Timberwolves Steal Game 1, Knicks Roll, and Semifinals Preview!

wolves and game one of Nick Sixers there was a little more than half a game in that series

at least and obviously a thriller in San Antonio that came down to the wire the wolves man underestimate the wolves at your peril what a game one went for them we'll talk about what happened in those games should mid-shots and have called the time out how is this series going on fold what adjustments do we see from all four teams coming into game two then we do some quicky previews of lake or thunder are the lakeers just drawing dead here without Luca what can they do

“what should we expect to see and then a little more on calves pistons which i think is a sneaky”

interesting series obviously both teams coming off seven game wins that feel a little hollow little disappointing like calves you needed seven no may know quickly no brand in ining room couldn't win one road game yeah our jabarit shot hit the moon and back but still like feels a little disappointing Detroit do they even win that series a fron's Wagner doesn't get injured that would be pretty disappointing question to ask regardless of what your answer is to it for a number

one seed that one sixty whatever games they got tested both these teams got tested and they're going to test each other really interesting ways we get into that and then i go solo for a little bit on the big news of the week jemal mostly out in Orlando a misyogiri in in Dallas pricing Graham in in chicago good luck to Bryson Graham dealing with the bull's ownership i hope they give him

“car blanche to do stuff let's see that's all coming up on the zacklo show the zacklo show is brought”

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zacklo show the second round of the playoffs actually started for a while i thought we might never

get there Tim legler is here from ESPN the great to molecular in the all city podcast i do and

“but what's all man i'm good i'm good i'm i'm looking forward to this round the first round”

was wild but this round is going to be even better yeah we we we did out some of the chat for whatever the phrase is and now we're getting depressed tax to use another i just combined a lot of cliches all in one i'm on a really off to a great start today this morning spurs walls game one you know i've warned bill on sunday under estimate the Minnesota timber wolves at your peril this is just a tough ass team that raises its game in the playoffs every

year the conference finals appearances are not a fluke now that said did i pick them to win this series i did not i picked spurs in six i flirted with spurs in seven and i just thought i don't know what we're seeing from i know if anything i don't know what we're going to see from ant even if he plays in game one and i thought he was kind of like in decoy mode for a lot of game one until the fourth quarter when he heated up a little bit and actually looked it up it was his uh his

like fifth lowest pick and roll frequency of the entire season um or tenth low it's tenth low it's the only written ten pick and rolls the whole game uh tenth lowest frequency of the season per possession uh and so i was like i just i don't know i don't i didn't even chance was already out and then they go into san Antonio and just tooth and nail the whole game pull away a little bit at the end and survive boy if that champagne shack goes in at the buzzer legs we are talking about

july and champagne he gets three offensive rebounds at about thirty seconds two of them are ant just not boxing them out ant throws away an in bounce pass after a devenves self a deflection that is kind of ants fault it was it was probably not thrown high enough but also the wolves gave him just literally one potential pass to make on the play and then the spurs don't call time out champagne he gets a great look and it misses and here we are wolves up one oh i want to

start with the no time out what did you think of that decision and the shot that they got you know

i don't like it and it's you know i i just always go by kind of like my own mentality on that so

it looked like like to me and i froze it a couple of times it's somewhere in the seven point five second range like stats about where it would be by the time the time out was called and they secured the rebound to me like that's that falls directly into the range where you call time out like if you've got thirteen fourteen seconds i'm more inclined to play on because it gives you a chance at multiple

half seconds that's the shot you're going to have to take a look he did get a great shot of so

“the end of the day worked out pretty well for them and i think they're going to live with champagne”

taking that shot to win the game you know Mitch Johnson would sign up for that but i personally was seven and a half you take time out you advance it i just like having more control as a coach to be able to initiate the action that i want to force the reaction that i want defensively to give me the put the ball in the hands of the guys i want hopefully into places of the court that they can operate and and maybe have even more than one opportunity because you usually

have a counter in there if they defend something well as opposed to seven and a half play on

it's going to be one shot at this it's going to be the first half decent look you get and he

got a good shot so you know then and the people that are going to i guess you know stick with Mitch Johnson's decision rider die because there's first fans or whatever i'm going to say he got a great shot that's true you did get off a good look i personally it's a preference thing man

“i personally in that time range i'm taking time out because i think as a coach i that's i i feel”

like that's my responsibility to help them in that situation have an opportunity because of what we draw up to get the ball the best place when the floor in the hands of the guy that i want it and and that to me if you can dictate that you do it again you get up 10 12 13 15 18 seconds you know 20 seconds maybe you play on to not allow them to organize their defense in a

huddle seven and a half for me that's a time out but they got a good look and you can't really

fault that champagne it's a tougher shot you know going directly left like that you're going to drift a little bit and it ended up a little bit short but it's a clean look from a really good three point shooter yeah it's a great shot and to your point like you'd sign up for that and i think what what i hear you say and what i thought was you'd sign up for that same shot if you got it after calling time out and advancing the ball if that's the one shot you end up with you're okay

with it that said i expected them to call time out i kind of think dill and harper and women and yama both kind of expect a big chance to call time out and then he didn't and if you freeze it at if you and again harper grabs rebound at 8.1 so you're right like when he lands and calls time

I was probably seven and a half champagne he misses the shot and i was looking for everyone's reaction

afterwards and you can see the cell under the rim shrug and then make a quick time out just sure with his hand like i thought we were going to call a time out and to your point like

“you know i think mids Johnson's thought on it is probably like that's exactly the kind of shot”

that emerges in chaos like guys are just running around trying to find people and like something boom pops open as the waves are crashing all around you get a great shot you give the wolves a chance to set their defense maybe they bring go bare back into the game maybe they don't but uh we might not get as clean a look they're going to switch everything whatever it is but to your point you also i just think open up more chances to get fouled and you're only down to more chances

to get an offensive rebound but i can't really take issue with it because they got a great shot and if that shot goes in a lot of the discourse today is a what a ballsy decision by mids Johnson did not to call time out and it paid off and b i think there would have been like between the champ any offensive rebounds the thrown away in bounce pass and just the general ineptitude from the free throw line it would have been a pretty catastrophic loss for Minnesota and a like boy we

had a chance to steal game one at the under as the underdog and we blew it in the end and is like it would have almost felt like was that the whole the whole series right there given their injury and their health status but it's not they win the game um it felt like a field out game to me even more than a typical game one more than sixers nicks which we'll talk about it feel out in the sense of like you'd see glimpses of wemby guarding not go bare not Randall like he's over

here on jail and Clark one possession they're kind of in his own a little bit and i think they're trying to figure out what do we want to do with him particularly when go bears out of the game you could see and trying to feel his way back into just like high level playoff basketball i mentioned his pick and rolls being way down in this game is he just kind of feeling his way back into the fourth quarter he goes I think you could see Randall kind of like all right let me see

who they're going to switch on me and if they're going to hedge if they're going to double or if I can actually just sit here and pick out like okay um i'd rather have Devon of the cell on me than Steph Castle let me call that screen up i'd rather have Mike Conley on me then Castle let me go or that by Conley you know a Dylan Harper on me then Castle let me call that screen up and ever they're going to hedge are they going to trap and on that awesome shot that he made to put

them up six i think with fifty seconds left he has the cell on him and you can see ant calling for

Julius Randall's like ant get out of the way i like this match up and it's like all right i guess

okay out of the way so it felt like kind of a feelout game but let's start here when be plays the third

most minutes of his entire career any all games play off regular season and the first the top one

“is it like a double overtime game i think five of seventeen owe of eight from three has 12 blocks”

which is just comical when you look at it in the box for and his Chris Finch pointed out Chris Finch with his like just just twisted in ever says like hey a couple of call goaltens yeah uh just we'd like we looked at some aggressive but i i think it was right i think it was aggressive aggressive he's like couple of call goaltens we'd like to have those points back we could use them um yeah what how did they how did they guard when binyama and what can the spurs do in game two to get him unlocked a

little bit they did against the women binyama what every team hopes to do that doesn't necessarily have the personnel to do it or the commitment to do it um and you can do it more in the playoffs than you can in the regular season and that is jam him up into his torso up into his hips on his catches on any type of of activity where he catches it oh yeah anywhere on the wing you know close to the three point line where he hasn't put it down yet and they were able to get

“up under his space so his first step was basically negated in this game and he added a couple of”

times and he had a couple in the open floor he was able to take it all the way into the rim but for the most part his ability to be able to catch turn face square up and and he likes to do a

little pump fix sometimes swing through and that first stride he's basically almost at the rim

from anywhere on the court because of his length he didn't get any of that stuff and i felt like this couple of the threes he rushed you know look this is uh this is a this is a young player they've advanced through one round this was going to be a much bigger test as a much more physical team it's not shocking that he would rush a couple of those looks that he got that potentially change your knife you know he makes a couple of threes early he's got to feel like he's in a different

rhythm and we've seen him kind of get into that mode where he's you know now catching shooting from all over the floor you've got to totally different problem on your hands because there's not a lot

“you're going to do to cast a one chance go for him because he's releasing it from he didn't any of”

that so i thought he rushed it early and looked like you know he wanted it to happen a little badly too much when he caught the ball but the places they forced him to on the court where they were when he caught the ball the extent to which they were jamming him up so he didn't have space initially to do anything with the ball i thought it was really good and i don't know but there's much of a game plan as it is just a personal intent on whoever is in his space

whoever's guarding that's really what we're talking about i don't think it was as much old we're going to reinvent the wheel against vector we're going to do no it's just a matter of commitment personnel and the physical strength to get it done against him and i thought it it factored into this if he had to couple shots early even though they would have been tough shots threes maybe it changes his night maybe you know he feels a little bit more like the

basket's bigger than it was and he never really strong that together in the entire game

he had a massive impact on the game because of his defense but his offense his offense you know left so much to be desired it was it was tough in this game for them to overcome and by the way real quick i just i wanted to tag that last possession was something that i was thinking of last night one of the reasons act with this particular personnel that i would like to call time out in that situation because of vector women yama's length you can basically draw something up to

almost guaranteed you're going to be able to get a catch from the out of bounds at the elbow and that is where in that situation you put the defense in such a tough spot because you know they're there he's he can make a quick move one dribble get to the line he's got two free throws in that situation you know catching it there the way you'd have to kind of play the paint and play the edge of the lane maybe maybe there's a three point shot coming out of it so i just

think you know because sometimes a seven and a half seconds you're like man you know where are we getting inbound the ball where's it going to be caught if someone's running out toward half court to catch the in bounds well now you got a tough possession on your hands but with him a weapon like that on any type of if it's a baseline on a bounce sign line out of bounds i pretty much guaranteed i can get the ball where i want it on the catch because nobody can really

stop him from catching the ball so i just wanted to add that point but i thought overall minutes so to show you what the first time it was their toughness their strength and a team that was ready for this challenge and it was certainly not vector women yama's best

spots where he is better because i thought most of the time he was not doing that and it really is what led to such an inefficient shooting night a couple of things stick out to me

unlike a lot of teams who try to put wings on women yama like Portland did in the first round and

get up under him the wolves are just kind of not built to do that and they're just like we're gonna guard you with a go bear and julious randle and those are most physical guys in our best

“matchups against you and so we don't have to monkey around with the matchups as much i think that”

helped them go bear also also beasted them for a couple of offensive rebounds and naz reads snuck around them for a big offensive rebound and put back in the second half like got to clean up that a little bit at the same time um you know i just to your point about like playing with more force and more decisiveness like they ran a lot of their pet actions for him where they have a guard set a screen for him in the corner and he popped any kind of curls out of that

and they usually do it with either of the cell because he's their best shooter or whoever has

the littlest guy on him so that you can't switch it and i just again feeling out game i thought when be his approach was i know they're gonna shoot the gap on that and go under i'm just gonna kind of curl out to the perimeter catch the ball and feel it out from there i like when he aims those harder toward the middle of the floor so even if you shoot the gap he's catching it like at the free throw line with some momentum and if he's at the free throw on he's literally almost

at the rim and they have a lot of counters for that too where you know you can like you can do like boss and does this a lot you can kind of do like a carousel of pin downs where it's just sell pinning down for him and then when be switches it up and sets a pin down for a cell

or when be back cuts it down the base line i feel like they're going to approach those

those are the right they're aiming at the right places i just didn't feel like they aimed it with the right ferocity and the other thing i wonder is and and teams that ironically play the timbre was have the same dilemma i actually liked when they just went traditional pick and roll with when be whether go bear was on him or whether random was on him and i realized that you're putting go bear in the play and go bear's best talent is defending two guys by himself

on the pick and roll just like when be's maybe best talent is defending two guys by himself on the pick and roll but i thought they got good stuff when they just ran like fox when be rolled of the rim suck in the defense and particularly when Randall is on when be like Randall's not going to be able to do anything about that and you're going to get good shots of it i ironically I would like to involve the Minnesota big guys more and that gets back to i'm interested in your

thoughts on that but also a fox i mean he he coped to it after the game he had a horrible game and it's not just that he missed shots he had six turnovers and at least four of them were just completely horrible inexcusable lazy passes live ball turnovers out in like just hit a heads where he doesn't see bones island coming like this stuff that you just can't have from your veteran guy but i thought i i wanted more when be just lob threat when be in this match up that was just

“one of my first blush reactions i like that a lot and i think that that is some of their best”

action and and i think also it's something that early is going to probably do better looks for other people because of the amount of gravity that he has when he sets the screen and he died and looks sometimes against the physical team the screen dive isn't necessarily as effective in drawing multiple guys in the lane because of because he can get hit he can get checked he can get held up so he's kind of like slogging his way down the lane in a regular season game or

against a weaker defensive team a lot of night he can set that dive and it's almost like he's got free run to the front of the rim and and now it's impossible he's going to throw it to him or guys that are like guarding the wing shooters are going to see that another like flying down to the lane because they think they've got a chip on him and that leads to a quick like a reversal off of the up all screen from the ball handler to that wing floating up for wide open three

if when be is like kind of fighting his way down the lane you don't have to worry as much about leaving the wing shooters because he's he's kind of in check and it's like bumper cars in there for him so I didn't think he had a lot of great a free runs that he normally gets in the regular season when he's he's just causing so many problems with that action I do agree it's probably something that they need to clean up with their spacing and how exactly what I wanted to get to this team

now that they've got a game on tape which Johnson you look at it and see how exactly they were defending that and why they weren't like getting more out of that because I do think that's an

“action that's going to be very important in this series because the one-on-one stuff with Wemby”

against who he's being guarded by is just going to be tougher and I feel like I feel like you

going to have to have like an impact from from from deep in this series like over eight obviously

is unacceptable but you know is is a normal like two for five the rest of the series going to be

“enough because I think that's going to be a lot of his space he's going to get against this”

team is going to be out there and if he doesn't shoot you know an efficient number going forward I do think that could be a problem for the spurs yeah and if he's if he's going to pop out like that and he's not going to be guarded he's going to have to make threes but also like I think the spurs now will be ready for that you can just be ready for that and have Devon Vessel ready to run off a handoff from Wemby if nobody's nearby he's going to get a great shot he's the best shooter

on your team I'd set some like cross-screens for Wemby to try to get him post-ups on the move where you know just pick a guard hammer Wemby's guy get some separation get him a catch under the rim and kind of see what happens um a couple other notes from this game the the mega lineup from Minnesota read uh Randall Angle bear altogether plus ten and five minutes they've played 23 minutes in the playoffs so far they're plus twenty in 23 minutes it's just something to note

“particularly with Devon Shenzu and Io out yeah I just can't say enough about Minnesota like they're”

down to critical guys to critical guards it messes up their entire rotation here comes G.L. and Clark

Terran Shannon Jr. like one of my favorite things they did in the game was when they put Wemby and Yama on Terran Shannon they ran pick and rules with Terran Shannon and we're like we're going to make you Wemby defend the ball handler in this picking rule we're kind of going to spring in on you just once in a while out of nowhere and use Randall maybe as a screener there was one where a castle was fronting Randall and so Randall just kind of set this super screen where he's screened

like four people at the same time and I I thought that was a really smart just bring Wemby and Yama out of the paint and make him defend like a guard and ironically again the similarities between the two French big guys the spurs did the same thing to go bare by running pick and rules with Wemby and Yama and they had success doing that every time that they did it I just think this is going to be a really fun chess match can't say enough about the wolves I thought McDaniels was

awesome just the whole game kind of manufacturing buckets when you got good match ups against him when the spurs played zone he'd find a little guard be like you know why I could just shoot right over you just like this wolves team is so much fun and they again no Dante for the rest of the playoffs no I owe last night and I don't know what you thought of like you played a fine game you had 18 points he asserted himself late defensively he was just okay but like clearly

“he's not 100% he played 25 minutes and he was kind of floating around I think on on purpose on”

offense for a bit I hope that this is just step one and by game four of this series he's ready to play 35 minutes and really explode a little bit because we didn't see too much of that but for them to win game one like that is just super impressive well listen I'm gonna tell you and we were calling the game that he got hurt you know we were already still kind of sitting there in shock over what happened with David Chenza when that game which like right in front of us 90

seconds or whatever into the game I'm still shocked that Anthony Edwards is playing because that was such a nasty hyper extension from such a height because there's so much force that he landed with and immediately hyper extends I at the time I was really scared it maybe had torn an ACL or he had torn some other ligament or whatever and we might not see him again

unless it was like you know maybe the finals or something the fact that he's even playing is amazing

to me and look he was enough of a threat throughout the game it helps them that he's on the floor but his real value came in the fact that he is so comfortable in those moments late that are the pivotal moments in the game and and he still was able to manufacture some baskets you know that had to step back three over Wemby which was like how awesome was that you can't even see the rim I mean with a guy like Wemby out there and you can't see the target and you're going up over

the top because it wasn't like he shook Wemby to where Wemby was like 15 feet away from him Wemby was still pretty close to him and has that region and he hits that shot that the play on the wing re spins out and turns and he sees there's no one there she just goes in and shoots a little left-handed layup he was still so good when they had to have it and like that was his value in this game and just the threat level he represents the rest of you're right he's not like he's the typical you know

dual threat with the explosiveness at the rim and also the deep shooter he wasn't that will he get there I don't know I mean remains to be seen how he's going to feel game to game how long are they going to bring him off to bench like what's the plan going forward they want to game in which he clearly

from a confidence standpoint. Terence Shannon Jr's a guy that I absolutely loved it very

first time I saw him in Vegas summer league I thought man this guy is so aggressive with his mindset

when he catches the basketball and the pressure he wants to put on you now it hasn't necessarily gone the way you expect because he's had injuries and I thought Nikail Alexander Walker leaving

“was going to open up this huge opportunity for him I just looked it up I think he only played double”

digit minutes like 23 times all season because of the injuries and and then coming back for the injuries like the rotation was set and it was just hard for him it looked to me almost last night like two or three different occasions he caught San Antonio by surprise with his burst of speed where they were not able to cut him off and I think they're so used to it because there's such a great defensive team and if got this length in the back there is so used to cutting off angles

on teams and if they can't it's erased in the back side he had opportunities where his burst

like beat them to the spot to such an extent that the next line wasn't there to help because he's got that level of athletic ability and aggressiveness and he likes contact you know listen many five for 13 16 points they're not winning the game if Terence Shannon Jr you just has like at okay night it was great in this game. Jamie Daniels again has been continuing to do it he's continues to make these tough pull up you know mid range shots that he's added to his game

made enough of those nausea it was pretty good in this game you know and and Edward so like nobody was spectacular but a bunch of dudes were really good and they were clearly not phased by anything related to the moment because this team's been through much bigger games and they just took the fight to San Antonio and they got enough contributions across the board where there wasn't like an undo amount of pressure on either Randall or Edwards to have a great game

so that's really good sign for them nobody over it's now this wasn't going for 45 and they still a road win you look it up and down their line up like a lot of guys played well

and that was enough to get it done against this team that's got to give them an incredible

amount of confidence particularly if Anthony Edwards continues to feel better and better as we go or is it going to be something where you know he deals a little bit of swelling after each game and it's going to be kind of an up and down thing that's a little different for them to get this game and because they just kind of bunch of guys just played well that's a great sign for Minnesota. Yeah I still feel okay if I'm San Antonio. Yeah sure because of the aunt stuff the health

stuff and I owe being out I am now going to have to win a game in Minnesota because in three or four because I don't want to fall down three one even with home court advantage. Game two obviously is

“not quite a must win but pretty close and I'm looking at Fox in game two because I think one”

thing the other one of the other thing the spurs have to do is we've got to make life more difficult for Mike Conley and Bowen's Highland on defense and Fox is one of the ways to do that he had a couple of drives like right at Bowens and Conley where he just didn't hesitate got to switch and went and that and the other thing I'm interested in is like who who does Victor guard when go bear is off the floor and I think they'll study the film and decide you know do we just

need to put him on Randall a little bit more even though Randall will go at him. All right let's take a quick break and we'll talk about what passed for a playoff game in the eastern conference last night. This act low show is brought to you by Fandall and Fandall is giving you better payouts on same game parlay's all NBA playoffs along with more ways to build and more value every time you play you can stack your picks your way for every game every matchup and every moment from spreads to

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bull um one team looked like it was really really well prepared for a second round series both in terms of effort level and the way they had scouted their opponent and the other team looked like it had been about 40 hours since they had won a game seven on the road and had the pivot very quickly to a hostile environment the nicks absolutely blow the doors off the 76ers. I don't even know what the final score was. I'm going to cop to it. I stopped watching in the third

“quarter when Nickner's wave the wave flag. Would you miss anything? Which I think was I actually”

watched through the third quarter just to see is you going to bring any of the main guys back in the game and actually I thought that was an okay decision to just be like you know what loss cause we're not going to put anymore minutes on guys who just played a ton of minutes in a grueling series. But I thought to me I thought that nicks were just extremely well prepared for this game and I had to book their players and their coaching staff. The minute they saw okay

and beat his garden cat and be it's not going to cross match on Josh Hart. Now maybe we see more of that in game two maybe we don't the minute that match up was given to them. They just were like we're just going to run this to death. We're going to run Brunson cat to death. We're going to do it in different ways. Like I love what they have Brunson just kind of cut off cats backside and go into the lane. It's kind of a pick and roll without Brunson handling the ball and if you dip a little bit off

cat he's going to shoot a three. If you let Brunson go he's going to get a layup or set a screen for somebody. And they got great looks out of that. Like cat got threes. June Brunson got drives. When Joel had me switched. June Brunson put him on skates. They put Joel through if you put it per possession. Because obviously, Joel didn't play a lot of minutes last night. They put him through 56 picks on defense when he was guarding the screen or per 100 possessions.

That's tied for the fourth highest amount in any game this season. They clearly were like we are making you work whether you're on talents or whoever. We are going to make you work a lot on defense. Robinson comes in. They immediately get good stuff out of the Brunson Robinson picking roll, a lob dunk. Brunson lay up all this kind of stuff before they hack to Mitch

out of the game. And then in the in the second quarter legs, they had a stretch where

“I think huck the port. He got brought into the game because they needed a third center to write”

out the Mitchell Robinson fouling and the cat inevitable felt trouble. The flopping in this series is just going to be. It's going to be one of the great all-time flop offs in NBA flop history. Yeah. It's going to be a great flop fest. If you and Vijay, I'd say I'm called it out to be yeah. I don't know if you saw that last night when he told the rest. All Brunson is doing his this and he jerked his head back and like he was making the fly. Love Vijay. I couldn't

love that dude anymore. He has no time for any of this fucking nonsense. But they bring huck porty into the game. And the sixers decide to spring a blitz on the Brunson huck porty pick and roll. And teams do this sometimes with Robinson too. And I think that gambit the defenses are saying is if go ahead and it Mitchell Robinson or huck porty in the in open space in a four on three, they're not going to make plays. They can't dribble or shoot. We're going to recover. We'll be fine.

And the nicks like without even having seen it were instantaneously ready for it.

First possession. The blitz comes. Josh Hart comes up as a release valve.

Jill and Brunson to Josh Hart to make kill bridges. They kill bridges get to wide open three. Mrs. It gets who got the offensive rebound. Josh Hart was just all over the court again with steals and rebounds. And then bridges hits a three. Next possession. Now I know for sure the blitz is coming. Jill and Brunson fakes towards huck porty's pick. Here comes the blitz on the other side. Boop. He goes the other way for a layup. Third possession. The nicks are the sixer like,

I guess we can't blitz anymore. Jill and Brunson run to pick and roll. Seize Joell and B drop back just reins the three over him. The nicks were just so well prepared. And they made and beads life. Absolutely miserable. They ran. They have kind of rediscovered and the kill bridges is rediscovered that he's actually a talented offensive player. They ran seven pick and rolls with him as the ball handler last night, which doesn't sound like a lot. But it's a top 20 amount for him in 80, 90 games,

“whatever, this season per possession. And I think it's actually smart because if Maxi's going to”

guard him, you can't switch a bridges cat, pick and roll and put Maxi on cat. And it's just a way to hunt Maxi to and get bridges involved. I just thought, like, really good, well planned game one. Obviously, a dud from Philly. So when you look at the results from the game, like, what, what, what did you see or what counters do you see for Philly? Like, like, what's notable to you going

the lingering effects of kind of the way the two series ended for both teams in the first round.

You know, we were doing that, came down at Atlanta that, you know, where to nicks at a 61 point lead, which basically they played perfect basketball for a half. And one of the key things that came out of that, you know, the kale bridges finishing that series, the way that he did after struggling so badly in the first five games to finish the way that he did was something he was going to be able to take forward. He left because even that night, if they went by 45 against Atlanta,

and bridges goes three for 12, yes, happy day one. Of course. But I got news for you. He's got another whatever it was for five days. He's still kind of in his own head about where his offense is. Did it, did it? Atlanta cut the lead to 45 at some point because I would have been pretty dramatic

“if they cut that to 45 in games. I think mid second quarter, it dipped under, it dipped under”

46 mid, mid, mid a second quarter. So I just think that, and I said it even that night on the air, I felt like the, maybe the, obviously the other day winning the series, the fact that McHale bridges was taking that with him. He got on that charter to fly back to New York. He felt completely different about himself. He goes seven for 10 in this game. When he is struggling, it feels a little bit like a weight on the team and a weight in the building and

Madison Square Garden, like if he's quiet, it's like they're not quite firing on all cylinders.

Right now they are. They're playing incredible offensive basketball. Think about this act.

They outscored the sixers by 51 points from the field. Woo, in this game. By 51 points, they scored 125 points from the field on made shots to 71 for the sixers. The sixers don't

“get into the line 34 times. Like who knows what this square ends up being with. That's how”

that's how dominant they were in this game. And I do think going seven games, just the quick turnaround for Saturday night to come right back and play Monday, all that went into that comeback against Boston. This team that had just kept eliminating you year after year, you overcame it. You have like one day now. Let's start talking about the nicks who are playing at this level offensively. It just to me was set up for this. I think now you really find out game two. You

really find out what kind of series this is going to be. You're going to get and it's look again. So it's a quick turnaround. Two days for Philly. They still haven't had a chance to really rest. But now there's a sense of desperation and a punch back. What's the punch back going to be? I do agree with you. I thought the nicks offensively. Like their execution was just so flawless. They saw every matchup they wanted to exploit. And when they got it, they attacked it.

Additionally, if they didn't, the ball got moved out of there and put Philadelphia in scramble mode. And they were not able to catch up to it. It felt like there was a speed and a pace and a force for the nicks offensively, whether it was transitioning from backward to front court or just even in the half court that Philadelphia just didn't have. And the tone said it for me for Philly in game two has to be maxi. Not in bead. It has to be Taribe's maxi at the start of that game. I want to see

him playing in breakneck speed hyper aggressive. Get eight ten shots in the first quarter.

If you can do what did you do? What did you do to slow him down? Like what? What did you? I mean three of nine obviously only in place 27 minutes. But you know, I mean, there was the one. The A their transition defense was awesome. And there was that one two on one that VJ and Maxi had where you're just like, well, that's death. Like those two guys are the two on one. It's over. And

“McHale Bridges hustle back. And then I think Josh Hart hustle back as the secondary guy”

and Taribe ended up missing a contest delay of like A plus transition defense by the nicks. But I thought their pick and roll defense on the Maxi and B two man game was pretty much about his good as it gets with a couple of like cat fowls here and there. Like they met Taribe's maxi. The big guys did like fairly high up. Bridges got over. And the big guys, Mitchell Robinson and Kat were really good dropping back. But kind of staying in touch with them bead, allowing the defense to reset

and forcing a lot of tough twos. But like it's that's great. These are two super duper star players. Like you would expect them to just get better get better shots. So like what did the nicks do? What other than just playing head down faster? What does Maxi do? So your point about the pick and roll is really where this whole thing is. And so here's where Maxi destroys you on ball screen. If you're back and drop coverage and the screen is set five six feet above the line. So let's

say it's a 30 foot screen and the big is back. He comes off to his right hand so fast. And by the time

He takes that one last hard dribble raises up. It's like automatic going to his right hand.

Off the screen, he shoots it much better going to his right hand. He didn't get those looks. The other thing that he kills you on, if you're not in drop, a lot of times the biggest sort of up. But they're turned a little bit. And there's that little bit of a door that's open where they're giving him a lane to the rim. And he is so fast with his acceleration coming off the ball screen. Don't have the three because you're up far enough, big guy. But you're turned. Your shoulders

“aren't square to me. I think he got cats third foul on exactly what you're talking about. Like”

catchers. Exactly. He did. He just and then he got into his chest and he's good at drawing that foul. They for the most part did not like give him that. And so and he's a guy like again, I think he sets the tone for them early better than it be does. Because in beat early in the game, let's see makes a couple of three because we're giving them to him. Okay, for the most part, it's going to be like, okay, that 18 foot to two point jump shot. All right, you make three or four

of those beginning to game. You don't feel gut at defensively. Tires Maxi can hit you with a couple of

three. He's a couple of the drives to free those. You look up. He's got 15 points. You're halfway to the first

quarter. The whole night's been set for him. And it changes the way he played at him defensively. Now, other guys become better. They just didn't let him get that stuff. And so they're they're point of attack. Pick and roll like they're attention to detail on that was really good, really strong. He did not get into rhythm off of that action. And he relies on it so much particularly when he's going to his right hand. I thought they found some traction when they brought

grimes in the game. And when it's like Grimes edge comb, Paul George and the two superstars Maxi and M. B. Bronson has to guard Grimes. They could try on my own edge comb, I guess, but he guarded Grimes a lot. And they would do these staggered screens with Grimes and M. B. As the screeners. And actually

Maxi would pitch it ahead to M. B. And just sprint into it. And the nicks would have to hedge and

get out like they would have Bronson try to hedge. And if you switch, they did get that Maxi Bronson switch a couple of times. When they get that switch, I would almost rather Joellen B. goes away and spaces the floor and just let Maxi go one on one. And instead of going into a pick and roll and bringing more defenders into it. So they found they found something in that Mitchell Robertson guards and B. Like about as well as you can guard him one on one in the post. I'll

off to top my head. I'm sure there are a couple of guys that can think of their guard and be better without help. Cats can need a little bit of help. He's going to risk foul trouble. But I thought

“Mitchell Robertson was was really good. The hack of Mitch. Look, I guess you got to do it, right?”

I mean, I hate it because it slows down the game. I like it because it makes free throws a little bit more dramatic and exciting. And if he makes one, the crowd goes crazy. I guess you just got to do it. I guess, you know, Justin Edwards, congratulations. Your job is to come in the game and just foul Mitchell Robertson a lot of times. I think I do it more if I were to ignore it. I guess you have to. I think I would be because and I don't know if you're going to get the opportunity

because you then Mike Brown makes the adjustment. Maybe he gets him off the floor and you can't. But I do think right now looking at the next those last three games against Atlanta, the way they played in this game. There is such a rhythm offensively that I think any chance you get to disrupt their flow in rhythm. And it's one less possession where Bronson gets the dictate terms to you or whatever it may be. I think you take advantage of that. So let's see what Nick

nurse's plan is going forward. Now, there is a downside to it. The downside to it is for filly is you're not able to run at all. And that's something to me has to happen in this series. They have to play faster offensively because that's when the space that edge comes and max you have a max you particular. It's just so problematic for you when they're playing so early up the floor for six eight seconds on a clock while you're back and there's space and there's gaps

and there's he he attacks you put so much pressure on you. So when you're failing a guy, like no number one, the rebounds are hard to come by because the defense rebounds because the balls are coming off sometimes really hard. So like there's not a guarantee you get the defense. And then Nick's are obviously ready. Like we're going to rebound that try to rebound the higher the pressure. Right. But the bigger thing for me is even if you do

secure the defense of rebound, it's it's excusable to give up anything in early offense, off of a missed or made free throw. And especially to playoffs because you're so prepared,

“you should be so hyper alert to to make sure that doesn't happen. So I think I'd almost have to”

do it more to disrupt the rhythm, but there is some downside to the sixers as well. And right now might not matter, man, because of how well the next are playing offensively. This to me, game two for me is all about not allowing Bronson to get into an early rhythm.

into a situation where he's got 10 12 points early in the game because it's going to be a problem the rest of the night. That's the priority. And then offensively, I think that they've got the

“try to play a little bit faster early. And I think Maxi is the key to the start to their game”

offensively. It can't be, we run five, six possessions through MP to start the game. I don't think that's going to be a formula for success. Now MPs got to be great in the series and I'll have his moment. But I don't think starting the game that way is the way to go. I think Maxi is the guy that is the key to get them off to a fast start. It gives their team more confidence. And he's capable. As we've seen, he can have a 30 35 40 point night if he gets going early and

finds that rhythm. That's a good call. And Bronson, I don't know what you do to disrupt him early.

I mean, the first thing I'm going to be watching for when game two tips off is who is in

beat guarding. The obvious switch would be to put him on either heart or bridges. I would probably I mean, most teams would go heart. And art has really done well when teams, I mean, I've told to start before in the middle of the season. I was having coffee with the head coach whose team was about to play the nicks. And I was asking him who you're going to put your center on. Are you going to do the thing where you put him on a Josh Hart? He was like, honestly,

we're talking about with my coaches like Josh Hart's making threes and crashing the offensive glass and setting screens. Like he's kind of made that a little bit scary. But Kat is just such a hard

“cover for any drop-back big that that's what there was even the one drive that in an OB drove”

all the way from the left corner, just bullied Ubrae. And it was like it took a while. Like it wasn't a fast drive. And he's laid the ball in because and beads out on the perimeter on Kat and can't help. So I'll be watching that. I don't know what you do with Bronson because he's just lit up this exercise over and over again. And I don't know if you just have to just blitz him every time to start the game just to just to throw him off. But really, really good atmosphere to

in the garden. They're really fired up to boo him. He's incredible incredible environment.

I can't wait to be there tomorrow night. The other thing on M. B. Like he showed this against Boston where in the middle of game, I think it was game six. I can remember. No, it was game five. It was in Boston. I don't know what to put ever game. Some game in Boston where he had been posting up in the first half and settling for fade away, jumpers and stuff. And in the third quarter, he clearly came out and was like, I'm just going to put in a colaboochowitch in the basket and he just did it

“over and over and over again and which is a big dude. And Mitchell Robinson's a big dude and”

cats a big dude. My point is, M. B. clearly has a power gear that he has in reserve and he's not using it all the time because it's physically exhausting and he just had appendicitis like three weeks ago and he got hit last night going around the screen. And he just didn't summon it last night. Maybe it wasn't the night. But he's going to have to summon that for six minute stretches here and there because when he does that, when he plays with that kind of force, there isn't

anybody who can really guard him without fouling him. And anyway, that's that's that's that's that. Well, real quick. Just want to give you one thought on that real quick. Here's the difference though in this series in the last one. You're right. That game, that turned the series.

The third quarter and fourth quarter of game five turned the series because the first beginning

of that game. That's right. That's right. And B. It's there down three one and B is shooting a bunch of jumpers to start the game. You miss three three's in the beginning. He's one for seven to start the game. All jump shots. Then they're down and Boston did even play well. They were up seven and a half time. Third quarter season on the line, they come out and he said he said we made adjustments at halftime. It beats at that. And it was that he had to catch the ball in the

spots where where now you have a real difficult time deciding how to guard him. Elbows short are you so wing areas. That's where he went to work. And footage which wanted no part of that battle with him on in that quarter. You know, Garza was the other guy through what him Kada was in foul trouble, which was a big part of that series. He couldn't stay out of foul trouble. Some over to silly fouls. He committed illegal screens that took him off the floor. When you got a guard

and beat like you can't send an illegal screen. If you've got three fouls, when you got a guard and beat, this is different because you've got Mitchell Robinson. You've got towns. You've got guys that have the brawn to be able to take on that fight a little bit and battle him because he doesn't have the same lift. If you give no resistance and you will let him go where he wants, yeah, he's going to turn you got that touch is going to overwhelm you. If you can bang him a little bit when he's

starting to try to get into something to get better position, he doesn't have the lift and you will wear him out. And some of those little turnaround fadeaways are going to come up short that he was making against Boston to help close out that series being played by smaller guys or bigs that didn't really want that fight. The next have guys that want that fight. So let's see what in beads, responses, matches, responses. That was obviously so far from what the sixers best is,

you know, Nick's pretty damn good. The sixers were not close to their best version. You expect

It's like 10 in the morning right now. So we have a little bit of time.

Lakers thunder. Reeves obviously back. Still no real time table on Luka. If you had given me Luka healthy, jail and Williams not healthy, I kind of taught myself into like this could be a pretty interesting series, at least from like a matchup perspective because Lou Dort can only guard one of LeBron or Luka and who's going to guard the other one and what does that mean for who she has to guard and who chat has to guard, etc. Well, Lou Dort can just guard

LeBron right now and they can put AJ Mitchell on Austin Reeves and probably safely start him and

“put Shay at a Marca Smarter wherever. And you know, it's just, it's, it's a tough slog. I think for”

the Lakers. If you, if you had Lakers fully healthy, Jalen Williams not healthy, I could have seen the Lakers just walking the thunder down, playing like an old man post-up, bully ball. We're going to outsmart you. We have Luka who's, you know, not the best player in the series, but it's closest you're going to get to Shay. Do, are the Lakers drawing that here and is what else, what can they do? It's going to take to me for me to, for them to really make this

interesting without Luka. It's going to take probably an anomaly from the three-point line because the one thing that Thunder do has better than any team in the league Detroit is probably very close to it. The way that they put bodies in the pain on any sort of penetration is incredible to watch. Particularly, I love to angle sometimes when the cameras look and

straight down at the lane and I've always described it as putting food in the fish tank and that's

what it looks like the fish company because they all fly to it and then they're close out speed to the line is great. And those are still tougher shots than it would be against most teams

“that help that much. They recover so fast, but they're still, that's the shot you have to hit”

because they're not going to let you physically overwhelm them in the lane on straight line drives or on backing down type stuff. They're just not. There are too many guys on that team are there to help. They're so quick and fast and so many guys that could do it. So that kick out past and a reward at the end of it for making them pay for over helping is the solution. Obviously, that's not the Lakers strength. So it's going to take a couple of guys each night are going to

have to have statistical almost anomaly type nights because that's the shot that you're going to have to make because that's the shot Oklahoma City is going to dare you to take a shot with a defender flying out at you with close out speed. And even if you pump fake and try to go then by them, there's another guy ready to fly there into your lap. They're just not going to let you beat them in the lane. So it's going to have to come from deep. So that's really honestly what's going to

have to happen. Look at the three point margins from eight tonight. Look at the efficiency from out there. Who do the Lakers have that can it? No, Marka Smart. You know, he's he's a wild card. He's capable. He can have a six made three night. Luke Canard is capable. But Oklahoma City is going to prioritize Luke Canard in this series. You know, LeBron is capable of having lights. Like that. But can they do it? Like multiple nights in this series and consistently enough

to beat Oklahoma City and use their, you know, ability of flying at the ball against them.

“Not enough teams in this league can do that. The Lakers, it's not their strength. That's why it's”

going to be a very tall order for them against this team. Scoring is going to be difficult. Defensively, it's not easy either. But if you, if you leave something taken out of the net, you've got to chance to play them and set up how you want to guard Shay. If you're not shooting well and they come up the floor and they've got early space. And now you've got to play Shay like that back pedaling and trying to forget it. You know, they just got you. So this is a, this is a,

you know, there's a reason, there are big underdog and they should be without Luke Canard. Yeah, no question about that. And I think that three point thing, it has to be an anomaly on both ends of the floor because you just broke down the Lakers offense and what, what shot the Thunder are going to allow. Yeah, LeBron can try his best to hunt whatever size mismatches the Thunder present. They don't present many. It's like Shay and Jay's like a very good defensive player and

Mitchell and whatever. And they shot the three well against Houston and the first round, they just

don't shoot very many of them in general. The other thing against Houston, which they cannot do in this round is, and you could, maybe Reeves being back helps relieve this a little bit. They had the worse turnover rate on offense of any team in the playoffs. And like, obviously, that's death on a rival against the Thunder. And on the other end of the floor, I mean, the Lakers only answer just like it was against Houston, which worked is basically it's a, we're just going to junk this up

place some hybrid zone man scrunching on Shay force everyone else to shoot above the Break Threes if we can. And we're just going to need you to shoot 27% for the series to have any chance.

to see what happens. I mean, my official pick if I had to make one, I would just go Thunder

in five without assuming I guess Luca just doesn't play in the series. And I would just kind of

“stick with that. I don't know if you want to make a prediction. I'll give the Lakers to the other”

thing. The other thing is like, with the Thunder, we've seen time and time again when they're, when they're just kind of sitting at home, you know, I came one this way. Game one's time for the other team. The next team to show up in their building. It's it's just like throwing a stake, you know, into the line cage. They're just like waiting. The line on this game, and I'm not a gambler, but I, you know, sometimes you look at it just to see it's 15 in a

half. I was going to guess I was going to guess 12 and a half. So that's just a one four match up.

You know, this is a one four match. And I know, I obviously not having Luca Dodchitz is an enormous

part of that. But that is the extent to which I think most people look at it and just you just wonder how are the Lakers going to be able to run their offense with enough success against this defense without a guy like Luca. If Luca were healthy, I think I would have gone Thunder in six. I just think the Lakers would get games with Luca. I mean, seven would not like would surprise me, but it wouldn't like I wouldn't be completely blown away. But I would give them to and maybe the Thunder

make that look foolish because the Thunder just run teams out of the gym, like you said, but I just think, but he's not, and that's over you are. Let's you know, like, you know what the thing is about Luca, too, is like it's a shame for fans, just like to not see it because he shot over 40% from the three for a longer stretch of time than he ever has throughout his career prior to that injury. And it's such an enormous part of his game because when he's when he's

shooting in the low 30s and he's still taking 12 of those of night, it just changes everything

“about how you view, how you have to guard him, how much help do you have to commit to him,”

and you're going to live with it. When he's when he's having nights, he's over 50% from to three a lot of nights. And like I said, 40% for like a two-month stretch and he's shooting that many in addition to the 10 to 12 free throws he's getting. Like now you've got a real problem on your hands. And so to see him at that efficiency level playing against this team would have been fascinating, and it stinks, we're not going to get in. Even if somehow you made a miraculous recovery,

it's like, man, he's been out a while, could he even find that level of efficiency again in short order against this team? I don't know, but it's just a shame that you're not going to see LeBron, Luca Reeves, all those guys against the Thunder team in a series. So the Thunder

defense just ultimately might be too much for the Lakers office, but let's see what the Lakers have.

Game 1 will tell you a lot. Yeah, and Reeves obviously hasn't been back for long, so he's working

“way back. Okay, calves, pistons. I think this series is being slept on a little bit because we”

didn't know what the series is going to be until like two days ago. And both of these teams feel like they're coming off disappointing. Seven game wins, even though Detroit rallied from three one down. The calves have to gut it out, winning every home game in the series against the Raptors team that missing, that missed it. Starting point guard the entire series and Miss Brandon Ingram, all star Brandon Ingram. I wouldn't have put him on the all star team this year, but he

is a capital A all star. He made the team for the last few games, and they need seven games to beat that team. And Detroit, I don't know that they win that series if Franz Wagner doesn't get hurt, but he did get hurt, and they win, and here we are. And I think this is actually going to be a fun series. I think there's some fun stuff to dig into on both ends of the floor. You pick an end of the floor, what like Cleveland offense, Detroit offense, where do you want to start,

and what what are you going to be watching for? Cleveland offense to me is the is going to determine the series. I mean, Detroit's an elite defensive team. I don't know that I've seen a team collectively across the board, not just one or two guys. That protect the rim, the level of the Detroit pistons. They're like their wings, but the way those, and it's good, includes cane. It's like an American gladiators competition, like they just made a layup competition,

you just get to try to make a layup, and people are going to swarm you from like people just pop out of different corners of the court. Like a star Thompson's over here, and I say it's doing it's over here, and they're just, and a star Thompson blocked shots are so violent. Like he just rips the ball out of your hand. It's just, they're unbelievable. I'm sorry. I just have to get there. You would have a better chance. You would have a better chance of completing maybe

seal training than getting to the rim against the Detroit pistons. I'm just telling you, like and like sitting there, when you're, and we call the game seven, like even like even like visually, just watching in real time, you're like, there's no light to be had at the end of these drives. These guys come from everywhere. They fly off the corner. They're guarding a shooter in the corner,

to watch. They're leading the NBA in blocks in the police season, and they, I don't know,

had at one point they had 10, I stopped counting in the game on Sunday. But to me, it's the calves offense against this level defense. And this is a totally different animal for the pistons than what they just had to guard. I mean, that's an anemic three-point shooting team in Orlando, and they didn't have Wagner, a guy that can handle the ball and play through contact at six, 10, and give you 17, 18, and night, you're right. He doesn't get hurt. Good chance Orlando wins the series.

I also think there's a great chance Orlando wins a series. If Tobias Harris does it play the way he played in that series. Now, he didn't shoot well from the three until Sunday. He'd 19% for the series coming into that game, but his he didn't miss mid-range shots. The guy had five straight 20-point games plus,

and the 30-point game on Sunday to close the series. They would have lost. They would have been eliminated

already before Sunday if it wasn't for Tobias Harris. So can he, can he duplicate that? I don't know. This for me is mostly about can the pistons do to this offense? What they were able to do

“to the Orlando offense? That's, and again, I think game one of both of these series tonight”

are going to tell you an awful lot about how this is going to go no matter who wins the game. Let's stick with Cleveland offense. One of the interesting things don't almost no matter how you break down the matchups. Unless you really want to get funky with some of your matchups, Kate is going to have to guard hardened or Mitchell when it's the starters versus the starters. It's just, that's just the way the matchups break down. Dunkin Robertson is going to

hide on Dean Wade. I suspect Dean Wade will get the start in game one. It could be true. So I would, or it could be Tyson, even, but I would just bet on Wade is the safe choice. They're going to hunt Dunkin Robertson relentlessly with harden and Mitchell, obviously, and the pistons are great at hedging in that and recovering it and helping behind it. But they're going to test that out. And they're going to make Kate guard and Kate's a really good defense player. He guarded Palo a lot.

He guarded Franz a lot. It's not like he's not game for that. But this is a different level of like quickness and shot creation than anything that the magic could throw at Detroit. And it's like Detroit had good success switching with Tobias Harris and switching with Jalen Durin when they had to in that series, because it was switching on to Palo who's not going to blow by or shoot

“threes. I think those switches are a lot less sensible. But obviously, Detroit just brings the ton of”

cohesion and toughness and speed and frenzy on defense. And Donovan Mitchell specifically is just going to have to be better than he was in the first round. I thought he played a very phrasal like why is he dribbling 25 times? What's happening in this series? But Detroit, as great as they are defensively in their second in the league defensively this year, they're kind of a more traditional defense than Toronto. And I think Toronto's weirdness and

switchability just kind of threw off Cleveland. I bet Cleveland is going to look a little bit better offensively in this series than a couple other notes. Detroit, the free throw battle is

going to be critical. Detroit fouls more than any team in the league and the Cavs have James

Harden. But they also get to the free throw line a lot. And so they have to sort of that's got to be close for Detroit to win this series. And the turnover battle, Detroit forced the most turnovers in the league. Cleveland's going to have to be careful with that. And just an interesting thing to watch. You mentioned shot selection, Lake or Stunder. The Cavs take a ton of threes and Detroit gives up by design a ton of threes and sort of can the Cavs make those threes count? Can they make

them good threes? So it's going to be interesting battle. Let's flip it around. Detroit has the ball Cleveland's on defense. What's interesting to you? I mean look, so far no one's had any sort of solution for Cape Cunningham. And it's he's fascinating to watch because in an environment that speed you up, which is the playoff and particularly the deeper you get into a series. Like game seven is supposed to like make you feel like, you know, this this urgency where you play a little bit faster.

He looked on Sunday as if he was literally just kind of playing in a summer league game.

“Goes where he wants never sped up, always in rhythm. So that's the key. Like what can you do”

against him when he starts getting into a comfort zone? To me, you're going to have if you don't force the ball out of Cunningham's hands and make every single guy on their team besides Dunkin Robinson have as many threes as they won in this series. And I probably even would test the water early again with Tobias, but he's on such a roll. Maybe he still hasn't going. But everybody else that sees the floor have at it. There's no way I'm letting Kate Cunningham operate one on one of the

posts. He's not going to come off ball screens and not see another body right in front of him. He's not going to do it. It has to be other guys. And Orlando was not really able to do that against Kate

For me, this has to be about making sure the ball gets funneled toward the guys that you are willing to live with shooting a ball for Detroit. If you're Cleveland defense, I mean, if you don't pull that off, then you know, you're not going to deserve the win this series. That has to

“be the priority. How do you limit Kate Cunningham's effectiveness and ability control the game?”

Because he was in full control for them. Most of that series, it's certainly from the time they had to make that comeback to get themselves even to a game seven. It's like it's his game. They didn't do anything on Sunday to really affect that. Yeah, I think I'm going to be fascinated by how they defend Kate and who defense Kate. I'm going to just, I would guess that they open the series. They've been pretty rigid about we're putting one of our big men when we have both of them

on the floor mobility and Allen. We're putting one of them on a star Thompson because we're just going to have, sometimes it's mobile, sometimes it's down. We're just going to have that guy rev and help. And that means James Hardin has to guard Tobias Harris. I think they're fine with that. And Dean Wade starts on Kate Gunningham and I think he'll see tons of different guys. But I think they're favorite guys on him are Wade Tyson and Struse, but he'll see, you know,

shooter, Keyon Ellis may get back into the rotation at points here. And I do think to your point about taking the ball out of his hands. On the one hand, I know Cleveland obviously has studied the Orlando Detroit series and saw how the pistons took Durin almost completely out of the series by going under on Kate's screens and switching. And if you have Wade on Kate, that's a nice roundway on Kate. And like one of your bigs on Durin, you're kind of tailor made to do that same thing.

And so I suspect we'll see them use that Orlando road map a little bit, but also to your point, mix in maybe some more aggressive defenses just to just to mix it up and get the ball out of out of Kate's hands. But I think that's going to be sort of an interesting chess match there.

I think they'll go under on Kate's some and he made enough threes to hurt Orlando in the first round.

Let's see if he, if he can do it again. And the same three point stuff applies like Detroit does not take threes at all. They were 29th and 3 point rate and Cleveland gives a lot of threes up on defense. And so how does that work? How does like if they do put bigs on a sartompson and just ignore him, I think one of the big adjustments Detroit made down the stretch of that series was now they didn't put bigs on a sartompson. They put jail and sucks on him. The magic did.

But if you're going to ignore him, we got to use him. We got to use him as a screener. We got to use him as a DHOK. We got to put the ball into his hands a little bit. And that worked pretty well for the pistons. So there's just a lot of interesting. I think this is going to be a really fun series. I don't know if you want to make a pick, I am prepared to make a pick on a little terrified by my own pick, but do you have any gut feeling on this one?

I don't, I don't typically like to make predictions on the series just because there's, there's a chance I'm calling one of these games at some point. That's right. Yeah, I forgot about this. So yeah, it's just a little bit of a different feel, but you can certainly lay it out. I just think that for me, it's going to come down to

“I think I'll get a good feel for this after the first game. Like what effect does Detroit have?”

On Cleveland's offense and like Ken James Harden be better than he was to close the series. Because I do think it's going to be looked out of the Mitchell is, it's going to have to work for everything he gets in the series. And we both agree he has to be better. That's not an easy task. He just played one really, really good defensive team. And now he's about to play another one that in a lot of ways is even more physical and handsy on the perimeter. It's going to

wear you down. It's going to be harder for him. So you'd like to see Harden pick up some of that slack. He's not he didn't finish that series. He's great. He was able to get to the line in game seven. Not particularly aggressive looking for his own shot. You don't say, okay, delay him. Didn't do a whole lot the last two games and that series started off with 50 to start the

series in the first two games and they're up to 0 to close the series 34 points in the last two

“games. So they can be nervous to him. Yeah. So I mean, that's that's what that's what you're looking at.”

The one thing that was a big part of the way Dern was played in the last series. You mentioned sucks. Sugs was completely just taking away all of the roles off all screen because he wasn't guarding us our Thompson. He was on the edge of the lane, waiting. And as soon as Dern would die, Sugs was there so they just could not get those little slips where he was catching and finishing all regular season. He didn't he didn't get that in this series.

Now, yeah, they had a pretty impactful probably his best game in the series was game seven. It was it was a factor. You know, they consistently great on defense to the whole series.

But maybe I first came in a half, but he he like did not let the offense stuff affect his effort

and intensity on defense, which is to read to be like feather in his cap.

It's one of those games where they're having a hard time getting to 100 and that's how

“that's how it's played. Then I think he'd start to have some concerns about them winning the”

series. So that's what I want to see. Can Detroit do to them, you know, what you're going to need to defensively to slow because they are a team capable of going on these runs. It got a lot of shooting. They've got two elite guards. They've got bigs that can get on the glass. Like this is a team that can really get they get freedom of movement, which they won't in this series. They give me tough defense. We so Detroit has to be at their best defensively.

That to me is where this series will be one. How Detroit guards Cleveland. Because Detroit's good at whatever they do offense. You know, K is going to be great. And then whoever gets it gets

it great. Let's hopefully get to 100. It's all decided by what they do to the other team and

can you limit Cleveland to that extent, which is a much better offensive team than what they just played. I'm picking the calves. I don't feel good about it. I'm debating calves and six or calves and seven. The road team seems to be winning games seven much more than they used to. So I'm going to go calves in seven. I think they just have a few more answers offensively. And they're going to look a little bit more comfortable at the start of the series that it against Toronto. Detroit could

absolutely win the series, though. I'm picking all those series. Can I tell you some, and Mike Reed had a great little statistical nugget on our broadcast on Sunday, going into those two games sevens. The road team had won 10 of the previous 17. Now it's 10 out of 19, but still it's much more prevalent than it used to be. It was almost like a death sentence going on the road for a game seven, which was like a four-gone conclusion. That's not the case anymore for a lot of different reasons.

So, you know, could Cleveland win a game seven on the road if they got there. They could, but man, that building was crazy on Sunday and they will be, but this is all about Detroit's

“defense, man. That's what they've hung their hat on all year. And now it's, can you come up with”

what you need to against the team with this kind of firepower and to elite guards that can just really cause you to play two on them all the time. How does Detroit come up with a game plan against it? It's fascinating. I cannot wait to see it. calves and seven. I just, I'm a little worried about Detroit's offense. I'm a lot worried about the calves and crunch time of 27, but I'm going to go calves and I'm a little bit worried that the calves, I think, have way more pressure on them to

win this series than Detroit does because if they don't advance out of this round yet again. All right. So, look, let's get specific here. If you're saying that, you're saying one of two things. You're either saying the calves are down three, two going home for game six. Or you're saying they're up three, two, and they, and they don't get it done at home at a game six, which, which, which version of calves and seven, do you think this is okay? You're going to

I like this. You're going to make me blueprint the whole series from start to finish. Well, I'll just say, like, if you say, all the way they win seven, one of those two things has to be true. I'll say Cleveland wins the last two games. They win game six at home and they won game seven on the road. Okay. So they're actually, you're on the precipice of going home down three, two going home for a game six. James Harden reinvents his entire postseason narrative

“and two straight games. That's what's going to happen. Tim Legler, you're on the way to New York”

to call a Nick Sixers game two for SPN. Thank you for lending us some of your time and expertise. You're the best. I can't wait to hear you on the broadcast. Enjoy it anytime. I'll see you soon, Zach. All right. It was a very newsy early week in the NBA. Just want to give some quick analysis takes whatever on some of that news. Orlando least surprising news of the week is fired. Jamal Mosley after five seasons had coached the magic of not one a playoff series. Since 2010,

their offense completely fell apart against the pistons. They may and I would say probably would have won that series at Franz Wagner and not gotten injured. And so, you know, I don't know how you look at that if you're Jamal Mosley or the magic, like are we pessimistic? Are we optimistic? Obviously, I think this was the kind of decision that had been pre-made before the playoffs barring a run and barring a run that almost happened. And I think game six tells you why

the team just does not have a coherent offensive identity. Now, they were missing Franz Wagner,

they're a best for second best player. And they don't have the type of personnel that

lends itself well to constructing a coherent offensive identity. They don't have a lot of shooting outside the Desmond Bane. There are two best players are cut from similar cloths, a bank hero in particular. I said this with Bill on Sunday. He has the game of like a number one option, like a big ball handler who can run a bunch of inverted pick and rolls, who can ISO, who can post up. But he's just not as good as you need your number one option. He's not as good at that stuff

as you need your number one option to be. If you're going to be a real real container, he's not

option because no one is going to guard him on the perimeter. Now, he was on fire and game seven

“early on and all of that. And Franz is sort of broadly similar. I think Franz is better at the”

second option stuff than bank heroies. He's sort of more creative faster cutter, screener,

all of the stuff that you know, you wish bank hero would be a little bit better. He's okay at it. So like it's a it's a tough puzzle piece. And it's going to be a tough puzzle piece for whoever the next side coaches, whether it's Billy Donovan or Tom Tivito or Dusty May or whatever hot rumored coaches going to try to rework this offense because that game's six. I mean, you watched them just miss a thousand shots in a row. They scored 19 points in a half of a playoff game.

Like, I'm almost impressed. What was the joke in anchor man? Like what the dog eats the cheese? And it's like, I'm kind of impressed, backster. 19 points in the second half. I would hang up banner somewhere for that. Maybe in Springfield in my wing of absurdities in the Hall of Fame. 19 points in a half of basketball is almost insane. And they just had no plan.

“Like it was everything was station to station. Palo runs one pick and roll. It's not aimed at the”

right matchup. It's not aimed at duck and Robinson. It's a pick and roll that's just going to be switched. And then everyone stands around for six seconds. Like, um, so what what are we doing with the rest of the shot clock? Anyone have plans after the game? Is some, are you going to set a screen? You know, you are, nobody is. And then Palo just has to jack up a shot. And it's like, this is plague them the whole season. You can't get to game six. I'll play off game with the 20 whatever point lead.

And just have that kind of meltdown. You've just got to have more answers than that.

And the magic never did. And again, the personnel is tricky. Another reason the personnel is

tricky is, you know, this is a team that has $210 million dollars come of salary already on the books in the season. Like, that's first apron level salaries. Um, Anthony Black is eligible for an extension after the season. Um, and jail and sugs has four years. It declines, but 32 million, 29 million, 26 and 26 ish. And they just, I mean, bane is their best pick and roll handling guard at this point. And he's, that's really not his main job. And it never has been plus or minus some times

when job was hurt in Memphis. Sugs just falling apart in this series is maybe the biggest single take away for the magic. He could not make a shot. I liked the glimpses of the Sugs Bancaro pick and roll with Sugs is the ball handler because it just unlocks a different kind of Bancaro option as a roller as a screener as a mismatch hunter in that sense, like a big guy sense. And we just didn't see it much because jail and Sugs is not a good enough shooter to do that

very often. He's just an okay pass or in driver. It's just not his game. And I think the magic hoped it would be more of Anthony Blacks game and before he got injured midway through the season, he certainly was making a leap. He was in the most improved player conversation. He had a shooting 33% from three better from the corners. Like people are going to go under. He's a tremendous athlete. Does he have the vision for that kind of job? Does he have the passing chops for that kind of

job? I think he's an interesting player. I expect them to come up with some sort of long-term deal with him. Now, I'm not sure that it'll be an extension. And in fact, if I were the magic, I expect this to be a tough negotiation because if I'm Anthony Blacks agent, I'm like, I'm not taking a penny less than jail and Sugs. And if I'm the magic, I'm like, well,

“to jail and Sugs contract doesn't look great. And if that's what you want, we'll take it to”

restricted for agency. I would expect them to come to an agreement somewhere. But I'm just not sure with the guard future of this team is other than being who caused you for first round picks. Underrated story from the fall that they declined their fourth year team option on jet Howard, who is a lottery pick. That's a disaster. Jason Richardson gave you nothing. Desilva's hit or miss. When don't courage, you're fine. As a center, jack of all trades,

master of none. Not really a threatening roller on offense, not a threatening shooter.

Not a great sort of power post player. And I always find it to be sort of an indictment

over Lando's team structure, not necessarily it's coaching, but it's team structure. And it's coaching both how often when do I encourage you near is in the corner on offense because they just don't know what else to do with him, where else to put him, they can't use him as a screener because how on fronds are doing that. And they're like, all right, I guess our center, who's whatever three points you to that. No one's going to guard is in the corner. All this to say,

they probably would have won their first round series head fronds. Been healthy. That's fine. The future of this team around Palo and Fronds, I just wish I would have known a little bit more about it, particularly at the guard spot other than Bane after this series. And financially, I just, they just can't pay black and sugs and Palo and Bane and Bane and Fronds, what they're

this team, but there's some, like, I don't expect them to do anything crazy, but it will be

“interesting and they need an offensive genius coach. Chicago hired Bryson Graham,”

is there whatever top decision maker. And good luck to you, Bryson Graham. You have an uphill battle in every possible sense. Bryson is very well regarded. He's an eight plus scout. That's exactly what they need. They have they are slated for the ninth and 15th picks in this draft. They have Mattis Pouseles, Noah Sengay didn't really play this season because of injury will have to see what he brings. I'm fascinated to see how Bryson approaches what is one of

the biggest challenges in the entire NBA, figuring out whatever is left on this roster that's worth keeping around other than Bouseles and how to build it into a competitive Eastern Conference team. There are a lot of teams that are quick turnaround teams in the NBA right now. We're going to talk

about Dallas in a second. I'm not sure that Chicago is or that they should even want to be the irony

of course, being this team has lived in the middle slash back of the lottery to play in God's the 39 win gods for so long under a system that doesn't really reward teams in the middle. And now the NBA is poised to transition to a system that actually awards teams in the middle. So I don't know how the bulls are reacted to this. They have a banana of cap space. They're not really like I was thinking about the rockets when they made there. All right. We're

just going to make we have cap space. No one else does Dylan Brooks, Red Van V Lee. We'll try to get broke Lopez. We're going to try to be competitive even if the timelines don't line up. I'm not sure that the bulls have enough young interesting guys in the cupboard who are ready for that. So I'm just not sure kind of what I would even do if I were Bryson Graham other than this draft is very important. Wizellus has to pop even more. He was really good this year.

And giddy is fine. Like his contract is fine. He lit it up for a couple of months. God

injured and faded away. His defense has never really come around. His three point shot is better.

Like he can take a little bit more of them off the dribble. Baby steps there. You can hit

“him above the break. He's catching shoe percentage was fine. I think we know enough to know”

and luckily he's not paid like this salary was that Josh giddy is just not going to be the number one engine on a great or good NBA team. Like maybe a mediocre one. And so I don't it's just good luck Bryson Graham. But he's very good. I know Bryson a little bit he'll do a good job. Good luck to the bulls. Masai Ujiri is back in the NBA as the head basketball executive of the Dallas Mavericks Patrick Dumont wanted to make a splash. He did. Patrick Dumont wanted to get

a guy who is well spoken and fun with the media and inspirational because Patrick Dumont is the opposite of all of those things every time he talks. I just want to throw him in a closet and lock the door and take away all technology. So he can't talk to the media. Masai, I mean, from Brooklyn to we're going to win a championship in Toronto and all this stuff like he's a plus at that. I think this is actually a quick turn kind of team. I expect Kyrie to be on the team

next year going into the last guaranteed year of his contract and he has a player option after that. The prior front office will see how many of them hang around have just been raving all year about Kyrie and his relationship with Cooper Flag. Obviously, they have the rookie of the year who I picked for a career too. Derek Lively presumably will be healthy next year. That's a big deal.

They have two first round picks in this draft. Their own pick and the funders pick, which is obviously

going to be 30th, they opened up some cap flexibility with the Anthony Davis trade and flag is awesome. And I don't expect like Masai, Jury, to come in and hit the gas and like we're going to try to attend next year. We're going to do all this trade, whatever pick equity we have. We don't own tons of our future picks because of all the trades. We made to build our team where I'll look at the answer to before inexplicably trading, look at the answer. We don't have to go down that road.

“But I think this is a good job like I understand why Masai, Jury, took it first. They paid a”

machine a ton of money. I'm sure. Second, you have a potential generational superstar and a long runway with him in a big market and just sort of infinite flexibility for how to build the team. And Masai, look, people nitpicked the decision making after the Raptor's Championship fair. It's hard to stay in the middle and build from the middle. Some things hit. Some things certainly did not. And people nitpicked how long he hung on to the Lowry derosin core. When it was pretty

clear like you're just not going to unseed Lebron as long as he's in the East and the ceiling is just not high enough. Although they want a lot of games, he's very patient. Do not mistake his patience for a lack of creativity or a lack of tenacity. Masai, Jury is a shark. He's going to hunt every opportunity. He's going to hire a great staff around him and boy, what a time for any

approve it year for the Raptors. And I do think they proved it, Dark O'Reach of it. Certainly proved

“it, but they suddenly walked in to a whole lot of leverage. You know, he was patient with the”

Carmelo Anthony trade. He played the New York teams against each other. He pounces on opportunities and he's willing to wait for those opportunities to come up. I, you know, I want to ask Masai in his office in Toronto early in his tenure. Like I'm interested to hear like what is your

what is your player development philosophy? Like what kind of players do you want? Because in

Denver he had this sort of feisty post-Melo team fast, tenacious, in Toronto he inherited this middle of the road team and he made a big Rudy Gay trade to get out of that contract and get them more depth. And he was like, I'm not, I'm not going to tell you. I'm not going to answer that question.

“I keep that stuff pretty close to the vest. So I don't know if that meant there is some secret”

sauce I look for. Like anybody can say character, toughness, whatever everybody wants that. Or it's just, I'm going to be adaptable to whatever the circumstances. But look, I know this. It's a great hire for the Mavericks. I feel for the holdovers from the Nico Harrison regime. I hope some of them get actual fair opportunities to stick around. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. But it's a good day for the Dallas Mavericks who are

“are sneakily, I think, well positioned to both get into the play and conversation next year at”

least and and beyond that be pretty opportunistic. So big, big news around around the league. And there'll be more big news. The more teams are eliminated and playoffs are now we're getting down to the real stuff second round. That's it for this little solo segment. And enjoy the game tonight, second round ongoing. Let's go. All right. That's it for today. Thanks to Tim LeGler of ESPN

for his invaluable analysis of all the playoff series. Thanks as always to Mike Billy and Jonathan

on production. And thanks to you all for listening to Andrew watching the Zach Low Show. We'll be back on Thursday and warning unless something crazy happens in between now and then. Enjoy the games. Enjoy the second round. Thank you for listening. 21 over and president select states for Kansas. And affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 and over in print and in DC. You can tuck your way home and gambling problem call 1 in 100 gambler or 1 800 my reset call 1 888 789 777 777 or

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