This crowd rises to speaking what Carl slammed it out car left wing, free ball, perfect pop, then he left lock the shot at the rim, pow with the left hand.
And of foul.
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Slash Calves. The Cleveland Cavaliers have completed the most dominant light lopsided series in NBA history, beating the Miami Heat by a combined one hundred and twenty two points through four games. My prediction was correct. The Calves wanted to come out and make a statement. They did it, and they swept the Miami Heat. Joining me today is my co host, Carter Rodriguez. Carter, how you doing, buddy?
Oh, it's a cavalis It was like a forty eight minute cavalanche. These boys went up sixty in Game four on the road. I mean, what an unbelievable stretch of games in Miami. A dominance, I'm not sure. I mean, we've literally, I guess never seen you know, with them setting the record for the most dominant sweep in the history of the sport. And it just kind of goes to show you how ready this team was to answer questions to knock down the dominoes put in front of them.
No one's gonna mistake this Heat team for a juggernaut. But like, this was the ninth best defense in the NBA, and I believe they were seventh best after the All Star break, and I mean hot knife feugh butter one hundred and thirty, one hundred and thirty seven offensive rating for the series, like.
Come on, which is an NBA record for best offensive rating in a series.
Right when.
One of the things that we asked coming into the series that we wanted to learn is can the Cavs offense finally translate to the postseason? Can they have you know, a strong offensive series. I believe you wanted to see one eighteen, am I correct?
Yeah, I was hoping. I was like, I'll settle for one sixteen. You know know what you did, Carter?
You sold them a little short, you sold short the hardest, working, best condition, most professional, unselfish, toughest, meanest, nastiest team in the playoffs?
How dare you do that? It couldn't possibly be me. You must be thinking to someone else justin I want to open by asking you this because we were going into our serious preview and I asked you if anything in the first round could change your opinion about this team, like not like out of Series two series, because I think both of us felt like they could win the
title coming into that series. But I kind of asked, like, can they do anything to kind of make you feel differently about them after that that ridiculousness.
Do you remember what my answer was at the time.
I don't remind me.
My answer was, no, they can't do anything to change what my opinion is, my level of confidence going moving forward, because I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt, right, Like I said, going into this series, my brain says five because Miami always finds a way
to get a game in a series. But my heart is telling me four because what we've seen this season from the Cleveland Cavaliers is when they have something to play for, when they have an edge to them, they go out and accomplish it, whether it is the historic regular season they had, whether it was getting three of them to the All Star Game, that seemed to be, you know, a real thing that they wanted to accomplish. Evan Mobley winning Defensive Player of the Year, donnod Mitchell
is going to be All NBA. I think Evan's definitely going to make All NBA as well. These guys, when they have a chip on their shoulder, we've seen another gear from them. And I think after the All Star break, with the one seed already locked up with a brutal travel schedule, we just didn't see the same kind of focus calves and I really felt with a week off with something to prove, with guys like Darius Garland saying, hey, we know what the perception is, we know what we
have to do to change it. We want to go out and change it, I just felt like they were going to, you know, come out and make a statement. And you look at this series. Man Game one, twenty one point, League Game two, nineteen point, League Game three, forty point, League Game four, sixty point lead. We said after Game two that that was probably Miami's best shot. We felt that the shot making from Miami was unsustainable.
They were not getting good looks. I think coming off to elimination games that they won, they were playing with a lot of confidence. Their best was not enough, and I think after they had that, starting Game three, the Cavs came out without Donovan Mitchell and had an eighteen oh run to basically, you know, start to put that game away and put it out of reach where once again they were going to need to attempt another large comeback.
You know, I don't want to say it about professionals, but it really it felt like, you know, their confidence kind of fell apart at that point, and you know, it just felt like they were out of the series, like they did not believe that they could compete. And once you reach that point where you no longer believe that you can actually contend and compete within a series, you're going to let go of the rope and things are going to unravel fast.
Yeah. And I don't think it's always about effort. It's about like how hard your brain is working to solve the problem. You know. I just think, like to your point, Miami kind of very quickly came to the same conclusion that much of the viewing public game two, which is
that we can't solve this problem. We don't have the juice, we don't have the ball handlers, we don't have the shooting, we don't have the physicality, you know, and like, you know, a couple of those things are such Miami heat staples that, yeah, it's jarring like but like I do think as bad as the Heat were in these last two games, like you have to give the credit to the Cavs for taking it the way.
They did, I've never seen a Spo team give up. And it really felt that way. And Spo had this comment after Game three, and no, I've never heard him sound as dejected. He said, clearly a very disappointing day. Look, our guys really want this. It probably looks like our guys don't. But I know what our last six weeks have been and like to fight and scratch and claw to get this. We laid an egg today. Big part of it was Cleveland became an avalanche going in the
other direction. Sometimes when you care, there's a level of discouragement that fed into that avalanche. That's what we all feel the spirited about. I think that's I don't want to laugh at that man like, that's that's vulnerable, that's real. And I think one of the things we've seen in these playoffs is a bit of a shift in the NBA, where in the past, I think teams when we saw the best player in a series, we almost always gave
that team an edge. I think from just the way rosters were constructed, that player always would come out on top, or very frequently would come out on top. And now with modern team building, with the level of talent that is around the league, that isn't the differentiating factor anymore.
Man Like Giannis is out there having a phenomenal series against Indiana and he's fighting like to the death to get a game off these guys Lebron and Luca, you know, a perfect example of top end tallent not necessarily being enough. And then you come to this Miami heats where the Cows not only have the top end talent, we have the five through eight, you know, five through ten level of talent to just relentlessly come after you minute after minute.
After the starters got pulled in the third quarter, Miami kept their starters out there. A lot of key players were still playing. Our bench extended that lead. It's incredibly impressive.
Yeah, it's you know, I've been saying it for a couple of years, kind of starting to see the narrative kind of kind of flip nationally in analyzing the league. You know, I forget who wrote the article that you know, is this a week link league now? Where you're just as good as your worst piece that you play, and you're looking up and down the playoffs. You're seeing Lakers not make a sub yesterday in the second half literally
played the same five guys twenty four straight minutes. You're watching the Knicks get five bench points against Detroit, even in a game they won. You know, it just feels so precarious for those teams in a way that it doesn't for the Cavs. Yeah. And that's not to say the Cabs bench won't struggle at different points over the playoffs, Like.
It might be different guys that we rely on, right, Yeah.
But like the holistic reliance and the difference between these top heavy teams and the teams you can play nine or ten guys and feel really good about that, it does feel like it matters. You know, Minnesota has a bunch of dudes they really really trust, and it doesn't have to be ten. But like it's like having a really strong upper middle class of your roster where it's not just guys who can survive out there for four minutes where you're just kind of crossing your fingers, but
guys who, when they're on, can really help. I mean, this is I've said it before, but this is where I was so wrong about Boston last year was I thought they had six good players and you know, eight or nine guys that they really couldn't count on. It turned out Sam Houser hits in a major way, Prichard hits in a major way, Cornett hits in a major way, and all of a sudden, they're, you know, not only as they're starting five unbelievable, they're an eight or nine
deep team with guys that can kill you. And like, I don't know, you look at that Indiana Milwaukee series and like his proofs in the pudding in terms of who you can rely on to consistently carry you through a series, I feel like the teams with depth are the ones that are really showing out in this playoffs.
Here is the best way that I can summarize that depth. There are two teams that have a double digit net rating in the playoffs Cavs and the Thunder. The Thunders was nineteen for their series win against the Grizzlies. Not a single Cleveland Cavalier had a net rating below twelve when they were on court, so dominant every single guy up and down the rotation. But it gets more wild than that. The Cav's net rating with Donovan off the floor was thirty points better. They're net rating with Darius
off the court was thirty one points better. Their net rating with Evan off the court was thirty eight points better. So keep that in mind. Those guys, like you know, sometimes you see negative on off splits. Every single one of these guys had an on court net rating of over twelve. That means you are smoking them when you are out there on the court. The Cavs three best players, they managed to dominate this series when they were not in the game. That is something, man like. That is something,
And it's not like they didn't do their part. Darius Garland, I'll play Tyler hero in his minutes, Evan Mobley, I'll play bam Adebayo. Donovan Mitchell one cold shooting game, but you saw him close out Game two. He was phenomenal in this series. I thought he played with a lot of composure. He said after the game, you know, he doesn't worry about rest versus rust kind of thing, because he feels great. He said, it's the best he's felt in the playoffs, and he will take all the rest
he can get. This Cavs team earned the rest that they got, but what we have seen throughout the season is they have put themselves in a position to capitalize on this rest because throughout eighty two games they knew they could trust guys five through ten on this roster and even if he need be, Hey, we can throw in a Jalen Tyson, we don't care Craig Porter Junior can play. We know that these guys can give us
good minutes. We can play these guys at Madison Square Garden in a game where where Donovan Mitchell is out and go out and win. There is just such a high level of trust and confidence, and I think that translates to how they play, how connected they play on both ends of the court.
It's also just such a testament to the front office that you know, I still think is you know, one of the occupational hazards of Kenny getting all this love is that I feel like the front office isn't maybe getting as many flowers as they deserve this season because three years ago they traded for Donovan and the consensus agreement is that was their all in move, no more chips to cash, and and we kind of figured that, you know, just logically, that this was a team that
was going to have to be really really really good at the top four. And if those four guys were great and meshed well together, they would be great. If those guys weren't great, they it was going to be uphill sludding, you know. And the fact that they've just like, not only are they great and great together and able to kind of raise, you know, raise the ceiling of the team, it also just hasn't mattered if they have been good, Like, like, they have so much depth, so
much insulation. You know, you trade two bench players and Keris and Niang and a couple swaps of swaps, and go get DeAndre Hunter, who was phenomenal in games three and four. You pick up Ty Jerome off the scrap heap, he loses an entire season, comes in third and six
Manut of the Year voting. You you've Dean Wade an undrafted free agent, you know, just so Sam merrill A, you know, a twenty six, twenty seven year old guy you signed to your G League team, and then he earned his way to the main roster like every even Isaac o Kora, who was you know, the most traditional path in you know, being a high pedigree pick, like the roster is just padded out with every possible way
to add talent, you know, max in free agency. They have such phenomenal depth, and all of it was earned and and really worked for by this front office. And they just deserve so much credit for that. Yeah, they really do.
You know.
Even hey, Ricky Rubio, you know, unfortunately gets hurt. Were what we believe in this team. We're going to flip him with a first round pick to get Kris Lavert right, and Carris gave them a lot of really good minutes. You sign him to an extension. But then, hey, you know, we we invested in Tidrome. This is someone that we've wanted to bring into the locker room for a very
long time. It has been a perfect fit, and that has afforded us the flexibility to go out and flip you know, Karris Lavert and George Niang who was having a great season for DeAndre Hunter right, developing Jeddi Osmond and Lamar Stevens, both of them playing real minutes on a fifty win team, which I think people forget and using that as you know, sign and trade bait to get Maxters right, Like, I think it goes beyond just who they brought in, but the little kind of you know,
turning a paper clip into a house through you know, seven thousand trades that Kobe Altman had to do to really build a deep roster that can have sustained success after really emptying the cupboard to give an honest effort with Lebron James right and trying to contend as much as possible in that four your windows. So I think
they deserve a ton of credit. I think we have seen this team, whether the storm be in a position where they could rest guys, and obviously that seems to be the case with Darius Garland will knock on wood and hope that it isn't something that lingers into the Indiana series. But they've really really put themselves in a great position and to be in a spot where you know, you lose Darius, who's averaging twenty four points per game
in this series. I'm terrific two way basketball, and oh now we can just kind of cycle in DeAndre Hunter, who is a twenty point per game scorer in Atlanta. He's gonna, you know, play alongside Ty Jerome, Evan Mobley, Jared Allen, Donod Mitchell. We still have, you know, so much top end scoring talent that unbelievable. I can't believe we are in this good of a position because I we always talk about the compromises you have to make
in roster building and team building. The Calves are in a hell of a position and all of these guys are at least locked up for the short term here.
Yeah, they are so so good again, I said after Game three, now that the sweep is complete, I mean, you know, and one thing I kind of chickened out at the beginning of the SPoD because I kind of asked, you, you know, could anything the way they play change the way you feel about them? Yeah? I mean I feel different. I do feel different. I feel stronger about this team.
I feel stronger than if they had done what okay see did, which was start off dominant, which, by the way, the Cavs did too, but you know, start off o mega dominant and then kind of tail off with a couple close ones in Miami. If that's what they had done, I'd be like, Okay, proud of them, but like you know, and sweeps are hard. You don't you never, you know, turn your nose up at any playoff win, But like, okay,
we'll see how the next series goes. I do feel like the offense was so forceful, it was so dominant, it was so frankly unbothered by anything Spolstra did. Zone didn't work, down shift didn't work, switch more didn't work, Trap in and blitz the ball handler didn't work. Fight over and keep Davion Mitchell connected, so you couldn't get advantageous switches didn't work. I don't think Miami did one thing that late that worked for more than three minutes
at a time. In this series, not a single tactic worked because of the offensive flexibility, the scheme versatility of this team, the talent level of this team, the shot making, the creativeness of their of the way that they attack the passing. Just an absolute dominant offensive performance in every single game.
Man, That's that's a lot of good points, and I'm just so grateful that I have a tool like Zoomei Companion to help keep.
Track of that.
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Oh my god, six in the first half is that TJ McConnell.
That is a Calves franchise playoff record. Six steals in the first half. It's a record for a game. And Jared did it in the first half. I thought he really set the tone honestly when he got that steal at the start of the game, when when full course I did too, I was like, oh, yeah, they're focused. Jared's locked in again. You know here, we're in a very very good position.
And and conversely, the degree to which Miami was like told me it was over.
It's one thing when you know Donovan goes coast to coast for dunk, but when Jared Allen's just picking your pocket and you know, bringing out the Statue of Liberty, which, hey, it looked a lot cooler than when he tried to do the Lebron dunk, So so points to him, big, big shout out to him. I thought he had a phenomenal series. This is two years in a row that I thought he's been fantastic in the playoffs. You know, people will linger on that Nix and forget this man
who was averaging you know, seventeen and fourteen. I believe against Orlando before the broken rip. He is someone that has come out and really made an impact in these series and the one that we're going to need to continue to rely on. I understand that Jared is more than happy fighting for offensive rebounds, doing the dirty work,
hustle plays, getting the steals. I still think back to that steal he had in Game two, which pretty much sealed the game, like that was one of the biggest plays of this entire series and has put them once again in a position to capitalize on the rest that they've afforded themselves here. So Jared, I know he's content with, you know, getting the scraps and cleaning up on that, but I just feel like he is such a talented finisher.
He is such a skilled offensive player that we're going to need to continue to make sure that we are keeping him involved offensively, because I think the most dynamic version of this Cavs team is never relying too heavily on you know, one or two players to you know, do the heavy lifting here. When we have you know, three, four five guys all cooking, that's when we really played the best Cats basketball.
Jared Allen against the Miami Heat in four games, scores fifty seven points, twenty one of twenty seven from the field, fifteen of fifteen from the free throw line, forty one rebounds, thirteen of them on the offensive end, uh so average about three offensive rebounds a game a little bit more, had ten steals like and was a plus seventy six. I believe he led the team in plus minus. Nope,
I did it plus eighty eight, which is hilarious. You know, just the consummate professional to your point, Like, I just think he has been one of their most reliable players so far and over these last two years in the in the postseason, he really has settled into what he needs to do for this team. I think his defensive rebounding is super laudable, you know, because that is not a strength of this team. And you know, Evan didn't
board great in this series. You know, he was doing a lot of wrestling with Bam or getting switched on the perimeter, and like, especially if Evan isn't having a dominant rebounding series, the impetus on Jarrett to do that goes way way way up. And he was just tough as nails. Yeah, it's.
He really like heilloutware. I feel for him, but he at the.
Beginning of the series, I said, this is going to be a welcome to the NBA, buddy, Like you think you are a big, springy, rim protecting, dunking big man, Like there's levels of this game, young blood, and like that's exactly what Jarrett showed.
I just think he has matured so much of a player. He has rounded out his game in so many ways, and it really really shows, like the touch he has, like sometimes when he's taking off far from the basket and he just puts that little spin on it where you know it's basically hitting the backboard below the rim
but still popping up and going perfectly in. Like that's not an easy thing to do when you are playing against rangey, lengthy defenders, and you know, I think we're going to kind of make the assumption here that next round is going to be against the Indiana Pacers. I think they have played much better basketball than the Milwaukee Bucks for the majority of the season. Honestly, it's ever since, you know, they turned things around. I think that's been
the better team. And then, of course, unfortunately there was the Damian Lillard injury, which was just absolutely heartbreaking. You know, that's somebody that we've measured CALVS guards against for basically my entire time watching basketball. And while I've always been on the other side of a lot of game arguments, that's someone that have a lot of respect for, and
you know, that was just terrible to see. But you know, there's been a lot of talk about how Indiana, you know, turn their defense around and post All Star Break kind of what they've done. Indiana's defense post All Star Break was one eleven point five, Miami's post All Star Break one eleven point six. You're talking about equivalent defenses there.
Even in net rating, I think people forget like Miami was seventh and net rating after the All Star Break they were a plus three Indy plus five point six, So it's not like you're talking about a massive gap in terms of level of play. I will say the ceiling is a million times higher for Indiana.
Yeah, they haven't done. I have a couple of things I want to hit on from this series before we pivot in. Okay, is that cool?
Yeah? Go for it.
Ty Jerome at nineteen assists to two turnovers in his four games.
Oh my goodness.
Like he goes ten of twenty from three to forty two from the field, eleven of thirteen from the line. What an like. I think both of us felt like this was gonna be a fine thing for Tie. Like, I don't think we went into this being like Ty might have a hard time with playoff pressure. But I feel like he exceeded even my expectations in the sense that he completely dominated some of these games, even without Darius on the floor.
Yeah, he was big and doing what he did all season. Right when when Donno miss's time, Ty has stepped up, when Darius missus time, Ty has stepped up, and they've done a terrific job all season long managing his minutes. You know, it's one of the things that Kenny talked about, which is basically, hey, a lot of these guys coming in off the bench are almost on a minute restriction because we want them to be healthy. We want to see them being able to contribute and be at their
best in the playoffs. And Tye is absolutely built for these moments. I mean, obviously, the shooting in this series is going to regress. That was nuts. We shot forty four percent for a series like next.
From the line and by the way, remember how frustrated we were getting post All Star Break with this team's free throw shooting not a problem in this series.
Man seventy seven of one to seventy five from three in a four game series, Like, that's a lot of threes to get up in four games, and that's a lot of makes to have, you know, ty Jerome hitting that half court shot like at that point, Like, you know, there are bad shooting elect games, and Miami had a
bad shooting lex series. But I think even with all of that, when you're talking about a one twenty two point margin and the fact that they probably shot a little over their skis, particularly in those first two games, like this just wasn't particularly close, and you know, the the Indiana Ranta was going on was actually a little more about Hey, Like I understand that Miami was the ten seed, but if you're talking about posts All Star break Indiana and you know the challenge that they are
going to bring, you also have to give credit to what Miami had done down the stretch of this season after you know, resolving that Jimmy Butler situation. So I think the Cavs acquitted themselves incredibly well. DeAndre Hunter, I think deserves a ton of credit, going all four in game one, the rest of the series, sixteen of twenty nine and eight of thirteen from three.
Like, yeah, felt you felt him, You felt his impact, you felt you know, I felt like when he got to the team and they were on that crazy run, he so often was the straw that broke the camel's back, him and Tie, and like that is the fun of having this two of those guys off the bench, you know the fact that they can change the rhythm of
the game and also be part of the pylon. Mm hmm, because like it's happened both ways where he's come in kept them that second quarter or that first shift in Game two, sorry, where he hit a couple threes, just to kind of get them in motion after a pretty sloggy first six to seven minutes of that game. So he can kind of get you out of the rup, but he can also take you over the top and take a game from like semi competitive to over in
very very short order. I thought this was one of his I think this was one of his very best games as a cavalier. Dominant on both ends of the floor. Man, they're so good. So what would you guess?
I'm going to tell you what the on court net ratings were for Donovan in these games in Miami in particular, So Evan was plus thirty when he was on court in terms of net rating. Donovan was plus thirty six for on court net rating. What would you guess? Ti Jerome and DeAndre Hunters were at for the two games in Miami plus forty. So Ti Jerome had a plus seventy three net rating for the games in Miami and DeAndre Hunter had a plus sixty net rating.
Oh my god, that's absurd. A blood bath.
Yeah, Jared was up there too. Jared was a plus sixty his minutes and you know, one of the big kind of tactical shifts as this series went to Miami. You know, Kenny did a really good job changing up
the defensive coverages. We talked about how they applied full court pressure, and you know, one of the reasons why I just never agreed with the whole Hey, the Caves are peaking too soon conversations of the regular season is you can't say that a team is peaking when the stars are playing the lowest minutes of their career and you know you're basically playing a base rotation every single game. No,
the Cavs had another gear to go to. They had defensive wrinkles that we didn't see in the regular season. We still have the option to shorten up the road, you know. It just it didn't make any damn sense to me. And I'm losing my train of thought. I'll be honest, I'm losing my train of thought. I was going to bring that home to pick it right back, all right, thank you?
Now, there there's so many fun stats coming out of these two games in Miami. Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley led the Cavaliers in minutes per game in these last two games at twenty seven point three. Good lord, Like, that's the thing, bro. Not only are they gonna get like a week of rest, like from just not playing
basketball for the last you know. They played Game two in Cleveland on Wednesday, the twenty third, and Donovan has played fifty four minutes and probably won't play another minute till Saturday or sun Well, we know, won't play another minute until Saturday the third or Sunday the fourth. Like you cannot buy better rest than that.
Yeah, yeah, it's you know, they're in a really really good position obviously. I think that's gonna be a big benefit for Darius, who didn't you know, play in either game in Miami.
He's really that's really the only thing that you leave this series being like, man, uh, you just hope it gets better. You know, tos are messy. It's hard to get off of them, uh you know, because you kind of use them for just standing and existing, so it's really hard to rest them. But and you just kind of especially a guy who starts and stops and is a balance based player like and on the left foot, like that's kind of your your set foot for for
you know, jump shots and things like that. So I'm not me, I'm a lefty, but you know, but yeah, I mean you need it. You need that tell you need it to be working like and I will say and if you're can we move into some pacers talk real quick?
And I remembered, I remembered my train of thought. I was going to I was going to land the plane. So the one of the adjustments that Kenny did make was Dean passed Isaac in the rotation. And you know, in tonight's game, Isaac didn't play, and nobody really played outside the top eight until about the five minute mark in the third quarter. It really seemed like Kenny tightened up the rotation even though they were up by so much.
He was out for blood in this game. And I thought it was really interesting because one of the kind of the trickle down effects of not playing Isaac and Dean moving up in the rotation is you're a whole lot bigger. This is one of the things that we
had talked about a lot. And when I'm looking at, you know, those net ratings, I don't think it's a coincidence that right at the top, are you know, TI, DeAndre and Jared, Because that lineup of DeAndre Hunter, Dean Wade, and Jared Allen or Evan Mobley really with either of those guys, and that is so much size, that is so much length. Defensively, I really like that. I think that might be an adjustment that's here to stay. Ind
he plays with a lot of athleticism. They have a lot of length, and when you are able to combat that with a lot of length yourself, I think that that's the way I lean.
Now.
The interesting thing here is with Darius not in the lineup, that meant that Sam Marrol wasn't playing any small forward right like he was primarily playing as a shooting guard. He was playing alongside Ty Jerome. That allowed the Calves to go a whole lot bigger. So it's not just a question about you know, moving Isaac down the rotation
to you know, the ninth or tenth man spot. Is Kenny going to go with that larger look and what implications does it have for everyone else in the rotation because you know, Darius, Donovan and Tie are going to be playing.
Well, especially I remember we talked about it a little bit in like the weeks leading into the playoffs, talking through the rotation, talking through some of our concerns with Sam having to play minutes at the three and because of you know, Tie and Tie's emergence, and we kind of said, like you might have to pick between one or the other when things get tough, you know, and the teams start beating you up and you know, exposing
that that size disadvantage. And like I gotta say, like I thought Sam was great and this now, and I think he can play verse Indy.
I I think you can play him at small Ford versus Indy. I'm not shortening the rotation. I'm not going down to eight guys. Like I'm not suggesting, Hey, the eight we played tonight, We're just going to swap Darius in for Sam kind of thing. I would still like to be.
Playing nine and ten against Indiana, and I think we will. But what I was going to say is that I don't think that we can't. Like there's no world in which I see Tie not being a member of this rotation until they lose, like literally till they're out of
the playoffs. No, because I just feel like he's earned it, you know, you earn these kind of like he's at a point where it would have to be like a total disaster of a series for me to even consider cutting his minutes, because he's earned that equity.
Yeah, Honestly, when we talk about the I guess the top seven. Like if you're talking about the core for Max Strus, Tijerome and DeAndre Hunter, those guys have equity for me unavailable. If they go out and they shoot for twenty, I don't care, man, Like I one, I trust these guys to be doing other things out there, and hey, like maybe maybe it just wasn't off shooting game like like Donovan had in Game three. That stuff happens. I trust those top seven, and I'm riding with those guys.
To me, the question goes beyond that, right, Like if Kenny is going to pare down in any game in you know, the semifinals or the Eastern Conference finals, if the Gays are able to make it there, I'm interested to see who the eight or nine are. I think that's kind of more my de note here and just kind of the circumstances that allowed them to do that. But I still keep coming back to I really like when the Cavs play big. I think they have the
option to do so in the staggered lineups. I think it helps them on the both ends of the glass. I think it helps them play physically. You saw DeAndre playing at small forward, capitalizing on mismatches man like, he's able to put his back to the basket and score on guys. He's able to take advantage of his size. He gets to the free throw line because they can't handle him at that size at the small forward position. Those are advantages he doesn't necessarily have when he's playing
at power forward. So that's one of those things that I want to keep an eye on because if you're asking me, what is the optimized version of this team when we're putting our absolute best foot forward because we're trying to beat a Boston, we're trying to be in an OKC, we're trying to win a championship here. The larger lineups when we are staggered are are what sticks in my head as the best foot forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Yeah, what's the only time we will through this series? Mean, you turn to each other and went, I don't know about this lineup. It was, you know, when they were playing Samo the three and I was I got the four in Game two. I just think you're kind of giving away what makes you so special is being big
and skilled and athletic and switchable. And you know, so much has been made of this team's You know, so much conversation has been made about this team's identity and whether it works, whether it is too much of a zag from the standard, which again talk about feeling validated. You know, you got Houston running a double big, You've.
Got Miami drafted kill ware to okay see.
Ye okay see is playing too big Like so many teams are now playing two bigs, which goes to show you that maybe old Justin and Carter had some good ideas. But you know, I just think that at the end of the day, I'm always gonna like when this team leans into what makes them special and what makes them unique, because I think that's their superpower. You know, you never want to run away from your superpower. So I'm excited to see how they match up in the next series.
I do think it could be a little bit assuming it's going to be Indy. That series isn't over yet, but assuming it is, I do think it could be a bit of a shock to the system. I think it can go sick is going to be a huge jump.
Yes, I think it can go six. I think, you know, the same way that going into the series, I thought four or five based on how serious the Cavs are, how they're able to execute, do they have a cold shooting night. Those kind of factors, to me, are the difference between five and six. Obviously, you know, if Darius misses extended time in that series and then has to come in midway through, you know, not really able to do conditioning with a toe injury, I think that could
put them in a really difficult spot. So we'll wait for updates on that. But I think, you know, if once again having a week off benefits this team a lot. They're able to get practices and they're able to prep, and they come out with a necessary seriousness, I think it would be a five or six game series. I have a lot of respect for Indiana. They got some
good wins. They pushed teams, they don't quit. But I think what you said about the Cavs leaning into what makes them special is kind of like the final takeaway that I want to have from this Miami series, which is we wanted to see the offense translate to the postseason. We saw that it was the greatest offensive rating in a series in NBA history. We wanted to see Evan Mobley rise to the occasion against maam Adebayo. He had a quiet first game. I thought he outplayed him the
rest of the series. I thought he was the most impactful defensive. I thought he was terrific offensively. He had that drive in poster dunk in this game that moved me. I'm still rattled by it. I thought Evan was absolutely terrific. But the other thing that we said going into the series is will they impose their style of play on Miami. Eric Spolster is one of the best at adjustments, getting you out of your comfort zone, getting you to play
Miami Heat basketball. That's how they beat Boston and Boston last year, even without Jimmy Butler. They dragged Boston into their style of game. They took them out of their comfort zone. They got them no longer playing Celtics basketball. The Cavs played Cleveland Cavalier basketball for four straight games, and they crushed the spirit of the Miami Heat because they couldn't do anything to change the way that they were playing. Now, you have to build upon that. You
have laid a foundation here in the first round. You are making the semifinals for the second consecutive year. That's a hell of an accomplishment, but you have bigger goals. Can you build up on that foundation and continue to reach higher levels and continue to have more success against tougher competition. I'm so damn excited to see what this team's going to do next round.
Yeah, me too. And I really do think they showed exactly who we thought they were, or maybe even who we wanted them to be.
I think, like who I believe they could be. That's that's the way I will frame.
That, and it is as encouraging as a first round series against you know, a ten seed can be. All that stuff matters. I do think there's going to be a bit of a shock to the system when they go play a team with more options, more levers to pull, mismatched killers, you know.
Frankly a higher IQ ball handler. Miami doesn't really have a true point guard Tyler Hero, you know, he did his best, but Harry's Halliburn's a basketball savant, Like he's going to find open shooters and they have a lot, a lot of very willing shooters out there, right.
They have multiple on seventy two percent of their field goals in this series against Milwaukee, and like I and but you know, as much as I'll say the Calves are going to have a wake up, I think Indiana is going to have a wake up because you're not attacking Brook Lopez and Kevin Porter Junior in Bobby Portis, guys who cannot move with you, cannot understand the game at the level of you, like Calves can match that kind of stuff. And I do think for both teams.
I wouldn't and we're going to dive into this. We're gonna do a more thorough preview once that series wrap. But like I think for both teams we're going to see a healthy offensive drop off because of the ways that the other team is capable of challenging them in ways their first round opponent was not. And of course, of course the Calves eventually there's gonna have a drop off. You're not gonna put up one thirty six for all
the way to the finals. But like, I just think both teams have a lot of interesting levers to pull. I'm actually really geeked if it's Indiana. I think they are the best test of any of the second round teams Andy, Milwaukee, Detroit, New York. Like you know of anyone that other than Boston that could have been played
by the Calves. I think Indy is the toughest matchup for them, and I think, like you know, if I felt like my ceiling raised after this first round dominant series against Miami, if they go out and dominate Indy, then I'm going off the rails with this hype because I you know, you said you think Indy can take it six. I think they can take it seven. I will not be picking that. But like I have so much respect for Brick Carlisle, I have so much respect
for their point of his hack defenders. I have so much respect for Pascal Siakam, who is the guy who our guys have trouble with, and it is a real blender in the post that can really muck up a switch heavy scheme because you cannot switch your guards onto him. You know, I was hanging in a playback room with the Dunker Spot boys and Steve was getting really frustrated with Bam for not asserting in the post demanding the ball against mismatches not gonna happen with Pascal Siakam. Ye like,
he will make sure he gets the ball. He will spin mote, move you into hell and he will get a bucket or a foul and you know, the machine gets going from there. So, like, I think they present a ton of really good challenges for us. I'm really really excited about how they confront those. I think if they win a hard fought series, I won't think any less of them. But if they dominate Indy, well, I'm honestly, dude, I'll probably pick them against Boston.
I mean, I'm going to pick them against Boston because I'm me. I'm just going to do that. But I think you know, your point about it's going to be a wake up call for them really rings true for me. Like you look at post All Star Break where Indiana made their run, like their neck and neck in terms of net rating with the Milwaukee Bucks in the Miami Heat.
The gap between the Indiana Pacers net rating on the season and the Miami Heat, the gap between India and Cleveland's is four and a half times larger than the gap between Indiana and Miami. When you're talking about level of competition, and of course you know Milwaukee was right there along those guys. The Cavs are going to have to play like it though, Like they are going to have to play at their absolute best. We saw Indiana RaSE a large lead with tyres Helbern out of the
game and ultimately win. Right Like, no lead is going to be safe against Indiana going to take forty eight minutes of focus. And what I hope is that the lesson we learned in game two and applied to games three and four, where we kept our foot on the gas and said, hey, if we just play hard, if we don't take the last twelve minutes off and we play hard, we are going to have more time off
as a result of that. If they take that lesson and apply it to the Pacers series and execute the way that we know that they're capable of, like you said, it's going to turn a lot of skeptics into believers because that is an indie team that has been playing at a high, high level. Any closing thoughts before we wrap this one up, Buddy, just.
Again, just really grateful for this team. I just think they're it's a really special group, a group that is deserving of our affection, you know, at the end of the day, like they're just you don't get to see this that often, and and the fact that they're dis likable, you know, the fact that that after a thump your chest dominant two games, the first thing Donovan Mitchell does in his postgame interview with Dennis Scott is sending love to Kevin love after after you know, I lost the family.
Like that is such a likable, root for able team. Yeah, and they're all like that and like, you know sometimes that kind of stuff is press clipping stuff. Yeah, but like when we go to the office and we go talk to the people who work with this team. You know, we're not there every day, but when we do go there, everyone is like, these dudes are awesome, Like like up and down the roster, you know, these dudes are awesome.
I asked Sam Merrill, like, hey, you know a lot of teams that have a weird season, they come back, the whole team gets brought back. It's and it becomes immediately clear Nope, that team was done.
You know.
You think of those Lob City Clippers teams that were like hung around a year too long and you could tell it was just miserable wedding. And I was like, Sam, why didn't that happen to you? And he goes, because we're all really good dudes, like and like you just can't. You can't understate how important it is both to the team's structural success and what it is to root for them.
You know, I'm not taking any of this for granted, because when twenty eighteen came to a close, we never knew if we were going to get a team this good again. We never we were hoping, you know, for a team that could make a conference finals like that. That was kind of the goal, like, hey, can we be the grind and grind Grizzlies, And we got a team that can legitimately, you know, contend for a championship. And windows are never as large as you think they are.
You know, good times never lasts as long as you think they're going to. You have to live in the moment and you have to appreciate every single thing for what it is. And you know, when you're coming off a historic season, you get a historic playoff series. You have so much fun in the playoffs, which is usually the time where you know, I'm I'm losing my mind and adding to this wonderful collection of gray hairs that I have. You know, it's it's a really, really special thing,
and I truly appreciate it. I truly appreciate everyone that's you know, been along on the ride with us. Big thanks to everyone tuning in live on YouTube. We really appreciate you guys. Make sure you like and subscribe. Click that notification bell so you know when we're going live. If you're listening via podcast and you want to support us, leave us a rating the review, subscribe unsubscribed, resubscribe and help cook those books you want to be part of.
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