, And I think that you make a great point just about the bulls willingness to shoot threes because you're watching the Bucks drop pick and roll every time and de Rosen's just long, too long too. And obviously you can't hate on the guy because he does make the shots about as efficiently as anybody in basketball, but they just were not falling today, obviously, So he's earned himself a reputation as a guy who just doesn't live up to expectations

in the playoffs. Do you think if there's anything to that with him? There is? I mean, playoff basketball is just really hard, man, Like, look at what happened to Kevin Durant tonight, Like if it can happen to Kevin freaking Durant. Then like all these guys are dealing with similar, similar coverages, like when you're game planning for the Bulls, De Marta Rosen's one a on your on your scouting report,

you know what I mean. And so you know, there's there's a type of shot that you can get regularly in the NBA regular season that you can't get in the in the playoffs. We were talking about like you know, de Rosan getting to those pull up twos against drop coverage during isolations like post up turn rounds. They're just a little tougher. Now, I wouldn't even say that they're a lot tougher. You know, there's this weird culture around the NBA. People pretend like they don't play defense in

the regular season. They do, but like there's a difference between like good effort in the regular season and like okay to sloppy effort in the regular season. In the playoffs, it's like any mix of really good effort to like crazy desperate, psychotic, like fighting for our lives efforts. So like every possession just has this extra level of intensity.

I thought that in particular, the Bucks did a really nice job of disrupting DeMar De Rozen's bass, kind of making him feel like he was crowded, and you could almost see I don't know if you noticed this, Carson, but like there was a lack of smoothness to DeMar's pull ups. He looked like he was pressing, a little bit, a little bit stressed, a little bit rushed, and a lot more like flailing like he that he just looked uncomfortable. And so the thing is is, like, I don't know

that DeMar de Rozen because of his size. He's a decent sized guy, but he's not a huge wing, right, He's six ft six, decently strong. He's not the kind of guy that's going to be routinely able to get great shots. Okay, so it's gonna come down to whether or not he can make tough shots, and even though he's very good at that, over the course of his career, he just for whatever reason, hasn't been able to make

him in the postseason. So for the Bucks, obviously they pick up a win here, but it really did come down to it, and it came down to it on a day where de Rozan six of five, vouch is nine seven, Levine is six of nineteen like, none of the Bulls Big three shoot better than thirty three. So just given that, is there anything from this game that concerns you for Milwaukee given the closeness and the fact

that the Bulls best guys really did struggle. I'm not concerned as it pertains to the Buck's ability to win the series. But I thought that Chicago demonstrated something that was an interesting conundrum for the Bucks today. So, like, you know, traditionally, the way teams do help defense is they'll like it's let's say Janice is isolating on the left wing and there's a guy a shooter in the

strong side corner. Usually the guy guarding the shooter in the strong side corner stays glued to them because you never most defensive schemes never want to give up a strong side corner three. So usually the help just comes from the baseline, from the weak side corner, and so a guy will beat someone off the dribble and they usually just have to deal with the help defender at

the rim. Well, what Chicago did that I thought was really interesting is wherever Janice caught the ball, even if it was one pass away, guys were sitting in his driving lanes and so but they were kind of like splitting the difference. It's kind of like dare you to do to make a decision kind of thing, Like you'd have Patrick Williams guarding you, Honice staring in right in the face, and Janice has his rhythm and he's kind

of trying to figure out whether he's attacking. But there's Alex Crusoe sitting right in the driving lane to the left, and you know, there's Derek Jones Jr. Sitting right in the driving lane to the right. And it's like, okay, even if I beat Patrick Williams, I'm just running right into another defender. But at the same time, Alex cruisos not doubling. So like if I throw this pass to the strong side corner, like it's a three, but it's gonna be a slightly contested three, like Alex is gonna

close out. And so it kind of flustered the Bucks offense. Now, Bucks fans will probably tell you it's rust, it's we haven't played in a week, it's you know, game one, jitters, all that kind of stuff. I looked at it more as a really really smart scheme from Chicago to dare Milwaukee to make easy single pass reads to one pass away shooters to take lightly contested threes, and I can't remember the exact number, but the buckshot in the low from three today. That whole, that whole dynamic kind of

psyched him out. The obvious adjustment there is you gotta make sure Chris Middleton's one of those guys that one that's one pass away. Maybe Pat Connaton is the other. And then you gotta look at Chris and you gotta be like, look, man, when they do this, I'm hitting you. You've got to shoot it. You've got to find a way, just like we were talking about with the Pelicans and with the Bulls earlier, you gotta find a way to

loosen that defense. And the only way to do it is to demonstrate that you are willing to make them pay for it. And way too frequently in this game they would drive into that traffic and cause problems. So, first of all, credit to the Bulls. They defended like crazy. That was a really, really impressive performance. But the Bucks are gonna have to figure out how to make the Bulls pay for just digging into the honest's driving lanes all night long. All right, Well, That's all I got

for now, Jason. I'll be back in a sec. We'll look forward to the other four playoff series. But great insight from coach Jason there. Love that. All right, man,

We will see you soon, all right. So I wanted to talk about this Kyrie Irving quote for just a minute because this is again like there's kind of like a I don't know if rebellions the right word, like a movement among NBA players on a couple of different fronts, kind of anti media and kind of anti fans, and as is always the case, like everything the sentiment agree with.

I actually really really love what my colleague Draymond Green has been doing talking about NBA media and their obsession with drama and the way that there they aren't held accountable. I'm like a pent in agreement there, like he was. I thought Draymond Green said such a cool thing when he went on that podcast with Evan Turner, Evan Turner and Andre Gudala the other days, like the game of basketball is beautiful, Like let's talk about this beautiful game

of basketball, and percent agree with him there. Well, one of the other movements that these players have been getting behind is this anti fan movement, and I this problem has been around forever. Fans have been heckling forever, and they heckle at every level of every sport of all time.

I'll never forget playing an n ai A basketball and standing to throw an inbounds pass and having uh I could I played at a school in Utah, I was not Mormon, played at a school in Utah, and I had all the fans right behind my ear, screaming like anti Mormon jokes, like horrible, horrible things right into my ear. I had that happened to me dozens of times, areas different capacities when I was playing in college. It happens at every level of sport. Even the players say horrible

things to each other at times. It's kind of just like the weird nature of of competitiveness, right, and you know, but at the same time, like it doesn't make it right that people behave that way, but players are bothered by it. So before we go any further, I want to read the Kyrie quote. So after the game, and you guys saw it looked like in the video it looked like some fans were heckling him from behind where he was inbounding, and it looked like he may or

may not have flipped him off behind his head. At least I thought that might have been what happened. I'm not sure if anybody actually solidified that or not. But the quote from Kyrie, he says, quote, when people start yelling pussy and bitch and fuck you, there's only so much you can take as a competitor. Nah funk that that's the playoffs. It is what it is. I know what to expect in here, and I'm ready to give the same energy back to them. And quote and I

get that. I like, I've just like anybody else who's ever dealt with heckling or any any time, anybody, all of you, just in your day to day life, anytime you're ever in a setting where someone says something rude to you, whether it's like a weird dude in a retail setting who like is in customer service who treats you poorly, or you're at a bar and you're having a drink and some guy bumps into you and doesn't

say I'm sorry, or whatever. It is like you're gonna run into inconsiderate and people that that are rude and and and mean and offensive all the time in your life. But you not doing that is what separates you from those people. Like, the reality is if we allow twenty thou people into an arena, we're probably gonna get some scumbags in there. You know, Like there's gonna be some trash human beings in there that don't have it filter, that are awful, that are you know, bigots, that are

that are insensitive, that or whatever it is. You're gonna get horrible human beings that are going to interact with you in every phase of life, but especially in a competitive environment and on a basketball court. And my thing is like I'm not saying it's easy to deal with. I sympathize with the sentiment, but Kyrie, you're not saying shipped back to them, You're not flipping them off. That's

what separates you from them. And like, and I understand where in this like there's kind of like this new ideology that goes around where it's like we always have to support what everybody you know, like wants to to say or do. But it's like at the same time, like there's gotta be a line somewhere, And like, to me, the line is like if somebody's rude to me, I don't have to be rude back to them. I can

be above that, and then guess what happens. Everyone's gonna remember all the things that the horrible things that the fans said to you, and they're gonna have your back anyway after the fact. It this makes you the story in a wrong way, and and I just disagree with

with the approach. And like I get like, as far as there's been this other kind of dynamic here where NBA players in particular, I want to, uh make it seem like their job has all these massive downsides, Like you get heckled, you have to deal with media criticism, they're traveling is tough, you have to be away from your family for a long time. I get all of that, But every single job has pros and cons for various reasons. I worked in real estate for a half decade before this,

and like, there was great things. I was my own boss, I got to set my own schedule. It was freed me up to be able to do things like make a podcast and and coach high school basketball and do all these things. It was great, but they were also downsides, Like I would sometimes be at dinner with my wife and a phone call would come in that I absolutely had to take. Because in real estate, you're on seven if you're if the deal that you're working has some

urgent need that you have to cater to. You've got to hop in and you've got to do something, and so and and and again. Like there are some amazing perks for NBA players, one of the downsides is is you have to play basketball in for the twenty thou people, and sometimes there's scumbags and those twenty people they say horrible things to you, and you might have to turn the other cheek. You might have to look the other way.

That's that's just the that's the reality of it. So my thing is, like I sympathize with Kyrie, but like, man, it's a bad look for you to stoop to their level. Show me, show us, show all of us why you're different, why you're better than the scumbag behind you who called you a bit in the second row. You know what I'm saying, Like that, that's the kind of an ideology

that I don't understand. And and and it seems to be kind of like boiling over from NBA players right now, And I've I'd be really curious to hear from older players in previous generations, because I would imagine it might have been even worse back then, you know what I mean. So I just I they've gotta you got this is the part of the deal man, and you've just gotta you just gotta take it in stride. I think it's

It doesn't make it easy. I understand we've all been there where someone saying something to you and you'd like to lash out physically, or you'd like to to turn around and custom out, or you'd like but what did you guys all do in those situations? For the most part, we've all cracked before. I've cracked before. But what do you usually do, usually privately to yourself. You gotta screw

that guy, and then you just walk away. You know that, because because you're better than him, that you're not the kind of person who behaves that way, and so you're above that fray and you separate yourself from it as much as you can. That's all I had on that front. I wanted to bring Carson back on. We're gonna play

a game about some of my predictions from playoff series. Yeah, just real quick before we get into that Jason, how do you think the fact that this happened in Boston were obviously Kyrie played and there was the whole kind of ugly break up. Their factors in all of this, and his reaction Obviously, obviously it exacerbates the the heckling.

It obviously makes it harder. But like this is where it's like, it's it's like a bad breakup, like you you lashing out in return, makes it seem that you have unresolved feelings about it, you know, like here's the reality of what happened with Kyrie and Boston. He made a promise that he was coming back, literally got on the microphone and said he was gonna sign a correct me if I'm wrong in this car someon. I'm pretty sure he grabbed the microphone at one point in front

of the entire stadium. It was like, I'm signing the extension this summer, Like like the dude, he didn't he didn't keep it. He made a He made a he made a commercial for Nike about his dad playing for the Celtics at one point, of trying out for the Celtics at one point, and how he wants his raft

his jersey to hang in the Rafters. So like, yeah, dude, you backed out of a commitment, which is fine, Like I get it, and I don't blame him for leaving Boston, but like, all you're doing by playing into this back and forth with the fans is making it seem like you have your own regrets about this whole situation. Like play it cool, man, Like play it cool. Yeah, I'm with you there, We're playing it cool. That's not really

Kyrie's brand and that's not exactly what he does. But all right, like you said, we are going to play a game. It's called hold or Bail. So we're gonna look back on some of your predictions for the remaining four series that we haven't touched on today. You're gonna tell me if you're sticking with your original prediction or if maybe you want to jump ship and change something up. So we're gonna start with Raptors sixers. You took Toronto

in six to win the series. They lost game won by twenty Are you holding or are you biling here? I'm holding um. I feel like the Raptors have to win one of these first two games, and Game one didn't look good. But I did a deep dive into the film this morning, and I bet you Nick Nurse had a full blown connection fit when he went back and watched the film. There was this weird dynamic in that game where the Sixers were playing like the underdog. And I don't know if it was all of the

people picking the Raptors. I don't know if it's James Harden sick of getting slandered. I don't know if it was just Raptors laziness or them buying into their own

hype a little bit. But the Raptors had embarrassing effort in that first quarter, the amount of the amount of uh time that they just got simply beat down the floor and transition because they weren't sprinting back, the sloppiness on the defensive end with their with their switches and their rotations, and and uh just just in general, it felt to me like the Raptors played one of their worst potential basketball games. We talk a lot about like a punch that the team brings to the table their

best punch and their worst punch. And the Sixers came out and they were like, this is Game one. Everyone thinks the Raptors are gonna win. We're throwing our best punch and the Raptors were just sloppy. They missed a ton of box outs, they didn't rebound well. It was just an utterly and utterly disastrous performance from Toronto. And when you are the less talented team, when you are the team that is vying for an upset, you can't be the team that loses the effort and focus areas

of the game you have. You have to be the team that dominates those areas and it's the other team's talent that keeps them close. Now, this in all of these situations is where the coaches the advantage, where the brain is the advantage, kind of like when you used to watch Lebron series is like as the series progresses, the smarter teams have the advantage. I do think Toronto is the smarter team. I think their biggest and best moments in this series will come later in the series.

But man like, for a team that's vying for an upset, for them to come out in Game one that flat was really disappointing. And if they do lose Game two, I'm off the ship. But for right now I'm holding I expect a much better effort from the Raptors in game two, and I hope that that's the one that they steal to get their upset bid on the right track.

So obviously you mentioned them losing the effort battle. There is there any part of you just watching the offensive firepower on the shot creation from Philly's top four guys who combined for a hundred and five points in this game compared to Toronto, where sometimes offense doesn't come quite as easily. Do you worry at all about them just making up that deficit in terms of just like that pure lead shot creation and shot making ability. If they guard the way they did in this game, then then

they're not gonna be able to overcome it. Um and what I'm not just talking about the effort stuff, like there was some strategy things that I totally disagree with.

Like if you guys remember we did a video on Harden and Bed after their first three games, after the hard and trade, and what was my big takeaway at the end, make hardened beat you, Like, there's way too much obsession with these coaches and Nick Nurse is the latest where it's like we're paranoid about James Harden and where when he has the ball, we're doing all of this overhelping and all of the sending a third defender into the action and and doing all this stuff, and

it's like make hard and beat you. I I railed out some stats, uh last or earlier this this past week, where I showed you guys like, uh, James Harden is finishing at the rim half as often as he did in eighteen. He's making pull up jump shots eight percent less often as he did, uhstent this year. He's what he's present in his MVP season, So he's not shooting well pull ups. He is relying on free throws for almost of his offense. He's just nowhere near as good

as he was when he was at his peak. And like I would double like absolute crazy on every embat action. There's nothing they can do with the guy. You cannot let that guy be in single coverage. I'm on Nick Nurse's aggression in that specific setting. But when James Harden has the ball, they kept sending this third defender over, and James Harden is so damned smart. He's just working his way slowly, methodically into the lane and making easy

kickouts to really good players on the back end. And so the way that I would do that if I was them, and they did it a handful of times in this game, and when they did it usually worked. Just keep it too on two in the Harden and Beat pick and roll switch it even if you're putting Fred van Vleet on embiid because em Beat then has to roll back to the post in order to fight for position, and in that time you can set up

your post up double Harden. We'll have to pull the ball out to make his post entry, or maybe he'll do something stupid and isolate against the big man that he gets switched on too. But my main takeaway is when Harden has the ball single coverage on Hardened, when em Beat has the ball, throw the kitchen sink. Make this series about James Harden trying to do what he did in two thousand eighteen, even though he's not physically capable of doing it anymore. That would be my entire

approach if I was Toronto. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I think that Harden has made it very clear that he's more comfortable facilitating first at this point, and like he does still have that control of the game, but like you said, the shot making just isn't there. I think his last nine games, he's around eighteen a night on like thirty five percent from the field. Like he's just struggling to create those quality looks and he's struggling

to hit the looks that he does get. So I think that you are right on the money there, all right. You took the MAVs over the Jazz in seven. The MAVs lost game one by six. There was no Luca. It's now looking like Luke is unlikely to play in game two. Are you holding or bailing on this one, Jason, I'm getting nervous. Um. I was hoping because I picked Mavericks in seven because I was hoping that Luca would come back by game three. Just seemed like it would

make the most sense. Usually I haven't looked at the schedule, but usually in the first round, because they have so many games, they will space out an extra day between games two and game three, or between game one and game two. But I was sitting there thinking, like, if you give the Jazz, like if if Luca is healthy, I would have picked the Jazz to win or the Mavericks to win the series in five games. I have

a huge believer in Dallas. I think they're specifically equipped to shut Utah down on a bunch of different fronts. They were one of my dark horse teams to win the title. I was so high on them. I was so bummed out by that stupid Luka don calf injury, and this kind of throws a wrench into all of that.

What scares me is I think Dallas played one of their best defensive games that they've ever played this season in Game one, just stifling competitively on the defense, on on the perimeter, sitting in a defensive stance, taking away easy driving lanes. The only success Utah was really having was attacked attacking Davis Barton's with either Donovan Mitchell or with boy On Bogdanovich. They were not getting and they were not getting easy shots against the Mavericks, but they

just couldn't score. And I've been so high on doubt on on Spencer Dinwoody as a third creator and Jalen Brunson is a backup creator. But with the slotting, when those two guys get slot get slotted up into the first and second creation roles, they're just not as good and they can't create enough shots. And so I'm definitely

wavering on this one. Yeah, I would say that I would I would switch my pick to the Jazz if Luca wasn't back in Game three, But for right now through Game one, I'm gonna hold for now, all right, Yeah, it is such a bummer with Luca obviously, just entirely change of the dynamics of the series in every way. All right, Warriors, you took in five over the Nuggets, and they were very convincing in Game one, even bringing Steph off the bench with a minute's rest restriction. Thing

are bailing here, I'm holding um. I do think the Nuggets will get one at home. They have enough advantages, and this is an older core for the Warriors, so they're susceptible to things like mailing in a defensive effort on the road or something like that. Overall, though, the Warriors, they're gonna run away with this thing. What an awesome, perfect first round series for them. You Steph Curry, just

because he's an incredible leader. I've said many times he's the best leader in the NBA, decides to come off the bench because Jordan Poole has been killing everybody for like a couple of months, and Steph Curry is like, I don't want to disrupt Jordan Pool's rhythm, and I don't want to send Clay Thompson to the bench. All sit sit on the bench. And Jordan Pool, of course,

is incredible. Again that kid, I'll tell you I always wonder if if kids that play alongside stars will absorb their greatness in some capacity, and Jordan Poole appears to have been that guy with Steph because he's one of the few guys in the league now that coming off of ball screens, you almost have to devote similar amounts of attention to him. And I've been super impressed with him. But what a perfect first round series for the Warriors

to just get their feet wet. And I told you guys earlier, I don't expect Draymond Green to really fully regain regain his his athletic form until the second round. This is a nice, low stress series for him to work his way back into shape. Steph Curry to slowly work his way through his minutes restriction and eventually work his way back into the starting lineup. This could this

could not have broken better for the Warriors than it did. Yeah, and it does feel like there's just a personnel mismatch like I think the Warriors clearly have five of the top seven guys in the series and can only do so much. Like the Words are just fundamentally a much better basketball team. All Right. You took the Grizzlies to beat the t Wolves in six. Minnesota came in and stole Game one. Are you holding or bailing here? Jason? So?

I specifically picked the Grizzlies in six because I thought this series would be a lot more competitive than people realized. We talked earlier about how the Sixers played like the underdog and one in a lot of the effort and focus areas of the game. Well, the same thing happened to Memphis tonight. They came in confident, We're the favorite. We've been whipping everybody's ass all year. Nobody can beat us at home. We beat you, and we talked about it.

And meanwhile, here comes Minnesota and they're like their heart and soul is Patrick Beverley, who is literally Mr Like like Patrick Beverley is the kind of guy who will walk into that arena and be like, we are the favorite to win this series. We are that, we are supposed to be here, We're supposed to win this and and so I wasn't surprised at all that Minnesota came in and punched him in the mouth. And as I've

said on many different occasions, they have real advantages here. Okay, one of Memphis big advantages is they're big and athletic on the wings. Well, guess who else has big athletic wings Minnesota? Does you know? Obviously Minnesota, Memphis has a huge mismatch problem. Nobody can guard John Moran at the point of attack. They can't keep him from getting to the paint at least well, guess what Nobody on Memphis can guard Carl Anthony Towns. And the Steven Adams thing

is an utter disaster. As is always the case, coaches stick with their traditional scheme to start series is before they adapt. Adams was an absolute disaster. He got killed in transition. He couldn't guard Carl Anthony Towns in in isolation situations. He was getting beat off the dribble a lot. Every time Anthony Edwards had the ball and was coming off those Carl Town's ball screen, Adams was in a drop coverage right, you know, down by the free throw line.

Anthony Edwards made eight pull up jump shots in that game, A huge part of that was Steven Adams and drop coverage. I love Steven Adams, one of my favorite players in the NBA. I've been preaching about how these plotting bigs, these slow, traditional bigs, are becoming useless in the modern NBA. He was useless last night, and what you're gonna see is eventually they're gonna send him to the bench. And when they do, I think that's when things kind of

take off for Memphis in the series. Jaren Jackson Jr. Can absolutely play the five. He's the only guy that has a decent chance of staying in front of Carl Towns on the perimeter. That's when I think this series will turn back in memphis favor. They did not play hard enough in Game one. I still think this is gonna be very competitive throughout, but I think Memphis is gonna end up stealing it and finishing him off in six.

So holding on all four series is Carson. But I will say like after game well, I've never missed her overreact to Game one, So if we play the same game later on, I think there's a much better chance that I would waiver on one of my picks. You know, I think that's the right tendency. People are generally over reactionary, and I do think it's better to stick with your gut.

Just real quick. Is there a world with aunt where like if that pull up jumper just keeps falling through this series, that he is like the best guy on the floor. That's a good question. Um. John Morae had a really bad game one and uh, he got to the free throw line of ton early. Didn't get as

many calls later in the game. He in the fourth quarter especially, I thought he forced a lot in the paint and kind of like we've been talking about with all these other series, take the easy shot quality that is there, make the kickouts to the wide open shooters on the on the wing. Memphis was twenty three and three pointers attempted and twenty three and three pointers made

this year in the entire NBA. It's because their team that when they get into the paint and help comes over at the rim, John Morae and Dylan Brooks and all these guys Ties Jones, they go to the floater, they shoot out of the mid range, and what you're seeing is there's more congestion in there than ever. Even the floaters and mid range shots aren't really all that open.

You gotta make the kickouts. There were many many occasions in that fourth quarter where John Moran got into the paint and had an opportunity to make a kick out, but instead just was doing what he did all game, which was jumped into the throng of bodies and flail around and throw something up and hope for the best.

And it worked for him early in the game because he got twenty free throws, but he wasn't able to make those easier reads and as a result didn't get the calls late in the game and and went south on him. So it's interesting because Anthony Edwards, he was he made eight pull up jump shots last night. He made four pull up jump shots in the playing game

over fifty both nights. There were sixty players in the NBA this year that attempted at least five pull up jump shots per game this year, and Anthony Edwards was dead last. And field goal percentage, Now, some of that was he takes he takes a lot of threes with his pull up shots, but he was dead last. Had a sixty players who attempted at least fifty and field goal percentage, so a huge part of this is like

he's shooting well right now. So do I think that Anthony Edwards could be the best player in this series? Probably not, because this is the outlier. My guess is there will be a few games in this series where Aunt is gunning for with his pull up jump shot and the shots don't go in, So it could go the other way on him. But also sometimes guys take leaps and suddenly they start making shots and then they

never stopped making shots. So if this is what Aunt is and he's rounding out into a good pull up jump shooter, then then yeah, absolutely he has that capability. He I did this whole rant about him last night. He's a site to behold driving to the basket. He's like the definition of the modern power to guard, just built like a linebacker. When he gets a straight line drive, guys just bounce off of him. Really really impressed by him. But I do think Jaw is the best player in

the series. I think I'll show it as things go on, and I think Memphis wind up closing out in six. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. As always, I appreciate your support. We will be back tomorrow night, right, after the last game of the night to break down all of Day three of this NBA Playoff run. As always, I appreciate your support and we'll see you tomorrow. The volume