First Round Analysis with Kevin Pelton

And now, the Low Post. Welcome to the Low Post Podcast. It's one day, I'm in Los Angeles. The Clippers won, the playoffs are underway.

Home teams won eight, no. We had two and a half, close gains. I'll give the Lakers partial credit for hanging with the Nuggets until, you know, the Nuggets just decided, eh, we're done with this. Lots to analyze.

We're gonna hit every series, rapid fire fashion. We have a coaching hire in Brooklyn, Jordy Fernandez, lots of stuff going on. Kevin Pelton, how are you? I'm doing well.

I'm a little annoyed that the home teams went eight, no. Cause I started looking up like what was the record for home teams in past years. Cause it felt like it was a dramatic change. I looked this up when it was like five and five home wins.

And then everyone looked it up when they went eight, no. So now my notes are not as interesting as they might have seen if it was six and two or seven and one. Well, and so we were one, CJ McCollum, botched, case and Wallace poked away dribble, pull up three pointer away from this being irrelevant and having it be seven and one. But would you like to deliver any stats anyway, about eight, no and chalk going across the board?

So I think people know it's now the first time since 2013. It's the fifth time in the 16 team playoff format. The one interesting thing, especially if you're expecting upsets because, you know, what I think made the dominance of home team so interesting is that our buddy Dan Fennellman and the Daily Dunks had a note. If you go back, Sports Odds history has this through 1988.

If you go back, this was the lowest ever odds on average for the higher seeds entering a first round series. Like the most expected upsets, it seemed like we were gonna have all sorts of parody going into this weekend. But the last time that this did happen, 2013, three lower seeds still ended up winning the series, even after losing game one. Okay, well, much to look forward to.

The statistical nuggets always KP his bring them. We're gonna go rapid fire through the series that are resuming tonight plus Miami Boston, which is I think going to be a dud. It's already 930 in the morning here in LA. So 1230 Eastern, there's no point in going super deep into the series that are coming back tonight.

But let's start, sixers nicks. The nicks went an exciting game in game one. Actually, the slow pace of the game kind of obscured that both teams put up very good offensive ratings. The headlines were New York, 52% offensive rebounding rate.

Some of that bad rebounding by the Sixers. Some of that the risks of playing his own defense. Some of that just the risks of ignoring Josh Hart, who's gonna marade into those open spaces and get offensive rebounds. The other headline, Joel Embiid, just, I screamed, KP, I screamed, it was this continuous scream that evolved from gleeful astonishment to horror when he freaking did a self pass off the backboard dunk.

Joel, just chill, man, we don't just play. I'm a little worried, I don't want the crazy highlights. And then he went down, he was in pain, he left the game, he came back at halftime, looked great in the rest of the game. Sixers plus 14 and 37 minutes with him beat on the floor.

Mine was 21 in 11 minutes without him beat on the floor. Give me just one headline thing you're looking at, game two. Yeah, I mean, I think it probably has to be the nicks offensive rebounding because, I mean, you've listed a number of factors there and I think Joel Embiid's fatigue level or his energy at the end of the court probably wasn't element. It is, standing gun, he was on that game, right?

No, I forget who highlighted that. It's KP, four games a day, two straight days, by game number eight, which turned out to be one of the most exciting games of the weekend. The rock fight between the Thunder and the Pelicans, my brain is like, alright, we need to tap out a little bit here. So you're forgiven for getting the freaking announced crew.

It was Doris and JJ, we're not that good. So one of them pointed that out. The other element is, what the nicks do? This is how they win the series against Cleveland last year.

Like the first shot offense for the nicks has not been very good in the playoffs the last couple of years. And one of the ways they compensate is by just completely dominating the offensive glass. And this is a series that looked like one of the closest ones on paper. I think we were split on this one, I took the sixers.

We got the nicks, right? I took nicks in seven. And I think now you have to be feeling good about the nicks based on what we saw in game one. And then just that element of, you know, Paul Reed has had a pretty solid season has had really good moments in last year's playoffs.

But the sixers play out story, this is how you know JJ Redick was on the game because he was reliving in real time. The game was seven against Toronto from 2019. And that whole series. You know, the one time I went on JJ's podcast this year we did a home and home.

I actually just hijacked the whole podcast at the end. And I was like, alright, so can we just get into like what happened to the Clippers in 2015 against the Rockets? I just like the JJ has lived all of this agony. Like the most unthinkable basketball agony between that, all the Clippers heartbreaks, the Kawhi's shot, all of it.

And he just has to constantly, it's like Bobby Marks constantly having to relive the net Celtics straight because it gets brought up all the time. This is why this is what happens when you go into media. I don't know what we were talking about. Oh, nicks, first shot offense offensive rebound.

This is what they do, et cetera. Paul Reed, you know, you risk KP really igniting the anchor of sixers fans who love Paul Reed. I think he might be the second most popular player on the team. Maybe the third most popular player on the team.

I mean, I don't think it's Paul Reed's fault. And it's interesting that Nick Nurse mentioned one possible adjustment in terms of that offensive rebound is playing bigger. And whether that could mean Paul Reed and Joellen be together. I wonder how long Tobias Harris is going to be in the starting five and how quickly he's going to get pulled for Nick Batum in some of these games.

He's just not bringing enough on either end of the floor. The two things that I'm looking for. Number one, look, I mean, Doris mentioned this on the broadcast when Joellen went out and came back in and looked fine. She said that I guess she's talked to him or they've talked to him in media sessions.

And he's mentioned how this is scary for him coming back from the surgery like this. And whenever he feels a little something, a little pain, a little tweak, a little something wrong in the landing, he gets worried, which is the most relatable human thing about Joellen be possible. And you hope that that's all it is, because this is twice in a week, first in Orlando, against Orlando now here, where he's left a game after a pretty similar kind of landings, like stiffy landings, and come back in. And you just hope that it's that and that this is not some sort of ticking time on them.

Look, I'm not in the room. I'm not the Sixers. I have a million doctors on this. No one is going to clear Joellen be to play.

I don't think if there's a major long-term risk here. That's number one thing you just hope knock on wood that he could play the series and be okay. Number two, I'm looking at the Josh Hart minutes. 42 minutes in game one.

Nick's were minus five in those minutes. Obviously Josh Hart played out of his mind and made like two ridiculous threes down the stretch of the game against his own defense, including a pull-up three, more than worth the trade-off of the fact that the Sixers are completely ignoring him on the perimeter. And again, part of that is offensive rebounding. It does get much easier for the Knicks offensively, and particularly for Jalen Brunson to isolate one-on-one.

And he can get any matchup he wants. Like he wants Tyree Smaxi. It just takes one screen. He got Tyree Smaxi.

He wants to buy his hair. He sticks one screen. He gets to buy his hair. He can't really cook the way he likes to cook with Kyle Lowry just planted in the paint, or whoever planted in the paint, not guarding Josh Hart.

And there was the only stretch Josh Hart rested, really, was the second quarter. Good shots almost every trip down the court, including one of the only pick and rolls where they got the Sixers in the blender, because their spacing was so good. And someone got a corner three that they missed. But again, Josh Hart is amazing.

I am like Josh Hart, super fan number one. I just think that's an interesting pivot point. Rapid Fire Series number two is there. They don't resume tonight, but it just, the heat are just drawn dead in this series against Boston.

I don't even really know what's interesting to say about it. I thought Boston played well. They took a lot of threes, but I thought they were good threes. They worked inside, then out.

They picked it, mismatches, they picked on hero. Even against the zone, they were going into the middle of the zone and then out of it for threes. They fed Horford on mismatches, they fed KP on mismatches. I just don't see how Miami has any shot here with Butler out.

And even if Rose here comes back and Duncan Robinson can get back to being Duncan Robinson. I just, honestly Kevin, the only interesting thing about this series is if Butler's out for the whole playoffs and if this series is short, he's going to be like, he's getting toward his mid 30s. He's extension eligible in the off season. He has a player option for 25, 26.

This is one of the last teams in the league that could have afforded kind of like a lost playoff opportunity because the timeline on the Butler heat is ticking toward the end. And those extension talks, which can come this summer, Bobby March has written about this, those could get spicy. And it's just such a bummer that, you know, the heat, is there anything interesting here? I mean, I picked the Celtics in four.

I just don't know how to eat one of game other than just voodoo, Eric's bolster stuff. Yeah, I mean, on the extension front, I think it depends how serious is to me, Butler, about this. And what is his recourse if Miami isn't willing to do an extension this summer? Because obviously we've seen this movie once in Minnesota, several years ago, not a place, you know, he was thrilled not placing a gun to the finals.

General Sornas made an appearance. And then there was a certain practice that occurred which inspired an entire game of zones episode full of blood and bloodletting. And inspired a classic Jeff Ting podcast. But we make Jeff Ting a star.

Does he have a regular podcast? Or are there like regular episodes of it? Because every clip I see of Jeff Ting on a podcast, I'm like, this guy is, he's almost too funny for television. Like they can't even put him on television because he's so profane and funny.

He's incredible. Jeff Ting, come on the low post podcast. You're incredible. Open invitation, Jeff Ting.

I think the interesting thing about this series is there's an element of Milwaukee against Miami in the first year, and in 2021, where even if the heat are no longer the heat, still the test in the preparation for it, I think strengthens the Celtics, even though they didn't know that this was going to be the matchup until Friday night. And that is, I think, part of what happened in Game 1 is New Orleans against OKC, which we'll talk about later. They had 48 hours to turn around from their play and win to play in Game 1 of their series. Miami had the compacted schedule of playing Friday night and then the very first game on Sunday morning, which wasn't doing them any favors on top of the Jimmy Butler injury.

But even though they didn't know that matchup was lacking until Friday, it seems like Boston probably spent all week working on their zone offense. And I think there was like three possessions at the end of the first corner. It was like, oh, oh, maybe this is going to be a slog a little bit again. And then Sam Houser started making threes.

And from there, Miami did not really have any answers with that zone. Yeah, it's a bummer because watching the heat, manufacture wins, grind out wins, is one of the annual joys of the NBA postseason. And I just don't see how it can happen here against the team that's just loaded and came out firing on all cylinders, as I thought they would. Last note on the heat, even without Caleb Martin, who has a 7.7-point-something-million player option for next season, that he should probably decline to get a better deal.

The heat are already over the tax next year. And with Caleb Martin, they might be over the first apron, which again, this is why the Butler extension talks is interesting. OK, series number three, resuming tonight. The Uber-predictable NBA TV special, the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Orlando Magic, an unwatchable offensive slog, particularly for the Magic in game one.

The Magic put up an offensive rating in this game Kp of 86.5 points per 100 possessions. The Cavaliers did not really bother to guard anybody. They went under screens against everybody, including Pablo Ben Caro and Franz Wagner. Franz Wagner couldn't really get going.

The Magic played these bench units with two centers, Mo Wagner and Wendell Carter Jr., both of whom can shoot. They're not bad shooters. And Markel Foltz, and just not enough juice in those groups, not enough juice on the bench mobs. The full five-man bench mobs should not happen anymore.

Cabs plus one in 23 minutes with Allen and Mobley together, won the other minutes with one big, only much more dramatically. Although they really only played seven guys in this game. Sam Markel didn't really play. He didn't play at all after halftime.

I don't know. I mean, the only interesting thing is, Orlando's got to find a pathway to points that's not Cleveland turning the ball over. And Cleveland gave them some gifts in the first game. And this was the worry about Orlando for the whole season.

This team has not been a good offensive team in 12 years. They've been a bottom 10 offensive team every single one of those years, including this year. Their guards just don't bring enough to the table. Cole Anthony kind of had us had a weirdly not great last half of the season.

And it was, I thought, awful in game one. He took two shots where, I think, on both of them, Paolo Banquero was at the nail with Darius Garland on him. And Cole Anthony was like, no, it's my time to shine. And Jamal Moses was like, yeah, now is your time to come to the bench.

They just need to find points. Maybe it's hunting Garland. Paolo Banquero has got to win that matchup against Georgie Yang, which I was actually surprised that Cabs guarded him with Georgie Yang in those minutes and not with their centers. And they just have to get more juice.

The Cabs are just clogging the paint. And they got no answers. No one's cutting, no flares, no nothing. Anything here?

I mean, I picked the Cabs to win the series. I thought it would be a long series. Game one did not portend a long series. Yeah.

And that's the case where it can be misleading. I think this series will probably change shape. One of the things that could happen is if Orlando starts playing more offensive lineups to compensate for the fact that you look at the box going and cleaning the glass, they were 0th percentile on overall points per possession, 0th percentile and effective field goal percentage, 0th percentile and half court points per chance. So does that mean Bank Arrowett Center potentially has to be, even though they have like a million centers on their team who are all better than their guards?

I mean, I don't know what their offensive lineups even are. That's the fair question. Yeah, and Jonathan Isaac is so good that I don't know that I guess I want to cut his minutes dramatically. To that extent, like Colen Anthony needs to play better.

And he needs to be the guard off the bench, like projecting the rotations before the series for the playoff previews I wrote on Saturday. I had Jo Ingles and Varkel Foltz as the guys getting their minutes cut in a series, not Colen Anthony. So I think he's propped up, especially the first half of the season. And last year propped up, a lot of these Orlando at second units offensively without a lot of other punch.

And he just was not able to do that whatsoever for the reasons you outlined. Orlando's defense was fine. They have interesting dilemmas like when do we switch? When do we not switch, particularly when Isaac is on the floor, they actually had an easier time switching when the Cavs had both Mobley and Allen on the floor because they could kind of scram out a bit a little more easily when there was more shooting.

They had more trouble switching. Their defense is going to be their every game. It's an awesome defensive team. That's great.

That's a foundation for something going forward. They clearly have found something with these two forwards in this defense. This is a team that, if this is a short series, and I'm not ready to say that yet because they're tough as hell and we've seen Cleveland kind of wobble a little bit at times in the past playoffs, although Donovan Mitchell, I felt really good. Just bookmark it.

This is a short series for the Magic and their offense is just completely out of its depth. I think that's got to nudge them to be a little bit more aggressive in the offseason to find some perimeter shock creation that's better than they have, and they can't just sit on their laurels and say, well, we've got these two forwards. We don't want to take the ball out of their hands. That's a perfect as the enemy of good analysis of your roster.

But if they come back and make this competitive, who knows? OK, next, quick hitter. Also resuming tonight. Lakers nuggets, headliner first round series, defending champs against the most popular team in the world.

Another slow-paced game, another Denver offensive onslaught. Didn't feel like it, but 121 points per 100 possessions. Again, it resumes tonight. I don't want to go too crazy.

But I just feel like even I'm starting to get bored with like, it's close, it's close, it's close, it's close, oh, it's not close. Maybe they can win the non-Yokechmen. Oh, they didn't win those by quite enough. And here comes Yokech and ah, Denver's up by 15.

Even the Lakers have to be bored. Even the Lakers are like, can we just lose by 30? I'd rather just lose game two by 30 than live this same movie again. And I guess for things to watch in game two quickly, not a manual quickly, just quickly, they just have no answer for Yokech.

I mean, and they've tried pretty much every answer in the book. In game one, they started Rui Hachamara on him and had Anthony Davis as the Rover of Aaron Gordon. We've seen that movie a million times. We can talk about some of the counters Denver had to that and has always had to that.

And then when Rui went out of the game, and Torian Prince slid in and it was a smaller lineup, they put Anthony Davis onto Cole Yokech. And although he held up pretty well on his own defensively against Yokech when they pivoted into the Murray Yokech pick and roll, you felt like, oh, wow, there's nothing behind Anthony Davis. And certainly Joel Mulmerry felt that. And we've seen before, if you put Anthony Davis on Yokech, Yokech is going to eventually put him in the basket.

Yeah, AD's got long arms and hops and he'll block some shots and some shots. But I just don't, I mean, over and over, I didn't think the Lakers offense was very good. One of the stats from that game that shocked me was, they only ran 10 LeBron, AD, pick and rolls. I think that's got to be 20.

It's got to be higher than that. They weren't effective when they ran them, but they've got to run something. Their offense wasn't great, but they just had not had an answer for Denver's offense. And I don't really know what they have in them.

Like, what did they not try? We saw, like, this time when they posted Yokech on Hachamara, they came with the double like, while the pass was in the air to Yokech, it was one of the fastest double teams you'll ever see. And Yokech eventually kind of figured out ways around that with pass fakes, and even he would kick it out to the guy, one pass away, and that guy would fake a pass, and then the Lakers' rotations would get confused. Like, I just, they have any answers here?

I thought they had a chance to make this a six game series. That was the max I would go for the Lakers. Wait, did you see when I was just going to, where a Nuggets fan Photoshop today was 15 of 16 of us had picked the Lakers to win the series? And they did not say that.

They only left with Nance, Nuggets in floor, untouched. When, in fact, everyone picked the Nuggets to win the series. You were 16 of 16? Yeah.

I think if the Lakers are going to win this series, they're going to have to do better offensively than they did. And that means getting more from their back court, because LeBron and AD were what you would have wanted them to be, and what you would have hoped that they could be with this extended period of rest, even with the one playing game. They won't have quite as much rest going forward, although the first round is a little bit better for them from that standpoint, because it's not the every other day to start the series that you got last year in the conference finals. Like Austin Reese was OK, and then D'Angelo Russell was awful as a shooter.

And I don't think they have the guy to replace him with this year. Gabe Vincent was someone that the Lakers staff talked about to David Miniman for a story that we wrote about this, and I know it's match-up last week, and he just didn't look ready. He's surely not 100% coming off of that. And he's surgery.

He's been doing what he has been a nice pick-up for them. But is he going to be the guy in the series? Probably not. He took zero shots, I think, right?

In game one? He's had a lot of 0 for 1 in 17 minutes kind of games for them. I mean, D'Angelo Russell needs to make shots. Like, D'Angelo Russell was pretty good for them this season, offensively, especially in the second half, and after the first two months, I guess, of the season, which was part of the reason that they didn't make a big trade at the deadline.

And he's not probably going to go one of nine on threes every game. Like, he's still going to create other issues for you in this match-up defensively and with his decision-making. But just makes a few threes, then maybe LA has the offense to take a lead into that final stretch of the game as opposed to being close, which we know historically. Like, if you're...

When you'll get to comes back in the game in the fourth quarter, you're not ahead. You have very little shot of being in the nuggets. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. D'Angelo. It's happening again. It's happening.

It's happening. A quiet series, too, starring D'Angelo Russell. I haven't seen a quiet place, too. I only saw a quiet place one.

It was pretty good. It was a good plane movie. John Krasinski. Just what an unlikely career arc for John Krasinski.

I would read a profile of like, how did this happen? He was the dude on the office and now he's like, Lockbuster director guy. Pretty cool. Mary Demi-Demli-Wont, too.

That's not a bad outcome for him. I assume this is how people have started age filled out Ron Howard. True. Fair.

Lakers. You got to give them a credit defensively. They've become a good defensive team. I think they were ninth this season.

And you can see the Lakers trying to run the LeBron Reeves picking role to target Murray. And they couldn't really get too much out of it. Like, Jamal Murray, first of all, held up on switches pretty well. He's strong and tough and an underrated defender.

And second of all, when he hedges, like, their rotations behind that are really good and they're really big. And they just kind of recovered out of it before the Lakers get anything going. On those LeBron AD picker roles, you can tell the Lakers are trying to script it so that the low man, the help man on Anthony Davis is either Jamal Murray or KCP, a smaller guy that you can just catch and finish over. And the Nuggets are still making that hard for them.

They just got to find ways to do that and make shots. I just want to highlight a couple of things. When they shifted Anthony Davis onto Yokich, the Nuggets just start spamming you with Murray Yokich picking roles. And there are two plays from, I think, ones in the third quarter, ones in the fourth quarter.

They might know they're both in the fourth quarter. One's about seven minutes left to Murray Yokich, empty side picking roles. There's no help on the weak side. There's no weak side help defender.

Murray drives Yokich roles. And AD is like, uh-oh, there's nobody behind Yokich. I got to get back to him because he's Nicole Yokich. And Jamal Murray just keeps going.

And this is where you feel the impact of flipping the strategy for the Lakers. Jamal Murray just keeps going. He's like, oh, Torian Prince is the last line of defense now? Like, that's cool.

Here's a layup. Same action. Same response by AD. And LeBron's like, all right, I got to come help Torian Prince.

Like, this is an emergency. Jamal Murray's going to get a layup. He's scrambled, flies in off Michael Porter Jr. And actually, I think one of the things the Lakers need to do is hunt Michael Porter Jr.

a little bit more on defense, although he's improved. Flies in off Michael Porter Jr. Jamal Murray sees it kick out, Michael Porter Jr. 3, good night, game over.

And the last thing I'll say on Denver, then we can move on. Well, two more things. Number one, 34% offensive rebounding rate for the Nuggets. That's a quiet, quiet penalty for putting hot chamara on Yokich, is he's going to get offensive rebounds.

Two, I'm beginning to think Yokich's floater is the most important shot in the NBA. Like the most important championship swinging shot in the NBA, because when push comes to shove, if all else fails, whatever scheme you have, they can run a Murray Yokich pick and roll. And that's the shot that you're supposed to give up. Like a mid-range, 12-foot leaning, whatever.

39% of Yokich's shots this year were from floater range. That's like 99th percentile. 0th is the op 0th. I would not have word.

I think you just made that word. I'm talking about the magic offense before. 0th percentile. You know what Yokich shot on floaters this year?

Take a guess. 62%. It is the third straight season he's been above 60% on floaters. It's just completely outrageous.

And it's their fail safe. Like it's their fail safe shot. I think it's the most important shot in the NBA. Okay, enough.

You have any other Lakers, Nuggets thoughts? I thought it was interesting that Michael Boulon went so deep into his bench in game one. And there was a moment I thought, although the starters played a lot of minutes, that maybe he wasn't taking the Lakers quite seriously enough to be willing to go with five reserves, but he trusted that they were going to be fine and they weren't. What should they do with Yokich?

I actually think that hot chamara on him and AD is a rover is probably their better answer. It just doesn't work like I don't know what you're supposed to do. You know, sometimes there is no right answer. I mean, they do just feel really small, even though you've got LeBron and AD out there.

When you've got Prince instead of Anjimura is they didn't have fourth quarter. Like the very first play of the game. Very first Denver play of the game. Murray Yokich pick and roll.

High pick and roll in the middle. Aaron Gordon is on the left side in the corner. Lifted a little high, but in the corner. Jamal Murray goes left.

So Aaron Gordon is now the strong side corner quote unquote shooter. Yokich rolls down the right side of the lane. Opposite Gordon. So Anthony Davis has to cover like 20 feet of space just to get into the Yokich's general area.

Can't do it. Like Denver was prepared for that from the start. They have a million different counters moving Gordon around using him as a screener. I don't know what the hell you're supposed to do.

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I don't know if fun is the right word, but. Number one. Minnesota Phoenix. And emphatic timber will be win in game one.

They go the double big lineups, particularly with Nas Reed. Rudy go bear Nas Reed plus 18 and 13 minutes. Cat and go bear minus three and 19 minutes. But that's actually fine because the sun did play those lineups out of the water going three and in the regular season.

I thought a super discouraging loss for the suns. They got destroyed on the glass. And they're going to get destroyed on the glass. What they can't do is give the extra ones where like, oh Bradley Beal just doesn't box out Jada McDaniel's in the corner.

And here he comes for a put back or a kick out three to my con. They can't give those away. Their offense was just kind of interesting that the wolves put towns on Durant, which is not something they had done that much in the regular season. I don't think towns can guard Durant, but I also don't think that it really mattered.

In game one and obviously Anthony Edwards just went nuclear in Kevin Durant's face and everybody's face shouting and everybody's face went totally nuclear in the third quarter as they pulled away. Phoenix only shot 28 threes, nine of 28 from three. On an ongoing theme of game ones, by the way, Phoenix won the shot quality battle. The shooting percentages say Phoenix had a higher shot quality profile that they quote unquote should have been at least close if shots had gone in.

But congratulations, you don't get any credit for that. I don't really care all that much, although it is interesting that's a theme in some other series like Mav's Clippers is like that as well. What are you looking for in game two? Obviously it need not even be said that the stakes here are massive for both teams with the wolves staring at a financial cliff after the season and the sun's having gone all into form this team that is now down 0-1 after losing in the second round last year.

I think this was the single series that gave me the biggest stomach ache to pick. There were certainly a lot of variables in other series, you know, Yannes' health, Guai's health in making those picks. Like, whichever team I picked here, if the other team won game one, I was going to feel like an idiot for not taking them because there's reasons to believe in both of these teams. That's me today.

Yeah, and for Minnesota, what I want to blow out basically is tremendously shocking to me. I do think that the shot quality that you beat me to it. I do think it is important to do think it is relevant because we're used to thinking the concept of maker missile league is, oh, that's the reason this underdog won the game. But it also can be the difference between a close game and a blowout.

Now, the reason that shot quality isn't necessarily going to save Phoenix in the series besides the fact that it doesn't always even out is because one of the ways that you overcome shot quality is you have 13 offensive rebounds to three for Phoenix. You know, the turnover game, the free throw differential was pretty even in this one. But that was where Minnesota made up a lot of ground. And if you layer that on top of shooting better from the field than Phoenix does, then you get a blowout.

And Kevin Durant did have a terrific offensive game against Cat where Minnesota won this game defensively was a game in Booker going 5 of 16. He basically had the game in game one and Edwards had had against Phoenix in all three of the regular season matchups, which is another team of this weekend is Phoenix won the season series three and nothing had won on Sunday. The Pacers won five times or four out of five or whatever it was to get started. Neither of those translated over to game one.

And that doesn't necessarily mean they won't translate the rest of the series. But we did not see them carry over whatsoever in game one. And whatever Phoenix had done to the regular season did not work on the playoff stage. No, and Ant was, I mean, let's just start on Ant.

Ant was unbelievable. And my favorite part of his late third quarter eruption, well, my favorite part was when he just talked to everyone within like a 20-foot vicinity of him, including Kevin Durant, who was like, okay, I mean, like, I got arrested. I think it was like incidental that Kevin Durant was one of the guys he talked to. Oh, no, he rained fire in Kevin Durant's face and over Kevin Durant's seven-foot-plus wingspan and let him call it one of the greatest moments of his life.

I mean, if I made it three over Kevin Durant, it would be the greatest moment of my, well, I should walk that back in case anyone in my family or friends of my wife listens to this pocket. It would be a top three moment in my life. Sorry, honey. I'm not going to ask you to rank those.

Hope everything's good at home. Oh, the other fun thing about that, if you go back and watch the last two minutes of the third quarter, they start blitzing him, and they start, the sun starts blitzing him. And every single time except one, and on that one, he made a step back three, so you can do whatever the hell you want, and if we're going to make a step back three. Every single time he made the simple release valve pass to like, okay, you're blitzing me.

Here you go. Nikhila Alexander Walker over here. Nas Reed up here on the wing, whatever it is, and like, they didn't even necessarily, other than one assist to Nikhila Alexander Walker in the left corner. They didn't lead directly to shots.

They were going to be hockey assists, and people on the back end of the hockey assists missed. Wide open threes. I just love this is Apex Anthony Edwards. When he's doing all the cool stuff and then also just making the simple play to keep the offense moving, get good shots for his teammates.

And a lot of times the ball comes all the way back around the horn to him. And all of a sudden, there is no blitz. There is no double. The defense is in rotation.

There's a seam to the rim, and then he can just kill somebody. He had to basket with an hammer dunk. I just thought it was an awesome calm, poised, way more poised than calm than you would ever expect for a 22-year-old put into this kind of situation in this burden. He was unbelievable.

No other observations. No notes. When you get off the ball early, sometimes the open shot you create might be your own. The other thing you didn't mention about Apex Anthony Edwards in this game is also taking on extremely difficult defensive assignment because of the way that Phoenix's perimeter players test you.

And everybody talked about Nikhil Alexander-Water, who was awesome off the bench in this game, helped compensate for the fact that it wasn't a great shooting night for Mike Conley. But the other guy who, despite scoring nine points in this one, I thought was terrific, was Jim McDaniels defensively, and then with his presence on the offensive glance, creating some extra possessions there. And Phoenix is going to funnel shots to him too, I don't offense. He's going to have to make some threes eventually in the series.

So, I mean, we can talk about how does Phoenix bounce back. I think a couple of things. Number one, they just need to take more threes. They're not taking enough threes.

They have to jack up their three-point volume. Number two, I think Durant has to win the cat matchup by a lot. And he won it in game one, but not by a lot. Cat was pretty good in the post, did not have any of the crazy cat offensive fouls or passes to nobody or over head passes that hit the basket stanchion.

He was calm, he drew fouls, he made some hooks. He was pretty good, not spectacular, but pretty good. That matchup was close enough. And clean up the offensive glass.

I just don't know what really, the thing they can't do. If Cat is on Durant and Mike Conley is on Grayson Allen, they cannot have any possessions in the half court. Not one, when either Durant or Allen or both are not involved. I don't want to see Bradley Beale be like meandering on a pick and roll with Nurgage and cool.

That can be step one. Those guys in those defensive weak spots have to be picked that every single time. And I don't think they got picked that at all, or enough, with off ball actions, on ball actions, anything in game one. I thought their offense was kind of stagnant compared to how it's going to have to be.

Some of their issues, their backup center position is a disaster. I don't know if we'll see Thad Young at any point. I don't know that Thad Young is the answer. I've said all season, I do not believe that Durant at center can work for any extended period of time.

I think it's just too small. The other team will play volleyball against you on the glass. I don't even think Frank Vocal believes that. I think he just rolls it out there.

He's like, all right, well, I don't trust you, Banks. Don't trust Thad Young. Don't trust Bowl Bowl. Like, I don't know what the hell else I'm supposed to do.

Gotta get something out of Eric Gordano. Any other adjustments for the Suns? Yeah, you mentioned Grayson Allen getting only three shots up. He didn't make any of them either.

But that's, I think, a quiet indicator in and of itself of how well things are working. Okay, let's move on. 124 offensive rating for the Wolves, by the way, in game one, 99 for the Suns. But congratulations.

They won the Shock Quality Olympics in game one. Hang a banner. Next, most interesting series. A Barn Burner in Oklahoma City.

The Thunder is returned to the playoffs. They win by two surviving a CJ McCollum buzzer meeting three that was online-ish. Despite Case and Wallis poking the ball away. A defensive slugfest.

Oh, my God. The physicality in this game. Like, I felt like I could feel ludorts. Like, muscles and arms and legs.

And just, he's just a cinder block with arms through the screen. And that's when you feel the trickle down. Like, the Pelicans have been good all year without Zion. Like, their numbers without Zion are good.

Their numbers with Zion are good. Their numbers without Zion are good. There's a lot of proof of concept. They just put Kramer for the third and the starting five.

Have a bunch of wings and CJ in the center. Like, that works. And it does work. You also just don't have your best player.

And the trickle down effect is, well, now there's no Zion Williamson for Jalen Williams to defend. And so Jalen Williams can defend CJ McCollum or Brandon Ingram. And Jalen Williams and Ludort are like a freaking WWE tag team. Defending CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram.

The physicality getting around screens. Like, there was just no breathing room at all for the Pelicans. B.I. Look tired.

In the first quarter, you can see him at the end of the first quarter. Kind of lagging behind in transition defense. Totally exhausted. He's just coming back from injury.

Five of 17. I think there are some interesting adjustments for both teams to potentially make. But I found it, I'm pro, whatever physicality is now being allowed. All of a sudden in the last three months of the season, I found this game, like, absolutely riveting a really good test for the Thunder in their first game.

A really good test for SGA, too, who had a hard time with Herb Jones, as everybody does. And they responded and they found a way. Not a gut punch for the Pelicans. I don't think this is like, okay, now what they needed.

That one, they had to steal that one. I think this could be a competitive series. I picked the Thunder in five. I don't know what your pick was, but I don't feel any better or worse about that after game one.

I would have felt terrible about it. Had the Pelicans snuck it out. I had Thunder in five in my draft going into the playing games on Friday night, because, you know, I was going to be out after the games. I didn't know I needed to interrupt for that.

And then I switched it in my draft to Thunder in six after seeing how well the Pelicans handled Simon's absence and handled the Kings on Friday night. So, you know, I feel good about that as well. I mean, Trey Murphy III, like, I don't know what the solution is next season is. You project ahead, but like, he just has to be in the starting lineup.

I've been saying this since he came back from injury, even before that, he's going to have to start. You're going to have to figure it out. Like, I don't know who gets traded, who comes off the bench, whatever happens. Like, there's just no world in which Trey Murphy and Herb Jones are not starting on the Wing.

If you're zero, they both have to start. If we're ranking their players, Trey Murphy III is no lower than third. And he's in the top three, and he might not be third. I guess let's put it that way.

Okay. If you bring a little anti-frantic of spice right now. It was quite a little spicy. But he made so many winning plays in this game and unfortunately wasn't rewarded with the win ultimately.

Also, also made baskets, which are winning plays. Those are a little more obvious. The other thing that stood out to me about your first line is you mentioned, you know, everything that Lew Torton, Jamie Williams did defensively in this game. And those guys were awesome.

And they weren't the defender who made the biggest stop in the game, who's also defensively. It was also awesome defensively. And finished this game is a rookie in case in Wallace, his on-ball defense. There's just something about the style of on-ball defense that he plays that sets him apart with the way he's able to use his hands and his strength and his quickness.

And that showed up on the final play in a big way. And then it's like, oh, okay. Well, there it is. Oh, no.

Here comes Aaron Wiggins. Another guy who just shot 50% from three this year and defends every position. To that point, I think New Orleans has to be a lot more predatory in where they direct their offense. Because where they're directing it, if they're in Jalen Williams and you're just not getting anywhere.

Other than like, it's interesting that Oklahoma City is more or less willing to absorb the Jonas Balanchunas post-ups. And like they'll send help and they did, they had a little, they did like the sneaky Spurs double team from the weak side baseline, sometimes sneaking behind there. But I think they're just betting like, you can't win a playoff series that way in 2024. Like you can go ahead and post them 25 times.

You can even have a 37% offensive rebounding rate. And obviously his offensive rebounding was a problem for the Thunder. You knew it was going to be. I do think it'll be interesting if we see the big Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren tandem together at some point in the series because of it.

But I think to contrast the Thunder with the Suns, I think the Thunder are like, if he's the only guy getting offensive rebounds, we're probably going to be good in the aggregate. We can't give up the extra ones that the Suns are giving up to the Wolves. And they were pretty good about that in the game. But like if Giddy's on the floor and we'll talk about Giddy, like they just got to go at him.

When Gordon Hayward's on the floor, they got to go at him. SGA is an incredible defender. I just, it reminds me of Steph, which is like, I don't have any other, he's much better defender than Steph has ever been, obviously. But like, I don't have any other good options to go to, like can I, can I try to make him work defensively a little bit?

Hayward, when he's in the game, you got to hunt him. He looks kind of slow. Isaiah Joe, who's developed into a nice frisky defender. But again, like, what are my other choices?

I just got to be a little bit more calculated. The other pivot point to me, and I wonder what you saw here, is the combination of Giddy and the Pelicans deciding somewhat surprisingly to me to put Jonas Malanchunis on Chet Holmgren instead of putting him on Josh Giddy, where a lot of teams have done the opposite and put their centers on Josh Giddy. I think that, I think that is more exploitable for the Thunder than they managed in Game One. And I also think it's, it's a very obvious adjustment for the Pelicans to make, and they may not want to make it because they want Giddy on the floor.

Like I can see them being like, well, we're not going to make that adjustment because we want Josh Giddy on the floor to not, to go out defensively, to not guard offensively, whatever. That's exactly what I was thinking as you were saying it, because, look, if they bring Casemel was out there, who is better defensively and a better shooter, like, is that a win for us? Have we succeeded in that? They were, in the same way that the Thunder were willing to live with the Valentinis post-ups, wanting to get one, wanting to get the Chet Holmgren.

They were very willing to live with Chet Holmgren shooting above the break, three is off the pick and pop. He shot six of them, made two. On Valanchunis's offensive rebound in, I think there was a difference in the second half, even though he actually had more offensive rebounds officially, he had five in the second half, but four of them were off his own misses. And that's a situation where it's because of the fact he's not finishing, it's creating those opportunities, and that's what we can live with rather than him cleaning up someone else's miss on the perimeter and turning that into a put-back.

Or a three, Tramer, if you got a couple of kick-out threes, at least one or two of which he made on Jonas' offensive, and the dude is just a beast, like, he's just too strong for Chet Holmgren, that's just the reality, the Thunder had been living with that reality all season long. This might be, I forgot this might be Ambo was on the Thunder, by the way, theoretically to like maybe box out a guy, I don't think we're going to see this might be Ambo, who knows, I don't know. He didn't escape. Yeah, I was waiting for some Lindy Waters, the third minutes, I don't know who else was going to play.

I've been so disappointed with Hayward, I thought he would give them a little something, he just hasn't yet. On Valentunus, on Holmgren, it was interesting, and I think Oklahoma City spent a lot of the game figuring it out, that on the pick-and-pops, they were not having Valentunus try to recover to Chet Holmgren, they were having Valentunus drop, and then sending somebody from the near corner to fly up and switch on to Chet Holmgren, and Valentunus would have to find somebody else to guard. I call that the third rotator scheme. And I think that is exploitable for the Thunder if they see it again, and you saw hints of it.

They ran, first of all, they only ran five SGA Chet Holmgren pick-and-rolls the entire game according to the second spectrum, five. It's not enough, like that's a place to go right away, more in game two. But what they did do was, they ran a bunch of jail in Williams Chet Holmgren pick-and-pops and pick-and-rolls, and what they would do, what they figured out under the third quarter is, they put Chet Holmgren in the left corner, in the position where the peligrens were going to have to have his defender fly off of him and take Chet Holmgren. Well, that's Herb Jones Jr., and Herb Jones Jr.

is no longer on Chet Holmgren. Somebody else is. And that somebody else is probably going to be a little easier pickings for SGA than freaking Herb Jones Jr. There was one possession in the third quarter, about seven and a half minutes left where that defender was C.J.

McCollum, and SGA went to work, hit along two over him. I think it's exploitable in that way. I think they can figure out, okay, well, where did valentunus go? Is he on a player that can attack him somewhere?

I think they can get some flare screen, some cuts, just to confuse the peligrens when they're in motion. I think there are some ways that they can pick at that, and then really test New Orleans and say, are you willing to make that adjustment and put valentunus on Giddy, and then we can adjust off of that? Or do we see more Larry Nance minutes? And I thought they were not smart in figuring out how to attack the peligrens with Nance.

Obviously, they're going to switch a lot more with Larry Nance. And I thought they kind of force fed Chet Holmgren in the post against Wings and Guards, where it's like, can SGA just cook? Larry Nance is pretty good, but Chet goes and enters the MVP final. I thought their problem solving was not as quick as I thought, but that's an interesting that Giddy Holmgren thing is a really interesting chess match part of the series.

Well, the other adjustment that Oklahoma's saying you made at the end of the game was, we don't need Chet Holmgren to be the screener. We have this unique ability where everybody on the rotation has been trained to, you know, serve as the screener, and that allows us to pick on CJ McCollum and try to set up that match up for Chet, which, you know, I think eventually was very profitable for them down the stretch. A couple of other things I had in my notes. Oh, by the way, they do need to go out to CJ.

Yeah, kind of just the random screening. A couple of other things I had in my notes. Number one is that, you know, Oklahoma City did not seem particularly scared of Herb Jones as a shooter, and this one, and that's one of those cases where, you know, I think 3.6% is sometimes less important. His volume was way up this season, but, you know, that wasn't something they were, like, afraid of helping off of him whatsoever.

And number two in a game that ended up being a one possession game, I think this was the end of the second quarter. They sprung a trap on CJ McCollum in a last shot situation, and the New Orleans doesn't even end up getting up a shot. And that, you know, we'll play like that and to make it a huge difference. I believe it was the end of the third quarter, and this is just one of those small coaching things.

Spill does this all the time. When you have the last shot, he will spring random traps on you just to try to rush you into shooting early, so they get another shot at the basket, and in that case, I believe Gordon Hayward made his only impactful play the whole game, he blocked the shot. They ran out and got a corner three from Joe or somebody in the left corner, because it's a huge swing. It's like a potentially a five point swing, at least a three point swing if the three points that they should not have got, they won by two.

We should talk about the last play, which I don't really know what the last play was supposed to be other than they invented the ball decision, McCollum dribbled around for a while. I hate, look, this is where the Euro coaches are a little different than my philosophy on this. They will play for the last shot, even when they're behind, because they don't want you to get the ball back. Maybe the match says that's right, you would know better than me.

I just viscerally hate that. If I'm behind, I just have to freaking score. I have to score, and I have to let my defense take care, because if I don't score, if I don't get a good shot up, what is the point of this? And obviously, they want to get a good shot up, but he just, I think they're like 16, 13, he dribbled around, CJ did, and it looked like he was about to go into whatever he was going to do, which judging by the fact that no one else was moving was just going to be going one-on-one with about six and a half seconds left.

You just have no margin for, and very little margin for like an offensive rebound, an extra pass, like some surprise from the defense. I haven't just liked to go a little earlier, and then case and wall spoke the ball away, and then it's just a five-long fire. That ended up, they ended up with a good shot, but it's a, I don't know, I just, I don't like when they wait too long. Yeah, I thought it was 10 seconds, but it was actually 14 when they advanced the ball.

So yeah, I mean, I feel the same way, who knows what was actually drawn up there, but it took too long to develop in practice. Um, this could be a fun, a fun series, but that defense, oh my god, oh my god. Thunder defense is just, there's just no weak spot to pick at, and they're incredibly good at covering space. Like they help without over helping, they recover earlier on time, it's, they're like everywhere and nowhere at the same time, like you just, it's, they're very hard to deal with.

Clips Mavs, now we get to two series where the, the governing theme, one of them was the new guard, the new guards, the new guards, the new guys that came in in the off season, while they picked up the slack for injured superstars, and that is Kawhi Leonard with the Clippers with James Harden having, game one, James Harden is here. You just better hope game seven, James Harden isn't, isn't warming up, warming up in the locker room, but game one, James Harden is here, had a huge game, Clippers blow the doors off the Mavs. Mavs won the shot quality Olympics, good for the Mavs, they were 10 of 33 on threes. Um, I thought they came out with no juice, they gave up offensive rebounds and transition opportunities in the first half, like they were warming up into the series, but this is why you get James Harden.

He had a great game. He relentlessly attacked Luca Donchich as did Paul George and reminded me a lot of Phoenix, Dallas game two in the 2022 conference semifinals when Luca was embarrassed on defense and responded by playing much better on that end of the floor. I just don't like throwing away games and you can tell me that's just a miss shots, 10 of 33 on threes, blah, blah, blah. I just like, this is a big, big loss for Dallas with Al Kawhi gives the Clippers a little margin to maybe ease him back, maybe, maybe take another extra game over how many games you expected it to be to bring him back.

It felt like a lost opportunity, they better win game two, what did you see, clips Mavs? Yeah, so that 2021 series was, or give them 22, I guess, was a series where they lost the first two games in Phoenix and then they're coming back to win the series, but you mentioned the game seven, James Harden, one thing that might make that easier to handle was if you have game seven Kawhi back in the lineup by that point to offset it. I think people got too down on James Harden based on his performance in the second half of the season and the other thing that's a little hard to separate from that, I mentioned with the Lakers Nuggets game one that it was LeBron and AD on a little bit more rest and the potential benefits of that. I think Harden, probably with a week off, probably benefited even more so week plus, I think, because they were already locked into the four seed and there's probably a reason that his performance tends to slow down over the course of the series, but if you seal the game just as they stole a game without Joellen B last year against Boston, that's still going to be really important for the series.

I think this was a case where the shot quality metrics did not reflect what we were seeing on the court in terms of, as you said, Dallas just did not seem to come out from the start with the requisite playoff intensity and the Clippers potentially knowing that they were without Kawhi and the importance of this game were on it from moment one. So it didn't reflect what we were seeing out there in terms of, it didn't feel like Dallas was creating a lot of good looks other than the threes and it felt like they were really rushed and I have in my head a vision of Dante excellent several times, like awkwardly driving to the basket is the second side guy and just things that had been smoothed for them for the last two months basically. Yeah, I mean, look, I liked that they gave Josh Green a shot in the fourth quarter when it was out of hand because I had in my nose like, where is Josh Green, like, why is he not getting any minutes here? Jayne Hardy is a step behind him, obviously, but defensively, particularly if Kawhi comes back into series, they're going to need a lot of minutes and they already play this way, but with two of PJ Washington, Derek Jones, Jr., Dante X, and Josh Green on the floor too.

And we can talk about Cleveland later, but those guys are just going to have to make shots and you mentioned how Herb Jones is sort of improvement mode for the Thunder, Thunder making him prove it. That's Dante X him for the Mads, like the Clippers don't care what Dante X him shot from three in the regular season, which was very robust, particularly from the corners, they're going to make him make shots and they sure as hell don't care whatever Derek Jones Jr. shots if they're going to make him make shots. And that's the challenge, particularly when Kawhi, I mean, without Kawhi, it obviously changes the whole series, but it changes the entire defensive equation for the Mavericks in a way that should have helped them way more than it did in game one because they can hide both Luca and Kyrie on Terrence Mann and Amir Koffee respectively.

And yeah, you know, the Clippers can see that and say, okay, Terrence Mann, you come screen for James Harden and they did that when Luca was on him or Kyrie was on him, but it just makes it a lot easier to do. But do you think, and I say this because Tyloo, who's always four steps ahead, like I did not have force feeding of it to Zubots on my bingo card of things to look at in game one and it God damn it, it worked. It worked as you had a monster game, totally overpowered Daniel Gafford, got him in foul trouble right away by the way, Daniel Gafford committed his second foul after Dallas let Terrence Mann leak out and transition and someone just had to hit him to prevent him from scoring those Daniel Gafford, whoopsie, never got really back into the game after that turn his ankle. I asked this around Zubots framing.

I do think Dallas seems a little undecided over what their best use of kleba is. They play him at the fork quite a lot with one of lively and gafford. It seems like Jason Kidd has like a comfort zone with kleba at the five and neither gafford nor lively on the floor. And the numbers like those lineups were good in the regular season, like plus 11 for 100 possessions, those lineups that drove them to the conference finals against Golden State in 2022.

It seems like they've designed their team to minimize those lineups. They have two good rim protecting centers. Kleba is a different kind of defender. What do you think of that of that balance for the Mevs?

Yeah, it kind of surprised me because Ryan Rocha mentioned on the broadcast how good the numbers were with kleba at five next to Washington. I guess I hadn't realized that because it seems like the biggest adjustment that they made going into this stretch was playing a lot bigger going to gafford for heavy minutes to start. Obviously, lively was out for a period of this time injured. And I think that's where a lot of those kleba at five minutes were coming.

And you know, you talked about a few weeks ago about kind of the robustness of the improvements that they made defensively after the all-star break that it wasn't really about shooting, that it was mostly about or three point shooting, it was mostly about how well they were taking away shots at the rim with gafford and lively off and giving them 48 minutes of legit rim protection there. Maybe in this series, that doesn't matter as much because that's not what the Clippers want to do anyway. And that could be one reason that kleba is more sensible option. The other thing I think at this point is if you go back to the 2021 series, I think that was the right year.

They all run together. That's the second one. That's the second one. That's Clippers Mevs 2.0.

Clippers going small obviously was in their favor that ended up being in the series that beat Utah in the second round because they were just so deep in terms of perimeter players, which could why out to start this series, I think actually that balance may tilt a little more into the in the Mavericks direction where if they can get Zubots and his rim protection off the court, it works in their favor and that to me stood out as one of the big differences in this game is compared to the 2021 series that year they set 67 on ball picks per hundred possessions according to second spectrum tracking with Zubots as the defender and average 1.3 points per chance, which is like flames start to come out of your computer when you see that number as you like to say on Sunday was 51 per hundred and the crews 1.07 points per chance, which you can easily live with if you're the Clippers. That's really interesting on a lot of fronts. So you're saying kleba at the five as a way to play Zubots, not out of the series, but off the floor a little bit more and it is interesting without without Kawai, Clippers are really small. I mean, they're essentially playing four guards for almost the entirety of the game.

They're very, very small and they because the Covington Batoon pieces are gone, the guys that are tweener forwards, they don't really have them anymore, PJ Tucker's not in the rotation. It's I'm glad you looked up the stats because I had all over my notes watching the game. Not enough pick and roll, not enough pick and roll, not enough pick and roll, and actually looked it up today. Luke around 41 pick and rolls as the ball handler.

That's about average for him in terms of volume. I just, they took the, the, the Mazz were outer rhythm and I don't know why the Mazz were outer rhythm, but one thing that was interesting was, you know, obviously you watch, how are they going to defend, Luca, pick and rolls, and in the first three minutes, they did four different things. And so maybe that's one reason I'm out of the rhythm, but they really settled into like an extreme dropback defense with Zubots as their, as their base defense. Like we're not even coming anywhere near the level of the screen on Park and Zoo below the foul line, counting on my guards to get over the screen intact and giving Luca a runway towards Zubots.

And it seemed to kind of like catch Luca a little bit by surprise, even though I went back and watched like the Clippers have done that to him before, but it was like, it was like Brooke Lopez style, like peak Brooke Lopez. Like we're not even bothering coming up above the foul line, you can have this runway and you're like, this is Luca Doncic, isn't that a little, a little dangerous? But the other guys mostly stayed home on Dallas's shooters and Luca mostly settled for kind of like turn around 18 footers over Terence Mann with Zubots kind of lurking there. That was really interesting.

And I did, it's not what I expected. We've seen so many series where they force Zubots into a million switches, they force Zubots to blitz over and over again. And the Clippers at least in game one were like, we're going to go all the way the opposite direction. And it seemed to take the Mazz a little bit by surprise.

Yeah. And like Luca had a good game, I really obviously had a terrific game offensively, but you didn't feel Luca in the same way. I think that you did over the last couple months when he made his way into the MVP, the top of the MVP discussion. You know, and there are ways to counter that extreme drop extra.

I mean, I thought Luca kind of got a little better in the second half of the game. Just saying, all right, if you're going to give me the space, I'm going to take it. I'm going to get deep enough into the paint where I'm in floater range or you're going to send people, you're going to have to send helpers because now I've created a crisis and created a couple of corner threes out of that for his teammates. I think I don't know if it was Gafford or Live, but maybe it was Cleveland actually set the kind of marching gortot second screen under the rim.

Like, if you're just going to lurk down here, I'm going to hit you with the second screen and Luca's going to be able to get to the rim. Part of it is like, if they're going to play that way, then the screen just has to be better. Like, you just got to hit Terence Mann so Luca can get downhill. But here's the thing about the playoffs.

The Mavericks saw that. They might be inclined to prepare for it. They might prepare for it. And Tylu just may not do it at all.

It came to me totally pivot to another game, but I also thought they should, you can post Luca up more. They were sending hard doubles at him in the post. That was another thing. But this is going to be a really, when you have Tylu and you have Luca Doncic, it's going to be an interesting chess match all the way through.