Jeff Van Gundy

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. Welcome to the low post podcast Monday morning. Bright and early. The second round is underway. Heat nicks rivalry renewed the heat despite Jimmy Butler limping around for the last five minutes of the game. Actually, not even limping around kind of standing around. Take game one at the world's most famous arena and the nuggets with an emphatic statement game one win over the sun's in that series. We'll talk about those series later, but boy, oh boy, six or self, six starts tonight. We'll see about in Bead and on Sunday season on the line. Maybe dynasty on the line. Although I think that's a little premature, little premature. Haven't haven't turned the page on Steph, Dremon Clay, trio, Steve Kerr, Bob Byers haven't turned the page on any of it quite yet. But season on the line for sure. After losing game six at home. In one of the most impressive wins I can ever remember a young inexperienced team getting in the playoffs period, a blowout by the Kings at Chase Center with the Aaron Fox playing with an ablusion fracture in his left index finger. The Golden State Warriors who couldn't win a road game to save their damn lives all season long, won two in Sacramento, including the hardest win to get in basketball, game seven on the road, Wardell, Stephen Curry scored the most points that have ever been scored in a game seven in the history of the sport to carry the Warriors over the finish line. 50 points, five zero on 20 of 38 shooting, 13 of 20 on twos. Normally we talk about the threes. The twos were outrageous and a stat that will get sort of swept under the rug a little bit. One turnover, 50 points, all that dribbling, all that driving, one turnover, all the attention drawn, 42 pick and rolls. Steph Curry ran in that game. That was his second most in any game this season, according to second spectrum. They needed a monster Steph game. They got a monster Steph game. And now after a little interregnum where they kind of circled each other from a far, one play in game that the Lakers won. You know, the Lakers were up and down. The Warriors were kind of in the tank for a year. High draft fix. The rivalry that defined a half decade of NBA history, a half decade of NBA finals, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Warriors, Lakers, Conference and my finals, Jeff Van Gundy, the best analyst in the business, former head coach. Future Hall of Famer was in the building at the Golden One Center. And I just want your visceral Steph Curry reaction. Take off the analyst hat and just tell us how it felt to be sitting courtside watching that happen. It felt like he. It really was. I didn't look at like these. Oh my goodness. Look at that shot or that shot. It was just very worthman like and it was surgical. And he, like you said, he's always been a. I'm much underrated finisher because everybody's mesmerized by the great shooting, but he lived at the rim yesterday and. He was great, obviously with his finishes. Couple like big time threes as well. And they were really able to overcome Thompson and Wiggins shooting the ball so poorly. I mean, you think about how they blew them out with Thompson and Wiggins. I don't know what they were like a nine for. 35 or something like that. That's exactly what they were. Yeah, it's just to me, it's remarkable and it speaks directly to. Curry's greatness and Looney's work on the board. So yeah, it was a, it was a great night for the Warriors and. Really disappointing for Sacramento. Should not even be in position to win. In the fourth quarter, you know, just blown out in the second half. And another bad Jordan pool game in a series of bad Jordan pool games and it just didn't matter because stuff had had 50 and. You know, within the first three and a half minutes of the game, you noted this right on the broadcast. They ran the same action three different times. Steph Looney pick and roll, knowing Sibones is going to come up almost trapping Curry, right? And they put Draymond Green on the right wing as an outlet for Steph. So he didn't have to make that direct kind of straight ahead, lob pass to Looney, slipping the screen. Possession one was the opening possession of the game. It was pick and roll, trap, Steph to Draymond to Looney, tic-tac-toe, dunk. Two minutes later, same play, same defensive response, Looney rolls free to the rim. Steph to Draymond to Looney, this time Wiggins guy steps up. Looney drops it off to Wiggins, dunk. Third one was the very next possession and this time the Kings say, you know what, this is not working out for us. Let's play this a little bit more conservatively. Domos maybe just like a step, a step back from the screen instead of the all-out trap. So Curry runs the pick and roll. Oh, oh, Domos, Domos isn't out here. Aborts the whole thing, gives it right back to Looney for a second pick and roll as Domos is kind of retreating thinking, withstood the first assault. Bam, Curry three. And as you put it later in the game when he made one of his just outrageous ISO step back threes, it's the thing that only he can do. And we've just, you watch those three plays and they look so easy and so fundamental the way the Warriors are passing the ball around. And it's not. And it all stems from the fact that you've got to guard that guy 35 feet away from the rim or you're dead. And I know you remarked about those plays, they're beautiful simple basketball and they came out and just bam, bam, bam. Yeah. And I think everyone knows what a good passer green is, right? So the attention that Curry attracts, how well green passes the ball, but it's Looney who deserves to be in those conversations his ability to play below the rim but catch and make the right decisions makes it really hard to guard if you're going to trap Curry. So now you've got two bigs who are really experts at making the right play and keeping moving on to the next guy. And like you said, they play outstanding offensive basketball to start that game, set a really good tone and just really good. And I think the Kings, you know, some, you know, I think the Kings were seven, two, and then they felt clay on a three on a baseline out of bounds. You know, those type of plays, they had a number of those, you know, four choices that I thought they, because of how well, sub-owners played, they should have been up more than two at half and had a little bit of a cushion. Instead, they didn't and Golden State took, you know, and Curry just took over in the second half, but I just loved watching the big, the big passing. It's just the way they do it, those two guys, Loni and Green spectacular. Well, I wrote about Loni about a month or six weeks ago in one of my 10 things columns. And I said, you know, the guy has been, first, as you noted on the broadcast, he was, the story of his career was, is he ever going to play? Like he's the hip surgeries, the leg stuff. Then he became like, oh, it's, he's an Iron Man. He sets screens. He doesn't, he's the classic central casting unsung hero, doesn't show up in the box score. And this year, what I wrote was, it's starting to show up in the box score in the passing and the rebounding. Like it's not nothing that a 20 minute a game or whatever he is center is getting you three, four, five, six assists regularly. And then the rebounds, like, I've watched those rebounds over and over again, it's like, what is, what is he doing? How is he getting, like, Domas Sabonas is a big, strong dude. And Kavon Loni, sometimes without inside position, is just kind of like physically bearing down on him with all his weight. And like, almost pinning Domas to the ground so he can't jump and then going up and getting the rebal. It is like, just grueling physical labor that is, is 10 offensive rebounds in a game seven, 21 rebounds. I mean, they obviously don't win the series without Kavon Loni. What a series. Yeah, he wedged Sabonas, like underneath the rim with good, you know, force, you know, just, and Sabonas was caught in between this face guard block out and a traditional block out, but he couldn't jump. He couldn't get up off of his feet. And that's what the body contact and the wedging does. It eliminates your jumping. So Loni can't jump. Anyway, and Sabonas can't now defensive rebound. And to me, that's where Loni was great. And from a Sacramento perspective, you have to have come someone come in and get these engaged rebound where two guys are locked up. You have freedom as a perimeter defensive rebounder. And they never could get the second and third guy in. They did such a poor job. Basically, the perimeter guys did nothing to help the rebound game, which allowed Loni just to overpower Sabonas. And those are back breaking type of sequences where you get, you know, you get the first stop, the one position, I think they had the first stop, the second stop and the third stop. And then they end up getting a fourth offensive rebound and back breaking stuff. And Loni, like you said, these people who try to underestimate his level of improvement or his rate of improvement and what he's doing, just aren't watching. They just typecast him as this other guy. And he's not another guy. He's central to their success. Yeah, they're they're great with Draymond and Loni together. Obviously, that starting five has been a dominant starting five. I thought Steve Kermit is smart move to go back to it to start game seven instead of messing around again with pool and the starting five. I would assume against a pretty big Lakers starting five, they're going to they're going to keep that starting five going forward in this series. And it works because there's such good pastors together. But the big thing that's really become clear in the last two seasons and big time in the last last year's smiles against Boston is when they separate green and Loni, Loni can play the green role well enough that they don't they're not as fast and zippy with it, but they don't lose as much creativity and passing and pace in their offenses, you would think going from the greatest playmaking power forward of all time, maybe to a guy who you just said can't really jump and is not going to win any 50 yard dashes or anything. But if they play four out and him is the only rimrunner, like they get the same kind of stuff done. That's been the revelation of the last couple years with Loni. Yeah, he's in no way the weakness. He's an absolute strength in their team. Now for so many ways that the ability to win necessary switch and guard, you know, pick and rolls, the ability to play some drop coverage, he can move his feet rebounds and passes and the smart tough plays, you know, the he's he's unafraid of the contact plays, which is, you know, rebounding in traffic, screening, you know, putting his body on the line to protect the rim when he's not a shop locker. So those contact plays he's willing to make are essential to what they do. And as you mentioned, going forward with the Lakers, a much bigger team who will guard the Warriors and particularly green and Loni much differently. You know, you'll see you saw how Sacramento, my Browns experience was we need to pressure them. And that has its strengths and its drawbacks. And the Lakers will play just the opposite. They're going to plug just like Loni played the bonus. You're going to see the Lakers play them that way where they're going to drop back, plug the lane. And then, you know, the Golden State Warriors response will be more pick and roll because, you know, you just can't be in a drop coverage against Curry's too good. You can't and you're right that I think on all the off ball stuff, the Warriors run. The Lakers are going to try and top lock it and send all those guys away from the pin down screen to the rim where Anthony Davis is going to be waiting. And my God, coach, I mean, I don't say this lightly because Anthony Davis has been in the league a long time now. And he's been a defense player of the year candidate for almost a decade. I don't know that he's ever played defense better than he has in the last four or five games against Memphis. I mean, he is absolutely everywhere all the time. And the timing on these blocks is so exquisite. He's never early. He's never off balance. He's never late. And you could see by the end of the series, the Grizzlies were like, I forget the 40 point blow. And even before that game got out of hand, they just didn't know what to do anymore once they got below the foul line because this guy is just everywhere blocking every shot. I want to stick with the Warriors Kings for just a minute. Just obviously an all time game from Curry for stalled a lot of tough decisions for the Warriors in the offseason. For stalled a lot of talk that to me was going to be bogus about, well, did they kind of get lucky last year? Like, what's the difference between last year's team that won the championship and this year's team that, you know, was at risk of falling in the first round? And now they live to fight another day. And I think the more momentum they get, the more stability they get in their rotation, the more dangerous they are going to get. And I think the league should be a little bit scared that they got by the Kings and the Kings kind of, you know, coughed up a really good chance to win that series. But, you know, such as life, it happens. I want, how do you come away from this, from the Kings perspective? What do you think? What did the King, because you mentioned disappointing and they did end up fulfilling this whole idea that they were going to be a vulnerable top three seed that was going to be an underdog in the first round and they were and they lost. There's obviously going to be disappointment among their fans to go in and win that game six in chase to keep their season alive and then lose it home. How do you come out feeling about them? I was very impressed. First of all, I'd never been to the arena. Great place. Obviously, they've always had good fans when they've had a respectable team. I thought they played with a lot of poise. Murray as a rookie really impressed me with his, not only his shooting, it's obviously good, but his poise. I think they have to, I think the rebounding and maybe some of their lack of physicality needs to be addressed in the off season. But what they've done from a talent standpoint, I think Fox obviously had such a great year and I really admired how he played through the finger, which I thought really sort of hampered some of his ball handling, led to some turnovers that maybe we wouldn't have seen. But the way they added, you know, Monk, herder, Murray in the off season really upgraded their talent. And I was impressed. I was impressed with how hard they played. Again, they got whipped last night in the second half. It happens, but I don't think it detracts in the least from what they were able to accomplish this year. Continuing to move forward is the challenge and always the harder part. Everybody thinks it's a straight line and oh, they were third seed. Now they'll go, you know, they'll get some better players, you know, improve their roster, then they're going to go to set. It does. It's hard. It's hard to keep going. It's easy to go from bad to mediocre. Mediocre to good is not that hard, but where they were this year, 48 wins into a true championship caliber team. That's hard, because hard decisions have to be made and then they have to be the right ones. I also came away really, really impressed and it could just be as simple as D'Arron Fox shot five of 19 in game seven with five turnovers. I think he was nine of 25 in game six and they won. Maybe that was game five. I can't remember. If he doesn't have the finger injury, maybe this we're doing an entirely different podcast about oh my god, or the word is going to try and trade Jordan pool to get under the second apron or two. It decreased their tax bill. What happens with Draymond's player option? Instead, we're having this car. Maybe it's that simple. I thought honestly, the thing I came away most impressed with was their defense. They held the Warriors to 111 points per 100 possessions in the series, which would have been like a bottom 10 offense in the regular season. This is the Warriors. This is the playoff Warriors that are not messing around playing their back of the rotation guys. Their ferocity and precision on all the pretty Warriors split actions off ball this and that they switched when they should have switched when they when the Warriors with slip screens, the Kings would read that. Okay, we can't switch this one. We got to stay home. They thought like hell to get over screens. Sabona smoothed his feet at the point of attack almost to the end better than I thought he could have managed. I can and that's that's the tough stuff. Right? That's the hard stuff to get into the playoffs after this feel good 48 wins season and have to do that seven times in a row. Against an offense that doesn't play like any other offense in the NBA and a superstar that doesn't play like any other superstar in the history of the NBA and they largely did well enough defensively to win the series. They lost the series because their offense kind of fell in mud a little bit. Sabona didn't have great series. Herder was pretty cold until game six and I was happy for him that he got off a little bit in game six and overall though I think you're right that development is never linear right there. They're not guaranteed to win 48 games next year. The West is the West is a beast every year. The West is a beast but I do think the Fox Sabona's and shooting thing on offense is legit. I'm not saying they're going to be the number one offense again in the NBA next year but I think as a regular season wins machine that offense is a monster and it's going to continue to be a monster. The piece that's interesting to me it just feels like the Harrison Barnes thing has now run its course there. Like he was a good stabilizing small ball for very valuable member of their team as they kind of made this ascent and he just couldn't impact this series the way they needed him to. He didn't make open three's the Warriors were were pretty okay letting him take open non-corner threes. The free throw stuff that he's been much better at kind of disappeared and it I don't know what you do I mean he's a free agent and and I don't know like if you let him walk they have some cap flexibility but not that much. Maybe there's a sign in trade. Maybe you sign in with the idea of trading him later but that feels like a place where you as a team at this stage have to be able to make a tough decision of even if we end up moving on from him in a way that is like a small step back in the present but gets us some stuff some draft picks whatever it ends up being. Cap flexibility that turns into draft picks that we can use down the line in a move that kind of better fits the timetable of our team that feels like the right decision to make at this point as much as it would hurt and as valuable as a presence he'd been in that locker room that's the name that's the name I would watch in the offseason but other than that I think what they built is real I think they're going to be a strong team for a long time and that Fox to bonus combo is is a bear on offense. Yeah and I think they're gonna it's gonna be interesting to watch next year if more teams try to emulate what the Warriors did to them on the bonus catches above the free throw line you know just to drop in the lane and try to congest and they I thought they in the first half they got some really good looks again it's hard because the the playoffs are like a different season and I thought the Kings held up exceptionally well like you the game six win they were tremendous their level of aggression their force Fox didn't play particularly well early and then he got you know going about Monk was a great addition he had a big time game and again I think they're overall size they're pretty small at times and but they have a lot of good pieces and I think they've done a really good job with their roster but all these choices are hard and we've seen it like with Dallas right if you make one that doesn't go your way it impacts your next decision which may or may not you know help to correct what you just lost or you know continue to have a lessening impact on your on your roster so tough decisions but they should be very very proud of what they accomplished this year they they did a really good job at their roster and their play and their defense is going to have to be better in the regular season next year if they're to make a jump and it was it was very good in this series poor Dallas Mavericks by the way all they're hoping is like can everyone just kind of let us be for a little while oh god jail and Brunson's team at vid okay but jail and Brunson's team lost game one maybe nobody will talk about the mabs and jail and Brunson and poor poor mabs here we go last thing on curry you know I mentioned those three plays that they ran early in the game and you on the broadcast said something that was sneaking in my head which was they just got to stop guarding Dremond out there on those plays and have his guy in the paint to just clog up loony and then my brain said okay dumb brain you've said this to yourself over and over again and you know what happens if the defense does that Steph just gives the ball to Dremond and takes a dribble hand off and hits it three and like that's just the dilemma of playing this guy and playing this shooter and playing this playmaker is there just no when you help in the paint they beat you in other ways when you when you don't help in the paint they beat you in this way and by the way the guy who didn't touch the ball literally didn't touch it on any of those trips is a top five shooter in the history of the NBA clay Thompson and like he's not even touching the ball because he's so impactful not touching the ball just just an all-time performance by Curry and now we get what's what's really an incredible second round series before we move on to that I'm obligated to ask you somebody who picked the bucks myself to win the NBA championship and my preseason pick people misinterpreted this last week when I said I picked the bucks and the Clippers to make the finals I did not do that before the playoffs I'm not that dumb to pick the Clippers without Paul George to make the finals that's my August September prediction and I stuck with the bucks the whole way what was your I haven't heard you talk about that what was your reaction watching watching that happen talking about Milwaukee now yeah Milwaukee losing to Miami and the way they lost the last two games of the series yeah well first of all a condolences to the Boudonhouser family I absolutely what he was going through at that time I think Miami and Butler like obviously were tremendous I think even you saw last night Lowry like he can have a still a huge impact from a competitive nature love with the ability to put his body in front of people making nuff shots resurrecting Duncan Robinson and Stru so they had this great combination they were playing off a great player in Jimmy Butler and then Lowry's competitiveness and then their three-point shooting that combination along with the Yannes injury it's it's interesting to me how at times people just say oh yeah the best player on their team was hurt and missed a couple games well last year was the same thing with Middleton you know they they lose in seven games to the Celtics and they don't have Middleton in this series they didn't have Yannes and I just want to take a step back it's also one of the negatives of the play in unintended consequences you had Miami Heat lose to the Atlanta Hawks so they should have been a seven seed and play the Celtics in the opening round but because they lose to the Hawks they're called the 8c but they're really the seven seed and it goes to where to me if you want to have the play in for the bottom teams I'm so excited I'm so excited for you to say this I'm so excited keep going shouldn't be impacted negatively so Boston should have had their choice like of who they wanted to play yes Atlanta can be in and and make it in the playoffs and then you know Miami beat Chicago in a really close game at home so they lost to Atlanta home beat Chicago but Chicago was up late I think Boston then should have the choice between you mean Milwaukee is you mean Milwaukee is the number one so walk you should have the choice between I'm sorry between playing Atlanta or or Boston I I how La Loya how La Loya I don't understand I don't understand why I just have never heard a compelling argument particularly this was always a fun thing to think about pre-playing but with the play in now it seems like an obvious thing that you should do the fair and obvious thing and I've never heard a compelling argument for why it's a bad idea I just haven't and there's two things on that there's two things to me the play in and now this play the the in season tournament to me have shown is that there's going to be it's not going to be a traditional NBA schedule anymore so let's count the stats from the play in games as playoff stats like there's no reason that those stats just go up in the ether and they're they're not recognized anywhere that's ridiculous you can't find them you can barely find them no it's ridiculous it doesn't even make sense and they're just being stubborn and secondly if you're going to be open and to like this play in and you want everybody to get behind it well the people who have honored and respected the regular season and done well in the regular season should never be negatively impacted by a lesser teams losing in the play in so Milwaukee it makes no sense that and this is not to say Atlanta isn't you know isn't a good team I'm not saying that and by the way Atlanta showed me something those last four games against Boston they really did exactly so but it should be the bucks choice so anyway the bucks to me you know were hurt by injury and they were hurt because of butler playing so so well which you know you know set up everybody else and I know that this is what happens all the time when you have this disappointing loss to what was the seventh seed basically the overreaction is is swift and immediate okay they've got to get rid of the coach the and I love that like get rid of the coach uh because jonah shot 10 for 23 from the free throw line really they they were 28 for 45 from the free throw line in that game five you know like it's just people never want to look at the at really what has happened they always want to overreact like there's no way back if I was to tell you that pat riley and great popovich two of the iconic coaches in the mba lost eight times as a higher seed to a lower seed and pat riley lost to but I think as he lost to a six seed maybe twice to a seven seed to an eight someone someone I know was coaching some of those things yeah but not not all not all I'm just saying the idea that you can't rebound and come back and and and regroup I think it's wrong like jonah said something like you know he got criticized for his take on was it a successful season or disappointing or a failure and I think two things can be true simultaneously it was absolutely a disappointing end and yet there's no reason that they can't come back regroup add some things maybe take away some others but like this was a dominant team where they just went through a tough injury a bad opponent to have to play unfortunate unintended consequence of the play in and butler playing so well matching directly to how they don't want to you know butler loves to come off against a drop where he can get into the mid range that's where they excel um and it's terrible free throw shooting like ridiculous and that is a combination for an upset right there and they had it and they had their chances you know I don't think anybody was calling for the breakup of the the bucks when they were up 16 going into the fourth of game five but they were had the same type of lead in game four it's you know we wait to see the result and then we sometimes to me completely overreact we'll see what the offseason holds for Milwaukee um i'm still kind of stunned by the degree of collapse but um i just wanted to get your take on it because i know we both had them winning the whole thing and now we have a heat next series instead um it's um and it shows you though just like you said how it opens up think about it now Miami or New York's going to the Eastern Conference finals. Yep Boston will never have never have and I don't want to say easy but a more direct line to win in a championship in beat out which is what we'll see he's doubtful right so we we're we're it's 9 30 in the morning we'll see but yeah and beat out or let's just make up a scenario where in beat misses the first two games plays the next whatever but he's he's 80 percent that should be a win for Boston but should and again nothing's guaranteed we just saw it with Milwaukee and uh Miami all right so nothing's guaranteed but you're never going to have a better path for Boston Milwaukee out in beat her so their path to the final is straight forward they're clearly clearly to me the best team left with the in beat injury factored in I it's they've got to take care of business and it just shows you how you know things open up and I would also say I I'm fascinated by when a big upset takes place should the top next top seeds be able to decide who they play too that's a little bit more problematic I would think but I think it bears reasonable discussion discussion yeah that that's a little more problematic and I I have to think more about it it's that's a more dramatic sea change to how how the NBA works obviously other leagues have done that and we're not going to talk about much about Boston Philly because it's it's the early game tonight and we don't know about mb quite yet but I did not like the way Boston closed that series against Atlanta even the last game that they pulled away and one with some great offensive play and some great shot making I thought they were still sloppy and careless in ways that make me a little bit concerned in ways that kind of gave me flashbacks to how they would just sort of piss away possessions with kind of aimless play against the the bucks and then the heat and then the Warriors obviously last year in the playoffs but I agree with you they have they have all the pieces they need and the road is there for them the Blake Riffen minutes in in game five against the Hawks were just never explained to me I don't remember ever being so surprised by like suddenly Blake Riffen was in the game and even the announcers on TV were like well Joe Missoula wants to see you like if you can give him something against him beat in the next section I was like the next round it's a close game what are they doing I just it was never explained to me but I do agree with you it's it's there for him Brown has been really good shot making wise the handle's been hit or miss I think this is going to be a bigger Rob Williams series than the first round was when his minutes kind of went up and down and up and down but it's just like we're not talking about that series today all you got it all you're hoping for is somehow the basketball and health gods come together to get Joe LMB'd right fast because you know it's obviously a whole different series with him and you just want to see one year where he's intact for the entire playoffs because even against the Nets which feels like a month ago when his scoring and shot attempts were down because of the way they were guarding him he was still the single most important presence in the series by an exponential amount over everybody else and just was so utterly dominant on both ends of the floor ending with the block on didn't we need it quick to series okay enough when it comes to scoring great hires for your business you may be up against some obstacles like lots of applicants but difficulty finding the right ones for your job or finding time to hire while running your business plus trying to ensure workplace safety that's important that's why you need zipper cruder on your team no matter the industry health care manufacturing business services zipper cruder makes hiring faster and easier and now you can try it for free free at zipper cruder calm slash low post first when you post a job on zipper cruder it gets sent out to over 100 top job sites one click there you go then zipper cruder's 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the grizzlies the warriors as we said tip over the kings um two teams that were uh two of the top 10 defensive teams after the trade deadline two of the top five net rating teams after the trade deadline when obviously the Lakers remade their offense uh we have the worst free throw team in the league offense and defense combined in the warriors a team that doesn't get to the line and fouls everybody against the best free throw team in the league on both ends that a team that damn near led the league in both free throw rate on offense and defense so that's step one for the warriors is don't start every game down 10 zero because of free throws um I think this is an absolutely fascinating matchup um both teams start kind of like quote unquote big lineups the Wiggins dream on loony trio the van der built LeBron Davis trio both teams have quote unquote slightly smaller lineups that they often close games with uh that's obviously Dremond at center in various permutations for the warriors for the Lakers that's three guards of some kind LeBron and Anthony Davis I think both teams when you look at the matchups are going to be comfortable shape shifting I don't think either team is in matchup trouble against either big or small permutation of the other team I think it it's going to test some players but I think both teams are prepared and have good matchups for those lineups and I just I can't wait to see what the matchups are I can't wait to see if LeBron can kind of exert his will as a as a chess master a little bit more than he had to and was willing to in the first round because I think he is going to have to um and the Lakers go from facing a team with very little shooting and a bad half court offense to a team that is going to stretch them out and make them cover more ground than they had to cover against the Grizzlies and the series if I'm going to zoom in if I'm going to start drilling down from any point for me it's Anthony Davis if he's neck and neck with Curry as the best player in the series on both ends of the floor particularly defense where he's going to have to if he's on Dremond if Dremond's at center and he's on Dremond he's going to have to come up and get back come up and get back if he's on Looney he's going to have a little more freedom to to roam around um and I think he'll start games on Looney um I think if he's defensively dominant and does enough on offense like when they switch can he can he punish Wiggins if they switch to LeBron AD pick and roll can you punish Wiggins a little bit in the post um he's the he to me is the tent pole of the series what are your sort of initial treetops as they say thoughts on this matchup yeah I'm looking forward to seeing how uh and who matches up with who I would say Vanderbilt most likely would try to guard Curry right off the bat that's interesting yeah I I have it penciled in a different way so sell me on that because I worry I'm not selling you because I don't know if I believe it I was off the Terence Davis I didn't like that matchup from the start the other night on Curry you have to have like such great discipline and the ability to not be frustrated when he scores even when you're doing what you're supposed to be doing like that's the telltale sign of a guy who can guard these great players is you don't try to make it up the next time because you got scored on the last two times doing it the right way and so anyway I see it as a shoot at like Vanderbilt to start in their normal starting lineup maybe Reeves I don't really see that it's interesting I have I have Reeves and I think it's gonna be Reeves but I but why don't what what's your what's your I like the link on Curry and I like that I'm not worried about uh early aggressive foul trouble by Vanderbilt like I'm not worried about that I think Reeves has become so important that on the offensive end that it would be harder for them to survive intermittent minutes by Reeves due to foul trouble and then I love uh and I know shrewders up and down offensively I love his tenacity his speed and quickness and his ability to navigate screens to me that he'll be the guy who is charged with that type of you know because you're not gonna put D'Angelo Russell on him D'Angelo Russell though you know guard one or the other probably Wiggins I have I put my assumption for the Lakers my assumption my and I don't know that I'm bright I'm just guessing my assumption is Reeves on Curry Russell on clay which scares the hula to me LeBron on Wiggins just because I don't want him chasing clay around but maybe I do Vanderbilt on Jeraymond and Anthony Davis on Looney the reason why I like your I thought about Vanderbilt on Curry I just that scares me a little bit in terms of chasing the off ball stuff Moran when they put him on point guards it's often guys who are so like I can go under screens on Moran and just sort of be big and behind the play I don't I'm sure we'll see it and Vanderbilt has guarded clay in some in some past match ups between the two teams I just got a little nervous and penciled in Reeves but you know look I don't care who which five you assigned to him like you'd still be nervous so he'll be nervous like with Curry and but you you know and you can't take away everything from a great player but you do have to take away something and I think that's what Sacramento didn't do uh to me the his living in the lane like you can't give him layups and threes like that's just not it's not a workable situation he's always been an underrated finisher and the one play that stood out to me Davis fouled him on a little on a drive where green was Karen Stavis yeah Karen Stavis and and you know Curry made it and Harrison Barnes like didn't shut off the driving gap when he was guarding green at the top of the key to me those are the mistakes you can't make if you're gonna help off someone and this is where I think the Lakers and this is why I want James on one of the two bigs is I know he may not be able to move like he once did but he's gonna know who's most dangerous at any particular point in time and I think that's absolutely critical to trying to take away something from Curry like and it's gotta be the paint like the step back sometimes there's little you can do it just doesn't go in or as you always as you always say March accents is what you're gonna do and there's always a beat and you say lose yeah lose that's what you do on those like if a guy's gonna like there's only so much you can do and so um and that's why I do like Schroeder's competitiveness and his quickness and they have many more answers than they did previous to the trade deadline and the Russell who Russell guards like I'm not sure if it's if it's Clay or Wiggins depending on how they want to go but I do think you know his offensive spurtability is important to them and so he's got to find someone he feels comfortable with where he can make sure he's you know he stays in the game because he is important offensively to him. To your point on LeBron if you go back and watch tape of the last two seasons of these teams playing against each other and there's not much of it that's relevant because so many guys have been out including this year they played three times in a three-week span in February and March and Wiggins was out twice Curry was out twice LeBron was out either two or three of them but LeBron guards Looney quite a bit and I'm assuming when the Lakers go smaller and it's like Reeves Schroeder Russell LeBron Davis that's that's what we'll see and Davis will go on to Dremont Green if Dremont is also on the floor it's Dremont and Looney and I agree with you that's a good that's a good way to A make sure LeBron doesn't work very hard and B put him in good health position because he is six eight and very smart and puts the fear of God into everybody still when they go to the rim against him and that will never change until he retires whenever whenever that is and yeah I think the matchups on the other end I have just sort of tentatively I assume Wiggins will start on LeBron and Dremont on Vanderbilt so he can kind of roam around and screw things up which puts Looney on Davis but we'll see a lot of Dremont on LeBron when the when the Warriors go smaller well I mean when the Warriors go smaller after Guard Anthony Davis but we'll see him on on LeBron some too I'm interested also in when the when the Warriors put Dremont at center who Anthony Davis guards do you want him on Dremont or if there's a Gary Peyton the second Moses Moody if there's a because they don't play that pool party lineup much anymore where they have the five really good offensive players out there at the same time if you can't pool can you put I thought the Kings maybe should have put Sibones on those guys a little bit more than they did and take him away from the point of attack or force the Warriors to use those guys at the point of attack and GP2 is a good screen or that works for them I do wonder if we'll see Anthony Davis on those guys a little bit maybe he can roam around but I don't I there's I think this is going to be a really fun interesting series and a and a test a test on defense for some of the Lakers guys who are coming off this sort of physical grimy the Grizzlies have very little shooting particularly with Canard missing the last game it's a big test for Dilo to me because I grew through shooter is a big big part of this series for the Lakers because of the way he chases he was great on my rant too and a guy like Hachamura who's been really really good in the playoffs for them but now he's going to have to defend perimeter players a lot when it's him and Bron and AD as he takes that Vanderbilt spot and they're big and they have Hachamura LeBron and Davis which is a trio that has been lights out for them he's going to have to chase these guys around and that's a big big test for him I'm curious to see how guys like that handled this series I think this is a really even see I haven't seen the Vegas odds I don't know who I would pick but I think it's going to be a really good series yeah all those are interesting questions Hachamura really and you know what they're so little like you mentioned before from a regular season there's just so much the sample size is so small that thinking that you know they're deaf definitive answers there aren't you know can Hachamura do it we'll see it's the most valuable phrase in sports we'll see because like that is the truth and if they want to win he'll be able to use his size and strength to advantage against smaller warrior players and not have it be a detriment at the defense event likewise for the warriors you know they've got to use their speed and quickness and not get overpowered by him so it's they're really differently constructed teams I think Ron Palenkin and his staff deserve a lot of credit for what they were able to do in saving the the Lakers season and I think for the warriors I'm going to be interested if Kaminga gets dusted off bingo you know because they're gonna treat kaminga like they treat green and they're going to stay in the lane like they'll treat Gary Payton you know they're just not going to extend on those guys and I'm just interested to see about the choices and as we've seen like you know the grizzlies one thing about the grizzlies because of all of their nonsensical talk over shadows some things like you know Stephen Adams is a huge part of that series huge with his screen setting and Davis has to be more concerned instead of coming over there to block as many because Adams is the best offensive rebounder in the league and then you have Clark as well so their top two centers were out I I think people overlook those injuries because of like I said the focus in the media was just on you know Dylan Brooks and all that and before that the month before that you know the meringue situation so to me I think the grizzlies season just like we were talking previously about the Bucks it was derailed not that they couldn't have beaten the Lakers in the first round but to me that would have been an upset when they lost their top two centers it really reduced any chance they had to advance so this situation is different I'll be interested to see if Davis you know like you said does he play against green so he's not in the physical route battle against uh Looney so he could roam a little bit more or do they start him on Looney I'm I'm that's why I think they play Vanderbilt on Curry because it puts James against Looney allows Davis not to be locked in into a physical matchup and maybe uses shot blocking uh to better to you know better their defensive efforts and the the series is gonna feel I'm not saying easier or harder it's gonna feel a lot different I think for Golden State coming this is gonna feel like a slow series them I know the Lakers want to run and played with a pace equivalent to Sacramento but I don't think they're gonna be as relentless running running running running and in that and then they don't have what's really hurt the Warriors all year and why they fell so much is the straight line drive guys just blow by them and the Lakers don't like Delo's not that kind of player Reeves isn't quite that kind of player he's more pick and roll LeBron is not that quite LeBron is LeBron but he's not just like a Malik Monk blow by people kind of guy and I think LeBron's gonna have to sort of get in the time machine and go back to the 2016-17-18-15 finals and play his little hunting game with Curry and say you know I'm gonna try to generate a good matchup and get them in rotation and see what happens after that which has always been it's always been great theater I think I would lean I think I would lean Warriors in seven just pick pick the home court team I think this is an interesting matchup for them I think they have a lot of I think both teams have a lot of answers for each other it helps that the Lakers are a very low turnover forcing team on defense so if the Warriors just don't do ludicrous things they should get shots up which is like step one for them is get shots up because they do so many ludicrous things I think I'd pick Warriors in seven I don't know if you have a feel yet yeah I always think about the Warriors right when they are sometimes the most explosive team that you can hope to watch and then they're perplexing at the same times at with their reckless passing foul decisions and shots so those three areas the shot selection the passing decisions and the fouling decisions are always critical for them because if they can manage those like they did so well in game seven they play with an advantage because of their great shooting but if they negate those advantages with reckless play I think it gives you know James and the Lakers a better opportunity and I think James has not been at the basket nearly as much he hasn't been at the freezer line nearly as much and I don't know if it's possible but he has to at least be in the half-court in this attacking driving mindset to collapse the defense and give opportunities for his teammates I don't think they can have the James version from the Memphis series and beat you know this outstanding Warriors team I totally agree and it's one of the reasons I would pick Warriors in seven I just you know does he bring that version of himself you're talking about every single game maybe he does I mean it's LeBron James the low post is brought to you by progressive insurance most of you listening right now are probably multitasking stop doing that just listen well while you're listening to all of us talk you're probably also driving cleaning exercising or maybe even grocery shopping but if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle there's something else you can be doing right now getting an auto quote from progressive insurance it's easy and you could save money by doing it right from your phone drivers who say by switching to progressives save 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you $10 off your first hundred dollar ticket purchase with code low that's code low lo lo w e my last name the name of this podcast download the app or visit vivid seats.com today vivid seats life happens live heat next let's do a few minutes on heat next the heat win game one no Julius Randall which is which is a big deal i think they're going to need him sooner rather than later it changes the whole series in lots of different ways you know a lot of this series is the heat trying to hunt jail and run some a little bit on defense and jail and bronson trying to find good match ups a lot of cross matching in this series coach is not the sexiest thing to talk about but jail and bronson is guarding streuze to open games and if he gets that matchup he's just going right at him if Duncan robins is on the floor he's finding him and going right at him and Jimmy butler a lot of those leak outs that he got on the touchdown passes from kevin love are because of cross matches he's guarding bronson and they don't want bronson guarding him and he knew it's clearly part of the scouting report he started leaking out like when shots were in the air or not even like about to be taken because he knows they're going to try to crisscross and find me and i'm going to get good match ups and then of course he sprained his ankle so we're waiting we're waiting on that other than flashbacks to the late 90s what was your initial take on game one well i thought the nicks uh they they just didn't play well enough particularly in the things that are correctable three leak outs by love i mean you can't get you can't allow people behind you with without floor balance necessary i mean that's just step one to any good defense is floor balance so i think they need to correct that if you went back and started how many times they left their feet on shot fakes ob top and is still jumping like now like as he gets up for practice kind of like great grace and alanister you're still euro stepping across the the streets of milwaukee somewhere three two two one and a half one and two one and a quarter and i like i think toppings played so much better um i think he actually helps them offensively didn't reflect yesterday as much but i think in many ways they can play better offensively with top and then with rando i don't i don't think i don't think that's going to sound like a hot take and i actually don't think it is because of the spacing and the speed with which they play yeah i mean to me it's i don't i'm not trying to make a hot take i'm just i know you're not it's he's just he gives him transition ability uh he'll run harder and more frequently and he'll shoot the three and he doesn't hesitate but that being said the number of shot fakes they went for yesterday that led to then open shots or fouls you can't be putting jimmy butler to the free throw line 11 times and you can't bite on kevin loves shot fake so they need those are the two basic ones and then i think you know pronson was just okay yesterday i think they need to they can't shoot okay so they're they're starting wings with heart and barret they you know they're just that's not their strength they're not a three point shooting team so they need their four man and their one man and then grinds to come in if he's to still come off the bench and they need to shoot the three well that the discrepancy from a shooting standpoint is hard to overcome and so when bronson goes over seven yesterday coupled with you know barret and hearts that's not their strength then it becomes very very difficult particularly with as many good three point shooters as the he play and i don't know just like i was saying about topping the hero injury is interesting for miami in that he's a talented offensive player and they may be better defensively when they're not playing him 35 minutes a game because of people can't just go at it i've heard from a number of executives around the league saying i don't think to heat miss tyler hero as much as people vote they're going to miss tyler hero for that exact reason i do think it's interesting that the longer they advance the more he's just going to recede from memory is like what a big deal his injury apparently was and is um just to put that in perspective so they they closed i think both have last night yesterday afternoon with a lineup of gay vincent and kyle laurie together so both the point guards jimmy butler kaleb martin and bam out of bio that lineup played nine minutes in game one nine minutes seven minutes in the entire regular season that's the degree to which the heat are scrambling to just find bodies at this point a lineup that won them the game played more in that game than it did in the 90 combined games or whatever regular season play in playoffs before that um and and it was just a gutty win i agree the nix just weren't just weren't sharp enough um the fact that they didn't go at butler at the end of the game when he couldn't move and they had possessions where he was like on jail in bronson switched on to jail in bronson and they just went away from it like rj barry dribbled one of them and just dribbled the ball off a swedom like this guy can't move in jail in bronson he's got jim butler on him go go at him it's also a tribute to like how much respect teams have for jimmy butler i would say i'm not so sure butler would have like maybe they should have i i didn't see the last three minutes but maybe they should have but the one thing i would say is i also have no doubt that butler would not have allowed himself to be taken advantage of either and and kyle larry to your point no his strips like just a nuisance the biggest play of the game for miami and for new york micha robinson gets a rebound with i'm gonna say six or seven uh brings it down larry pokes it away it leads to a hoop then rj barret goes down where was it was it gave vinson three where gave vinson fell over and wanted a four-point play there it was like four and a half and it's like i know exactly what i mean he just poked it right out of micha robinson's hand he just like classic kyle larry just being a pain in the ass right and then uh barret goes down i'm not sure if it was the exact next possession but very close drive into his left larry strips it and then you know the next had a third turnover in there and so to me larry's never going to you know he's not going to go up above you to to make a play but you can't be exposing the ball to him like he will strip he will stand in front he will take a charge he will strip the ball down low and you have to be on high alert at all times and gave vinson went through some you know huge shooting struggles at times you know this year and for him to be you know this good and playing these huge minutes as a testament to his work and their belief in him um and i just i've been so impressed with vinson how he's been able to you know navigate a rocky regular season and play so very well and and larry looks like you know he may be done and now he's back to you know he's not playing huge minutes but he's impactful in the minutes he he has and it it reminds me once again and she reminds everybody once again some great great competitors are hard to find they may be cranky and irascible and and at times in the regular season difficult to deal with but when you come to the playoffs if you don't have great competitors you've got no chance kyle larry's a great great competitor and when i watch him like there's so many things he doesn't still have but he does have great instincts great intelligence and great competitive spirit and it's a pleasure to watch him compete and to that point a big stretch of that game to me was the second quarter when butler went out for his rest the heat more than treaded water in those minutes and the nicks made some defensive mistakes they left kyle of martin open for three ob top and help then you shouldn't have they lost haywood high smith on a backdoor cut i think that was bared and larry was orchestrating a lot of those and he was orchestrating a lot late in the game when jimmy was hurt and hopefully jimmy's healthy the nicks cannot lose those minutes when jimmy butler rests they need to win those minutes the he should not be able to score as easily as they did at times in those minutes and then by the way spoh and his staff are just so sharp so you'll notice they did this against me walkie too if their offense is like guard guard screens so bam who's usually the centerpiece of their screening game has to do something else if he's not the screener what they've done more and more is all right so if if it's like jimmy streuze or whatever on on one side of the floor in the middle they'll put bam all the way over on the opposite sideline and the thought process appears to be a we get the big man out of the way for the nicks but b if that guard guard pick and roll puts them in rotation we can then drive and kick to him as a second outlet and his guy is going to be helping inside and he becomes dreemon green in those spots where okay my guy's not on me i have it they have a handoff shooter ready to go it's just really smart little things that the heat just do to maximize like the limited personnel that they have reffed and randal just real quickly he's important to me in this series despite what we all just said about his his you know the nicks offense looking pretty good without him because i i think the heat might have to invert the match up so bam would have to guard him out of out of respect to his sort of bully ball driving game and what does that do for micha Robinson maybe on on the glass and it just also gives the nicks like smart teams when they play the heat they'll get bam to switch on a pick and roll and just then park his guy out on the perimeter so bam's now just guarding whoever 30 feet from the basket totally out of the play because he switched one pick well right now that's switching on to jail and bronson and that's bad for the nicks like they don't want jail and bronson out of the play they want him in the play randal gives them an alternate source of offense where if you take bam away from the rim you have another place you can go to sort of get offense one on one i think they're gonna need him to win this series but man the heat i i i i i i'm the heat or just they're no fun they're just no fun to play against just totally fearless maniacal like spose said just really really gutsy team yeah they are and and quite frankly they've got better shooting than the next you know the next three-point shooting has been a very weak point the entire year and so you know their four spot randal shot the the amount the volume randal shot now the volume that top end shoots is important you know randal had a terrific regular season terrific and for whatever reason both times in the playoffs two years ago against inlanta in the first round against cleveland he is not he is not produced or been you know he hasn't played well and so if it's randal efficient randal i would agree that he's important to this series but if it's inefficient distracted julius randal then i i think they could still win without him it would be harder obviously but they could and i think they showed that in uh in the cleveland series that they can play and win without yeah and to your point about the shooting i mean you see that's what the heat are doing like they're they're just not going to let you yell and bruncy get comfortable one on one now he can be comfortable 18 feet from the rim it's it spots where a lot of people aren't comfortable just sort of pivoting around for mid-rangers but they're just going to swarm him and say okay josh art beat us we'll be topping take 11 threes 11 threes but if they're not corner threes we just don't really care that much yeah it was interesting i don't know what they call it on the spm but they had the coat you know they had eric mike they went to some of his at a timeout which is great tv sometimes uh and i just i would hate it if i was eric you know he was saying we don't understand who they are like they are attacking paint team like and i think that's what they did like they they know the the nicks have this inherent shooting weakness and i think if you're if you're in new york the question you're pondering is do we go back to heart off the bench start with grimes to try to give us more three-point shooting initially in games so that bronson has more room and there's only micha robinson uh in the dunker spot and barret who they will be as likely to help off of or or does hearts defense negate the the need to sort of flip and go back to their original starting lineup i i think it's uh you know it's these tough decisions that coaches always have to make and you hope you're right or do you use heart as a ball screen or more does that does that help mitigate the spacing i don't know because then you got your two bigs elsewhere particularly if they think jimmy is limited and they're kind of less scared of him going bananas maybe you do put grimes i that that's that's interesting um is this is are you enjoying all the flashbacks all the all the clips of you from the 90s in this series you know it's unfortunate like for me like i i i say it every time i'm asked about it it's temporary insanity i don't remember a whole lot about going out there and uh i look like a fool and uh you know by by the goodness of uh mourning he didn't end my life there so i'll always be appreciative of that but i think when when i reflect back and i see it brings back great memories for me because being associated with such great competitors you know so much of the game has changed and nothing has changed as far as what wins and what loses you know you've got to get you know more better shots than your opponents right so that's that's it's never changing and great defense and limiting your turnovers and winning the rebounding battle and the the same things win now that hyper shots that may be considered good or not good have have definitely changed but it makes me always reflect back when i see those uh you know those clips is that what what someone couldn't have been more blessed to bend uh a coach of the nicks at that time because we had all time great competitors i look back and i see you know Larry Johnson and Oakley and Ewing and Starks and Ward Harper and all those guys and i'm like man no one's ever been luckier than me when it comes to coaching and that's what i reflect back on you know i don't really reflect on the fight although you know i did look like a fool but i i do reflect back on um so often just you know how grateful i am to have been part of that that four-year competition with the heat plan to the last game four straight years um in a playoffs uh was truly it started out with great animosity those series and i think what it morphed into was by the end of that four years incredible respect for the opponent because you know how much they were putting into it you know how well they were coached um and so it was disdain turned into great respect and and for that i'm eternally grateful okay so when it was disdain who did you disdain the most who was the member of the heat when he just like looked at their face and like i can't i want to beat that guy so bad well the guy we feared the most that it was hard to to have i didn't have like an individual disdain i had a group disdain for like them but Tim Hardaway was i don't i don't think people realize free knee injury what Tim Hardaway was with uh run TMC but even how great he was i think he was all NBA first team with Miami uh one year if i'm not mistaken and he was literally just such a hard guy to guard um pick and roll in transition you know people talk about the killer crossover but it was his total like fearlessness to shoot the three um out of the pick and roll he would have lived with the lesson contact in the more space he would have loved playing in this era he was just absolutely a phenomenal player so i don't know if disdain for him would have been the right word but it it's certainly uh he was one that gave you extreme headaches trying to figure out how you wanted to guard him first team all NBA 1997 second team all NBA 1998 second team all NBA 1999 which is of course the year of the Allen Houston shot which i had forgotten coach was followed by a 40 foot buzzer beating heave by Terry Porter that you were so enraged about that you would that this is the legend of i i haven't seen a clip of this you go out and yell at the ref because even though you're just team your team just won the game you're mad you thought he couldn't have done all that he did in point eight seconds it's point eight seconds and there's no replay at that time and the year before we had a shot disallowed in Miami to win a regular season game and so i knew you know there was hijinks with the clock there you know like there's a lot of stuff you know that you know you could write a you could do a 30 for 30 on that four year period of the regular season games and the playoff game and so and so now think about this and they were going to count this good Terry Porter caught it dribbled it and shot it with point eight on the clock and i'm like that's ridiculous so people said oh i was trying to in some nick book somebody tried to say i was trying to rep out like get you know something for the next round i'm like no i was just upset that this was idiotic and they were gonna count the basket because you can't catch dribble and shoot and your team won the game just go out and celebrate yeah i you know yeah that that's probably would have been the better response but my anger took over okay initial thoughts on son's nuggets nuggets win game one what did you see that the nuggets because they had that bad stretch down the end of the regular season for some reason there as underestimated as any number one seed could possibly ever be i i think if you took the three other teams in the west that are still playing i would say a majority of people would say the winner of the west is going to come from those three teams and not denver and i think denver like i think they have a well-constructed roster i think michael melon has narrowed down who he wants to play i'm a little worried about you know what they're getting off the bench uh and do they have enough defense when either gordon or contagious called well pope goes to the bench but erin gordon to me has narrowed his game so much uh more and has accepted that if i cut and if i move and if i run i'm gonna get rewarded i don't have to try to do crazy things with the ball and i think that's the value of yokage i mean they are completely unselfish they know exactly who they are and what they do best and i think they're one of the most underestimated one seeds i can remember yeah the story of game one to me was denver's defense because then this was the test this was the test for yokage this was the test for their scheme this was the test that everyone including me was worried about because you know you can't drop on the suns though they did against chris paul a little bit which i thought was smart because if i can get them to overuse chris paul at the expense of kevin dorraine devin booker that's a win for me chris paul might go crazy for a quarter but that's still a win for me and i think that happened in game one dorant only 14 pick and rolls and six is the screener that's not enough those are low numbers for him underutilized i thought a little bit but yokage went up to a level of the screen and the rotations behind him were like on point and even yokage was on point and the timing if you go back and watch those plays like he's up at the level and you freeze it and it's like two on the ball with dorant handling it or booker handling it and a four on three behind it and if you freeze it it looks bad for denver like oh my god there there's gonna be pass pass pass and then you unfreeze it and they retreat in precise exact timing with dorant picking up his dribble and aton rolling to like the timing is so that no one is open for too long no one is over committed i do think eight needs to set better picks is picks in game one we're not making enough contact and how can i just jump in there can i just yeah it's the difference between like regular season screen where everybody is slipping out right and it sounds good i couldn't agree with you more you got to have a big like we're you'll get open but we're trying to get dorant we're trying to get you booker more space right i thought that was the same thing with the centers for the nicks like if i went back everybody's slipping out no you got to hit these dudes to get brunch and enough separation to have a chance to create what you want to instead of slipping out so i agree with you and i agree with the four on three and i think that's why because you it you have to have that up to the level pick and roll scheme in and denver's done it you know they've they've used it and you have to be able to use it in the playoff sound just like we saw with sacramental when you're going against the very elite you have to have that you don't have to do it to everybody or every game or every possession but you have to have that in your arsenal and i i agree with you i thought denver handled themselves exceptionally well defensively and they got the benefit i think erin gordon was three for three from three so the open up reason they're going to give them yeah they're three point differential was so great in that game it was far to overcome particularly because phoenix doesn't get to the free throw line a whole lot either there was a play in the third quarter where it was a dorant eight and pick and roll on the left wing and and the first one kd didn't like what he saw pulled it out they like the rotations were on point he didn't like it so let's run it again dorant didn't even dribble once just slipped it to eight and so eight and catches the ball in a four on three but he's 22 feet from the rim and the nuggets are like we don't think you can beat us making plays in that level of space and they stepped up on him i think tori craig was in the dunker spot they stepped up on eight and bruce brown slid down from chris paul to account for tori craig in the dunker spot eight and swung it out to chris paul bruce brown like a like a freaking bullet closed on chris paul chris paul pump beat him off to dribble okay that's fine like we've got you we're in rotation but we've taken away the easiest stuff for you we're gonna make you drive and kick and pat chris paul drops it off to eight and who has like a 16 foot floater and misses it and to me that's a win for denver to force to get into a four on three and rotate with that kind of precision they rotated like when tori craig or a kogi and i thought starting a kogi was it was an interesting move it's it's something i talked about in my preview well they start a kogi to guard jamaal murray when they were in the strong side corner denver dispensed with the usual rules of help defense and were like we're helping off the strong side corner we don't care and they were on point and the other guy we got to talk about is murray what a playoffs for jamaal murray and you could tell right from this game one of this series the beauty of yokach and murray is if you have a favorable big man matchup you can post yokach 20 times a game and run your offense out of that if you don't and there's really no bad match up for yokach but eight and guards him pretty well in the post okay let's recalibrate our offense we'll we'll shift all of it to murray yokach pick and roll yokach had seven post touches in game one that's very low for him set 27 ball screens that was a six highest of the year and murray he's he is he's not the forgotten man in that pick and roll partnership because everyone's a bubble murray bubble murray i think people don't give his level of craft and smarts and timing enough respect so if you just watch some of those plays like his hesitation dribble and then he'll boom accelerate like in this little weird 12 foot away from the rim spot and that little acceleration will get eight and a slide over an extra foot will get yokach a catch eight feet from the basket instead of 14 feet from the basket and the floater is open he's just he is like a really artistic player who that two-man game just has like infinite variety to it it's beautiful to watch and he has been an absolute monster in this series and it was in one game and in the whole playoffs and i think it starts even before that with murray yokach is unselfishness okay so you have a uh a two-time MVP who may win it this year or may not and he's fine with two things not posting up a lot of guys at that level will be like no i can i can i'm great against everybody so just give me the ball that level of unselfishness permeates the entire team and then after game one and and murray had this brilliant game he goes and he just slides it in there yeah he's our best player like can you imagine what that does for your team when you're the best player in the league for two years in a row or the most valuable and maybe a third just slide you know just says you know and we're following our best player and he does this with his teammates all the time he's he's an absolute giver he takes blame and he takes no credit you just don't see that you just don't see that and i think like the tone that sets and it gives murray the freedom to know that he's not going to be second-guessed by this guy for for doing too much or trying to you know as you said uh be artistic i mean murray's a great offensive player and you know that he's not being constrained at all by oh if i shot too many times as a ball needs to get back to yokech you know instead i'm gonna do the half steve smith spin dark novitsky one leg you know fade away i'm like what what a combo you just busted out by the way like like like people shouldn't just gloss over that you're saying jim all murray can combine the smitty and the one-legged step back like think about the skill level for a six one six two whatever he is point guard to do that right and and i i mean he's like he is an offensive force who has unfortunately been hurt um and and now like he also has this guy who's encouraging him to do it go like don't worry about me i'll i'll get mine like believe like yokech is one of those guys i truly believe you know everybody says it because we as we force him to say it all i care about his wing and we know if if 99 of the lead was to uh up to a lighter detector test the dot dot dot would be if i get my way right i really believe yokech is the one percent who you could end the statement all i care about is winning and and and that's the truth and my and my horses in some more certain horses and but i think he wants to put that doesn't mean he doesn't have pride in his game he obviously you don't reach that level without tremendous pride and confidence but i think he just like i don't think it's i think it's it's one of the great factors in why marie's able to to play well come back from major need why erin gordon has played exceptionally well like i think he helps everybody else and i think the guy he has to help right now is the rookie christian i know it's pronounced brown but it's broad to me because that's how it's spelled um he's got to play i think well like you know he's got to find his way i like him he's tough he's active but i think he's gonna face i'm not being guarded type of defense as well he's also they threw him on dorant a few times in game one i was like oh boy like and you wonder if they're just gonna have to attach gordon to dorant match the minutes almost exactly but they found something with this bench with with gordon and jeff green kind of at the center spot which is something i talked about at amaris of dnvr sports in the middle of the season i thought that they should go to that and brown is both browns are a big part of that porter they sometimes do the super lineup with yokichan eventually all right we need murray and porter come on we need everybody and porter's getting them buckets they found something with that the sun's countered by going with dorant at the five which i thought was interesting and something that they should they should continue to explore there this game too is going to be a lot of fun because look even if denver wins you shouldn't over react to the road team wins a series right like phoenix will be going home but it's hard to be a great team four times in five games i mean the warriors the warriors just did it so it's it's but but this is a different a different level of teams this is going to be a really interesting game tonight um and uh jeff van gondie just just can't thank you enough the analysis is on the broadcast everywhere else is is just there's just there's just nobody doing it like you so the combination of humor and just just catching stuff right like like there was one possession in that king's warriors game i can't remember which team it was but they switched up the match ups they had some like someone was guarding somebody else and you pointed it out just immediately and it's just it's the stuff it's the guts of the game and you're pointing it out in a way that's accessible for fans it's really it's really just tremendous work so i appreciate you coming on go wrong have a good rest of the day guys hey prime members did you know you could be listening to this episode of the low post ad-free on amazon music prime members get access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts avoid the ads and start listening to the low post and your favorite podcasts ad-free by downloading the Amazon Music app or by visiting amazon.com slash low.