Wemby Lifts Spurs Over Thunder! Breakdown of the Biggest Plays, and a Preview of the East.

Oh my god. What happened last night? Spurs thunder. The hype was through the roof and the series and game one exceeded the hype by a lot. Victor Wembanyama, I mean, what can you even say?

The rest of the league watched that game and he's just like, oh my god. We supposed to do 45 points, 24 rebounds, whatever the hell was, I don't even know. Just living at the rim on offense, only took two, three, oh yeah, and the one he made will

“never forget that one for the rest of our lives from the Steph Curry spot to tie the game”

at overtime spurs end up kind of dominating the second overtime up one zero.

This is now six games. The spurs are five and one against the thunder. That can the thunder due to get their offense on track against this monster who's just spending the whole game lurking on the baseline, freaking everybody out, including Shane Gilgers, Alexander the now two time consecutive MVP who had a seven of 23 shaky shooting

game. They just can't get in rhythm against this team. How much trouble are the thunder in? How much trouble is the world in with Victor Wembanyama already being, maybe the best player in the NBA, certainly on track to be the best player in the NBA, if not now, then

like tomorrow and just a two-way performance, the likes of which you will not see very often in your life.

Rob Mahoney's here to help us with all of that, plus a quickie Nick's CADS preview, maybe

some winners and losers of the playoff so far that's all coming up next on the Zach Low Show. The Zach Low Show is brought to you by Van Duill. The conference finals are here. Thinking how to go down, take your shot with Van Duill and get closer to the action.

Van Duill is the best place to bet the teams, the players and players during the NBA postseason. Bill is the same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout or try live betting and jump into the action after tip off. Download the Van Duill Sportsbook app now and play your game.

20 on over in president's like states, 18 on over in DC. You can talk around with him and gambling problem called 1-800 gambler, called 1-888-789-777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut.

“Welcome to the Zach Low Show, Rob Mahoney, oh my god, what happened last night?”

What did we witness? Spurs thunder, the hype was through the roof and game one somehow exceeded the hype. The spurs win by some score in double overtime, I don't even remember any more of what the score was. Victor Winbanyama, 45 points, 24 rebounds, three blocks, plus 16 in 49 minutes and Rob.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that that is as great and dominant a two-way basketball game as any human being has ever or could ever play in a setting like this. I don't even like, I don't even know what else to say. I don't even think that's hyperbole and I think we're going to do that a lot today of this

was the greatest, this was the most amazing, this is, I mean, I'm ready to go out and

say like a game like this is just an amazing display of what that modern basketball can be by both teams, just like the pinnacle of where the sport is right now. But how do you do it better than that? How do you do it better than 49 minutes as a big and a double overtime game and every single second feels like you are having a profound impact on literally everything that's

happening on the floor? I don't know what I do know is the spurs won the game. They're head one zero in the Western Conference Finals. They did it without Darren Fox, the other guy who made the all-star team for them this year like who freaking cares that he plays for not, I guess, Dylan Harper had a fantastic

game stuff on Castle had 11 turnovers. I don't even care. I don't care that he had 11 turnovers. I don't care because his toughest shit and he made a bunch of plays that we'll talk about on both ends of the floor.

When be just lived at the rim more than I think any game I've ever seen in play he's just like I'm not he took two threes.

“We'll talk about the one that he made because I think when we remember it all forever and”

before we sort of go through the highlights of the game, you mentioned just the high level of intensity and play in this game, just an apex NBA apex basketball kind of game stack it up with any kind of like high quality, calves warriors, warriors, rockets in the heart and CP year like whatever you think of as this was as high and really a display of best was I've ever seen this was one of those games and interestingly it was a very

defense first game. You look at the stats spurs offensive rating 106 per 100 possessions. That would have ranked I think last in the NBA are close to last in the regular season

Thunder 102.7 points per 100 possessions like that's just those are bad numbers but you look at the process and you're like these teams are pulling every level possible. They're probably the two best defense of teams in the NBA the thunder of certainly been number one and they're just digging as deep as they can into their resourcefulness into whatever bags they have to try and scrounge anything like a good look especially in

the paint and this is the best they can do and the spurs are now five and one against the thunder and the common theme in those six games is the thunder just haven't been able to score against one banyama and the spurs defense in the five regular season games. They had a 109 offensive rating which is below the average and again this is an elite 60

“whatever wind team last night 103 and I think as we zoom out and we will zoom out at”

some point the biggest question that the thunder have is what are they supposed to do on offense to get points and we know that we know how when we're when he's going to be when he's going to be guarding no one he's going to just be playing his own sometimes they'll be guarding Caruso sometimes would be guarding dork heart and Stein just record time played out of off off the series out of the series can't be on the floor when

banyama's on the floor because you just like we saw with the go bare you can't give him a center who's only roll an offense is to screen and dive and if he's not doing that he's just hanging out by the dunkers spot it just makes one piece life too easy on defense and just they

I don't know what the answer is that's that's the big picture question but before we get into

the nitty gritty I mean any any big picture thoughts of that ill court just takes you want to

“get off before I go I need a cigarette like this it really feels like a you know the the guy”

and the air traffic control room on airplane like I picked the wrong week to stop Huffing glue like that was every play in overtime and double overtime for me somehow and it was like the quality of play was just escalating escalating escalating the thunder played a great game like shaggyel just Alexander wasn't at his like emphatic best and we're going to get into all of the elements of that but they played well enough to win they played championship level basketball

it just became so clear in watching this how much all season frankly as we did the dance of the nuggets and the wolves and the rockets and the lakers and all these other teams like everybody was playing for third I it's hard to watch a game like this and not just go through the mental exercise of could anybody have hung in a series like this against these kinds of powerhouses but even like what kind of players could the star on your favorite team be locked in

in the way that these guys were locked in the way that the a random rotation defender in this game was on pinpoint precision for you know 49 45 50 minutes depending on how much they played

I it's amazing what the demands of a like a contest like this are and what it tells you

about who can hang and who can because I say hard times a great player he should be able to play in any series and yet in this one he's a problem chat home grin is a hyper versatile weapon in every other matchup and then he goes up against the spurs and it's like what do you do with him on offense how do we act happen to what makes him effective I love what these teams bring out at each other I love how dig how far they already have to dig to find those options and

if you're one of those fans who goes through playoff series like begging your coach to make some kind of adjustment begging for some change of rotation mark magnets already made like 15 different modifications over the course of this game in the in the search for some things like it's going to be a fascinating to want to watch is the tactics evolving in real time I've spent the last two months every four podcasts I'm like I can't wait to see if they try their version of the death line up I've

wonder if they've been saving it for a series like this and that lineup there remind people is SGA AJ Mitchell Caruso who I don't even know what the fuck happened with Alex Caruso last night just so nobody's been playing Jay Dubb who came back and looks pretty good and shut that lineup played three minutes in the entire regular season to your point about diagonal nine minutes in one game against the spurs and the western conference finals plus three and yet the search for offense continues

nonetheless Caruso like oh footnote 14 three point attempts he's going to be treated like the Celtics like the box treated grant Williams in that famous game seven they're just gonna let him shoot like if he wants to I wrote in my notes in the first court I have a Google Doc for every series the

“notes for this one are I think a mental institution would probably want to take a look at them and be like”

you you this is problematic how just whatever's going on here but somewhere in the first quarter I wrote they're going to make him take 23's in this game and they made him take 14 and he made it

for 31 points in like 17 amazing he's like the place they still lost I just want to review okay

Dylan Harper 20 years old 47 minutes 24 points 11 rebounds six assists and seven steals

wasn't even there and finished at the rim and it's like oh 20 years old sure just bullied

“the two-time MVP awesome like possession didn't go anywhere and give the ball to Dylan Harper”

fine also are like kind of point guard here go guard J to for significant portions of this game like not worried about it 20 years old to no big deal Steph Castle a modest five of 14 11 turn overs also 11 assists and has understood both of these guards have understood the entry passes that are too hard to make in 99.9% of basketball situations by which I mean pick and roll switch when be rules to the rim your big guy rules to the rim and you're you're directly like you're you're what parallel I

don't know you it's a straight on pass like a very tough angle straight on entry pass a big defenders funding it you normally can't make that pass they all understood no oh yeah we can just

make any pass he's gonna go up and get it and great defenses always we'll talk about that it will

be lost to history Devon Vessel 51 minutes 13 points and a block on shed home grin after an offensive rebound with 45 seconds left in double overtime in the spurs up for where I just like crew so misses the reverse layup the Wemby effect brutal and shed gets the rebound of Devon Vessel doesn't box him out but makes up for very quickly and it just looks like always going to be a dunk and Devon Vessel goes straight up at the rim and just fucking swatched shed home grid um just these these

young guys are are unbelievable and the spurs are up one oh I don't know what else to say right before we get into the well whatever let's give Devon Vessel a quick moment here because I think we're going to get into the Wemby stuff so deep we're going to get into all of these like huge impactful

“score and performances and I think Devon Vessel is a really important breakthrough score for the”

spurs too like you dedicate so much attention to Wemby and Dylan Harper and Stefan Casso in particular that he ends up getting some really painful buckets for opposing teams but that block and he's he's had a bunch of these throughout this playoff run where he's not a guy who racks up steals in blocks but the impact plays he does make on defense are top shelf shit like absolutely elite in the moment except no substitute sort of defensive impact he can be that guy he's not that guy

every second he's on the floor he's not a go-to stopper for 50 minutes but man I I have learned

not to underestimate who Devon Vessel can be on defense and just have vital he can feel in a game like this and he said a lot of great contested rebounds and gang rebounds and tip out rebounds like he is just decided I probably came into the league with ambitions to be a 20 point score you know I'm an ace jump shooter all that my defense wasn't where it needed to be and now I'm on this team like oh this is what they need me to do yeah if we win everyone gets to glory everyone

gets to credit let me amp up that into my game he's done all that okay I want to go through this a little differently this is just plays I want to embed in my brain forever from this game we're gonna go more or less from the end to the beginning and just like let's just riff on like you might have forgotten some of these I had to rewatch the game disappointed to remember these this is me to my brain please remember these are you ready I am ready I had a feeling this

pod might turn into like a Chris Farley show style do you remember this play that was awesome but like let's just lean into the bit let's just make it the structure of the show yes I love the Chris Farley show I used to joke that if I ever get Diana Tarasi on the Zach low show it will just be the Chris Farley show with Diana Tarasi as the guys as it should be and this is just let's name some guys except let's name some plays basically

I'm gonna start in the first overtime and I'm gonna start before the shot that everyone will

“remember forever I think this will also be forgotten to history and I wonder what your reaction”

to it was about 40 seconds left in overtime over time one the thunder somehow are up by three even though it felt all game like they were just desperately searching for any kind of production

on offense or up by three they got to stop she has just had an incredible dunk to put them up by three

champagne he misses a three on the other end they get the ball back and with 35 seconds left and 11 on the shot clock up three jail and Williams takes a contested leaning fading two pointer from the left elbow again with 11 on the shot clock did in the moment like it's when you're watching these games you're both friends you're trying to be analytical but you're also frenzy because about tensed is in the moment I was like oh I don't I don't quite love that and we'll talk

about what happened next but do you re can you visualize that shot and like what do you remember thinking at the time because like what about so I might get a blame him for yeah you know what is it I want him to hold the ball for eight more seconds and take a worse shot I think I do

oh like that is a tough look in this moment but it's been a game of tough looks and and you're

“right about they're not being a guaranteed you're gonna get anything better than that”

I give jade up a pass for that sort of thing because I thought he played just like an unbelievably like fearless game for coming back in not you know having missed a bit of the players come back to this game seriously and he didn't show like any hesitation in terms of going like all like full physicality full speed plays all night he came up with so many like really gutsy moments that can you blame a guy for trying to come up with one that's a little bit

advice a shot clock violation probably would have been better in even in real time I thought that but that is tough 11 other shot clock was too early but again he also I can't remember exactly when it happened and might have been on that shade dunk he got like castle just straight up shoved him

in the back and he thought it abounds remember it looked for a second like he had aggravated his

leg injury and think body was fine that was probably should have been a foul I don't even remember when it happened my brain is broken okay immediately following the jade up miss this you will have no problem visualizing no Victor Wembanyama makes the Steph Curry 3 from maybe like a footer to

“inside the Steph Curry logo shot from all those years ago and I think the entire world blacked”

out for a second there were 26.3 seconds on the clock when he when it went through the net so he effectively got them a two for one which almost ended up getting them the game looked about that I mean do you think it I didn't see as post game commentary do you think he took that shot thinking two for one thinking we're down three this is as good of a look as I'm going to get to try to tie the game and of course he he spent the entire game playing the way everybody wants him to play

him rim rim not taking any threes he takes one from a million feet out and makes it and I'm just

sitting there like the crowd went dead silent the broadcast almost went dead silent rather than Reggie Miller laughing just going yeah I mean it's just an all-time shot it's up there with the Steph logo shot it's up there with the best of plays 11 threes in that arena it's it's I mean it's not the Kyrie shot which won the championship basically but it is it's not the Ray Allen shot in terms of leverage and stakes but it's up there with almost any shot in this kind of setting ever

considering the guy is seven five it's the western conference finals in your down three the Steph shot is is the obvious kind like a point of comparison as you raised in part because the arena in park is it's like man if only we got another double bang here for Wemby but also the fact that you're

getting that shot in a bigger moment with with the greater stakes from a guy who has basically

been playing like shack all night like that feels like forget unicorns for a second the past and future of basketball collapsing on itself in a singular moment of like who Victor Webinjama is and can't be the fact that he can do all of this all game be dunking on everybody be ruining chess life and then pull it for a shot like this I do think the two for Wembers probably on his mind because to be honest it is drilled into like every young player from the second they get in the

NBA these days and he was on top of so many details in this game I'm willing to believe that I also think he is the kind of player who is so selective and so devastating in when when he does deviate from what the smart play is like he did spin the vast majority of this game doing that exact right thing all night rim running hard fighting for every offensive rebound doing a lot of thankless stuff that the spurs need him to do he also had to play earlier I think it's

in the fourth where he caught it in the paint double team by case and Wallace and Chet and it's like

“you should pass this ball out like this is a pass you should make it's an easy basketball play”

of a wide open shooter and he just like lowered a shoulder into Chet and it went up straight through him and finished in a way that is not their technical right basketball play but it's something that is ultimately more psychologically damaging and it happened with ten minutes it was on my list so we could just do it now and after ten minutes left in the fourth quarter there about it was a Harper Wemby pick and roll they switched it case and Wallace I guess I don't remember

was the guy who switched on to them they lob it over the front he catches it Chet meets him on the catch from the dunkers spot on the catch right there he's in a sandwich he's in a sandwich and he takes one he puts the ball on the floor takes one dribble and kind of just shoulder into Chet's stomach and Chet moves him out of the way and puts the ball in the bathroom like okay I don't know what am I supposed to do now it's Chet home right it's not like he just moved away to like like

like I don't know Nicole Nicole of luch of it she did with Chet home brand he was like wasn't even there and like that's the part of Wemby that I really and truly love is yes he wants to take the big shots we seen him throughout this playoff run anytime there's like a momentum three to take he will usually take it but he also wants to take the shots and make the plays that fucking break teams and that's what this felt like is one that what do you do after the night he's had after

show the discipline to do all the right things but also make it hurt in just that specific way where you have nothing to do about it you know as the game was unfolding and uh JW misses that shot and Victor's bringing the ball up there was a suddenness to that decision like my brain was our my brain was sneaking okay what is he gonna do what's to play what are they got and then he was shooting and my brain was not ready for him to shoot and then he was shooting and then it went in

and it was like what just happened it was a very like weird cognitive he was just the action was ahead of what my brain was processing yes do you think do you think famous thunder Paul George was anywhere on a couch being like that was a bad shot you know I thought about couch repercussions several times in this game and just people who are just our shivers going down their spine even if they're not watching the game and we were going to do

when we still could do it winners and losers of the playoffs so far at the end of this podcast but one of my losers was going to be the hawks slash Zachary Risa Shay and the rockets slash Reed Shepherd watching Steph Castle do stuff like Steph Castle's doing and just what a sliding

“doors moment that third I think Reed Shepherd's going to be a nice NBA player don't get wrong”

but the rockets and the spurs both have ambitions to win right now and in that draft they both had a shot to get Steph Castle one team got him one team didn't and one team is in the western conference final as a one team's not and he made a joke I clearly had a love not love not trust

trust sometimes relationship with Reed Shepherd anyway after the Wemby shot yes Paul George is always

feeling whether it's whenever Dane does something Paul George feels something shiver down his spine it's just he's got a lot going on um I then I I went to bed after the game and after watching some clips now I can't sleep my wife is annoyed as hell because I'm just keeping the whole house up walking around pacing around not sleeping and I'm thinking wait a second wait a second I remember I remember the victor three and I remember the sideline out of bounds to Steph Castle that

Caruso breaks up at the end of the first overtime to go into a second overtime what what what was it that happened in between and my brain just like totally forgot what happened in between on the thunders and possession and what happened was jade up had a wide open not wide open and

open right wing three on a kick from SGA yep with five seconds left to basically win the game

and my brain because it was such a mundane play not it's nothing is mundane it just looked like normal basketball compared to a seven five guy pulling up from Steph range and Caruso breaking up and out of bounds play that my brain was just like we don't have space in our memory to memory whole this one so I watched it this way it's a pretty goddamn clean look and again some three's

“going some three's don't but just you know I want my brain to remember like oh yeah there was like a”

pretty normal late game three pointer to basically win it for okay see that just just like front rim backward and out I mean that's the agony of a game like this right is every maker missed three but also all of those layups and opportunities where you know when we had these guys kind of seeing ghosts or looking over their shoulder like it could be that shot or you could flash backwards and find like a missed Alex Carruso layup where he finally got past Wemby and then just like smoked

it because you never really lose that guy there's a million plays of which everything fell apart

that one though is tough I mean like that that is the kind of look you're hoping for on the other jade position right is like can you play process a little bit more can you get into the flow a little bit more can you get something a little cleaner and they finally did and they missed it anyway um and then of course at the end of overtime the lob to castle that Camusso breaks up clean I just punted that thing live I thought oh is that gonna be a foul and we're gonna have a debate and it

wasn't I don't think there was any foul at all it was a perfectly clean play by Carruso after he had already made like several crazy defensive plays we'll talk about we should also say I just thought a very well officiated game overall like some maybe some calls you'll quibble with but like they let these guys play a lot a lot of physicality they didn't bat they didn't reward any of the kind of batting and complaining that frankly goes both ways like stuff castles guilty of some of that stuff too

“and that really contributed to the feeling of this is an important game like for as much as the”

league in particular tries to drum up interest around the regular season or the NBA Cup like it's very simple this stuff feels important when it is important and you could sense it every position of this game in part because of the level of physicality that was allowed some of my favorite moments from the officiating where Zach Zarba reviewing things for flagrants and just kind of quietly

into Carruso with two minutes left I think of the second overtime Carruso fell over

some embellishment occurred and diagonal rather than just being happy that the ref's called an offensive foul on Wemby is immediately like take a look review it review it for a flagrant foul and so they review it and Zach Zarba is like upon review there was no follow-through there was no wind up this is not me the criteria for a flagrant foul just let's move on with like to be fair all of those reviews in a game like this are like can we please get J double water break can we please let

these guys sit down okay maybe you think you think I'm missing the real point of the release

“just to get rest okay maybe I think you got to buy every second you can at a game like this”

just and then the last before take a break a minute left in double overtime more or less

think the basket then end of the game spurs up one and they did this a couple of times

where they would bring heartburn and castle the two guys that if you're gonna help you're gonna help off those guys they bring them high above the arc on the wings and they have the sell and champagne lower in the corners and this is a scripted out of time outplay double overtime about a minute left and Wemby ducks in on Carruso I think and they lobbed in the entry pass Carruso goes for the steel doesn't get it jet comes over to help and Wemby just crams on his face for an

and one to put them up by four and that's now I mean there's more stuff that happens but that's more or less the last super meaningful basket of the game it just a great pass a great play design very intentional and just Wemby grabs the ball doesn't give it back and to your point like this guy loves just snatching your soul like that and that was a soul-soul snatching play well he loves snatching jet soul I think maybe more than most people and there really is something

about jet whether it's manufactured or not whether it's media propelled or not in terms of the way those two guys were compared over time he just kind of hoax out whatever jet is in the vicinity and the number of baskets he just scored straight over the top of one of the best offenders in the world is kind of like shocking to watch and yet I don't know what you're supposed to do about it like jet is in the right positions he's trying to contest those shots the thunder trying to

use him and a kind of a similar roving capacity and it's like what do you do like what do you supposed to do if those like entry passes are that precise if you're able to thread the needle over an Alex Caruso front and contest in time for Victor to catch it turn and dunk over the top of jet home grin if that's the case you're just gonna lose in games like this like that's just

“gonna if that's what the battleground looks like I'm not sure there's enough margin for air”

for anyone including the defending champions so to your point about just the insanity of how big

he is a couple of other plays I wanted to just review for fun there was one in the third quarter

it was again out of a time out it was essentially the same play that I just described harper and casserole lifted up to the wing the shooters are in the corners duck in it's jade up guarding in this time they throw the lob and jade up jumps with like all his might he's front thing for he jumps with all his might he reaches as high as he possibly can go to tiff the ball it in my notes I wrote he reminds me of like a younger sibling or the run of your childhood friend

group when someone taunts him by holding up the thing that he wants is like you can reach out you can get any time you want go ahead and reach it go ahead and you can't reach it because the guys too big and then I think it was in double overtime it was 250 left in double overtime

“the spurs were up to somebody miss I think casserole missed a three jade up boxed out Victor”

and Benjama in the pain and he just got the Billy Madison offensive release up over his head took the ball jade up is looking up like this like he's staring up at a skyscraper or an eclipse or something and Victor just grabs the ball like jade feed above jade up said and puts it back into put them up by force what am I smoke and you can feel his pain jade up's pain like I this is a textbook box out what else am I supposed to get someone else coming here and help

me because I can't do anything else in this he's just big boying these dudes like like a bully it's not nice I thought there were so many of those textbook moments and this kind of contributes to the high level of play overall like there were guys like jade up doing the exact right things textbook precision in terms of the box out there are also so many possessions where it's like watching the thunder navigate the spurs like staggered screens and it's like attack it's like a

touch and recover buried within a switch like they're navigating this stuff as well as a defense possibly can and then you see it and it's just like oh they get the ball to win be anyway and or Stefan Castle throws like a crazy cross court pass to an open shooter in the weekside corner because the low man had to cheat over to help to like body win be on the way I really don't know what you're supposed to do jade up I thought he fronted win be well

and what you're supposed to do psychologically to pick up after after a game like that

“what you're supposed to do in the thunder coaches meeting to say like okay how do we do the”

stuff we wanted to do better there really isn't a lot of room for that well I mean to that point again the spurs offensive rating was 106 in this game which would have been last or like bottom three in the NBA for the regular season and with Wemby on the floor it was 109 which is better

but like the bottom line is the thunder is defense did a job despite how some of these highlights look

the thunder defense was totally up to par up to the task they just couldn't score enough to win the game and we're going to talk about what it answers if any they have but let's take a quick break now and then they're just can you can you indulge me there's just a few other plays that I want to run through to group just let's name some plays name some guys please does that close show is brought to you by fandool and fandool is giving you better

“payouts on same game par lays 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 match up in every moment from spreads to player points to threes and more build it all into one same game parlay and go for bigger payouts so if you're betting same game par lays this NBA postseason bet them on fandool more options better payouts all NBA playoffs along head to fandool.com slash low to get started fandool play your game 21 over in slick states 18 or over in DC can tuck your Wyoming

gambling problem call 1 800 gambler call 1 888-789-777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut this episode is brought to you by Mikkelob Ultra the playoffs are almost here my favorite thing about the NBA playoffs the intensity and the strategy every game is treated like a must win game it even won a team is up three oh every quarter every half has a new adjustment that you got a really beat dialed in to track all that guy's guarding that guy now why are they doing that

how is the other team going to counter that it's the chess match that we don't really see quite as much of it in the regular season it's dialed up from the opening tip of game one in the playoffs playoffs are just awesome in the NBA you know what else is just as great opening up a new bottle of Mikkelob Ultra it's refreshing light with only 95 calories plus is the official beer partner of the NBA they're giving fans a chance to win court side tickets unique prizes and more

Mikkelob Ultra superior is worth playing for enter now at Mikkelob Ultra dot com slash court side Mikkelob Ultra court side 25 to 26 no purchase necessary open US residents 21 plus begins on October 1st 2025 and ends on June 30th 2026 multiple entry periods see official rules at Mikkelob Ultra dot com slash court side for free entry entry deadlines prizes and details all right so more plays that I want my brain to remember a minute and 10 seconds left in the fourth

quarter it's 97 97 I wonder if you remember this one of these quiet not it's not quite as loud but it will get lost in the the shuffle 97 97 castle when be picking rules switch they throw the

“lob jdub steals the entry pass two on one it's SGA and I think Carruso and SGA decides I'm going”

I'm the MVP I'm going it's tied I'm in my arena and Steph castle goes step first step with him

kind of gets like one hand on the ball or in your shape and forces him to double clutch and take like a lefty layup that he releases on the way down and he misses it and it's one of two transition defense plays by the spurs to break up two on one's late in the game that is just as clutch a defensive plays like you didn't block it you didn't get a seal he did just enough to disrupt the left and the other one I have to find the other one the other one was champagne

and it was in the first overtime with three and fifteen left one or three one on one spurs Steph castle through like a wild turn over and it was Carruso and Jdub and a two on one and Jdub took into the room in champagne not known as a defender stripped the ball it went out of bounds off Chet's foot so it was spurs ball I mean two and you can freeze frame those two on ones and say

should did was they're spacing right should they have passed the ball but you have in in the first one

castle in elite defenders strive for stride and on both of them multiple spurs that are flying back where if you try to make that pass to the wing they're going to be able to disrupt the shot but just like sensational all out balls to the wall this is what it demands in the western conference finals and clean plays yes I know for a fact it's Caruso and SGA because I have written in my notes I can't believe Castle blew up at SGA Caruso two on one and he not only got it kind of

on the way down but Steph castle is so good at this where he's clearly you know as a smaller guard

he'll get bumped back a little bit and he doesn't stay fully vertical like he actually does

come down with his arm but his hands are so incredible he manages to do that without following

he manages to actually get a strip he has to actually bother or get in your line of sight even when he doesn't have like the textbook perfect execution of that play I'm an off Steph castle and I think this is one of those games where if you're just looking at the box score you could probably focus on the 11 assists to 11 turnovers and be like man that must have been a really messy game

“from him I think it was mostly a pretty messy game for almost everybody like that's just what the”

standard of defense was and I will take maybe not all 11 turnovers like eight of those 11 turnovers because of plays like this and because of the way they frankly like energize a team I think the spurs have this like a really important thing in their corner which is playing with when be

emboldens a lot of guys to really go after it in a lot of different ways I would make the

same same argument for Stephon Castle where you see that guy blessed ass back in transition of blow up a play like this and then if you are juliencing a penny you're thinking now that's my job too now I have to do those things too I think there's a rising tide effect for all of the spurs best players but Castle is like such a charismatic hustler that I think you cannot help but be kind of pulled in his direction unbelievable place it just this is what you want out of a

game of this level is everyone playing to exhaustion and by the way some of those spurs

“possessions when they got the lead and overtime you could tell that and they were up for and”

they're milk in the clock a little bit you can tell when be as gasped like he's he's hands on knees under the rim and like five on the shot clocks I got to go ducking now I got to move out of the way and he'll he'll move but like these guys were all gas at the end of the game as one would yeah expect but for when being particularly playing forty nine minutes with this kind of physicality and with the play to play focus that these guys have to play with like this is it would be exhausting to do

this for five minutes at a time and to do it as a big with that kind of sustained effort while going to the rim over and over and over and over may maybe the most understated part of a truly ridiculous Victor Webmond Yamanite was just the fact that he kind of kept going and the effort after effort after effort that came with it ninety nine ninety nine at the end of the fourth quarter eleven and a half seconds left enter the ball to Victor at the nail against J. Dubb you're like oh I wonder

he's going to shoot along too what's going to happen here puts the ball on the floor goes right spins left makes a one handed floater with his right hand going the opposite way to put this spurs up to ninety one on one ninety nine I guess and you're like okay I mean just a fantastic shot like what is there to say and then she ties it on the other end with three seconds left with a run the double iverson cut J. Dubb runs one way as she comes the other way catches it at the left elbow

and goes and Victor's on shut in the right corner hugged pretty close and hugged close and in real time I thought my brain did say why is he not helping I understand that you're in no threes do you can't came up a three but these superpowers he can be everywhere all at once and they clearly told him look if they make a two they make a two trust staff counsel to at least disrupt the shot and it was not an easy layup yeah but but we'll take our chances in overtime beautiful

play design but were you were you surprised you didn't move at all I mean that was a little I totally understand why and it ended up being the right call but I was I was still a little surprised I went through the exact same process of like wow that is a wide open shot on a night where Shakeel just Alexander has had nothing free and clear nothing easy and he's just getting all the

“way to the rim because of that spacing because Wimbie isn't there I think given the chance to”

kind of legislate all that again the spurs would probably do it the same way and it probably is the smart thing to do it is it was shocking though and I again I think it speaks to the fact that every other drive Victor Webagnamas there and the one time when he's not turns out to be a huge play in the game but it requires an intricate play design it requires a level of like we have to respect the shooter in this one particular moment and unfortunately for the thunder I don't

know how translatable those things are to the rest of the you know 47ish minutes in a regulation game by the way Chad Homegren 8 points and 41 minutes it's not going to cut it in this series I mean do you want to talk about him in greater detail now or later do you know we're going to do we'll do it later I just a couple more plays that I want us to all remember and luxury it and please one fifty five in the first overtime Caruso makes a switch in a steel in midair

deflects a pass from Castle to Wimbieama just an incredible play one of nineteen he made in the game

and J-Dub gets a runout dunk to put the thunder up one oh six one oh five right after that J-Dub strips Victor Wimbieama in the paint clean defensive play thunder up one they have a two on one and it's AJ Mitchell and I think Chad Homegren and AJ Mitchell pulls up for a three

with a minute thirty five left and the past it shed is going to be contested and somebody's coming

behind them it's it's not as easy it's not like one of those I'll just throw the ball in the paint you settle for a three in transition but I did think and maybe this is my brain being too conservative and I've had this discussion with coaches before there are some coaches in the NBA who would love that shot like like if we hold it we'll probably get it contested to 15 seconds later that's going to be a harder shot if we take that shot it's not quite a kill shot but if it goes in we have

control of the game up for with a minute thirty left my maybe my stomach is too old and conservative

“I was a little queasy with that shot by AJ Mitchell I think part of it is because the thunder felt”

so reliant on their threes in this game like the spurs defense was selling out not just with windbeat but with all of the defenders packing the paint forcing all of these other guys to shoot forcing so many before so many positions to go to Aaron Wiggins that diagonal had to take him out of the game it was like okay this is not working we have to find something else here I mean they just Aaron Wiggins was in the strong side corner and they treated him like

I mean like a Thompson twin just like go ahead and shoot and yeah by the way I've ordered we'll talk about a little bit more about adjustments but the ESPN box score poor Isaiah Joe is not even in the ESPN dot dot com box score to the point where I woke up and I checked the box score and I was like wait did I hallucinate that he was in for one position in the game he played then I checked the NBA dot com box score he was in for 16 seconds they just made may need to play more like all shooting

everywhere line up soon we'll get to that but I did I'm just this game made me so crazy that I literally thought I hallucinated Isaiah Joe minutes like I was on an LSD trip or something no he actually did play okay and then AJ Mitchell misses a three and now we have the wild sequence spurs get the ball down one that's champenny misses a three and Victor Weminyama gets the easiest offensive rebound of his entire life she is the only one near him and he gets it and he could do

any number of things with it he could put back don't get he could bring the ball down and no one other than shit it's close to him and go back up and dunk it it may be get foul instead he tries this like flying one handed pretty under control but one handed airborne put back tip that misses and I remember being shocked at how uncontested it was shocked at his choice shocked that he missed

and then the ball like bounces around a million times in chorizo throws it off somebody's foot

another chorizo play but that tip it's just one of many moments from the game where I froze was like what just what just happened what did he do why didn't he dunk it what's going on in the game

“I mean it's I think further proof that all is not lost for the thunder too it's like one of”

those bounces goes a little differently on another Victor Webinar put back possession and all of a sudden this game doesn't go over time to begin with like there's enough of those that you just need a couple things to go right even though it seems like with Victor nothing can go right for the thunder right now and then there after that there was the harbour and one that I talked about earlier I mean Jesus Christ doing harbour just ferocious okay let's get to the big picture stuff

why don't we go here six games five one spurs thunder have been unable to to figure out this defense we mentioned some of the lineups and other things they tried in this game I mean you want to say like well there's got to be some adjustment you know a Victor's guarding this guy then you put him in the pick and roll or use him as a ball handler and it's like Victor's just going to do what Victor wants to do he's going to be where he wants to be and you

really can't control him in that way because if he's on caruso on the corner like yeah sure bring caruso up in the pick and roll use him as a ball handler he's a guard use him as a screener he's just going to say you take caruso I'm going to stay down here and I'm not really sure what tactical adjustments there are for that for a guy like this but just big picture the thunder are not going to win this series if they don't score a little bit more they're not going to score a lot more

because it seems too good they generated 21 turnovers last night that didn't even help them get a good enough offensive rating how can they loosen this up with their offense I do think some of it is line up related I mean you talked about the shooting I thought the Jared McCain minutes were like a really nice pop for them for exactly this reason like who can you put on the floor that the spurs do have to respect and do have to hug a little more tightly to the perimeter because

right now it's basically no one if you freeze frame some of these shape possessions where he

is the ball at the top if he's not getting to 16 it's insane there's there's just swarming him from everywhere completely and even if they're playing back it's like four guys just outside the paint basically like playing four corners preventing him from getting anywhere near the rim that's

“not going to be tenable like you have to stretch it up even just a little bit I thought McCain was”

good in terms of providing some of that space also in transition like he's like I who really

much of it is just the familiarity of seeing this fully activated version of the spurs a couple of

“times or maybe even one game is enough before he starts kind of reading the floor a little bit”

differently I found it hard with an optimized television broadcast angle to fully understand sometimes like oh is this is the hard double going to come for sure here is going to be that kind of soft looming double where they're gently pressuring him to give it the ball is this a quasi like hybrid zone that they're running on this possession which the thers the first we're mixing in later in the game I can't even imagine to be in Shea's point of view what that read feels like where you're

trying to break down the shell of the defense and also victor behind it it's a lot and I thought even for someone who had you know what 12 assist four turnovers in this game did a lot to kind of spur the play making I part of the pun along as as the thunder went through this thing but he has to be able to kind of parse what is happening a little more cleanly and that's the kind of thing that just it happens with experience it happens with film it happens with even though they did play

five times in the regular season all of those games had weird caveats where when be was coming

off the bench or guys were injured or AJ Mitchell was out it was like there was always something

happening and it's like okay now everyone is full strength what do the pictures of the game look like to you on a play by play basis and I think Shea is just going to have to be a little cleaner in the way that he reads them and he's good I think it was 7 and 23 and I'll talk about how those shots are a lot of them are very contested and the spurs are making some of his pet shots much more difficult than usual yes but on a very basic level he's going to have to make more of the

clean shots that he gets and last night you know there were three or four birds like oh I mean that's as clean as it is it's going to get there was a floater and over time I think with like 330 left or he got in there pretty clean and it was a good look and he usually makes it there was the lamp we talked about there were like there was a wide open like six footer off of

“I think I want to say it was an Alex Carruso pass and it's just like that's how that's as much”

of a game he's you're going to get and he was just just enough off his rhythm all night that he couldn't hit it yet not all 23 of his shots are super difficult spurs contested shots let's say there are five that are pretty clean by spurs defense standards he was one of five and he needs to be three of four or four or five in these games with the tier point about the shooting and I think that's what sit out to me is you know I remember saying in the regular season after the Christmas game with

Kirk I think on on the pod that this is not a great door matchup like if he's not going to guard when be a lot and he guarded him a little bit in this game this is a quickness based spurs team and not a power based spurs team in the back court. I mean they have power but they're both frankly and there's just not a great door it meant like he guarded fox a lot in the regular season it's working hard anybody's very good but it's a tough door series and if you're going to go

all shooting all the time the minutes the guys who suffer minutes wise are going to be door and you know wiggins maybe and there's just not that many other choices but more McCain Joe might have to play who else suffers in this in this equation maybe heart and shine even more like

“yeah you can't be carousel cruisals making shots in his two valuable I think two valuable”

defensively even when he does it and and really the argument to keep playing blue door any significant amount is just kind of like you can't play Alex carousel every minute you can't play Jason Wallace every minute and especially if you're going to start smaller which the thunder might in game two door is going to have to play a semi significant role I would think even still and other than that like tactically I mean I guess if they're going to load up on Shay like that

there's got to be stuff you can do you know flare screens cuts you know a little bit more juice and variety now that you've seen it once but like that's all it's not like that's rocket science like the spurs have been seen that kind of stuff before and yeah I don't I mean it's it's just hard to score against this guy and there was a sequence by the way a back to back possessions I think in the middle of the fourth quarter you know Shay Shay has made made a meal out of the

dead zone baseline long two that's it that's his pet shot and there was a back to back sequence

in the fourth quarter that's like man this is what this series is going to be about on the first one

he get he beat he got a switch and he's he's hunting like the the weaker spurs from her defenders like Kelden Johnson, Julian Shamp and he guys you just can't stay with him even if it's a little bit which is smart and then he's using that either to ISO or then go in a pick and roll with a weaker guy I mean and he got somebody and he ISOed and he went down to the left baseline and you think it's going to be a clean look when he's over in the opposite corner but he's

tiptoe and over the entire time and by the time Shay gets to that spot when he is there and on this particular possession is when he blocked it on the right was the right-based library blocked it and that was like a holy shit block I mean that shot doesn't get blocked it sure as hell doesn't get blocked by a guy who started the possession in the opposite corner and it's you think it's the kind of blocked it if you're Shay even argue with the best player in the world two time MPP that's

left side of the floor same spot he gets there then he backs it out and when he just sort of stays

in his zone on that side of the floor a little bit below Shay and Shay revs up and actually gets by him for a layup and makes the layup and absolutely sensational play. Imagine you just get blocked by this monster on your favorite shot and on the next possession you go for the favorite shot again and he's there and you back it out and you assess your options and you decide

“I guess the best thing I can do is just drive right at the eight foot wing spin and hit my”

fast enough to sweep this layup off the glass before he gets it and he did but the shot is just like it's super hard for him in this series. I mean that's what it's going to be like yeah we can talk about the tactical adjustments the lineup changes I do think a lot of it is just going to be tightening up it's going to be you know in game one you can throw out 11 guys and see who works and then you're going to have to kind of cinch the rotation as you go but it's going to have to be

Shay making MVP level shots against an MVP level opponent meeting him where he is and it's not all going to be easy even if he does convert a couple of those open looks relatively open looks he's gonna have to do the contested stuff too. I also like I was so striking watching the thunder try to attack when be how many drives were like half drives where they would not just like kick the ball out but straight up as you're saying like back it out just full reverse kill your dribble

pivot look for some desperation past to save you to reset the offense like they don't really have even their usual driving kick flow because of Wemby it's so much like we have to abort this drive and go completely back to the drawing board of the possession and if they can get anything resembling

“their usual rhythm I think it's going to help the shooters as much as anybody like the cadence”

of the offense is a little bit off right now. I do wonder and Chris Finch talked about this in the last series if part of it is you just have to go add them a little bit more than you think you do at the basket. Chris Finch talked about this several times like I just want us to go add him and if we miss we miss and Caruso had a pick and pop three that he passed up and drove into Wemby and finished a layup over him. Jay Dubb drove Adam similarly from the left wing on a three that he

passed up and drove into him and missed but there was an offensive rebounding opportunity behind that miss and I think that's like if you drive him and get him out of the way and you crash with some tactical precision you might be able to get some stuff and door it got an offensive rebound when Victor was on him and decided like oh if you're just gonna ignore me this is one way I can actually punish you for this and he got a three out of it and I think maybe that's part of it but

I mean the two guys you mentioned you wanted to talk about shit so just talk about shit two of seven took seven shots in two free throws in 41 minutes and Mitchell took five shots in no free throws in 34 minutes 12 points combined I mean obviously that's not that's not gonna get it done like how can they get when you watch shit who's not being guarded by Wemby who's being guarded by

Wings but Wemby's always lurking like how can we what what can you do to loosen it up?

This is a tough one where I don't know that there's an easy answer and it's in part because I think the reason the spurs are so good at neutralizing him is they take away all of his easy stuff right? like anything around the basket Wemby is there and clearly in Chet's head and the hesitation from Chet when he does get an offensive rebound including on that possession that Devon Vessel blocked that was basically the dagger like you can see Chet pause for like a very brief moment like I want to

collect this ball I want to go up strong like I need I need to come correct or else this is going to get blocked and that hesitation is ultimately what doom's him everything around the basket is not there like the dump off passes are not there the big to big Isaiah heart and shine to Chet like pick and roll lobs connecting passes are not there all of the offensive rebounds are that much tougher so all of the easy stuff inside is not there and then I think what's the icing on the cake

for the spurs in that matchup is all of the mid-range stuff that Chet has kind of gradually worked into his game over the last couple seasons like the little kind of drive and turn around he straight airballed one of those over a Wemby contest he got blocked that's right I want to

“say he got blocked on another one and then also even if you want to say okay all those things are”

taken away at least Chet Homegren still a really good 3-point shooter the spurs are one of the best closeout teams in the league he got blocked on just like a spot up 3 and this is a 7 footer out there who just because I want to say it was maybe Julian Chet Penny who closed out had enough time and could do so aggressively with Wemby behind him like you can just kind of take away every every piece of like bread and butter that Chet relies on to score and I don't know what the

tactical like way to to open those things back up because some of them are so matchup specific in terms of what it means to have Wemby out there that I think it's just going to be hard for Chet

no matter what you move around agreed and it looked I mean again this is an incredible

default these teams are incredible defensive teams and they have answers for everything

reiterate it again you just can't overstate how significant amid season adjustment it was for Mitch Johnson to pull Harrison Barnes from the starting five yep and put Julian Champenny

“a journeyman undecorated former two-way guy whatever well I'm worried in some places that I think”

if blog still existed well Julian Champenny would be a blogger hero that's true but still I mean here it's not like Harrison Barnes was playing bad the hit started to slump and leak away a little bit after playing a lot of minutes early and obviously he's older and Julian Champenny makes you a little smaller maybe a little bit more defensively challenge but it was just a signal to the league like we're not going to give you a safe place to put your centers anymore and we're going to make you

defend us straight up and honestly and Julian Champenny I mean if you had said before this season he's going to play 44 minutes in a western conference finals game I think you would have probably been a little surprised by that and he is every bit ready for it yes he'll have a game in this series two where he hits like five threes like it's it's coming he'll have those like drug tests level

three point shooting performances and he he's so critical to their formula because of the spacing

he provides but also because even though he is among the most defensive challenge players that they actually rely on and their rotation certainly in the starting lineup the baseline for him is still significantly higher than the liability in the starting five on most teams like he's holding down a spot he's doing his job you don't trust him to guard J. dub necessarily but you can trust him to do a look overall within a team scheme just yeah you're right the three point the three point

shooting banana's a game is coming from him at some point on chat I do wonder I mean defensively like again just the thunder were good enough to win the game I do wonder if chat on Champenny is the right choice for this series and I've been wondering that all season I remember after the Christmas game saying she he just guard Wemby like are we are they over thinking this and I don't know if that's the answer because it's not like you know that makes life any easier but

it could make your pick and roll defensive a little bit more traditional on these Wemby screens by the way Wemby set 45 ball screens last night most in any game ever for him his prior high was 32 now obviously this is a double overtime game more than it's all that even per hundred possessions screens for under possessions this was his highest game ever so clearly they're leaning into this

and they scored according to the genius IQ second spectrum whatever track and data one point two

points directly out of those plays one point three points for possession and at least that would simplify it or do you try them on castle that's the only other safe place in the starting five really not it's not safe castle has really like defeated that scheme over and over yeah but if he's on champagne he he can't really roam as effectively because he's on the best or second best shooter on the floor for the other team and the spurs got several open or semi open cornered threes because

he's he's string a little bit too far off champagne or vessel in the corners and again their defense wasn't the problem the thunder's defense but I do wonder I'm curious where we will see chat in game two yeah I agree with you the champagne he is not a great place for him there aren't

“great options I think part of the reason they're keeping him out of that one be match up is because”

especially when Caruso's out there the thunder do feel very comfortable having like the jade of Caruso switch if they need to right maybe you don't want to every time but you have the option it's available that's the point of putting wings oh there's multiple reasons people right their wings on one of them is if we have another wing and we can just switch your best pick and roll comments but they're beating that switch with the over the top entry passes over and over again

completely and so and I think the question is like would Chet be any more successful fronting in some of those situations or would you even want him to or does having the kind of even looming possibility that he could break up the lot from behind valuable in that way I also like you know we saw heart and shine start on stuff like stifon castle as many spurs opponents have done with their bigs I'm still little confused why if Harper is available in the lineup

teams aren't trying the same thing with Dylan Harper who to me like you can argue about who's

“the better shooter I think Dylan Harper is a much more reluctant 3. shooter he doesn't want to take”

the early shot when it swings to him out on the perimeter for three like he wants to probe he wants to attack it's one of the best parts of his game I think there is a possibility you could put Chet on him in select situations and live with some of the drives try to contain that action otherwise but especially if they're gonna be playing smaller I think you could move some stuff around and try to be creative with the but Chet pennies is probably not the best spot to start

well and again it should be mentioned Fox missed the game we don't know if he's gonna play in game too that changes a lot of things in terms of the spurs rotation and if he misses game too one of the

things that I would I would like this first to do as much as possible is when when be rests and

if it's diagonal signaling I don't think we can score against when be without Shea on the floor so we need to like almost attach them to each other so you read it as when be's coming out Shea is the is the adjustment to when be coming out versus I mean the opposite could be true too no that's true I don't know we'll see what the patterns are but I like that when when be rests in those cornet minutes were the thunder one those minutes I want this spurs if Fox I want this

first up two of their ball handling guards on the floor when when be's not on the floor because

I don't want the offensive stall out but that's I guess we'll see what happens trying to think anything else on this game before we move on I mean my god all the other thing is like the spurs have really

“and I think this is a story around the league like when I watched the spurs in particular”

and they run these staggered screens and they run these castle picking roles and we talked about how Harper is the one to shoot early three's castle is willing to do it and he's made them in the playoffs I'm like man these teams cannot get under these screens and I think the spurs have devised lots of ways to make it really hard to set up your defensive prepared to get under a screen castes obviously a beast where if you do go under he can just power through you and score Harper

can too but I think league wide offenses we've gotten really like we're far from the days

where every team would just go under on rage on rondo and it was like the Celtics couldn't do anything

about it and it was like it's really often this is a really matured and scheme to like it's hard to get under these picks is tempting as you want to say we'll just go under just go under yeah sometimes you just can't do it the rondo comparison I think is a great point and it's to me one of the reasons why watching this game which is obviously a great playoff game a great game of basketball but it was great in ways that felt so different from a 2010's game from a 2000's game from a 90's game like

this felt so modern and distinct in terms of the match-up play in terms of the defenses in terms of the way that everything was evolving and changing shape to deal with Wimbie as it went and I think part of the reason those pick-and-rolls are so hard to guard too for the spurs is like Wimbie is really improved as a screener in terms of the contact he makes and I think part of it is the understanding especially in a game like this like you talked about just the volume of ball screens he was

setting all of that was in a lot of cases just like preamble to like how do we get Victor Wimbie and Yama close to the basket period not to hit him on the roll necessarily but like if he's gonna try to walk or run to the rim Alex Cruz goes Alex Cruz is gonna draw like three more

charges on him he's also picking him up basically when he crosses half court and just like body

“bumping him and hand checking him the whole way as you should do to wear down a big when you're”

guarding him as a small and so it's like that is the clean release where Wimbie gets to just like get a little closer to the rim reset the offense get those entry passes we were talking about and the fact that the spurs execute that stuff with all of the patience and precision that they do for a bunch of like 20 year olds and 22 year olds out there who are making this work is just phenomenal like I really can't say enough about ultimately the discretion of the way that the spurs are

playing right now starting with Wimbie and the shots he's willing to take and not but also the guards too I mean again doing Harper's 20 and he had 24 points he had only shot eight of 20 only quote unquote seven of 13 on twos that's great to have a 20 year old combo guard point guard with everyone to call him in a game against the best defense in the NBA the number one turnover forcing team in the NBA with a bullet gets you six assists and seven steals and commit one

turn over is just audacious stuff from a rookie guard to win that him when you that part of the possession game he's part of it that dramatically forcing seven live ball turnovers and committing one turn over total is is crazy it's not we can go we can go for two hours on this series fair let's take a quick break and we'll get more chances to let's take a quick break and then we'll finish up with some other stuff all right I am headed to the world's most famous arena for game

one there's another series going on the nicks are playing the Cavaliers and Eastern Conference finals and today's nicks Cavs preview is presented by State Farm whether it's ball or life nothing beats a great game plan so like a world class coach drawing up an inbound play State Farm is there to drop the right plan for you and help you get the personalized coverage for whatever comes your way but more on that later for now I'm here to assist you with the playoffs and so

it's Rob Bohoney next Cavs by the skin of their teeth the Cavs are here two seven game series wins it's the Donovan Mitchell ball the road not taken for the nicks a rematch between jail and Brunson and Donovan Mitchell after the 2022 playoffs between the jazz and the madz which changed of the course of history for those franchises and those players the next sign jail and Brunson and then did not give the jazz everything they wanted for Donovan Mitchell the Cavs did

and the nicks then used a lot of those assets on the kill bridges who will be guarding Donovan

“Mitchell for a lot of this series let's just be quick because this game is tonight I think”

the nicks are favored I'm going to pick the nicks in six to win the series same

in an obie and heart on Mitchell and heart in they can put the third of them on mobile bly and switch all the pick and rolls with mobly cat can be on Jared Allen the Cavs are going to attack cat relentlessly and the pick and roll they've really gotten smart about that and cat's

foul trouble always looms as an issue they're going to hunt Brunson you know the nicks are

“well versin that Brunson will head you can stonovan Mitchell and honestly like I would at least”

if if I were the nicks experiment with let's see if James Harden can actually do damage you can launch jail in Brunson on a switch because he really couldn't get by Duncan Robinson could obviously he's obviously bigger than jail in Brunson but jail in Brunson is not easy to bully and on the other end of the floor in the nicks have have the ball I do think the cards in the last regular season game they played which is the only one with Harden

the only one after the trade deadline I do think they found some answers really for not the first time but for they they they they they've been up and down against the nicks less couple years but they put Dean Wade on jail in Brunson Jared Allen hit on Josh Hart an Evan mobility guarded cat and they switched the Brunson cat to man game which has been killing teams and you know they don't put their centers on cat they put their centers on Josh Hart

and that kind of worked for them but that gets to question number one is like is Dean Wade even starting this series or they now all in with max true starting and can you duplicate that with true sunbrunson so some interesting matchup options I'm going to go nicks in six I just trust the way they're playing a little bit more but what do you think of this where do you want to start I also think nicks in six I mean I do think stress can replicate a lot of that effect we saw him

I mean just pick up Kate Cunningham in game seven in terms of what he can do is an all-ball

“defender I think he can hang with Brunson at least to a reasonable degree my issue is almost more like”

how are you taking away and how are you coming up with answers in whole cloth that are new because the nicks offense has completely evolved since the last time these two teams met and so much of it to me is about that Josh Hart matchup and if cat is going to be making place from the high post how are you cheating away from heart to gum up some of what the nicks have at their disposal as a result I think that matchup still makes sense with mobiley on cat Jared Allen

in that helper spot but you could also toggle it you could flip those guys if you wanted if you thought there is any benefit to it but mobiley has to be really disruptive in a totally different way than he was in these previous series like he and Allen both answered the call with their physicality with playing with force like they both have had tremendous moments in these playoffs but now he's going to have to be like the primary point of attack defender for the

hub of the nicks offense and that's something that we haven't really seen him do a lot of but I'm eager to see what he's made of in that way yeah and then and to like similarly to castle Josh Hart is basically more or less one that schematic battle if you put your centers on him he's made enough threes he's made enough plays out of the pick and roll is the screen or he crashes for offensive rebound he beats the hell out of you and transition just flying ahead of

your guys but yeah well and again the nicks offense is run differently then it was in the regular season they've just found a new gear and new level of creativity but some things remain true the Bronson cat two main game and they run it in a lot of different ways is deadly and step one

“against the nicks as you've got to make that hard for them and I think the cats can do that”

and conversely whenever the they've gotten much better about this whenever the center on the other team is stuck on cat they just go right to that two-man game and he gets open threes or drives to the

rim or whatever but the you know it's always been a good Mitchell Robinson matchup he just eats

them alive on the glass and so that's an x factor and I think they can play both of the bigs together a little bit more in the series if they want yeah and the other answer got I do think the recognition you were talking about with cat and opposing centers is to me like very emblematic of why the nicks have been so good lately they're just picking up on things so fast and they feel so dialed into like what are our matchups what are the triggers like when do we

need to go to these specific actions versus if you watch them in like January February they were searching all the time it was like how do we get McElbrid just going again is OG and I know be happy with his touches like it never felt settled in terms of the flow of the offense and to me that's one of the big differences between these two teams is the calves still have even for as well as they played and certainly the way they kind of took over the series against the pistons late they

have like some lag time in their decision making like Donovan Mitchell can do incredible things

James Harden can solve great for scoring performances but it takes them a minute to figure out like oh this is how we need to adjust and the nicks I mean against all odds they have they've been one of the best teams in the playoffs they've been one of the deepest and most balanced teams in the playoffs and I found they just been one of the most reactive teams in terms of the minute to minute adjustments of what playoff basketball is they have been ready for it from the jump like

when you when you make an adjustment defensively they are ready with the counter on the very first

possessions it's not three possessions they have there is no waste of time they came out with a

“ruthless calculated game plan right away against the sixers like they wasted no time we're putting”

and being in every pick and roll they were ready they're this playoffs has been a really great coaching job by Mike Brown and his staff and I expect that to continue the one level they have that they have it really had to pull and they tried it a little bit against the calves is if the calves defense starts to give them some issues do they go with the super shooting lineups where everybody on the floor can shoot three so there's no heart and there's no Robinson and probably no Alvarado who can

shoot three but is a little reluctant um we haven't seen a lot of that but with shamit working his way back into the rotation I would assume that's on the table for them um you know on the calves the calves to your point they are they have proven themselves as maybe not as cleanly and rapidly as you would like but they're good problem solvers and if you let them warm their way into a series they're going to find some ways to puncture your defense they're going to find some things that work they're

going to find some rotation wrinkles like more Sam Merrill more strews whatever um they've it hasn't

been pretty but they just want to game seven on the road by a million points they came back from

two oh beat the pistons four out of five and as ugly as it's looks sometimes for them it just can't be emphasized enough like they did play two of the five best defenses in the NBA by the numbers like it's not easy to play against those teams they are going to make you look old and ugly and ragged and times if you're James Harden in particular and the next were I think the seventh best defense in the regular season so it doesn't get that much easier um for the calves but I just trust

what the nicks are doing right now and it will be full go and practice he's been as good as pretty much anybody in the playoff so far just sick by the way one thing I would like from the calves this is a little bit in the weeds and it could be useful in this series they were running these staggered screens a lot in the regular season using bullbly and Allen as as screeners together

and they were really like very up what they would do out of it like so if Allen was the first

screener in the stagger and moldly was the second sometimes moldly would slip like the second guy would slip before the first screen is even used and it was like a very smart way to leverage the skills of their big men and they had kind of gone away from that and got slower and more predictable I think I think they need to dial just the general creativity factor up if they want to win the

“series I think that's what he should and that I mean that would that kind of stuff would be a great”

counterpoint to what you mentioned earlier as far as like if the nicks do challenge James Harden to be guys one on one that's the sort of matchup that kind of kind of like bogged down the offense even if it's successful so you have to work in those wrinkles you have to get the misdirection going and I think it's even more effective with the level of spacing they've been playing with with Susan Merrell out there like those guys actually do with their movement with their gravity stress

how defense is pretty significant ringer dot com spotify slash spotify podcast listener Sam Merrell shout out Sam Merrell. Caps have to win the free throw battle as they did against the pistons rather decisively since they've gotten hard and they've become free throw machines and interestingly both teams t-fences allow lots of threes the nicks allow the second most threes and the league decabs the eighth most and you know can they direct those threes to the

places they want them to go who makes threes one of the things I think the pistons fill into

this trap occasionally I'm what interested in your thoughts on this the uh this is always one of

the interesting tests on defense the degree of reaction to Evan mobly popping for an open three similar to like embed I thought the pistons overreacted a little bit sometimes I understand like he's he shot it okay in the playoffs but there were a few possessions in the last couple of games in that series where they over rotated to a mobly wing three and yeah they snuffed that out and it ends up in like a maryl or streuse corner in three I'm like I would just I don't want to overreact

I got to make him make a lot of shots before I start going a little too crazy on that

“I think it's one of the hardest things to play out basketball and it was one of the most”

jarring things to watch with Alex Cruz so last night was just like the spurs were just going to live with those shots and they were going to try to contest them a little better but you just have to commit to it if you're going to do it mobly's not getting that kind of leeway like that kind of opening you're still going to contest you're still going to respect the shot to a degree but I'm with you that I don't want I don't want to overreact to it especially because

to Evan mobly's credit I think over the last like season and change she's really improved as a decision maker in terms of how quickly he will get rid of the ball if you do come at him pretty aggressively like his short role playmaking has been one of the best avenues for the calves offense in these playoffs and his willingness to make quick good decisions out of those closeouts is like another good like source of consistent offense and so not only do you want to make him

make the shot to prove that he's actually like you know a better than average 3.2 which it kind of depends on the day when you catch him but you just don't want to put the ball in the hands

Nixon six next go to the finals for the first time since 1999 crazy to think about but I they feel like a team that is just like even if you take this thing away they have all these other options even if you think you have this advantage their depth has really come through for them

like do some a bride could have an amazing series, linger sham it could have an amazing series

they just have like what six guys shooting better than 40% from three right now it's it's such a like you put your finger in the damn kind of defensive premise with them that I really don't know what the calves are supposed to do and that is a matchup where I'm struggling to even just like

“conjure the vision of what a calves win in the series looks like I think they're savvy enough”

that I don't think it will be a short series so but yes they are under even Clarkson has come off the bench in the last couple months after being banished and played better defense made better passes like he's been productive alright Nixon six I guess is what we're going with today's Nick's calves preview was presented by state farm state farmers here with agents and easy to use digital tools like the state farm app to help set you up with personalized

coverage that fits your life in budget like a good neighbor state farm is there a couple of jobs that are selected by the customer price and eligibility vary by state okay rapid fire Rob Mahoney let's do winners and losers from the playoffs so far I will give you some rapid fire ones that don't need to be elaborated on too much okay and I'm going heavy on losers because is my daughter says I'm a pessimist she calls me a pessimist because I am a pest and a pessimist

jail and during yeah and on lower scale mark Williams and the just the center of restricted free agents is going to be rough I mentioned the rockets and the Hawks Stefan castle

“and the experience the Celtics team extreme ignoring the rim and all of that I think was”

exposed a little bit as a weakness and then my other last loser is the GMs who are anonymously whining about lottery reform removing a vehicle for them to tank the whining has some basis in illegitimate fear of are we being trapped our team is going to be trapped into sure badness or mediocrity some teams have already been trapped by their own doing in such states but I do I just I do think the tanking severity of the tanking problem

temporary as it may be because of the strap has gone to outweigh the fear of that particular that particular fear and there are ways to tweak the three to one proposal to make it a little from there to the worst teams are a little less punitive to the three worst teams maybe but I think we've arrived at a chance at a time where it's worth trying and I still I just don't think you can whine about how horrible the tanking is and also whine about how impossible it's

going to be to climb out of the bottom and out of both sides of your mouth. I have one more loser and one winner that I want to get to but give me a rapid fire a couple of Rob Mahoney picks. Here are some losers Anthony Edwards not because he's not great not because he didn't play

through injury and I thought played pretty well into the circumstances but like and is amazing

and yet can you imagine the wolves playing with the kind of focus and precision that this person the Thunder still did and so to be an ascendant star in a time where like this does increasingly feel like Victor Webba and Yama's world has to be frustrating an unfortunate circumstance for him

“and I think the wolves just have so many decisions they need to make it's kind of a tough time to be”

ant. Within the Celtics I want to sling a lot of Derek White as a loser specifically. I can't I can't allow that on this I know I mean it hurts my soul a little bit I love Derek White I love his game it didn't go great we all do like if you don't crack 40% from the field and it gets worse in the playoffs and you can't shoot and at the same time you're a guard who's getting older and entering into a different stage of your career I just think we all need to be prepared

for the fact that Derek White just might not be an impact score in any significant way going forward and maybe this is like his Andre Iggedala but more of an off-ball defender and not a stopper kind of era. I wasn't prepared for this level emotional reactions in sadness rubbed up I didn't sleep enough to digest what you just said that hurt me a little bit on the wolves a couple of things

it's it's a thing on always a thing on Twitter after a game like last night where there's just

sort of like what are you supposed to do if you're one of these other teams in the west and I saw someone smart tweet I can't remember who was like you know and we've talked about this before like do you do you try to we talked about this what it looked like the thunder were the the 75 wind juggernaut and like the only target but now there are two targets yeah and we talked about like do you try to time your ascendancy to you know when the apron maybe forces them to make some

tough financial decisions by the way they've got at least another year before they have to do that

take a step back now try to get some assets and go forward to four years I just don't think with some exceptions depending on where you are as a team but not the wolves I don't think you can think like that because you have an apex superstar you have a very good team that's going to look different next year one way or another but like we've seen we've learned this lesson over and over again injuries happen when those clothes faster than you think or they close for one season

and reopen the next you just can't think that way you just have to keep going for it and say like look we're going to be underdogs fine we'll see what happens in the playoffs also Mark Laurie and Alex Rodriguez just every minute of their day now should be devoted to pushing the NBA to expand as fast as possible so you can get that out of the list of conferences because that's the other solution it's a very road for them but like I think this is one of those things

“where everything you're saying is right you can't I don't think you should get too cute about the”

timing of your team and basically any respect you're just kind of asking one of those unforeseen

variables to affect your team and then ever since all of a sudden you're in like a 10 year rebuilding cycle but like if you were watching this game last night and you didn't if it didn't feel like the NBA was changing I I fear you're not paying attention like that felt like a hallmark moment in the direction of the shape of the league and it felt like something that again even though we all suspected this is a picture of a young as a world I think we now have pretty hard confirmation that that isn't

did the case yeah we do that was terrifying and the world just experienced that and they won two games against the spurs one game when he was five or seventeen and did not play well by his own admission and the other game he elbowed Nazareth in the head because he felt like a new man did you got a check-in from the game it's hard to beat them when he plays there now 38 and three in their last 41 games in which one be plays at least 15 minutes yeah 38 and three that would put you on pace for the

greatest record in the history of the sport that's not bad one of my losers to that effect was Julius Randall and me for prematurely banging the gavel and saying that the wolves had won the cat trade back when Julius Randall was playing well and don't even change those playing well and cat was in the middle of yet another cat existential crisis boy was I wrong about that just don't have a gavel don't bang the gavel these trades go back and forth multiple times but Julius Randall 4 times

in the playoffs and you thought maybe he had turned the corner last year with a really inspiring playoff run neck and neck with ant is like the best guy on the wolves yeah and just for the third time in four playoffs a complete dud where his scoring falls off the cliff 16 a game on 39% shooting 24% on threes even more damning 34 assists to 34 turnovers in the conference

semi is against the spurs nine assists to 18 turnovers 13 points a game 19% on threes 33 million

dollars next year 35 million dollar player option to you after that the wolves are right up against the tax before resigning this io disoom new which would take them probably over the first apron i don't know what they're going to do go bare ahead of bad series against when be just like was played off the floor during his minutes they got some tough choices to make they were in somehow the honest thing at the trade though that i'm sure they'll try to get back in it i don't really know

how that works how they get the draft SS to really do it and by the way the nicks in the cabs were potentially honest teams if they both advance far enough to get out of that derby and just say we're good where we are but he was one of my one of my he is he is the main loser for me do you have any more before i get to my last winner i mean corresponding winner for Carl Anthony Towns who

“as we've alluded to as recalibrated his entire game in the process i think like kind of become a”

new york icon or a nicks icon and at the same time has wolves fans longing for the days when cat was a part of their team it's like he's just becoming increasingly beloved and also has just been

playing with his head on his shoulders for an entire playoff run which i never thought i would see

frankly so an incredible time for cat so i i wrote a piece of spn maybe two seasons ago about cat having turned the corner in the playoff season of 23 or 24 and i think it started in 23 when they lost to the nuggets in the first round and the nuggets called it the toughest series we faced our way to the title was for one you know McDonald's didn't play punch the wall now's read was heard all that and cat had a shaky first two games and then like games three

four or five kind of turn the corner and then the next year got off to that start against phoenix they swept phoenix in the first round with the rant and all that and i wrote about how you

“had turned the corner in the playoffs because before that you're right remember that Memphis”

Minnesota series where he was constantly in foul trouble yeah like not even involved in the offense a lot and you were like what's going on and he's been in foul trouble a lot for the next so far but he's defending at a basically career best level i think across the board making good decisions and just like if he can stay out of foul trouble i think the storyline you're talking

my last winner and i just don't want to leave him totally in the rear view it's it's been a while now since we've seen these guys play Scotty Barnes average 24 points eight and a half assists eight and a half assists six rebounds almost three stocks fifty one percent shooting

thirty eight percent on threes fifty four percent on twos defended everybody first it was

evident globally then it was like actually we need you to defend James Hardin and don't have been a friend and hide them the ball it's crazy disparating loss for Toronto in some ways but no quickly the whole series yeah no ingrown the last half of the series they damn near almost

“one it and i think they come out of that series feeling like yeah we have a franchise guy like”

this guy's going to be an all NBA guy someday and probably soon if he doesn't make it this year he's borderline this year i think he has a chance given the injuries but he's ascending

to become and and like the threes the threes were hit or miss right like he doesn't take very many

his mid-range two looked like a legit playoff like this is a good fail safe kind of shot particularly against smaller guys i just thought he had an outstanding two way series for them i want to give them a little bit that's all completely deserving i mean there are portions of that series where Toronto's best offense was just like Scotty Barnes runs super hard and transition and he's such a terror to cross match with that if you're a small who steps in his way just

“going to literally dunk on you singing play we knew who he could be defensively after this regular”

season he's clearly like an ascending defensive talent really singular player on that side of the floor but thing is offense come together where he has some of the facilitation some of the spacing with the shooting but more importantly like the force of his scoring i felt more cutely than ever and so for the raptors i grew to you it's its own heartbreak to lose a series like that but to come out of this year with Scotty Barnes on the rise calling Murray Boyle is

like really establishing himself in terms of his role within the franchise that's a huge win like that is that is a great season and a great kind of resolution to come out of it with all right rob mahogany uh one's the next uh group chat we got group chat tomorrow night

“which i guess will be after us you know spurs thunder game too i can't wait oh my god”

did i i need to take a nap again before that came uh and you wrote last week what did you write i read it someone something drove you out of writing retirement and just teach tv well what was it let me tell you is Dylan Harper uh Dylan Harper that's right if anyone can move me in the game right now weirdly enough it's Dylan Harper who's like the most pragmatic player in basketball but also somehow does things and i'm like i literally don't know how that worked i don't know how

you went one on four on a fast break and got a wide open lay up out of it but here we are 20 years old uh rob mahogany or the best i will talk to you soon listen to my group chat and prestige tv and all that uh thank you sir thanks Zach all right that's it for today i'm headed out to the world's most famous arena for game one of the eastern conference finals thank you to rob mahogany for waking up early and for his time and insight on a wapper of the game one last night in Oklahoma

city thanks as always to Mike Billy and Jonathan on production and to you all for listening to

and/or watching the Zach low show we'll be back Thursday morning after game two of this series god only knows what's in store come listen to that one and we'll see you soon thanks again 21 over in president select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 and over in president dc can tuck your way home and gambling problem call 1 in hundred gambler or 1 800 my reset call 1 888 789 777 777 or visit ccpg.org/chat and Connecticut or is it mdgambling

help.org and Maryland hope is here visit gambling help line m8.org or call 800 327 5050 for 247 support Massachusetts or call 1 877 8 hope and why or text hope and why in New York for the Louisiana call 1 877 777 0 787 867