The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Celtics-Heat ECF Game 1 Reaction: Jimmy Butler & Heat stun Jayson Tatum in Boston

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat's 123-116 win over Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Jason breaks down the reasons Jimmy Butler thrives in the playoffs, Jayson Tatum's poor shot selection, and the adjustments he expects both teams to make heading into Game 2. #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith ruling. of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Coverage of the Eastern Conference Finals here at Hoops tonight is brought to you by Chase

Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? All right, well, Jimmy Butler did it again. Don Manning performance on the road in Boston in game one to steal and take home court advantage as we head into game two with the heat up one game to nothing. I have picked every single playoff series correctly in this postseason run, except for Miami in the first round, except for Miami in the second round, and I picked against them again in round three. So if you're a heat fan,

you should just be happy that I keep picking against them because I could not be more wrong about this team as they continue to impress night in and night out. You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel. So you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. you guys don't miss any show announcements.

And last but not least, if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget, you can find them wherever you get to your podcast under hoops tonight. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, as we've said so many times over the course of this postseason, the reason why Jimmy Butler succeeds in the playoffs is this combination of size strength and athleticism, right, which helps him get to his spots on offense, gets him physical mismatches on offense,

and helps him be an impact player on the defensive end of the floor. When you combine that with his skill set and basketball IQ, it turns them into my personal favorite archetype of basketball player, which is that big rim-pressuring and playmaking forward. That's why LeBron James has been my favorite player of all time and the guy that got me to fall in love with the game of basketball. It's why I think guys like Luca Donchich are so successful in the NBA. I would actually argue Jimmy Butler kind of is a lesser version of LeBron James at his prime,

and that's a big part of why he's been such a dependably great playoff player. He has the size, speed, and skill to consistently attack lesser defenders on the floor. I've talked about this for years now, but in the NBA playoffs, schematically, coaches just find a way to slow down your pet actions in the plays that you run routinely throughout the season, right? So more often than not, it kind of breaks. down into matchups. Like Golden State ran the most magnificent motion offense in the NBA all season long,

like they always do. They run about twice as many actions per game as any other team in the NBA. They're always running sets, right? But all of a sudden, the teams can get in front of them, and it just turns into, hey, we got to give the ball to Steph Curry at the top of the key and let him try to pick specific matchups apart. No team is immune to that. By the end of the day, when you're allowed as much time to scout,

when you see the same team seven times in two weeks, it just breaks down into matchup hunting more often than not. And what happened down the stretch of this game? Jimmy Butler, just relentlessly calling Malcolm Brogden's man up in ball screens, getting him on a switch, working him down to somewhere in that 8 to 15 foot area, where you can get an easy short jump shot that he knows he can make. consistently at a high percentage without getting bothered by the smaller defender that's guarding him.

And here's the thing, Malcolm Bracken's a good defensive player. It's not about that. It's about the size mismatch, which is a natural thing that occurs in basketball games, right? We literally just watched this in last night's game as LeBron James did the exact same thing to Jamal Murray. Just pulling him up into ball screens, every single possession, getting him on switches or catching him in hedges, to find the open shooter. And that's what Jimmy's doing. Jimmy's doing the exact same thing.

There's a play where he gets Malcolm Brogden buried under the rim, kind of right by the right block. And Malcolm Brogden comes in and helps out of the corner and leaves Caleb Martin wide open and Jimmy Butler hits him because that's the other side of it. You start to attack those mismatches. You dictate an adjustment from the defense in the coverage. For Jimmy Butler tonight, it was double teams.

For LeBron James last night, it was hedges. But you're finding that opening. that comes when the defense tries to keep you away from attacking those matchups, and you end up just getting better shots than everybody. That at the end of the day is the best way to score in the NBA playoffs. Have an offensive player that can routinely attack one of your defensive players, regardless of lineup that you have out there, and you're going to get higher quality shots.

Here's the funny thing. Boston has similar matchup advantages on the other end of the court. They can pick on Gabe Vincent, who is a strong guard, but he's a little bit undersized, or excuse me, Max Trues, as a strong guard who's a little bit undersized. Gabe Vincent's like legitimately a small, thin guard. They can attack him. But here's the problem.

Jason Tatum has gone from being a versatile three-level score to an analytically driven, top of the key, above the break, three-point shooter who attacks the rim and looks to draw fouls. He's turned himself into a two-dimensional score. And Jalen Brown has a lot of that creative shot making and the ability to attack matchups in the mid-range, but he doesn't see the floor well enough

to avoid some of the problems that come when the defense starts to send multiple defenders towards him. That's the difference. When we talk about this series, and I talked about this in the series preview, and we're going to look at two specific things here. I want to talk about the overall team shot chart in Eric Spolstra, but what was the first thing I said?

As Miami's path to the series, Jimmy Butler has to play like he did in the first round, and he did. His pull-up jump shooting really cooled off in that second round series against the Knicks. He hit all the same shots that he hit against Milwaukee in tonight's game. That is a absolute must for Miami to win this series. Jimmy Butler has to be making those turnaround jump shots over both shoulders, the occasional pull-up three.

He's got to have the same command of the game that he did against Milwaukee, and he absolutely did. He was by far the best player in the Florida night. He looked like the one savvy veteran in a game full of young stars, right? and as long as that dynamic continues, Miami has an excellent chance to win this series. What was the second thing that I said that Miami had to do to win this series? I said, Eric Spolstra had to scheme the Celtics into their worst tendencies, leading them to long extended stretches of bad basketball,

which has been one of their weaknesses for a couple years now. Well, they had 66 points in the first half. Everything was working, but then they only had 50 points in the second half. what did i talk about a lot um in the uh the sixer series as it pertains to uh um the the philly stealing games from them boston only wants to take threes and shots at the rim right if you pull up uh my twitter feed i tweeted out the shot chart from tonight's game and i put them next to each other juxtaposed and you'll see the shot disparity that miami has their shot variety i should say in the shot variety that boston has and Boston only attempted a small handful of shots outside of the restricted area and inside the

three-point line. Miami attempted dozens of shots outside the restricted area and inside the three-point line. As a result, like for instance, like Jimmy Butler can drive past Malcolm Brogden, but if he does, he's going to run into rim protection, right? So what he's taking are the shots before the rim protection. Miami has a really, easy defensive responsibility against Boston relative to some of the other teams. Like if they face, let's say they face the Lakers or Nuggets in the second round, it's going to be an entirely different journey. Dealing with Yokic and Murray or dealing with LeBron James and Anthony Davis or Austin Reeves,

who's a great mid-range player. Against Boston, chase them off the three-point line, funnel them to the basket. If you have rim protection there, you'll have to bait, you'll bait them into making consistently great rim decisions, which is something they struggle with. I'm going to use two plays from this game to kind of demonstrate what I'm talking about. And they were both with Jason Tatum. So it's late in the fourth quarter, Boston's offense is struggling. The announcers on TNT are begging for Jason Tatum to get involved.

So they run a five-out spacing situation where Jason Tatum gets Max Truce on a switch. Okay. So mistake number one, they stay in their traditional five-out spacing. So Tatum's right squarely at the top of the key. There's two players immediately on the wing and two players in the corners. So what does that mean? The two players on the wing, their defenders are digging down into the driving lanes, right? So Jimmy Butler, I believe, was on Jalen Brown on the right wing.

He's slid over kind of standing there so that if Jason Tatum drives to the right past Max Truce, Jimmy Butler is waiting for him, right? Max Trues also knows that Jason Tatum's not going to back him down because that's just not in his game anymore. So all he has to do is press up on the three. So Jason Tatum tries to mix into his little pull-up three-point shot that he takes. all the time, but Max Drews is stunting up into his shooting pocket to dissuade that specific shot. Jason Tatum ends up picking up his dribble and no one's open, right? Because he hasn't compromised the defense in any single way. So he tries to throw a swing pass over to the side

to Jalen Brown and guess who's waiting right there in the passing lane, Jimmy Butler? What would Jimmy Butler have done in that exact same situation? He gets a switch on Max Truce, right? He's going to be like, all of you go over to that side of the floor. I want the entire right side of the floor to myself. That way, even if they do want to shade over, I've got the entire baseline side to work. And if they zone up over on the baseline, you're leaving one of my shooters open. Okay, now I've got the space. I'm turning my back. I'm backing him down. I'm getting into that 10-foot area where I can get a short jump shot that I know I can make every single time. That's the difference. That's quality matchup hunting versus whatever the hell Jason Tatum was trying

to do to Max Truist on that possession. There's another possession. Later, in the fourth quarter. Jason Tatum catches on the right wing, or left wing. And I believe Caleb Martin is the defender closing out. Caleb Martin knows, I just have to chase him off the three-point line. That is my schematic responsibility, per the orders from Eric Spolstra. Jason Tatum wants that three-point shot so badly. He rises up, even though the defender's closing out, changes his mind at the last second, picks up his pivot foot off the ground, and gets called for travel. Jason Tatum committed three consecutive turnovers in that fourth quarter. That's the difference.

When things bogged down, when the coaching removes your base scheme offensively, you need a guy that can consistently attack matchups. And here's the thing. Against Philly, it worked. Why? Because Joe L. Embed can't guard on the perimeter. And when you attack Joe L.N. B., there's no rim protection. So Jason Tadam was able to pull Joel Embed out to the perimeter,

and Joel Embed either had to consider. see a three-point shot to him because he's not quick enough, or press up on Jason Tatum, at which point he's going to dust him to the basket, and there's nobody waiting at the rim. That's the difference. You're not attacking Bametabio. That's a terrible idea. So you've got to attack one of their smaller guards, and you can't beat him off the dribble, because if you do, you're going to run into all this help. So you need to have a reliable back-to-the-basket game, which Jason Tatum was building out in the early phase of his career, and he's completely abandoned it. and Jalen Brown is capable of that,

but he doesn't see the floor well enough to make the right reads when the defense sends multiple defenders to him. As a result, Boston, who's a team that wants to attempt a million threes, only got 29 three-point shots up. So everything that Miami needs to win this series kind of manifested in this game.

They got a dominant defensive performance at a BAM out of Bile. I thought BAM was great in general. I thought he scored extremely well in the short role. He helped them manage ball pressure in the beginning of the game just by bringing the ball at the floor. He had timely isolations and post-ups when he had the right matchup and the right amount of space. Eric Spolstra, genius game planned to make Boston feel uncomfortable.

Vintage Jimmy Butler playoff gem. All the things broke right. The other thing that stood out to me is just the difference in the rhythm of both teams. So I talked about this a lot after game five against Philly for Boston. But in that game, it was really simple down the stretch. James Harden had the ball every single time, and he would run a pick and roll with Joel Embed, and he'd drop that little pocket pass into Embed at the foul line,

and he'd go to work. And because of that, they were in a great rhythm, because both of those guys are just doing the same thing every single time. Meanwhile, on the other end of the floor, it's like, this time Malcolm Brogden coops the possession, this time Jaylen Brown coops the possession, this time Jason Tatum coops the possession. Oh, like, here's this random Derek White possession in there.

Oh, Mark is Smart. just decided it's his turn. There's so many hands in the pot in Boston. And that's a big part of what went wrong for them offensively down the stretch of this game. You go five possessions at a time where your best player doesn't touch the ball. Whereas on the other end of the floor,

it's Jimmy Butler, top of the key, every single time, finding the matchup he wants, and getting to his spot and going to work. I do think regardless of what happens to Boston in this playoff run, They need to consider targeting players that are actually willing to just disappear into the team concept and be a guy that's like, hey, my touches are going to come in spot up situations only. You know, like, or like think of the way that Rui Hachamura is involved with the Lakers.

Oh, I have a great matchup here in the second quarter, throw me the ball. But if it's the fourth quarter, like I'm spotting up. and LeBron, you've got it, every single possession, right? Like, they need to simplify their order of operations offensively when they get through this season. I understand going after a guy like Malcolm Brogden because of the ball handling limitations of Tatum and Brown. And maybe that's the fundamental issue there is your two stars. You have neither of those guys are super comfortable having the ball in their hands all game. But as a result, you've just got a bunch of guys that can take over the offense.

And so as a result, they can go through these extended, when it's, when it's humming, it looks amazing. Their offense looks ridiculous when they have it all going because there's so much skill on the floor. There's so much ball handling. There's so much shooting. But there's not a good hierarchy there. And so I think that's something that they might have to take a look at in the future regardless of what happens in this postseason. All right, I want to do a couple of shoutouts to some Miami players, and then we're going to go over some adjustments for Boston. So Kyle Lowry had an amazing heater in the second quarter as a pull-up jump shooter that I thought helped keep them in the game.

There was a stretch there in the early third quarter where the heat were down nine, and Max Struce hit like a crazy late clock pound dribble between his legs. There was like a four dribble combination into a pull-up three on the right wing that he hit. Then they forced a turnover, and Kevin Love in transition on the left wing, like just pulls up and hits a transition three. all of a sudden it goes from nine to three like that feels like a brand new ballgame those are some big plays Gabe Vincent obviously has been fantastic in this entire playoff run out I thought he had a massive relocation three to the top of the key I think it was in a Spain pick and roll possession if I remember correctly because he relocated to the top but a lot of a lot of timely contributions from these guys and man I like I've said all postseason long I I cannot believe how wrong I've been about this team all right adjustments for Boston like I said proper matchup hunting

So if you're going to target Miami's weaker defenders, clear the side of the floor so that they can't help unless they zone up on the baseline side, in which case you're going to have kickout passes. But most likely you're going to have the entire baseline side to work. Stop trying to hunt. Pull up threes or driving to the basket. Stop trying to hunt fouls. Actually, just turn your damn back, back your defender down, get to a spot where you, as Jason Tatum at 6-9 or Jalen Brown at 6-7, who's bigger, stronger, more athletic, and has the skill set to knock down these short kind of in-between shots. Go take those shots.

That is the stuff that Eric Spolsha is allowing in his defensive scheme, and you are currently unwilling to take it. That is a key offensive adjustment for them. Here's the second one. And I think this is their only hope to stop Jimmy Butler. They have to play just one guard in crunch time. So I don't understand the point of having Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogden out there. if on offense the goal is to eventually run everything through Tatum, right?

Or just forget about that. Tatum, Brown, and Smart is plenty of ball handling for the closing lineup. So by putting Brogden out there, if he's not going to be running the offense, all you're doing is giving Jimmy Butler a defender to attack, while on the offensive end of the floor he's an offball player. It was just spotting up. So if that's the case, have Marcus Smart be your one guard on the floor, So that at least if Jimmy Butler wants to attack a smaller guard,

he's attacking the defensive player of the year from last year and a player that's much better at defending up position-wise than Malcolm Brogden is. And again, you have two options there that I think makes sense. You can either go big with Robert Williams, but then again, that's rim protection. You're giving Miami rim protection by allowing Bayametabio to stay by the rim. So that means Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum have to be comfortable taking those turnaround jump shots or easy little kind of like short to mid-range shots,

or go with Grant Williams. Like, Grant Williams was a staple in the rotation last year. Why? Because he defends and he's big, and he's the kind of guy that Jimmy Butler's not going to be able to just relentlessly attack matchup-wise, and he can knock down the occasional three when you kick out to him.

So, yeah, as Malcolm Brogg didn't get a knockdown that kick-out three at a higher rate? Yeah. Is he going to be able to attack a close-out a little better? Yeah. But at the very least, you're limiting the match-up options that Jimmy Butler can attack. I know he's in the doghouse with Missoula, but like, that would be, that would be what I would do, is at the end of the game, if I was coaching the Celtics, I'd go with Marcus Smart, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, Grant Williams, and Al Horford.

And that gives me decent five-out spacing, and it gives me better defensive matchups to contain the Jimmy Butler problem. Man, all right, big game one. I like to think Boston's going to come back and get game two. Actually, for Heat fans, I'll just say it. I think Boston's going to come back and win game two. so maybe I'll just continue to be wrong for you guys. But man, highly entertaining series. I'm having a lot of fun watching this Miami Heat team. I'm so impressed by them because they do so many things that, you know, the diehard basketball fans love, right?

All the little things that win basketball games. And Jimmy Butler just, man, an all-time great playoff run from Jimmy Butler. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. I will see you guys tomorrow after the final buzzer of Lakers Nuggets game two. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL. Night Comedy Guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends.

Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympic. where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith Rule of Two. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever, you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.