The low post is presented by Amazon music. Did you know you could be listening to this episode of the low post ad-free on Amazon music? And now the low post. Welcome to a delayed emergency low post podcast because it's 10 in the morning and an emergency really would have been an instant reaction last night to James Harden's masterpiece but then there was another game to watch and Chris Paul got injured in that game and the sun's are down too well when the nuggets are on.
There's a lot to talk about. But one reason we got to do this. Tim Pontim, how are you, first of all? I'm doing pretty great, Zach.
That was a hell of a game one in Boston last night. I had a lot of friends, led by James Harden having his greatest ever playoff game for my business. So I have spent way too much time in my life watching James Harden crunch time fourth quarters in the playoffs, parsing data and video on James Harden's playoff resume, looking at all his clutch shots, all his close fourth quarters, discovering that a lot of his best games like his previous career high in the playoffs were when they were down 3-0 to the Warriors in 2015 and the stakes weren't like super duper high. And I've said many times like, what's the capital M moment of James Harden's career?
And I think before last night, it was probably his shot to ice game five against the Spurs in 2012, 11 years ago. And then he had the block on Lou Dort in the bubble to clinch really was a harder than it should have been first round series. Last night is the greatest playoff moment of James Harden's career, I think. And the greatest game in the postseason, I think of James Harden's career.
We could argue it, I haven't done the full on like, deep, deep, deep, deep, there's no argument for me. 17 of 30, 7 and 14 on threes, 45 points, six assists, three turnovers, a game winning three with 8.4 seconds left with Boston up by one. And by the way, no Joellen beat, just subtitle on that one, sub note on that one. And there's a universe in which, let's just say like a worst case universe where like, NBA can't play this series and the Celtics win the next four games because the Celtics should win this series of Joel Embiid can't play.
Like last night they should have won really bad loss for them. We'll talk about all the gaps and breakdowns that led to that loss. Even if that were to happen, that does not erase ever what James Harden did in game one. It does not make it less of a capital M moment.
It does not make it less of a masterpiece. It does not make it less important. Even if that worst case scenario happens because for them to win that game on the road without Joellen beat all year long, you and I have been saying, maybe I don't know how strong you've been saying it, that this team has all the ingredients to win the title. They have everything they need when they got Tucker, when they got Melton who was outstanding last night because Boston just kept leaving and wide open from three for actually no reason over and over and over again.
I keep my help Memphis, by the way, Zach? You have to be honest. I'm done with Memphis. I'm done with Memphis.
I think someone guaranteed that they would win Game seven against the Lakers yesterday. I'm not sure about that I have to corroborate that. I think somebody on the Grizzlies guaranteed there's Game seven or if necessary, Game eight, they would win. So bye bye Memphis, I'll see you next year.
Future so bright, nothing wrong really there. Just stop talking. What was I talking about? Oh, for them to win, they have all the ingredients necessary to win the title, I've said it all year and all year I've said their biggest, their biggest two obstacles are number one.
It looks like they're gonna have to go through Boston and Milwaukee on the road. Well, half of that is now gone. And the other half of that is now semi-gone because they have home court advantage in the series now after winning Game one on the road. And the other one was, do I trust James Harden in a big, big game?
I've seen too many, too many, two of 11, eight turnover fest in the biggest, biggest games. I said, oh yeah, I don't need Houston James Harden anymore. All Philly needs if him beat is healthy, is good James Harden. 28 and eight, occasionally 27, 8 and 8.
Last night they got Houston James Harden, mid-range James Harden, step back three James Harden, one blow by of Jalen Brown late in the game where it's like, oh, there's Houston James Harden, an absolute masterpiece. And as Perk says, after being very critical of him and his crunch time record in the biggest, biggest games, it is time to give him his flowers. That was a masterpiece last night, complete gut punch of the Celtics. I guess after, this is the day after a gut punch loss for the Bruins, I don't really follow hockey, but apparently that's a disaster.
That's like the 73 win Warriors losing it for sounds. Just what was it like to be there? And we'll get to the Celtics side of it in a second, but what was the mood around the Sixers after like, this is found money for them to win this game without him beat. They were joyous after the game.
I mean, this was beyond a dream scenario, Perfiliy. And yeah, look, I've been fortunate to be at a lot of significant playoff games over the past decade that I've been covering the league. And there are a few games that are more memorable to me than Game 6 of the West of Conference semifinals in 2017. The Kawhi Leonard didn't play, the games in Houston.
I remember seeing our CPU converted our colleague now, Kirk Goldsberry, a few minutes for the start of the game. Those guys were just really mad. Why was it? Tony Parker also didn't play.
Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. I just remember Kawhi not playing. They're like, well, we got to go back to San Antonio for Game 7, which was a Thursday.
That game was going to be Sunday. I called my girlfriend, now wife, and said, ah, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to say in Texas for another four days. It was like, definitely going to lose this game. And then at the end of the first quarter, I think it was 42 to 10 San Antonio, and the Rockets just got absolutely demolished.
And that game will always be in my head. And that game for me was the moment I always thought of, with James Harden and the playoffs. We're like, for the whole run in Houston, you know, that game in the following year, the Game 7 in the conference finals in the Miss 27 straight threes. Like, the Rockets would get close, and then it wouldn't get over the hump for one reason or the other.
And watching last night, no Joellen Bead, Tyree Smackxie Tobias Harris were okay, but not great. You know, this was really James Harden picking the Sixers up and carrying them over the finish line. And I had a story yesterday that ran that led with some quotes from James Harden after Game 4 against Brooklyn, where he talked about coming into the season, his whole mindset was about sacrificing. He sacrificed money to get PJ Tucker and Dan Newhouse on the team, he sacrificed role in shots because it's Joellen Bead's team and he's doing facilitating and he's sort of playing the role they need him to play.
But it was fascinating hearing him talk about that because he felt like he could still do the James Harden things. And he might not be able to do it every game. It certainly helped. I think that he had a nine day layoff before the start of the series.
And he had all the juice in his legs and looked amazing. But at the end of the day, the Philadelphia 76ers to win the championship needed to win this game, this game one, and get themselves back on board advantage. And also potentially and most importantly, give themselves the ability to if they need to give Joellen Bead until Friday. They just got back in game three and they just bought three days for him.
And the team felt so good about that win, not only because they got a win on the road, but even seeing a beat celebrate, like you could see how important that game was of that team, it's your point. If you think about James Harden the playoffs now, like I might think about 2018 games seven, I might think about 2017 game six. I'm gonna think about that performance last night and in particular, that step back three overall for eight seconds ago, where he, I was sitting with Brian Winter, our buddy. And I was saying, he's taken a long time down one.
I would think he should go a little sooner, but he was eyeing up Al Horford. He said after the game, he didn't get the double team, he thought would come and once he got it one on one, you could tell he was just eyeing up to get exactly that, step back to his right that he's taken and made a billion times. And when that thing went in, I was like, holy cow, I can't believe that just happened. We didn't even get yet to the story Brian wrote about, this Tyree Smaxie steal, which is one of the wildest plays.
We'll get there. We'll get there. Harden hunted down Al Horford and got the shot, he wanted in both teams in the second half of the game. And even earlier for Boston in the first quarter, when their pick and roll defense kind of broke down on both Harden and Maxie, just weird breakdowns for Boston, going under screens when they shouldn't, getting hit by screens when they shouldn't.
They put Al Horford on PJ Tucker, said, okay, if you're gonna put our big guy in a pick and roll and we want him to drop him back, we're making a huge PJ Tucker. And the Sixers did the same thing with Paul Reed. They put Paul Reed on Marcus Smart and it kind of threw the Celtics for a little bit of a loop. Absolute masterpiece from James Harden.
And they bought time, just like you said. They bought time, although I do think you gotta be a little careful with that. Just like, I don't know what went into Milwaukee. Oh, I don't mean that they necessarily, I don't mean that they necessarily just don't play him in game two now.
I know you didn't mean that. I'm just saying it's the kind of thing you might be tempted, just like the heat might be tempted. Game two of that series is gonna be tonight. We're not gonna talk much about it.
To rest Jimmy Butler saying we got, we banked a win. You know, oh, he's 90%, but we banked a win. Whatever the percentage is where the guy feels comfortable playing, these are high level teams. It's, you gotta be a little careful with the buying time thing, but just an unbelievable performance by the Sixers.
And look, we're gonna talk about the Celtics offense and how it can be a little hit or miss. They lost this game on defense. Even in the fourth quarter, their offensive rating was 122 points for 100 possessions. That would have been lasting the league by 10 miles.
They just got torched on defense. Some of it was great shot making. Some of it was just kind of just Boston. I said after game five of the Atlanta series, I don't like how they're closing the series.
I didn't like the last three games of that series and I didn't like the first game last night of this series. Their defensive rating since game two against the Hawks is 123 points allowed for 100 possessions. Some of that is great shooting. Some of that is great shooting.
All the Hawks and Sixers combined have shot 43% on threes in those five games or whatever it is. That'll come down, but their defense is having a good enough. We'll talk about some of those break-ups. I wanna get in three because they're giving up open threes too.
It's like you said, you had to get the mountain just to practice threes five times last night. There was one where they just like, Tatum just wandered away from him when Tyree Smacks was running a pick and roll and the Celtics had it totally covered. There was another where they just, it was like late in the second quarter. I think they were trying to like get cute and switch Robert Williams out of the pick and roll as his guy was coming up.
And they just got completely confused about who was supposed to be guarding, who had melt and was like, oh, nobody's within 20 feet. Let me shoot three. Then there was the other one. I think it was in the fourth quarter, maybe it was the third quarter, eight, 37 in the third quarter.
When the Sixers set a staggered screen with Paul Reed. And Paul Reed just like walks to the rim. And nobody was on him. And Marcus Smart was like yelling at everyone because it was allegedly everybody else's fault.
Paul Reed, like I could have finished that play. Maybe, like he just walked to the rim, nobody was on him. And it's like what? And by the way, one thing really quick just because you brought up Paul Reed, he was unbelievable.
Two free throws, those two free throws in the last minute of the game. He had four free throws in the last minute of the game. I want to break down, go. I want to break down the last minute 45.
I just want to make sure that we gave him credit too because he especially which you all out, he was fantastic in those free throws. We're going to get to him. I just want to go through a couple of other Celtics breaks. Sure.
Hardin gets a baseline out of bounds three. In the middle of the third quarter when Marcus Smarts just doesn't, all harden, in bounds the ball and goes to the corner. And nobody's on him because Marcus Smarts shoots the gap. Wide open corner three.
This is like, and they gave up, they gave up baskets like that against the Hawks, even in closing game five when their offense was rolling. They gave up two out of bounds, wide open threes on breakdowns. And this is the kind of stuff that's like, what is going on with this team that was the second best defense in the league was the best defense in the league by a mile last year. And just just had these games.
We're like, is this a serious? Are they being serious? Like with some of these breakdowns? This is the same thing.
Paul Reed just walked to the rim. It's like what are we doing? Let's go to the end of the game, ready? Well, that's, well, real quick.
This is the same thing. They just did plenty of times last year. And they just have these games, so they don't lock in the way they need to. And before we break down again, I don't even go back to the first quarter.
The Sixers were basically not playing defense in the first quarter. The Celtics went 17 for 20. I think they started 15 or 16 from the field. They're getting all sorts of just wide open layups.
Like it was insane how bad Philly's defense was. And it was a game where they should have been up 36 to 16 after the first quarter, but no one beat game should have been over. And instead, it was 36 to 31 because they let the Sixers get going and stay in the game. And that was just, it was the same thing.
Like they had a chance to put a hammer lock in the game right for the beginning. And you could see right from the jump, that was not going to happen. It was like the only hang around and we saw what happened. Hanging around, hanging around.
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Well, here's what happens when you hang around. 111-107 Boston with a minute 45 left in the game. Tatum attacks somebody, either Tobias Harris or Tyree Smax. And by the way, Tobias Harris tries, he might as absolutely no shot against Jason Tatum.
Like that's a first step mismatch. And they just ignore that matchup like several times in crunch time. They ignored, they have one session where Jason Tatum had Georgie Eng on him and God bless Georgie Eng's. Good player, great.
On the play, on the play we're going to get to eventually the maxi play. I mean, Tatum had five foul Tyree Smaxi on him who literally was trying not to guard people and pass the ball to Malcolm Brog. There was some of these possessions. Like what are we doing?
There was one where Derek White. Now to his credit, he had Tyree Smaxi on him who's late in the game up at the top of the arc. And the Celtics run these like pin downs on both sides of the floor with like no urgency. They're walking through him.
And Derek White's just like, okay cool. Jason Tatum's being guarded by Tobias Harris. I'm just going to drive wildly into Tyree Smaxi and miss a floater and get stripped. It's like what are we doing?
Anyway, 111-107, Tatum attacks. Hits Brogdon, pump fake from the corner. Wide open, long two. That's a good shot.
Good shot, misses it. Marcus Smart, crazy offensive rebound. Hits Tatum coming down the lane. Tatum attempts this flailing, wild layup, misses.
Fine, it's like crap happens. Those are two, I mean, the layup was out of control, but it's a shot, you're trying to get a shot at the rim. That's fine. That's when Maxi runs out and gets the end one, which they review and uphold as a basket, which I liked.
Give the benefit of the offensive player. Marcus was definitely moving. I thought that was a pretty obvious block. And so Philly comes within one.
Next possession, Horford gets a wide open three on another similar kick out. Miss, great shot. Nothing wrong with that. He tips the rebound to Brogdon.
Wide open three. Miss, nothing wrong with that. And then they get a Horford layup on another offensive on Boston up three. Yeah, that felt like a real backbreaker in the moment.
I think that was five offensive, four or five offensive rebounds on those two possessions. I mean, when they got that Horford layup, it was just like, man, these guys are not going to be able to get any rebounds. That's their closest thing out because they got a shot. And then, Hardin, Paul Reed, pick and roll.
Paul Reed gets fouled with 57 seconds left in Boston up three. And as you said, makes both free throws. Just thing bamboom, no drama, no like, no bounces, no bounces, no crazy bounces goes in. And then, the pick six happens.
Where Boston just kind of wandered around for a little bit. Like, you take it, you take it, you take it, you take it. Hey, remember when the Bucks didn't get a shot off at the end of the game? Why don't we try that?
See if that was that recently. That was wild. See if that works. And Tyree's Maxi steals the ball with the shot clock expiring.
And it seemed like, I couldn't see it because I was watching on TV. It seemed like most of the players were confused as to whether the game was going on or not. And Tyree's Maxi was like, yeah, I'm just going to dunk it until he started dunking it. Everybody clearly, Tyree's Maxi was confused.
Tyree's not he heard a whistle. He almost stopped. Half his teammates thought they heard a whistle. All of them were screaming at him to keep going.
That river thought he was going to pick up his dribble at the free throw line, which would have been interesting. Yeah, that was a truly unbelievable play. We were all sitting there in press row. Winhorse thought that they called the shot clock violation.
He kept yelling at me that the shot didn't count. I told him, look at the scoreboard, man. It's 114, 113 now. And the fact that he caught that ball with 0.1 seconds on the shot clock, you couldn't have literally drawn it up better than to have him catch the ball.
If he caught the ball half a second later, it would have been a shot clock violation. If he would have had the ball, their offense was not getting a lot going at that point. Like, totally different tenor of the game if they have the ball down one there. Even though Tatum comes back and hits these free throws, like, that was one of the craziest things I've ever seen that play.
Every night in the NBA playoffs, I don't think I've ever seen a play quite like that. Like a perfectly timed with the shot clock buzzer steal. Like, he could have run 20 more seconds off that one. He's just gonna still down to the rim and held up for 15 seconds until someone went and got him.
Anthony Melt was giving him a hard time in the locker room. He was like, man, he should have stood there and just dribble for a while. Because nobody was coming down there. He's just going, man, I'm just gonna make a layup.
I wasn't gonna mess around. But yeah, I mean, I said to a couple of people last night, that's exactly why I do this job. Like, you go to the, I go to a lot of games and you go to games and between what happened in Milwaukee and game five last week or that game last night or just like, you see stuff that you've never seen before all the time, especially in these games, like you said, in April, May and June when the stakes are highest in that, I've truly never seen, like you said, anything like that. That was incredible.
Then the Celtics call timeout get Tatum and now he's so at the foul line. Good play call, makes both three throws, throws a foul, makes both three throws, they go up by one. Hardin makes a step back three to put him up by two. Time out Boston.
They appear to run a play for smart in the paint, but Tatum was also kind of back-cutting on the back end of it and it made me think maybe the play is for Tatum and smart tried to drop it off to Tatum and it just didn't work out. It didn't work out in the Paul Reed, made two more free throws. What did Joe Missoula say after the people asking about that play? To be honest, I was in the Philly side.
Let me see Quiddick right here. If you want to vamp for a second, I can find it. I mean, I don't really, it doesn't really matter to me. It was like, these plays are hard to draw up and like Marcus Smart got the ball in a position with some momentum in the paint.
You put the referees in play when you call it when you call the play in the paint, the referees in play make them part of the game. Like I didn't hate the play call. Here's, here it is. It was just a read, it was dependent on the match-up.
They switched their match-up and so it was just a read and smart tried to make a play. Yeah, I don't hate it. Like I said, Boston's offense for all this stuff, we're talking about these possessions and they're just disintegrated. They lost the game on defense.
Yeah, the Celtics did not lose that game on that play in the final second. They didn't lose it on the James Harden setback. They didn't lose it even on the Tyrese Maxi pick six. They lost that game in the first quarter.
It should have been a 20-point lead in the first quarter. The crowd is going crazy. There's no dwelling bead. Like you said, if they come out and put the clamps on Philly off the jump, they go up by 20 points.
That game looks totally different. Instead, they let Philly hang around and hang around and get confidence and let Harden get going and all of a sudden you're in a dog fight and the Sixers had nothing to lose. Nobody thought they were winning that game. They were 10-point dogs last night.
Joel would be his not playing. And the longer that thing went on and the longer they could stay in the game, the more they felt like, hey, we can actually steal this thing and get out in front of this series. And like I said, you could see in the locker room, everybody was so fired up about that win for all those reasons and then some. But it was great and as a neutral, it makes for a lot more interesting series.
So I'm glad I'm glad from that standpoint that Philly won because now, sort of no matter what happens through the rest of the week, we've got a lot of interest in excitement in the series, which is fun. Again, Boston's offense was in the aggregate. Fine, very good. I feel like a broken record when I say this about the Celtics because it was what undid them against the Heat last year and the Warriors in the finals.
They can get a good shot anytime they want by putting Tatum or Brown in any kind of two-man action with whoever Maxi is guarding or just by attacking Tatum, the Tatum Harris matchup one-on-one. And I get that to be so diligent that you do that every possession, so ruthless is hard and a lot of teams just don't operate that way. Celtics are kind of a flow, read and react offense. As soon as Duncan Robinson came in the game against the Knicks in game one, it was just immediate.
We're doing nothing else. No one else is playing defense except Duncan Rob. Tom Tibido is a freaking hammer and Duncan Robinson was the nail. And that's it.
We're not doing anything else. And sometimes- All he does is blunt force drama at whatever the weakness on the other side. And that's what I feel like Boston needs a little bit more of in their DNA because they just fritter away these possessions when you have favorable match-ups and easy ways to get good shots everywhere. And it doesn't manifest in bad offensive ratings.
Their offense was awesome. It did manifest in 16 turnovers compared to six for Philly. And I know Jalen Brown had shot the hell out of it in the playoffs. I think he's every 26 of the game.
I was just about to add this. Jalen Brown went six for seven in the first quarter. Got whatever he wanted. Was getting in and touched the ball for like 30 minutes of the game.
He took 10 shots. It was incredible. I will say he shot the hell out of it in the playoffs. I think he's shooting 56% overall in like 50 something on threes, 50 something on twos.
Just killing it. He does have 22 assists against 25 turnovers. And I know he's got the hand injury that's messing up his hand a little bit. But when Jalen Brown takes the ball in traffic, and I know some self-expans have been in this place of anxiety before now, every time he takes the ball into traffic now, I'm like, oh, this is going to end badly.
Like, I don't know what's going to happen now. And like, they just got to clean this stuff up a little bit. But something last year, the Celtics last year, the story of the playoffs was turnovers. Whenever they turned the ball over, they lost it.
Whenever they didn't, they were what? They was that simple. And now there's two stats. One is the turnover percent.
They had 16 last night. That was the magic number for them last year in the playoffs. The other is three point shooting. The scene is 34 and two.
When they shoot 40% or better from three. I think they're now 27 and 26 when they shoot under 40%. Last night, I'd only did they shoot 38%. They were 10 for 26 from three.
And they got outshot by 12 from the three point line in terms of attendance by the sixth first. I did not think there would be any game in this series, even potentially would you all to beat out that Philly would shoot more threes than Boston. Obviously, their offense was good. But for a team that really focuses on the math and likes to win the math problem as much as possible, something Joe Missoul harps on all the time, I was very surprised at the lack of threes that the Celtics got up.
Well, James, how are you talking about 14 by himself? Again on my back, and I will carry you to the finish line game a couple of days after Steph Curry literally told his team, according to Marcus Thompson, the athletic. Come with me, everyone, commit to the team. No, belly again, I will bring you home.
Read that story and athletic about Steph, who's not a big talker, gathering the team together for a speech in which said, I will take you home. That's legend stuff, man. That's legend stuff. And what James Harden did last night was legend stuff.
Don't overlook Tobias Harris' 18 points, 26 from max. He didn't shoot a grape. It was active in the 17 off the bench from Melton. But this Boston defensive stuff is now five straight straight games of like, what are we doing here?
And the other thing I wanted to ask you about like, for a team that was the number one team in net rating, the Vegas co-favorite, second favorite, whatever they entered the playoffs in. I've been struck by just, they don't know who they want to play in the middle of games and at the end of games. So they're playing this lineup, I really like Brogdon, White, the J's, and Time Lord. I like that line.
I realize they're at Whitehead at Bad Game last night after a series of great games. And they're like, I'll be dispensed with that. And income's smart, who's fine, whatever played well. Defensively, he hasn't been the same guy this year.
Income's horffered, Alco's Time Lord. It's like, what do we have to close with that group? Why did Horford and Robert Williams play only two minutes together in game one? I like that combination.
The Blake Griffin minutes and game five against the Hawks were like never explained to me. That was the most inexplicable substitute. Turn that game on to catch up with it. I watched the fourth quarter and I was like, Blake is in.
This is interesting. And it was like, remained in and remained in and remained in. And I was like, this is very interesting. Well, look, and part of that too is Blake was in, and Grant Williams was not.
And Grant Williams has just not really been part of Joe Missoula's rotation. He's played Sam Houser over in the set. Did he take somebody's food from the refrigerator or something? Did he do the office faux pas where you take somebody's brown bag sandwich and eat it?
Because I don't really get why. And then last night he comes in, he doesn't even have enough time to play badly or well. And they're just like, yeah, we don't, let's bring Houser and we don't want this guy. I just don't understand.
I don't understand that. And the Blake Griffin stuff, I realize there's only one game. But I will tell you, A, they lost the game. B, playing Blake Griffin and Robert Williams together was very weird.
And C, on the broadcast, their explanation was, well, they're probably trying to see if Blake can give him anything for next round, for another body to throw it in. B, and I was like, next round. They got to win this game. What are we talking about?
Next, they're not up by 30. They're up by like 10. And they lost the game. It's just some very puzzling stuff from a coaching staff that I know is smart and really good.
With a group of players that I know is smart and really good. It has not been in the ball. The Celtics are four and three in the playoffs. And they just don't look like they're dialed into.
They need to be dialed into. Yeah, I mean, it's been interesting to see that sort of manifest itself over the course of the season. I think, you know, if you look at last year, obviously, under Unidoka, they really got on a roll in the second half. Playing that big line up with Robert Williams and Al Horford.
You wonder, I mean, they might have, Robert Williams ever hurts his knee. Who knows how the playoffs go even though they got to the finals of loss because they were winning every game by 20 points for a two-month stretch. And then Al or Robert hurt his knee. And they never really quite got back to that same level again.
And if you look at the way this year, he's played out like he said. Joe Missoula talks a lot about math problems. And he really wants to get up more threes in his opponent. He all that kind of stuff.
And I think his preference is to lean into playing small with this group more often than not. We've seen him not really. And maybe part of his Robert Williams is just never quite gotten right after missing the start of the year with the knee surgery and stuff. But they haven't played the two big line up much.
They've been starting Derrick White, which I think against this Philly team is the right way to go. I think when a beat comes back, when Robert Williams is out there, it's a place for him to hide a defense. He doesn't have to roam around as much as when Al's out on the three-point line. But yeah, like you look at the Grant Williams, Sam Houser thing.
Grant Williams, I expected him to play more in this series. Maybe when a beat is back, he'll play more. But you know, Missoula has clearly preferred to have the guy he thinks is a better three-point shooter out there over the course of the year in Houser. Who's a good player and holds up better on defense than people think and it's fine.
But I think Grant Williams should be playing more. And you know, that's just sort of in the way they've approached all this stuff. And they are the deepest team in the league, I think. But there are times when you can almost have too much depth, I think.
And they do have, do you play Derrick White or Marcus Smart? Do you play Grant Williams or do you play Robert Williams and Al Horfurter? In other words, in other ways that they can play and in theory could hold up even in high leverage playoff games with, which a lot of teams don't. And I think because of that, it has led them to sort of be stuck in between sometimes and how they want to play.
But mostly it just goes back to the same stuff that happened last year. Like you said against Miami, like you said against Golden State, this team just does not lock in the way it needs to. And they commit silly turnovers. And they don't, they just don't play the way they need to when it ultimately matters.
And that often is put them in binds. And they find a way a lot of times to get out of those binds, like they did when they went to Miami in one game seven last year. They won game seven technically. Right.
But even in that game, they were up four hours ago when you're really imploded. I would say they almost lost game seven. Well, they did almost because they did almost lose game seven. I mean, I'm not giving up a full on dub.
That's like half a win. That's like a hockey tie when hockey seven tie. But you know, but that game to go back to that game though, right? Like for 46 minutes, they were incredible.
They're up 12 on the road in game seven. Sort of like what Golden State did against Sacramento, right? Like dominating performance on the road, have everything done. And then everything just like explodes in every possible bad way with two minutes to go.
You look at that game last night, even with all the way, even as good as Philly played, they were in pride position to solve that game away. They're getting all these offensive rebounds or getting open shots. And then they make a couple terrible mistakes. And all of a sudden they're looking at it all one hole in the series.
And game two is a pressure cooker now, rather, and beat players are not because Philly now has some belief that, hey, man, even if we don't have the big fella, we got ways to finagle. We got ways to finagle a W here. And boy, oh boy. Jeff Van Gundy said it yesterday on the pod.
Like it's right there for Boston, if Embiid isn't healthy. Like it's right there. And you may never have a better chance to run the table in the East, not run the table like win every game, but get through the East. Which I haven't seen in the series.
Which I haven't seen in the series. I don't think it's going to be the heavy favor to win the conference finals. These are the teams with two best records in the league left. Whoever wins the series has home court advantage in the F1.
Like you talk about winning a championship for either one of these teams. Whoever gets out of this series, it's sitting right there. Right there. Absolutely being there.
And the South, I mean, both these teams. Like now, Philly can look at it too. Like for all years, we've talked about Philly. You and I've joked about it, right?
Like, you know, thinking they've got a chance to win year after year. But like, it's sitting right there now. They're up 1-0, you know, in theory, they're going to get you well back sometime fairly soon. They've got a real shot.
They've got a real shot to break through finally and do this. So let's see which one of these teams can do it. Let's flip over to the West. We now have a bunch of days off before Game 3 of Suns Nuggets in Phoenix.
The Nuggets out score Phoenix 27 to 14 in the fourth quarter to come back and win Game 2 by 10. Behind 39 points, 16 rebounds and five assists on also 17 of 30 shooting from the Coli Oke. She will probably finish second in the MVP, which will be announced tonight. I'm going to preemptively congratulate Joellen because I think he's probably winning.
And the Suns shot 6 of 31 from 3. They are now 13 of 54 for the series with an offensive rating of 102 points per 100 possessions. That's bad. They also can't figure out who they want to play.
It's rotation roulette for them. And it finished with Damian Lee because we just need a lot of shooting at all times. And they went back to Josh Oke, which we'll talk about. But the headline is, Chris Paul Hurt came up with some sort of groin strain in the middle of the third quarter when KCP, who was like absolutely out of this world, outworked him for a wee.
Maybe outworked him is wrong because Chris got hurt on the play and didn't come back to the game. And look, like, when they traded for Kevin Durant and everyone was exuberant about it. And I said, yeah, I guess you got to trade for Kevin Durant, but let's not pretend there's no risk here. This was the obvious risk, is that Chris Paul gets hurt almost every playoffs.
Kevin Durant is coming off an injury himself and hasn't looked comfortable. That comfortable in the playoffs did not look comfortable last night was not involved nearly enough last night. We'll talk about that. And Chris Paul had eight points last night.
It's not like Chris Paul has been a supernova in the playoffs this season. But he was starting to get on a roll against Denver's drop covers. They're dropping on Chris Paul. They are disrespecting Chris Paul, like on purpose.
They're saying Booker Durant actually gets the ball and gets to do something with it. We're going to blitz you or come up to touch against you. Chris Paul, you want to walk into 18 footers? Cool.
Beat us because we have faith in KCP and Bruce Brown and Christian Brown and even Jamal Murray to get over picks against you and bother you from behind and force you to do the thing where you have to snake it and throw your dribble ahead by eight feet and run and go get it and then take out fade away too. And we don't we'd rather have you take those shots than anything else those other dudes are doing. But look, Phoenix hasn't played a home game yet. We've learned the lesson many times.
Don't overreact to 2-0 when the home team is one of the first two games we just reminded us again. If they don't have Chris Paul and they're just down to those two guys as shot creators and Aiden has been just in it's an uphill battle for them against a team that is hungry and comfortable and defending. I mean, this is the series. This is the series they got Aaron Gordon for more or less.
They got him really for like the Clippers two years ago. This is the series they got these guards for Bruce Brown and KCP got better defensive guards to get over screens and help your pitch. This is the series where all the Oak Edge skeptics were like, he'll break down against a pull up jump shooting team. He'll break down.
He won't be able to hang and right now they're hanging and he's hanging and they're hanging and they have Phoenix a little out of sorts on offense. But man, do you see, can they win without Chris Paul? No, I didn't think they're going to win the series anyway. And this series, dear point about Denver, this is the series where I sit coming in the playoffs.
There's no pressure on Nicole Oak Edge than any other player in this year's playoffs. Because the last couple of years he won MVP and he won MVP with teams that had no chance to really advance the playoffs because injuries Jamal late in the year before. You know what he thinks of your pressure, Tim Bontemps? You know what he does at your pressure?
He takes a sip of Rakia and he face times with his horses in some way. He didn't look like he handled the pressure potential in the third MVP very well in the final month of the season when he sort of scattered all into place. They all just kind of limp to the finish line, but they're not limping now. Well, no, but like this is the year for Denver to advance, right?
The Western Conference was not very good all year. They were the dominant team in the Western Conference all year. They have home court advantage, but they've always been great. The Oak Edge has been phenomenal again this year.
You mentioned they get Aaron Gordon, they get Katabia's callable pope. They have Bruce Brown, who's an unbelievable addition for them last summer, perfect fit to play with the Oak Edge. They have the team that should be able to make a run. And if you can't make a run this year against this Western Conference, you're never making a run when Nicole Oak Edge.
And you've got to really examine Jamal Murray and those guys and really got to examine what we have here and where we headed. But through the first seven games of the playoffs, after a little bit of a hiccup at the end of the World Series, they look great. And look, since the moment Phoenix made this trade, I've talked about this on the who collective a bunch. Pals have been climbing on me because I just keep saying, who else is on this team outside these top four guys?
The rest of the roster is just not good. And it's not good enough. Like, you could say you could try Joshua Koji or Tori Craig, or I mean, they're playing Jock Landell and Bizbak the Ambo in high-level playoff games. Like, they just don't have any depth, which by the way is why you don't win titles generally when you make trades for superstar players in February because you don't end up having enough depth on your roster to get over the line at the end of the day.
And, well, no, all I was going to say was, the way the Suns team is built, again, in this game last night, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker combined a shoot 56 times, and they scored 59 points. I've said to those guys a bunch, I said it after game one, I'm very happy letting Devin Booker and Kevin Durant shoot as many times as they want to shoot, not meaning not Dardom, but Dardom one on one, let those guys shoot and shoot and shoot. They cannot do this for seven games that beat me. And I'm not letting these other guys on the Suns get practice threes.
And if they don't get practice threes, by the way, both the rest of those guys were on the Suns last night, they were 0 for 11 from 3. Like those guys are not going to be good enough. They were mostly not going to score Devin Booker and Devin Durant. Those 11 threes were mostly practice threes.
I mean, that's the reality of what they were. Well, you're going to give him some over the course of a game, but I just don't want to give up 30 of them. I don't think Denver would mind giving up 30 of them. Give it up 30 of them.
Josh Kogi wants to shoot 12 threes. Now, he's probably means he's going to make a few, but look, I just I don't want to re-litigate the trade now because I talked a lot about it when it happened. This was all priced into it. Like you said, it's a mid-season trade, so you don't have time.
You don't have an off-season to get a few ring chasers to build out your bench. This is life. And I said at the time, this kind of trade is championship or bus. That's it.
As the Clippers, and I always think back to what an executive in the Eastern Conference sold me after that Clippers megadeal for Kawai and PG. It's a trade you have to make, and it could end up being one of the most damaging trades of all time. And it just made me think of that, which is sacraliduous because it's Kevin Durant. And Kevin Durant was 10 of 27 last night.
That's just flat out, not good enough. He's going to have to make more shots. They cannot win a game where Devin Booker or Kevin Durant is not awesome. Last night in 44 for Durant, I mean, if Paul can't go in game three and they're lucky they got a few days off now, they may have to go like 46 minutes apiece.
I mean, you just can't afford any time, even with one of them on the floor. It's going to be hard for them to score. And Aiden is just not going to assert his will on the series. He's been fine.
He's just fine. He's not going to be the big four guy. He certainly has been the defensive guy. I guess you don't get to just be in the past, either.
I talked about this after game one. Start by crediting Denver's defense, which is so on point with its scheme that you have to credit the players for being dialed in, credit the coaching staff for crafting the scheme for the series, and drilling it so the players execute it. Because whether it's Booker or Durant running the two-man game, you'll get a chance to go up to the level of the screen. That's just a reality.
You can't let those guys pull up and shoot. And that means three guys are defending four sons behind the play. And you've got to rotate, in sync, or ahead of the ball. And you've got to know when if I'm the weak side guy helping in, should I go back to my original guy in the corner?
Or are we going to ex out in crisscross and hit those rotations like that? And I go up to the wing. They're nailing that every time. You'll get just not staying a second too long.
If anything, he's leaving like a half second earlier than I expected to retreat and take away the pass to Aiden. And when they do get those slip passes to Aiden or Josh Okogi, the nuggets are making those guys think in open space. They're zoning up perfectly. They're rotating perfectly.
They're not giving up. There was one when they had used the kogi as the screener in the fourth quarter last night, because we'll get to this. But Denver put Yokech on a kogi, and the sons seemed to be completely unprepared for that, even though it was an adjustment. We all knew it was going to come before the series.
And at Kogi got the ball in open space. Jamal Murray was rotating in from the wing. Aaron Gordon, who's been incredible, was rotating up from the dunkerspot. And Josh Okogi just rose.
You didn't know what to do. What passes in there? That pass, should I shoot a floater? I don't know if I want to shoot a floater.
Let me kick it out to KD. KD missed an open, contested three. And some of this is the sons are just going to make more shots. They're shooting horribly.
They're going to have a game where they shoot more shots. By the way, by the way, this was the game the sons had to steal to begin with. Denver is an awesome offensive team, and they didn't hit a shot last night. They were seven for 27 from three.
You know, Jamal Murray came back to earth. What was three for 15? 0 for nine from three. That's the game if you're the routine.
You got to win that game. But that was like Philly last night. Philly had a chance to win a game on the road. Set aside the MVP thing.
You're in a series like this. You've got to get that game when it's sitting there for you. Because it's hard for me to see a scenario where Denver plays that bad on offense. Maybe again, the entire series almost certainly that they don't play that bad on offense again at home.
And that's a tough one to let slip. Again, they have to have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker be amazing every game. They have to. The other thing Denver is doing on defense really well is when Booker gets around that pick and you'll get just with him.
They're stringing him out to the sideline. And the one pass they'll give you quote unquote is the skip all the way to the corner. And Durant will, or some will be lifting up on the wing. Like you don't make it to make that short pass.
You're going to make a pass. It's going to be the long one that hangs in the air forever and gives us a chance to reset. And they got all their hands are high. So there's sometimes Booker doesn't even make that pass because he's not confident that he can get it through.
And when they make it, the rotations are there. And they're making Phoenix instead of taking catch and shoot threes, pump, go, dribble, pump, go, dribble. And it ends in an eight in floater, an eight in mid-ranger. A Chris Paul floater.
It doesn't end in the kind of shot that Phoenix really wants to get. And that's mostly to their credit. Shout out Calvin Booth, who staked a lot on Bruce Brown. And they closed the game last night with a lineup I talked about in the preseason with Bruce Brown and Michael Porter Jr's place because of defense.
Drafted Christian Brown, who's been awesome in limited minutes in this series. Got a couple of bully one-on-one scores. And Tim Connolly was the one who won a record. Traded for KCP.
And it's a deal that I couldn't believe that anyone didn't like it. But some people didn't like it. I was like, KCP is perfect for this team. He's been incredible.
41 minutes last night for KCP. But on Bruce Brown, you saw in the first round that the Clippers, a lot of that series, stashed Zubots on Tori Craig. And the gambit is obvious, right? Like if you want to use eight in as your screen or because you're a guy, we're going to switch.
We're going to put Kawhi on eight in the switch. If you want to use, if you want to bring Zubots into the action, we're going to make you use Tori Craig, who's just not as threatening to us. And if Tori Craig rolls to the rim, guess what? DeAndre Aton is also there.
And the space is all cluttered. And it's going to be difficult for him to make plays. We wondered how Denver would manage that in this series. Because the question was, who's guarding Durant?
If you put Yokech on a Kogi or Craig, Aaron Gordon probably has to slide up and take Aton. Well, who's guarding Durant? Oh my god, we can't do it. The answer last night was Bruce Brown.
And he did well enough to enable that scheme. And the sun seemed totally unprepared. Like if you see Yokech on a Kogi or Yokech on campaign. And for three straight possessions, Tim Bontemps, you decide, you know what?
Let's just run Durant, Aton, pick and rolls, which we know they're going to switch. And they're going to switch Aaron Gordon on to Durant, which is the guy they want guarding him anyway. And we're going to settle for a contested three, because we have no continuity in our offense. There's not a second screen coming.
There's never a second screen. And if there is the ball in there, so wait there for five seconds to come on up, Sky needs something else. And only after like three or four of those possessions is the game was getting away from them. Did they start to involve a Kogi in the screening action to attack Yokech?
I just thought they seemed unprepared for that. And their offense, Durant, Durant ran 14 pick and rolls last night. And that's average for him. He sets seven ball screens.
That's not nearly enough. He's just not involved enough in what's going on. And well, maybe he's just run out a bit from playing 45 minutes every single game, you know? I mean, this is the thing.
I mean, look, the unfortunate thing about this son's name is from the moment they made this trade, there were two obvious facts, right? One was they just didn't have enough depth. The other is, let's just be honest, these guys get hurt all the time. Like Chris Paul is that unbelievable career.
He's the first bat hall fan member, one of the best point cards of all time. But he has the history of getting hurt, especially now that he's in his late 30s. And Kevin Durant, unfortunately, is one of the greatest ball time. Also now was a pretty extensive history of getting hurt.
And these guys have been, what are we sitting in the first round? They're playing Chris Paul 40 minutes a game. They're playing Devin Booker 45 minutes a game. And they're playing Kevin Durant 45 minutes a game, like, well, for the sons, right?
And like, I'm certainly not wishing for anybody to get hurt. But when you see Chris Paul limp off of the grand injury last night, it's just not really a surprise. And it's a bummer for them, but it goes back to the same thing, which is that this team just does not have the requisite depth to get through the playoffs matter how good their top end talent is. And I also think you saw in the fourth corner that game, the other thing I've talked about a bunch, this team has barely played together.
Like everybody just sort of hand waved away the fact that they would never mind. I was guilty of it because I just thought, well, this is Kevin Durant, just plop him in and it works. And by the way, they were what, 12 and one or 13 and one before the series. And now they've all watched.
But basically every game they played was against a team that was either bad or very bad or very injured. The only game they didn't play against anybody with real players was Dallas. And beginning of March for Durant got hurt, competitive game right down to the end. They had a bunch of their other guys sit back, some practice three this way.
They had a big game, Brian's favorite player. And they won that game. Like, I would have liked them to play those games against the Lakers or the Clippers the final weekend of the season and just play against some high level teams and just get some experience on the court together. They didn't do that.
They took a bunch of time off. Obviously they got through the first round, but they didn't look great really against the Clippers either with no Kawai and no Paul George. They kind of lived through that series. And these first two games against Denver have not gone well either.
So now they don't have Chris Paul. It's just, it's obviously not a rosy situation. No, the integration of Durant has been much clunkier than I thought it was going to be. All of that said, they could shoot 20 or 40 from three in game three and everyone's like, oh, can they though?
Well, I don't know for you, but you know what I mean? They could shoot, they could have a game where they shoot 60% on long shoes in it. And we're back to, okay, well, they're getting swabs. Yeah, I don't think they're getting swept, but I just, you look at Denver, you look at, like you just talked about it, right?
Guys like Christian Braun, guys like Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, right? Like they've got guys, they've got a solid eight guys where you go into the game. And like when Michael Malone is interchanging guys, not only do they have eight guys that they feel comfortable playing, those guys know exactly what they're doing and every second of the game, right? They've played together now, most of them for years.
They're the yogic and Murray have unbelievable chemistry, obviously in the pick and roll. Aaron Gordon's been there a while now, Michael Porter's been there a while now. Like that's a team that knows exactly who it is and what it wants to do in every situation to go back to our Boston conversation where they often seem like caught a caught between styles and lineups and stuff. Never knows exactly what it wants us to be.
And Phoenix quite understandably, because they've been together for three seconds, just doesn't feel like that. And I thought that was gonna catch up with some point and it seems like it might in the series. The shot making will rear its head at some point. Yeah, if it happens in game three, we have a totally normal series going to a totally normal high pressure, home team's got to win pivotal game for.
So let's just sort of TBD writing off the Suns, but Denver looks awesome. And you also have to credit Michael Mullen because I think what's been made clear in the playoffs is they were saving their best stuff for the postseason because I remember going on having Adam Morris of DnVR Sports, my favorite nuggets guy on multiple times from September to February to March when the nuggets were pooping the bed. And every time we said, man, I think they just need to play Aaron Gordon's backup center. And man, I would like more lineups where it's like Murray and at least one other starter when Yogech is on the bench and Aaron Gordon at center, so maybe three starters even.
And they never did it. It was always a disaster. And in the playoffs, that's exactly what they've been doing. They are plus seven for the series with Yogech on the bench.
I think they were plus 28 or something crazy against Minnesota. Those lineups are working. And Jeff Green, I look forward to the video 25 years from now where like a 58 year old Jeff Green is in a pickup game somewhere and just monstrously dunks on somebody half his age. That guy is just cramming all over everybody.