Lakers Tonight - Round 2 NBA Playoff preview

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so far. I wanted to take a little bit of time today to preview the second round because, like I said, at the beginning of this playoff run, I thought this was gonna be one of the most exciting playoff runs that we've seen in recent NBA history, with all the talent and all the good teams, and we have at

least three incredible matchups. Miami Philly is a little weird because Miami is kind of the strange outlier team that doesn't have the level of star power that the other teams have, and Philly's dealing with this Joel Embiid injury thing, but even that series has quite a bit of intrigue. We're going to start with Boston and Milwaukee, which is a playoff series that I'm about as excited for as I've ever been for a playoff series, kind of similar

to that Brooklyn Nets series. It's this concept of the team that is achieving something that I haven't seen a team achieve in a very long time, versus you know, in the last round KD a player I thought was the best player in the world at the time although no longer, and a guy in Janice who is absolutely on equivocally the best player left in this playoff front. So it's kind of like the the the age old concept of the best player on the floor versus the

best team and which is going to win. We've had a lot of conversations over the course of this season, pretty much ever since that Son's playoff series with the Lakers last year on our show, where I've been very very interested to see with the direction the league is going, how how valuable having the best player on the floor is now compared to the way it was ten years ago, with the way teams can double and recover and how important it is to have guys off the ball that

can make plays off the dribble, and Milwaukee in particular is kind of set up in a very traditional sense. They defended a trade sational sense. On the offensive end, they have a lot of guys that are spot up guys, not necessarily like close out attacker, higher end offensive talent type of guys like Boston has. So it's a super super interesting dynamic going against Boston, which is, as I have said on this show so many times, I think, is a very very modern, almost ahead of its time

type of team construct. So just an unbelievably interesting matchup. So the regular season series between these two teams is completely worthless. They played three of their games back in one and then the fourth matchup between the these two teams took place right for the end of the season in a game where both teams sat out a bunch of important players. So not a whole lot you can take from the season series. However, in fifty six minutes this year, when both Tatum and Janice were on the floor,

meaning Boston and Milwaukee with their best players playing. Boston was plus seventeen, but again, can't take too much from that. A lot of those minutes, all of those minutes actually took place literally in a different calendar year, so it's hard to take too much away from that. I want to start with Milwaukee on offense. So guarding Janice, We've

talked a lot about this on the show. I won't go too deep into it today, but the gist of it is, I expect your honest to have a great deal of success in his supplementary offense offensive rebounding, particularly on his own misses, but just him bulldozing around the rim and being just bigger and stronger than everybody and grabbing offensive rebounds and put backs. The reason why is, you know, specifically, when it comes to offensive rebounding, it's not so much about manpower as it is about one

single person being unboxed outable, you know what I mean. So, like, there could be three Celtics around the rim with Janice, and he's just too big and strong and athletic, and he'll get them all, you know what I mean. So I think he'll have a lot of supplementary offense that will lead to better counting stats. I think janice Is

statistical series will appear much better than Kevin Durant's statistical series. However, I expect Boston to give your honest problems in every a lot of the same ways that Kevin Durant had problems getting to his spots and catching the ball. Boston did a really good job with Katie of disrupting Katie on post entries. They had a ton of turnovers on post entries because they would have basically Tatum gamble to one side on the post entry and they'd send help

on the other side. And even when he did catch, Katie would quick turn and there'd be people diving at the ball. So they made it complicated to get Katie the basketball. And then they did a really good job of testing Katie's handle, very aggressive with length being like lots of reaching and testing Katie's ability to handle the basketball.

And Katie and Janice are good ball handlers, but they're tall, and that causes issues when you have guys reaching in because there's just so much more distance that the ball has to travel. So specifically with Joannice, I expect him to have a lot of similar issues to Katie turning the basketball over, struggling with handling a ton of traffic, passing out of double teams, and things like that. I

expect your honest to struggle there. But with his supplementary offense, with his fensive rebound and transition, there will be a half dozen possessions every game where just because of the way that a Celtic misses a shot. Janice will have a head of steam and no one will be able to stop him, and you'll get layups and dunks and free throws and stuff out of that. So Janna will have a statistically successful sees series, but I expect him

to struggle overall. The other thing that's interesting with Milwaukee on offense is this news with Chris Middleton. So Sham's or any reported I believe two days ago that Chris Middleton will be out for the entire series and potentially even the Eastern Conference Finals should the Bucks make it to that point. This is why that's important. Boston is a pure switch everything team, especially with Rob Williams in

the lineup. They really only run drop when daniel Tys is out there because they don't want to get daniel Tye into switches. Right, So it's gonna be a switch everything team, and that inherently turns you into a matchup attacking team. So we know Janice can attack matchups, but we just discussed all the ways that Boston's gonna try to disrupt that. So that leaves it to Drew Holiday as your other guy who can attack matchups. The probable

there is. This is where the lack of Chris Middleton is an issue, because Chris Middleton last year was an excellent option for Milwaukee to go to two attack matchups, especially as a three level score who's six ft eight and can you know, hit back to the basket shots out of the post, and hit off the dribble shots from the perimeter and can get to the rim and all of those things, right, So having Chris Middleton out there is a significant loss when you're attacking a switching defense.

Not that it might it might not have mattered anyway. You guys know how high I am on Boston. I probably would have picked Boston to win this series regardless, but with Chris Middleton out it makes it significantly tougher Milwaukee on defense. I wanted to just kind of give you guys a couple of of really really basic stats to demonstrate just how how dominant this Boston team has been.

You know there we talked about this in a pod last week, But I don't know if it's the anti Celtics bias, uh that you know, kind of similar to the anti Lakers bias, which is just natural in the NBA. Fan base are the two most successful fan aces, and they're the two loudest fan bases, which kind of inherently

makes them unlikable to everybody. But the thing is is that has poisoned people's minds into thinking that the sweep of the Brooklyn Nets was about Brooklyn being terrible more so than Boston being great, when the reality is since January, when all of this took out for took off for Boston, Boston is thirty two and seven. Since January, they have the best offense in the league, the best defense in the league. They're five points per Hunter possessions better than everybody.

On defense, They're seven and a half points better overall per one Hunter possessions than everybody in the league. So they're they've been unbelievably dominant. So it's poisoning people's minds in making them think that you know the first round series was a fluke based on matchups in Katie and Kyrie, you know, pissing down their leg, And that's not what happened.

They ran into the best team in the NBA. So why do I bring that up right now because we're talking about Boston on off it's against Milwaukee, and I bet you if you asked the vast majority of casual fans, they would think of Boston is not a very good offense. But again, and this is the important detail, where you're in a thirty nine game stretch here, where they've been the best offense in all of basketball. Just in this postseason run, Boston has the best half court offense and

the best transition offense. According to Cleaning the Glass, this is an unbelievably good offensive team. And specifically with Milwaukee, we've talked about how Milwaukee struggles because their defense is set up to take away the paint, so they attack specific matchups. Teams like Chicago that kind of live inside the three point line, they're gonna have a lot of success. But against teams that generate quality three point shots and

can knock them down, they struggle. Again, this is important to understand Milwaukee's defense this season was average on a point per one hundred possessions allowed basis despite the fact that they were dominant and shutting off the paint and dominant on the defensive glass, it was strictly because their defense would over help and give up a ton of threes. On the back end, they were not good at rotating around two shooters. One last stat I'm gonna give you

on this to kind of seal the deal here. Since January this stretch with Boston, Boston is fifth in three point volume, so in total three point attempts per game compared to their the rest of the league in third in three point percentage. So this is the opposite of the Chicago situation. This is a team that is great at generating wide open threes and great at knocking them down.

So even if we throw away everything that I've loved about this Boston team on the defensive end, which is where I derived my confidence in this matchup, it's the other end of the floor of Boston has an advantage as well against the very specific Milwaukee weakness, and so in this case, I'm picking Boston in five. I think Milwaukee will get one game on their home floor. Game three or Game four, we'll see, but I expect this

to be a dominant Boston Celtics victory. I expect Janice to struggle despite having better counting stats than k D. And you just need to keep it simple, guys. Since January twenty three, Boston is the best team in the league, best on offense, best on defense. They demonstrated in the first round against Brooklyn that they're one of the best defensive teams that we have ever seen. Milwaukee is missing their second most important player and arguably one of the

most important matchup attackers in Chris Middleton. So just simply on the surface, we know that Boston is a better basketball team at a health advantage in this series. To be clear, this is how much I think Boston is a favorite. If Milwaukee were to win this series, it would be an accomplishment for Joannice on part with like two thousand seven Lebron knocking out the Pistons. It would be one of the greatest accomplishments not associated with an

NBA title in NBA history. That's how confident I am in Boston. That's the challenge that's in front of Janice. If he can pull it off. I have nothing but props for the guy, but that's the type of of situation that he's facing here. This is an all time great defense in a Boston Celtics team that has been clearly better than everybody else, and Nice is without his co star. It's gonna be tough. He's capable of it. Definitely give Milwaukee a chance, but I'm picking Boston in five.

All right, Let's move on to Golden State Memphis. This is I think the second most interesting series in the first round. Another series where the regular season it's tough to take things from because especially that they had matchups very early in the season where they were healthy. But you know, Memphis wasn't as dominant back then as they are now. And then as we get closer to the end of the season, you've got a game where Draymond Green was not playing, and then you have a game

where Steph Curry and Draymond Green did not play. So again, these regular season series is make it extremely difficult to predict because guys are just missing games, which is a whole other conversation we need to have about the NBA and Stars missing games. But let's do our best to try to get as close of an indication of what we think these teams are gonna do based on what

we did see this year. So again, like I did with the Celtics Buck Series, there were ninety four minutes this year where the Warriors and the Grizzlies played each other and Steph and Jaw were both on the floor together. In those minutes, the Warriors were plus twenty four in

ninety four minutes. Excellent on the defensive end, pretty good on the offensive ent, uh in those in those specific matchups between with the Warriors, John Morantz drives, according to the NBA's tracking data, were slightly down over his regular season averages. His restricted area makes were down compared to his regular season averages. So a couple of things there that are indicative of the fact that Golden State has had more success guarding job than the rest of the

league has. However, it gets complicated because that's kind of a team effort thing, and that can get a little bit uh. That can get a little tricky in the playoffs when coaches have more time to scout and there are perimeter defenders for Golden State that are gonna struggle guarding job. So let's start with Memphis on offense for that reason, So a couple of things containing Jaw is gonna be the biggest predicament of the series we talk about With Memphis, their biggest issue is they don't have

half court creators outside of Jaw. Jaren Jackson Jr. Is a can attack matchups, but he struggles in traffic because he doesn't see the floor well. Desmond Bayane is more of a slasher guy who can attack off of advantages. He's not a guy that's fantastic at creating his own shot or creating shots for other people. So Golden State will be able to key in on Jaw. The trick is a lot of Golden State lineups, namely even the Death lineup, the Death Lineup Number three or whatever it is.

With Jordan Pool, Clay Thompson and Steph Curry in the backcourt, none of those three guys can keep John Moran in front, and so there will be potential for Memphis to play Golden State out of some of their favorite lineups, and as a result of that, it may put them in a predicament where they have to go with Gary Payton Jr. A lot more. Gary Payton Jr. Played amazingly well in Game five against Denver, but he's not the same level of offensive player as a Jordan Pool or as a

Clay Thompson. So those are those trade offs you get. I like Gary Payton Jr. To have a better chance of containing John Morant, But the flip side is is you suffer some losses on the offensive end of the floor. That will be tricky. However, Golden State I do think will have more capability to help and rotate out of that, especially with Draymond on the back line. Where I get most concerned for UH, for Golden State in this series

is Memphis attacking the offensive glass. So uh in half court settings this season, So just in the half court this season, Memphis rebounded a third of their own misses. Literally, They're the best offensive rebounding team in the league. We talked a lot about how they stole games from Minnesota in the first round, particularly Brandon Clark, but they stole games from Memphis from Minnesota in the first round just

by crashing the offensive glass. We specifically saw Denver give Golden State a lot of issues attacking the offensive glass. Main main reason why this is not a big Warriors team. They're only big when they play Kevon Looney next Draymond with Andrew Wiggins, and even then they're not huge, They're just big enough to hang. And then there comes a whole bunch of offensive issues when you go with Kevin Looney.

In that regard as well, there's a trade off, just like we were talking about with Gary Payton Jr. So their ability to keep Memphis off the glass is gonna be an issue just like it was with Denver, and it's going to give Memphis a lot of extra possessions

and that could be an issue. And then lastly, with Memphis on offense, I worry with Dre Draymond Green with fatigue and foul trouble, so kind of like we saw in Game five against Denver and just in general, over the course of that series, Draymond started to wear down, not because he's not capable, but because there's so little depth in the front court for Golden State. Was a

need they never addressed this season. I don't know if they just thought James Wiseman was coming back or if they just didn't think they'd need it, but they never addressed their front court need for depth, and as a result, there is a ton on Draymond Green's plate, and so all it takes is Jah flying into the lane a couple of times to start a game, or Jaren Jackson Jr. Attacking on you know, quick catching rip thorough moves to pick up a couple of quick fouls on Draymond and

he could be in trouble and then fatigue, like we said, over the course of the series, could be an issue. So front court depth is gonna be the biggest area where Memphis has an advantage. Wearing down Draymond, getting him in foul trouble, and crashing the hell out of the offensive glass. It's going to put Golden State in a predicament where they have to play bigger players, a lot more out of Porter Jr. A lot more Gary Payton Jr. As a guy crashing the on the on the wings

to help defensive rebound. That could then lead to the cascading effect of causing Golden State problems on offense. So that's gonna be the tricky part. Now, moving to Golden State on offense. First of all, this is where I think Golden State has their best advantage. During the regular season, Memphis was a better half court offense team according to cleaning the glass. But obviously the postseason and the regular

season are two completely different things. And you saw Minnesota give Memphis a ton of issues with their drible containment, which was their best gill during the regular season, and it gave Memphis issues in the half court. During just this postseason, the Warriors are averaging a hundred and twenty three point four points per half court possession, which is ten and a half points better than Memphis managed in the first round against Minnesota. Minnesota is a better defense

than Denver, so there's some context there. But I do trust the Golden State's decision making in the half court more than I trust Memphis decision making in the half court. And this kind of takes me to that Minnesota series, which I thought was a really really strange series because in six games and we picked Memphis and six we got I think we got six of the eight first round series is correct. We were wrong about Brooklyn and we were wrong about Filling, but that was one of

the series we were right about. However, the tricky thing was is in the six games, Minnesota had controlling leads second half, like significant advantages in the second half. In five of the six games. So there's a bunch of different ways to look at that. Some of that is the game getting helter skelter and transition in Minnesota having guys that aren't great at closing games, which we talked about. But part of it is, and this is something I pointed out on the show, Memphis fly out came out

flat like four or five times in that series. That is a weird thing for a team that has expectations and hasn't been to the mountaintop before. And part of this is, like, like we always talked about, you have to build up scar tissue over the years of having hard losses and pain and heartbreak that caused you to fear losing so much that you don't come out flat. And Memphis hasn't had that heartache yet. And here's the thing against Minnesota, it just falls. It makes you fall

behind and you can recover. Against a team like Golden State, if you come out flat, you'll get beat because you're not coming back against them when they get a twenty point advantage of against you. They've been there too many times, right, They've had too much pain and suffering over the course of their decade of basketball. They know what it takes, so a lot of Memphis is sloppiness and general just like youth, is going to be something that I think

is going to cause them problems in this series. Another thing is I'm gonna be really curious to see how, specifically how Steve Kerr finds ways to attack John Moran, because Golden State is not a dribbled drive team really that much. Stephan Clay do drive to the basket off of attention from their three point shooting, but every team in the league kind of gives up those types of

drives because they're pressing up on the shot. I'm really curious to see if Jordan's Pool, in particular, because he is their best burst guard, He's their best quick, first step, beat people to the basket type of guard. How much they can use Jordan Pool to attack John Moran. How willing is Memphis to give up switches to put John Moran specifically on Jordan Pool even further? Can Golden State

play Jordan Pool enough? They had to bench him in the fourth quarter of that game five against Denver because he was struggling defensively, and he was struggling on the defensive glass. Well, that could be an issue in this series as well. Like we were talking about with trying to guard jaw so that having Jordan's pool out there on the offensive end, a lot of that has to

do with how well he holds up on the defensive end. Overall, my my brain and everything that I know about these teams tells me that Golden State should win and win easy, that they should win in five games. But I think in general, the length and athleticism and size of Memphis, in conjunction with the pace that they play at, in conjunction with the way that they attack the offensive glass, I think there's a lot of potential to wear Golden State down and drag this series out. And so I'm

picking Golden State, but I'm picking them in seven. I think this is going to be a long series. I think physical advantages are gonna keep Memphis in the series, as well as home court advantage. But I am going to favor the veteran team that is better and better with execution in the end. So I'm picking Golden State in seven. All right, We're gonna rip through these last two series is pretty quickly. I do find them interesting, just less interesting than the first two. So let's start

with Philly. Miami. Obviously, the mb thing makes it super complicated. That was a really strange report yesterday, Like you could interpret that as and be it's gonna sit out the rest of the playoffs. You could also interpret it as he just has a concussion and he could be back by Monday. Right, So we don't know what to say. So for the sake of here's the thing. If em beads out, Miami's winning the series. So we don't even have to get into that if Embiad's gonna miss the playoffs.

But let's quickly break down with the series would look like if Emba did play, because that would be the only the only scenario in which this series would be worth watching and worth breaking down. So let's start with Miami and offense specifically. What worries me with this situation is and Bead's ability to hang out around the rim.

Toronto did a really nice job with their five out kind of driving kick attack of making him Bead cover a lot of ground on the perimeter, but they met a bio in the way that he's utilized in their system. Hangs out a lot around the high post, kind of like Yokis does, does a lot of dribble handoffs and ball screens, but he can't shoot. That is going to lead to a dynamic where Joel Embiid can camp around the basket. That will be the biggest indicator of this

series in Miami's ability to score. Can they forced Joel Embiad to cover ground in the ter So much of that will have to do with will Philly's guards and wings do a good job of chasing guys over the top of all their dribble handoff actions, because if they struggle, if Bamadi Bio gets Duncan Robinson and Tyler Harrow and all these guys a bunch of and Gay Vincent and and Max Sterr's wide open looks flying off of these dribble handoffs, then Embeat has to come out to show

on the dribble handoffs. If Embat has to come out and show on the dribble handoffs, now Joe Embiad is further away from the basket, which opens up opportunities for everybody to get to the rim for Miami. So huge part of this specific matchup is going to be how successful is Philly at keeping him Beat around the rim. A couple other things, Jimmy Butler's health had knee issues. He missed Game five of the Atlanta the Atlanta Hawks series. How available is he gonna be? How successful is he

gonna be? That's gonna be the interesting wrinkle. Miami's best chance to win this series is if Jimmy Butler is healthy and like capable of doing the same types of things that he did in the Bubble playoff run when he was so dominant. Then, lastly, with Miami on offense, how successful will they be attacking James Harden and Tyrese Maxie. Philly has great defensive players on a lot of spots on the floor. Joel and Beads great defensive player. Tobias

Harris is very good, you know. Uh, Mattistabel is very good, although he has offensive issues that lead him to having trouble playing. Danny Green is a pretty dependable defensive player in the playoffs. But Tyres Maxie and James Harden, they struggle, specifically with the Tyris Maxie kind of reminds me of a lot of young defensive guards, Like there are possessions where he looks great, but then there are possessions where he gets lost. It's kind of part of the deal.

With being young. And then James Harden just doesn't care enough to put in the work and he's not mobile enough to contain people on the perimeter. He only does well defending post mismatches. So how successful will Miami be attacking James Harden Tyris Maxie will go a long way towards Miami's ability to score Philly on offense. There there are two things specifically that I wanted to look at. Here, can Bam at a bio cover Joel embiad in single coverage?

Because if he can, it diminishes the shot quality for everybody else on Philly makes the entire game significantly harder. James Harden has less room to operate. Tobias Harris and Tyres Maxie don't get as many of the wide open opportunities that they get to build their confidence and build their rhythm give them the ability to go off in more uh contested situations. So BAM's ability to garden bead huge swing factor for the series. You'll know pretty quickly

in Game one if he's up to that challenge. And then last, and this is the biggest reason I'm picking Philly to win the series. And six, by the way, if Joel Embiad is healthy, and the biggest reason why I'm going that way is there one There's one area

in that first round that I vastly underestimated. We talked a lot about this in the show that we did the other day on on Thursday Night, The Different when we were talking about the difference between shooters and makers and how confident guys like Tobias Harris and Danny Green and Tyres Maxie are when they get open looks because they are makers, not shooters. They're very, very good shooters

that are confident in their shot. Well, I I think I've like resoundly underestimated how much shooting Philly has And a huge part of what made that Toronto series is dominant of a performance as it was for Philly was

all this attention devoted to Himbiid. The ball would just get swinging around, even if Embid blew the first you know, double team read, it would be swinging, swinging, and there would be somebody with some type of advantage in Danny Green and Tobias Harris and Tyres Maxie are just gonna knock down these shots. They were eleven for twenty three in Game five or in game six up in Toronto. That amount of shooting, I think is going to make Miami pay. Miami, by the way, just like Milwaukee, is

another team that gives up a ton of open threes. Now, they actually lead the league in the half court in three point uh Milwaukee overall gave up the most threes, but Miami and the half court gave up according to Cleaning the Glass, give up the most three point attempts, but they also gave up the worst three point percentage. So Spolstra is very smart about leaving guys open, but leaving the right eyes open. But the trick is, like I just said, I'm not sure Philly has a right

guy to leave open except for Matisse thybel Right. When they're with their best lineups and you have James Harden and Joel Embiad and Tyres Maxie and Tobias Harris and Danny Green, there's just not a good guy to leave open there. So if Miami is gonna give up a ton of open threes and a ton of help on defense, that specific team is equipped to make them pay. I think this is gonna be a team a series that

gets ugly and is pretty low scoring. I think both teams are gonna struggle to some extent scoring in the half court. But I think the advanced the I think Phillies embead advantage, meaning they have the best opportunity to compromise the defense consistently by forcing double teams in conjunction with their overall shooting and the fact that Miami's defense

is set up to give up three point shots. I think that gives Philly the advantage in this series, and I'm picking them to win in six, possibly a little bit earlier. It's just a home court advantage thing that throws it off for me going with Philly and six. Really quickly, let's talk about Dallas and Phoenix, another series where we can't take too much away from the regular season. Luca only played in one game against Phoenix, was at home.

Phoenix dominated. In one they were uh Dallas actually led the first three quarters in the Phoenix was unbelievably dominant in the fourth quarter. They won the fourth quarter thirty five to nineteen. We'll get into that just a second. In that game, Luca was nine two for nine from three eight assists, with eight turnovers and was a minus seven disastrous fourth quarter. We saw some issues with Dallas's

fourth quarter offense against Utah, it does become predictable. But part of the issue there was Rudy Gobert is very, very difficult to score against. And for all the things we said about Utah's defense, they did lock in and get a lot of stops in crunch time, they just got themselves killed throughout the rest of the game. Will DeAndre Ayton provide the same type of deterrence as Gobert. We're gonna see. We're gonna see if he can guard

Luca out on the perimeter. Another big thing is gonna be how how willing is Phoenix to give up switches with Chris Paul and Devin looker onto onto Luca, because Luca has always had a ton of success against smaller players because of his ability to use his body to shield guys away from contact. So, to make a long story short, I expect Luca and Dallas to have a good amount of success against Phoenix's defense. Lucas too smart and there are matchups to attack. Phoenix does run a

pretty traditional defensive scheme. Luca, I think, is going to feast on that in a lot of settings. So much of it is going to come down to how often can he get Chris Paul and Devin Booker in single coverage. Moving on to Phoenix on offense, this is where Chris Paul becomes so devastating. We talked a lot about how dallas defense is excellent. They make up for a lack of defensive personnel with absurd effort and an excellent scheme.

But there's a little a good amount of gimmickiness to that, right, There's there are a lot of options on the floor to attack. Chris Paul is going to find a way to to put Dallas in some predicaments defense Civilly, They're gonna want to switch a lot of the screening role actions. But again, do you like Maxine kleiva In in a matchup against Chris Paul in isolation on the perimeter? Do you like Chris Paul in isolation? Again? Do you like

Luca don Chitch and isolation against Chris Paul and the perimeter? Like, I don't think Phoenix is gonna have any issues scoring. And then a huge issue, especially when we're talking about switching against Utah, Dallas could get away with switching smaller defenders onto Gobert because Gobert is like one of the worst matchup attacking bigs in the entire league. We've talked a lot about it this season. I think he only had ten made field goals in the entire regular season

against switches. It might even have been worse than that. I can't remember. I just vaguely remember seeing that stat somewhere on Twitter. But DeAndre Ayten significantly better. Kind of a monster attacking switches. When Chris Paul pulls the big away and the guard gets switched on to Aton, Chris Paul is relentless on hitting Aton, and Aton just goes to that quick, little, you know, a half hook that he hits in the lane, and he hits it all the time. He's got one of the best hook shots

in all of basketball right now. So that's gonna put them in a bunch of predicaments. And then lastly, uh Dallas really struggled guarding Boyan Bogdanovitch. We talked a lot about this on the show, that big rim, pressuring wing, especially against switching defenses, can just get great looks all over the floor. Well, Devin Booker is not as big as boy On Bogdanovich, but he is similar in the

way that he can attack shorter mismatches. There will be spots on the guys on the floor for Dallas, like guys like Reggie Bullock, guys like you know, uh, Jalen Brunson. There are gonna be a lot of guys that Spencer Dinwood, He's another one. They're gonna be a lot of guys out there that Devin Booker is gonna feel comfortable attacking in isolation, kind of similar to the way Bogdanovich did, and he's gonna get a lot of good looks. I this is another one where my head is telling me

Phoenix is gonna dominate. My head is telling me sweep or five games that Phoenix is gonna win. But I have too much respect for Luca. I think he's a top tier superstar. I just have a feeling he's gonna find a way to drag this series out. So I'm going Phoenix in six. All right, guys, That is all I have for today. I sincerely appreciate your guys support. We will be back for a live show tomorrow right after there's Bucks Celtics at ten am Pacific standard time,

Warriors Grizzlies at twelve thirty Pacific Standard time. We'll be going live right after the Grizzlies Warriors game. We'll be doing live shows on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this weekend. Then there are no games on Thursday, so be prepared for live shows the next four days. As always, I appreciate your guys support and I will see you tomorrow. The Volume