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eight hundred gambler dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fan Duel here at the volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great week. Huge win for Boston last night to take a two one series lead in the NBA Finals. Obviously, I went live with Colin Cowherd
after the game last night. If you missed any of that, you can find it on the Volumes YouTube channel, which you guys absolutely should subscribe to so you don't miss any more of our content, or if you can't get on YouTube today, it should be on the Calling Cowherd podcast feed. A couple other notes before we get started, please follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt S. You guys can see when I live tweet the games, as well as the little clips that I pull and
tweet out while I'm doing my film sessions. And then, last but not least, for whatever reason, you miss a part of this show or any of our shows and you don't have the time to get onto YouTube, you can find these shows in their entirety on my podcast feed, which is under Lakers tonight for the time being, on all of your podcast platforms wherever you get your podcast. So let's get started. We're gonna get into the weeds today.
A bunch of XS and o's a bunch of adjustments, particularly some adjustments that I think will help Golden State moving forward in this series. I wanted to start tonight though with Boston's big adjustment, which I think was uh an excellent indicator of their defensive versatility and uniquely with their personnel on this roster. There are good and great defenses all around the league, but there are great defenses that rely a lot on scheming and a lot of
on effort and focus and attention to detail. And then there are defenses that have that in conjunction with superior personnel down the roster that allows them flexibility to give them more chess move when they get into series is like this. Boston's big adjustment in Game three was putting Jayson Tatum on Draymond Green. The Warriors were getting fantastic stuff out of the high pick and roll with Draymond
and Steph in this entire series. A huge part of that is Al Horford and Rob Williams when they're in their drop coverage has been way too low, and as Steff is coming off of these screens, he's getting wide open threes. It's been a huge part of why he's been so successful in this series compared to some of the other stars that have gone against this Boston defense,
which is a tactical thing that I disagree with. And even though they made this adjustment, they still dropped way too often with Horford and Rob Williams, and that is something we are definitely going to get into in detail here later on in the show. But early in the game, that initial switch putting Jason Tatum onto Draymond allowed them
to switch that action. The reason why that's so important is because having Draymond Green in the pick and roll with Steph is a problem for most teams because of how good of a passer Draymond Green is. So if you do something like hedge or drop or anything like that and Steph can hit him with the pocket pass, or if you do a you know, a trap if you're trying to just get the ball out of his hands, Draymond rolling down the middle of the floor. He's just too good of a passer and he can cause big
problems for you there. We've talked about it on the show, but Draymond is one of the top tennis this guys in NBA Finals history in large part because of his ability to work in that spot of the floor. Out of that particular action, putting Jayson Tatum on Draymond allowed them just to switch it because you trust Marcus Smart on Draymond, and you trust Jayson Tatum on Steph and
allows them to shut that action down. They still got a lot of good stuff out of Drop, but they had to do it with Kevon Looney or with other guards, and as a result, it just made it a little bit harder for the Golden State to get into Warriors basketball where you're just seeing the ball just popping around and lots of guys getting wide open layups and dunks
and threes and things along those lines. I thought it was a really really smart adjustment, and once again it's just an indicator of Boston's defensive personnel and the flexibility that it gives them, because in order to put Tatum on Draymond, you have to be able to put al Horford, one of your big men, onto one of Golden State's wings,
which is Andrew Wiggins. And Andrew Wiggins did hit a tough step back jump shot over al Horford early in the game, but he didn't have a ton of success attacking Al Horford and that so that defensive versatility, the ability to put your big on their wing and their wing on your big, gives you just that that that flexibility. It's a chess move again. It's like in these playoffs series It's like you got a hand of cards at the poker table, and you just have more options when
you have that type of defensive personnel. Meanwhile, we look over at Golden State and you know, the They're big adjustment in game two was taking Draymond Green and putting them on Jalen Brown because they literally had to because Golden State does didn't have big enough or physical enough wings and guards to contain both Jayson Tatum and Jaln Brown, which I have a specific idea that I think might help them there, but I'm gonna get to that later on.
But that's the difference in that that that flexibility. They had to take Draymond, their best rim protector, a guy who is vitally important because of their lack of perimeter size with what he can clean up on the back end.
They had to take him away from the back end and put him guarding someone on the perimeter, which not only took him and put him in a situation where it was harder for him to help when Jalen Brown is spotting up, but when Jalon Brown is attacking off the dribble like he did early in that game, there's nobody behind Draymond Green to help, and that was my
second biggest adjustment from Boston. Jalen Brown's approach offensively. If you guys remember in game two, the very first two touches that Jalen Brown had were catch early in the clock on the left wing, no advantage, no space, just rise and fire throughease, and he made both of them. He was feeling himself. They were beautiful shots, incredible talent, all of that, but it was bad approach. We talked about this a lot in the last episode of Hoops Tonight,
just you know the separating results from process. Those are beautiful shots from Brown. They added six points in two possessions, which is amazing, but he wasn't being intentional about driving to the basket. Same thing goes for Jayson Tatum. Jayson Tatum took five pull up jump shots in game one. He took eleven pull up jump shots in game two.
You should never, under any circumstances as a big forward with physical advantages like Jayson Tatum has only take eleven or excuse me, take eleven of your shots as pull up jump shots. That's settling, that is letting the defense off the hook. Both of them. Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum were way more intentional about getting into the lane to create those driving kick opportunity. He's in this game,
Jalen Brown. Early in the game, he uh pull is attacking uh Draymond Green from the top of the key. Derek White is coming over to try to set a pick, and Jalen Brown says, no, get back. Yes, I know I have a better match up there, but if I get past Draymond, there's no Draymond on the back end. And so what did he do? He backed away to half court, got ahead his theme and was intentional about taking him to the basket, and he made a lay up. Later on, there was a play where Draymond Green kinda
Jalen attacked him in transition and Draymond blocked him. That blocked him out of bound and started talking trash to him. On the very next possession, on the baseline out of bounds, Jalen Brown caught the ball on the right wing, did a hard jab to the right and then went left, went right around Draymond and made a left handed lay up, going to all the way to the rim. He was also I think he had three assists just in the
first quarter. Again, super intentional about putting his head down, getting into the paint and either finishing with his physical advantages or moving the ball around and getting Boston into their driving kick game, which is where they're so good. It was. It was a huge adjustment and just the approach that those two guys had as they were going
into this game. That initial penetration is vitally important to Boston because guys like Marcus Smart and Derek White and Al Horford are not good enough to just stare straight eye to eye against a good defensive player when they're set with no advantage and create for themselves. But if you get them or the defender is closing out at them, they have an advantage, and they do have enough offensive skill to persistently attack in further extent that advantage when
they are given that initial advantage. That approach has been a bellweather for this Celtics team this entire season. Did you guys know that when Jason Tatum has at least seven assists, Austin has one fifteen consecutive games. That's how important it is for Tatum in particular, but Brown as well to have that type of offensive approach intentional about getting into the lane to collapse the defense so that they can get into their driving kick game. So how
can Golden stay to just so? I The issue here and I talked about this we call him last night, is Clay Thompson can't guard Jalen Brown and he probably can't guard Jason Tatum either, But I do think he has a better chance in that particular matchup. It was really cool with Draymond did in Game two going out to the perimeter and shutting down Jalen Brown the way he did, but Jalen Brown exposed that as a limited because here's the thing. Draymond Green is one of the
best back line defenders in the history of basketball. But on the perimeter, he's just good. He's above average good defensive player on the perimeter. What he's not is a lockdown perimeter defender. That's no slight to him. There are very few, if any, big guys like the guys who
play back line defense that are phenomenal perimeter defenders. You're looking at maybe Janice and maybe Anthony Davis, and maybe Rudy Gobert for being really nice, But like I would say, Rudy Gobert is even closer to Draymond those types of guys, they bring way more value to your defense under the basket than they do on the perimeter. So as as cool as it was in Game two, I don't think it's sustainable. So I suspect Draymond Green to be back on either Al Horford or on Rob Williams in Game four.
So what do you do with the wing matchups? Well, the reason why Jalen Brown is having so much success against Clay Thompson is Jalen Brown is your textbook jacked, big strong, super quick first step slashing forward, and he's just not quick enough or big enough for strong enough to survive that matchup. Jason Tatum is much more of
a finesse forward. He's still a slasher, and he still will beat Clay Thompson to the basket sometimes, but he plays around with his dribble more, and most importantly, he's skinnier, and Clay Thompson, just like everybody else in this series, will be allowed to play defense using their hands. I think Clay Thompson has a better chance of physically containing Tatum and turning him into a jump shooter than he
did against Jaylen Brown. So that means I would take Andrew Wiggins, and I'd move him over to Jaylen Brown. To twitchy athletes very similar physical profiles. Andrew Wiggins will have a much better chance containing Jalen than anybody on this Golden State roster. Clay Thompson, I think has a better chance of containing Tatum than he does at containing Jalen Brown. And then now we're getting Draymond Green back
into his natural position as a back line defender. Now the question becomes, do you put him on Al Horford to Rob Williams. I would put him on Rob Williams. Rob Williams hang is out in the dunker spot for the most part, or sets high screens. Draymond Green is an excellent screen and roll defender as the big man, and he's one of the best in the league in drop coverage at stunting up to the ball handler to trick them into thinking he's defending, but then getting back
to defend the guy in the dunker spot. I would have Kevon Looney stay home on Al Horford, who's gonna be roaming around the perimeter more. It's a little bit more difficult because you don't love the idea of positioning Kevin Luney away from the basket, but I think Draymond Green is a better back line defender, better rim protector. That's the way that I would do it. Draymond Green on Rob williams Looney on on Al Horford Wiggins on
Jalen Brown, and Clay Thompson on Jayson Tatum. It's not perfect, it's not guaranteed to work, but I do think it's a better option than any of the things that they've tried to this point. You are limited in your personnel in this series, even though you might very well win. And I'm not jumping off the Golden State bandwagon. I picked them in seven, and I think everything comes down to Game four. If Boston wins Game four, it's not over over, but I would give it. I would start
picking Boston to win the series at that point. If Golden State wins Game four with a to two series with two of the last three games on their home floor, I still feel very confident about Golden State winning in seven. So this series is not over and I am not changing my pick. But through three games, Boston has proven that they have a personnel advantage. Golden State's advantage is up here. It's experience in understanding how to win in these environments. You saw that last night Boston gave up
an eight oh run in thirty seven seconds. That's something bad teams do. Boston gave up seven points on a single possession. Stupid drop coverage Againsteph Curry where Al Horford at a late contest and committed a foul, and then they ran a drop coverage on Klay Thompson on a baseline out of balance after the flagrant foul call and he came off free and clear knockdown to three. That is bad defense. That's what inexperienced, undisciplined teams do in
thirty seven seconds in one possession. Uh literally a fifteen points wing. So I'm not off of Golden State by any stretch of the imagination. But make no mistake, Boston has the personnel advantage to this point. They've demonstrated that clearly, they have more flexibility, they have better too A players
than the Golden State Warriors do. One last adjustment for Golden State, I think they need to continue to run as much pick and roll in as possible, getting Boston's bigs in the action, either off ball with like dribble handoffs or or pin downs or off ball with the pin downs, are on ball with the dribble handoffs for
the high screening roll. The main reason why is Boston's demonstrated that Rob Williams and Al Horford will come high to the level of the screen and do a better job of contesting in their drop when the game's in the balance. They've been fantastic in the fourth quarter. Will get to that in a little bit, but for the most part throughout the game, they're sitting too low and Jordan Pool, Steph and Clay are getting fantastic looks against
that drop coverage. And so what I would do if I was Golden State is can teem you to run that because particularly when they get fatigued, and you saw this a lot with Al Horford last night in the late third quarter, as he started to get tired, his
drop fell further and further back. On the last three that Steph Curry made to make a three eight two and give Golden State the lead, Al Horford was damn near at the free throw line in his drop and Email Judoka immediately subbed him out to get him some rest.
But that's your best bet if you're Golden State, capitalize on Boston stupid coverage that they keep running for whatever reason, continue to go out those guys until they get fatigued, because as they fatigued, they sit further back, and that's your option to get that's your best chance to get those clean looks out of screen and roll. It's just it's I would spam that action every time down the floor.
But I did want to talk about this Boston drop coverage thing because if you guys, for those of you have been following the show since before this series, you remember in my series preview, this was my biggest concern for Boston. They ran it in the regular season on everything dribble handoffs, pinned downs, and high ball screens. If Al Horford or Rob Williams was in the action, they were dropping. I thought it was crazy. I even said in my in my breakdown that I thought it would
be suicide for Boston to attempt to do this. And it hasn't beaten them yet, but a damn sure came close because it was then barbecuing the drop coverage that allowed Golden State to get back into that game in that third quarter. I'm sure you guys saw J. J. Reddick tweet out this has become you know, obviously I've been on this for weeks, but this has become a huge story in this series. J J. Reddick tweeted out through two games of the Finals. So through game one.
In game two, Steph Curry was scoring one point seven points per possession against Boston's drop coverage. Guys, that's a one seventy offensive rating. That's an outrageous number. I just simply don't understand why they're doing why they're doing it, don't get me wrong. Just like it is with every great player in the league. It's like if I asked you how to guard Lebron James, there's not a good option. He's gonna beat you and drop coverage, he's gonna beat you.
If you switch, he's gonna be to you if you trapped. The same goes for step The same goes for all of the greatest players in the game. But there's usually a better option against each guy. Right, So, for instance, teams have figured out Lebron a D pick and roll, we're gonna switch it because usually it's like size because they're two big guys, and at least then we commit to isolation, even though Lebron is probably gonna take your big guy off the bounce or Anthony Davis is gonna
take your little guy into the post. But that's just a better option than some of the other things that if you run drop coverage against Lebron and a d, Lebron's gonna pick you apart with pocket passes and lobs to a d or dunk on you himself all night long.
And the same thing goes for step. If you switch it, he's gonna attack your big guy off the bounce in all likelihood, right, If you run drop coverage, he's going to pull up threes all night long if you come high on the screen, and if you run drop coverage at the level of the screen, he's gonna hit pocket passes all night long to the Draymond Greens of the world, and they're gonna make plays. If you trap him, it's gonna be the same thing. So there is no good option,
but anything is better. The worst option is running a low drop so that the best shooter to ever touch a basketball can come off of these ball screens wide open every single time. And again this is the key
difference because you're seeing there's some contest there. You know, Marcus Smartin, Derrick White are fighting over the top of the screen and they're applying some back pressure, you know, contesting from behind, and Al Horford and Robert Williams are getting late contests after staff is already rising up there, coming up and putting a hand up. But for all of you who are listening, who are who are good shooters?
If you're a good shooter, you understand if you get into your shot and you get your release off, the contest means nothing doesn't bother you at all. The only thing that bothers a shooter is being in his airspace in front, meaning like as you're gathering up into your shot, you're disrupting the ball during the gather, or you're paranoid about your feet because the guy's up in your airspace. Those are the only that's the only way to bother a great shooter is to bother him before he gets
up into his release. So you can trick yourself watching the tape, like, oh, Steph's hitting contested three is over the top, But no, he's not. He's hitting threes over late contests with minimal back pressure, and as a result, he's just he's the he's the best shooter of all times. Who's gonna make him. I I just simply don't understand why through three games, despite everything that happened, that that continues to be their approach. That's how Clay got going.
Clay got going against drop coverage. Against drop coverage is not just a pick and roll coverage. They run variations of drop coverage against off ball screens. Just imagine, here comes, you know, Kevon Looney down the floor. Rob Williams is on it. Kevon Looney sets up pinned down for Clay Thompson in the corner. Rob Williams is sitting way back on the block. So whoever's guarding Clay Thompson, let's say it's Derek White, or let's say it's Jason Tatum, or
whoever it is Rob Williams. Uh, Kievan Lunis. That's a good physical screen because this is a physical series, and they're letting a lot of physicality go the guys getting caught on the screen. Klay Thompson is coming off open. He's coming off open. Rob Williams is not doing anything in that drop. Now, to their credit, in the fourth quarters of this series, when the game has been close enough, they have brought that drop way up higher and when
they've brought that drop up higher. Because this is the thing, guys, in order to get that clean look off of a ball screen or a pinned down you have to catch the defender on the screen, and the only way to catch the defender on the screen is to curl it a little bit, because if you go parallel to the screen, then a good lock and trail defender is just gonna
be right behind you the whole way. But if you curl around the screen, you give your screen or a chance to just kind of stick his shoulder out a little bit just as you're curling and get caught. The ball handler has to come around the screen just to touch. So if your pick and roll defender is up higher, he doesn't have to be all the way up. But if he's up higher, then when that guy curls around, he will curl around and see Rob Williams in his
airspace or see Al Horford in his airspace. Then he will be dissuaded from shooting that shot and maybe try to back it out and do something else. But they're only doing that in the fourth quarter to this point, which again it's worked. You're up to one. But my concern is there's a version of this story where Golden State makes a couple more of these shots, or maybe you don't make as many of yours and you don't have an opportunity to be in the game at the end.
I'm not a big and most importantly, Clay Thompson got going. Clay Thompson started making tough shots later in the game. The last shot Steph Curry made was an impossible step back over Grant Williams on a switch, but he made that because he got going. He got his confidence in his rhythm against your drop coverage. Clay Thompson got going and got his confidence in his rhythm against your drop coverage.
I I just I just don't understand it. There were a couple of players with Clay Thompson where Andrew where Jayson Tatums guarding Draymond Green and he's dropping way back, and Marcus Smart was ducking under picks. He was ducking under picks on Clay Thompson. Clay Thompson got two wide open threes in this game and made both of them against Marcus Smart ducking under picks with with Jayson Tatum,
whoever it was dropping off the ball. It's just inexcusable for one of the best defenses that I've ever seen, especially against a guy like Clay who's not exactly slashing to the rima game long. So what I would do if I was Boston. Now, you guys know how I feel. If you've listened to my show before, you know how I believe in switching. I don't care if Steph makes a tough step back three over Grant Williams. He's gonna make a bunch of those. He's one of the best
players and to ever play the game of basketball. But it's a lot harder, it takes a lot more effort to get enough separation, it's fatiguing, and most importantly, it stagnates their offense. So that's the approach that I would take. I don't think Boston's going to do that. What I expect them to do is to continue to drop. And if that's the case, you have to drop higher. Your defender has to be up at the level of the
screen if you're gonna have any chance. If they do that in Game four, if they drop at the level of the screen, I think they will have their first game in this series where they can where they get all of the Splash Brothers to play poorly. But I just I figured they would have learned that lesson in game one. I thought they would have learned that lesson in game one, they didn't. I thought they would learn that lesson in game two. They didn't, And they got
bird Bide in Game three. Again, it just didn't cost him the game. So I expect that to keep going, which is why, like I said, for a Golden State as an adjustment, I want to see them continue to spam that pick and roll as much as humanly possible and continue to fatigue Gal Horford and Rob Williams and try to get them to the point where they continue
to drop further and further back. All Right, I wanted to talk about the fourth quarter for a minute, because the fourth quarters in particular are starting to become a little bit of an issue for Golden State now. In Game two, the game was basically over right, like the Warriors sealed that deal in the third quarter, in the
fourth quarter was irrelevant. But in eighteen minutes of this series, with Steph Curry on the floor in the fourth quarter, the Warriors have a seventy five offensive rating and the Boston Celtics have a one sixty seven offensive rating. Again, that's eighteen minutes of fourth quarter basketball with Steph Curry on the floor in this series, cannot get a stop, cannot score the basketball. A plus ninety four net rating for Boston in those minutes, outscoring the Warriors by basically
a point per possession. It's insane. It's become a huge problem. So why why is it becoming a huge problem? Well, first of all, to all the criticism I just levied on Boston and he made Udoka for their drop cover. Their their drop coverage. It has been really, really good. In the fourth quarters of this series, Rob and al Horford finally come up to the level of the screen. They dissuade those easy pull ups. Every every Boston Garden wing is fighting harder to get over the top of
the screens. Tatum and Brown in particular, were flying around making plays. There was a massive block from Jalen Brown on Clay Thompson where Clay got a step on him and Jalen just had an outrageous recovery defense play to block him out of bounds. Jason Tatum how to play where he was um, I believe he was guarding Steph. If I remember correctly, but he was off ball and he noticed that Clay was coming off of an off ball screen and the drop was too low. Rob was
way out of the play on this one. He was down almost by the by the charge circle. I think he was helping on a different rotation before that play. Tatum read that play in abandon his man just as Clay was going up into his shot and got a late contest and forced Clay Thompson into a funky relief east that he ended up missing. That's that athleticism from Tatum and Brown when they're really flying around, that can be such a problem that in conjunction with the bigs
being up higher. Marcus Smart doing a great job on Steph at that initial defense, just making things difficult for him to get into his spots. Made it really difficult for Golden State to score. It's been it's been really, really fascinating, and most importantly, Jayson Tatum finally got going. I was watching the tape today. I went out with call him last night. I was like, oh, yeah, Tatum kind of got going and made a couple of laps in that fourth quarter. Again, I was under selling that
when I went back and looked at the tape. Jayson Tatum was magnificent in that fourth quarter on both ends of the floor. It was the first stretch of this series where I thought he played better than Steph Curry. He was better than Steph in that fourth quarter. Now, some of that is step Steph had a step had a rough fourth quarter, guys. He had three awful turnovers
during a run that put Boston up by twelve. He had a play where he was running high pick and roll and tried to throw a pocket past that threw it right into Marcus Smart's hand. It led to a runout. Next possession down the floor, he tried to throw a pocket past to Draymond, but threw it like at his knee, like way too low, and Draymond reached down to try to catch it and fumbled it. Boston went down again. They actually ended up getting a stop on that one.
Steph got the rebound and threw the ball away on a full court outlet pass that Rob Williams took away, took a stole, and Boston went down and scored called a time out. There up twelve games basically over now, step has been magnificent in the series. He's been by far the best player, but he wasn't good enough in
that fourth quarter. It was the first time Tatum outplayed him, and they lost an opportunity to win a game on the road when they went into the fourth quarter only down four, and that's something that might end up haunting them later on in this series. But Tatum just relentless getting into the basket, driving and kicking the players. He had eight points and two assists in the quarter, but he had a couple of hockey assists as well where he created that initial advantage and swung the ball around.
He was attacking Steph Curry on switches almost every time down the floor, and Golden State either was having to scram double Steph out of the of the out of that matchup, or Tatum was going right around him for layups and kickouts for threes. It was a huge problem
for Golden State in that quarter. That can combination of Tatum out playing Steph in that quarter, Steph throwing the ball all over the place, turning it over, Boston's bigs being higher in their drop Tatum Brown and Smart flying around making defensive plays led to what has been too through three games, an incredibly dominant performance from Boston in these fourth quarters. Again, in the fourth quarter of this series.
Fourth quarters of this series, with Steph Curry on the floor, the Warriors are getting outscored by nine four points per one possessions. Just insane. One last note before I get into uh, so I'll just rip through the adjustments real quick, and that I had one last note on Gold States personnel. Uh you guys know, I'd like to trash track half court offense. It's a great stat that I can get from cleaning the glass. It's to me, it's the best indicator of your ability to score in a static environment
when you're not just gifted advantages. So coming into Game three, So through the first two games of the series, the teams were pretty even in their half court offense, both scoring just under one point per half court possession, right around offensive ratings. But in Game three, Boston's offering offensive rating in the half court one fourteen point one Golden States point eight. So through two games, that static environment, staring each other eye to eye, no advantages, just your
defense versus my offense, who can score? Boston dominated game three after the first two games were dead even that that once again scares me. If I'm a Golden State fan, you know, and and this comes down to I talked about this a little bit with Colin last night, but I wanted to dig a little bit further into it today. Joe Lacob took a victory lap before the finals when in the press conference and was like, Oh, we were
under all this pressure to trade people. You know, everyone was saying we should we should have traded our piece as pieces. Look at us now we're in the finals, and we got Steph Clay and Draymond and Andrew Wiggins, and we've got these young kids that are all really good.
Jordan Pool, great player, Jonathan Cominga looks like a better version of Jeff Green to me in the future, you know, at Moses Moody Textbook three and D player James Wiseman, who the hell knows what he's gonna be, but he's probably gonna be pretty good at least, you know, he's a number two overall pick h might not be an All Star, but he's probably gonna be on the low end a very good two way center. Right, They've got all those young guys. Here's the problem. How many of
them are playing in this series? Jordan Pool, that's it. So you're you basically have your your future, your trade assets whenever you want to call them, are useless in this series. And I would argue, and any Golden State fan, being truly honest with themselves, would agree with me. Golden State has a personnel disadvantage in this series. I thought it was so bizarre that he took that victory lab. No One, no one on the no one on the Warriors was worried about you guys beating the Mavericks. Now
I know, I picked the Mavericks. I had no idea what was gonna happen in that series. You guys heard me, I said, I had no good feel for it. I leaned slightly toward Dallas because I thought they're driving kick game and Luca as a matchup would cause them problems. I was wrong. But you Golden State fans were supremely confident against Dallas. You were not worried about them, So I didn't understand the victory lab. No one was worried about whether or not you'd be able to beat Dallas.
Boston is a much better team than Dallas. We all knew it before this series even started. We all knew it before the Conference finals even started. We knew Austin was the best team in the Eastern Conference, and we knew they would be the biggest challenge for Golden State. You took a victory lap a Joe Lake up about your personnel, and now you don't have enough personnel. You guys, you've you've heard me talk about this when I was covering the Lakers, when I would talk about how they
needed to trade Taylor Horton Tucker for another piece. You've heard me talk about it recently when I talk about how they need to trade their first round draft picks this summer, even if they have to attach them to Russ. I am a huge believer in pushing your chips into the middle of the table. Why because it's really difficult to win an NBA championship. These margins are razor thin. You might lose to Boston in six or seven games.
Where if you had traded James Wiseman or one of Wiseman and cominga and a draft pick or whatever it is in salary filler, if you would have traded those guys for a Bradley Beal or a Jeremy Grant or some sort of like. Of course, they'd be overpaid of course they'd be in a smaller role. They're not gonna be able to produce for you the same way they
would on their own team. But that might be the difference between you losing to Boston in six or seven games, or are you beating Boston in six or seven games. And I thought the goal of this to win was to win an NBA championship. I just didn't. Again, I'm not even necessarily saying I disagree with the strategy. I just was confused by the victory lab I. I didn't understand why Joe lacub before he had the trophy, he wanted to be like, look at me, guys. I did
the right thing. And this is the last. This is the last thing I'll say about it. Steph Curry is a top ten basketball player to ever play in the n b A. That's why you're in the NBA Finals right now. He's been the second best player in this entire playoff field behind Joannice. That's why you're in the finals. There is no guarantee. I would argue it's statistically improbable that Jonathan Cominga or James Wiseman, or Moses Moody or Jordan Pool will amount to being a top ten player
in NBA history. That that's the catastrophic mistake here. Yes, you have young talent in the pipeline. They might all be all Stars, but they might also never It's also possible that none of them are all stars. It's a gamble, you don't know. It's up to player development, and they're the psychology of those guys and how committed they are to the work. So I just in general, I just I just was confused by that approach. This is why I why I keep saying this. With the Lakers this summer,
I would cash in those draft picks. Steph Curry and Lebron James are two of the ten greatest basketball players to have ever played the game. You are not guaranteed to get another one of those guys. You might never get one. If you do, it's probably ten twenty years from now because they're once in a generation type of players. Those are the guys who get all the trophies. Those guys have combined for seven trophies in the last decade seven I think seven of the last eleven trophies went
to those two guys. So if you don't have one of those guys, you might you're probably not gonna win, so you need to commit to now. You need to commit to Steph Curry because he's the guy that's going to get to the trophy. You are far, far, far more likely to get a trophy with Steph Curry in trading your pieces right now than you are to straddle both lines or to lean heavily into the future. I just, I just I disagree with the approach, and I certainly
don't understand. Yeah, I think it's a defensible approach, even though I wouldn't do it. But I very much, I very much was confused by lake Up taking the victory lap the way that he did. All right before we get out of here tonight, I wanted to take a couple of minutes, really quickly to just rip through the adjustments I expect from both teams in Game four. Let's
start with Boston. On every dribble, handoff, every wide pin down, everyhigh eyeball screen, either switch it or have Alan rob in their drop way higher, because you cannot let the two greatest shooters to ever touch a basketball continue to get these clean looks running free and clear off of screens. That's just suicide. And lastly, show Jason Tatum. The stat I showed you guys earlier. The Celtics have won fifteen
consecutive games when Tatum has at least seven assists. His approach needs to be that of a playmaker and not a guy who was hunting his own shot. That's how they play into their strengths rather into their weaknesses. For Golden State, switch Andrew Wiggins onto Jalen Brown. He has a great physical profile to be able to contain that matchup in a way that nobody else on the Golden State roster can. And most importantly, Clay Thompson has a much better chance of defending Jayson Tatum than he does
Jalen Brown. I know that sounds crazy, but it's about the physicality. Tatum is a little thinner, He's not as quick, he plays around with the ball more, and most importantly, the refs are letting you play physical in the series. Clay using his hands to play defense while have a better chance containing Tatum than he does Brown. And most importantly, that gets Draymond Green back into back line help. He is a He's arguably the best help defender in this era.
He's much more valuable to the Golden State defense there than he is containing Jalen Brown on the perimeter. Also, continue to spam high pick and roll against Al Horford and Robert Williams because as they fatigue, they drop further and further back in their drop coverage, and that is your best chance to get quality looks for Steph and Clay in this series. And last, but not least, if you need an influx of athleticism and you need to
tap into your bench, just play Jonathan Cominga. You can on defense unleash him in an on ball roll like on Jason Tatum, so you don't have to worry about him getting lost in help side as a young kid. And then on offense, just play him with experienced high i Q lineups. Playing with Steph, Clay and Draymond on the offensive end, they will make things easier for him
and simplify things for him. I think that's the best chance for Golden State if they need to bring athleticism onto the floor to better compete with the physical mismatches that Boston brings to the table. All Right, So, if I had to make a pick, I see this game as a coin flip, and I have Golden State winning in seven. So I would pick Golden State by a hair, but I do not feel good about it. I do think Boston is a better basketball team in terms of
overall talent. They just you know. I expect them, as they've done throughout this playoff run, to come out unfocused and to make a lot of mistakes in game forward from gold Golden State to make them pay for it. But it's a very possible outcome that Boston comes out and finally puts a couple of good performances together and
takes a three one lead in this series. As a better I would be on Golden State because since I see the game as a coin flip, you're getting odds on the money line with Golden State and you're getting points on the spread with Golden States. So that's where i'd be if I was a better But who knows. This is the game that determines the series. If Golden State wins, I think they end up winning in seven. If Boston wins, I think they end up winning in five or six. So this is the pivotal game that
will determine the outcome of the series. That's all I have for you guys tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. We will be back with our normal hoops tonight postgame show on Friday, so I hope to see you guys there. I'm looking forward to it. As always, I appreciate you guys rocking with us and I will see you tomorrow. The Volume