The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - FILM SESSION: Celtics Torch Mavs In Game 1

Episode Date: June 8, 2024

Jason Timpf breaks down all the film from Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks and gives you his biggest takeaways from the tape! 4:30 - How Boston disrupted Dallas on both ends 14:00 - Porzingis showed why he’s the “Ceiling Raiser” for Boston 16:00 - Dallas needs to reprogram their defensive instincts 17:00 - Boston’s bad stretch 25:00 - Adjustments for Dallas 30:00 - Start of film study 32:00 - Offensive glass an issue for Dallas 39:00 - Boston broke Dallas’s pick n roll 42:30 - Jaylen Brown attacked Luka 49:00 - How Boston regained control after bad stretch and time out (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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As promised, we're going to do a deep dive into game one of the NBA finals. We're going to do a monologue off the top where I go over everything I found in my film session. Then we'll do the film session at the end. I have 39 clips to go through. So we're going to do a deep dive into game one. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel. So you don't miss any more of our videos.

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That's H-O-O-P-S for $20 off your first purchase. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the game one of this series kind of fell pretty cleanly in line with a lot of the things that I was expecting coming into the series. I specifically talked about the idea of putting Jason Tatum onto Daniel Gafford and forcing, they actually ended up putting Horford to start the game on Derek Jones Jr.

But Derek Jones, instead of PJ Washington, but Derek Jones Jr. and PJ Washington ended up getting a lot of minutes where Porzingis or Horford were guarding them. And so that fundamentally altered Dallas's approach in pick and roll, right? We were seeing Gafford and Lively have to sit in the dunker spot with Tatum on them while Derek Jones and PJ Washington were trying to figure out how to pop and roll properly with Luca and Kyrie in ball screens. And just neither of them are very good above the break three point shooters. Neither of them are great roll men in ball screens, especially when there's more traffic on the backline with Tatum and Lively and Gafford being down there.

You saw that directly affect Dallas's ability to attack and pick and roll. Boston ended up doing a lot more switching than I expected to. We saw Horford hold up really well. We saw a bunch of other guys hold up really well in switches. we saw on the offensive end for Boston. We saw how they were able to space Dallas out and challenge their depth of perimeter personnel. We saw Luca struggle to contain on an island

in straight ISO situations and giving up a lot of dribble penetration. Just a lot of the things that we talked about being a problem for Dallas in this series kind of manifested. Chrisops for Zingis, spacing the floor, hitting threes, and then beating switches in the high post.

It was, again, just one game, but the first game in this chess match kind of went exactly as I expected. And I even said before the series that I thought that Boston would have at least two blow out victories in the series. And we got our first one here in game one tonight. I want to go over some metrics and then we're going to go into specifics of all those little things that I just talked about and get into some more detail and then we'll get into the film.

So a couple metrics. Dallas scored zero points from the role. in this game. Zero. They averaged nine per game against Minnesota and 10 per game against Oklahoma City. That is a direct result of their ability to put Jason Tatum onto Daniel Gafford and Derek lively so that you're bringing your big guys into ball screens and you're just getting Tatum in a switch if you do that. Or if you want to attack the center, you have to bring PJ Washington or Derek Jones

into the action. Actually, in retrospect, I'm surprised that we didn't see Minnesota try that more. like put jaden McDaniels on Gafferter-Lively and put Gobert on like a PJ Washington and Derek Jones Jr. to try to disrupt Dallas's pick and roll attack. In retrospect, that's something they probably should have tried because you saw how much it kind of

discombobulated Dallas last night. In ball screens, Boston got 1.26 points per possession including passes. Dallas only got 0.89. Another big kind of like indicator of those things that I was just talking about. Isolation defense. Boston

did a lot of switching in this game. Even in ball screens with Horford in particular, they ran a lot of switching with Horford and they, you know, but Dallas was hunting Horford. They were hunting Sam Hauser. They were hunting Peyton Pritchard and all those guys just held up really well on isolations. They, um, Dallas I so 24 times in the game, including passes and got just 0.5 four points per possession. So tip of the cap to the entire Boston roster, all of those guys just did a really, really good job. Again, we're going to get into some more specifics there in a, in a minute. I'm just kind of going over the numbers right now. Jump shooting. Boston outshot Dallas badly. 1.07 points per jump shot. Dallas only got 0.85. That also doesn't really reflect the difference

because Boston got cold towards the tail end of the game, but they were red hot early when they went up by 29 points. Dallas really struggled to get Boston into rotation. the dead giveaway there was the spot-up possessions. Boston was constantly getting Dallas in rotation and getting great opportunities to take catch-and-shoot threes or drive closeouts. They generated 34 spot-up possessions in this game. Dallas generated only 12. So that's a massive indicator.

To me, the total number of spot-up possessions is a great way to just kind of take a look at how often you're getting the defense into rotation. And Boston just did a way better job of it than Dallas. Now, let's get into some of the specifics. So defending on switches. So we saw this early in the game. A lot of Horford switching on to Luca in ball screens and then holding up really well in isolation.

We also saw Boston go with a too big look with Porzingis and Horford on the floor together. That ended up being interesting because when Luca would like go to hunt Al Horford, Porzengis was also on the backline, which kind of took away that driving opportunity for Luca and allowed Horford to kind of overplay the mid-range. three point pull-up game, right? And so that helped Horford a lot, but I thought he just did an unbelievable job on Luca Donchitz in this game. I have a bunch of clips in the film session that you guys will see. Sam Hauser, there's a stretch where Kyrie and Luca were both hunting him, and he got multiple stops, ripped Luca clean on an ISO on the right elbow, got a great contest on a three above the break. He forced Kyrie into a jump shot off the side of the backboard in the

left corner. Hauser held up really well. He hit a couple of big threes in that. stretch as well. Really nice shift from Samhouser in that first half. Peyton Pritchard came into the game and had to guard Kyrie for a little bit. Got a couple of big stops on him. Just everybody in Boston, in a Boston uniform just held up really well in their perimeter assignments. Again, 0.54 points per ISO, including passes for Dallas. That's a major tip of the cap to the Boston perimeter defenders. Boston completely shut down Dallas's pick and roll attack. And I found it really fascinating. And it was a combination of a bunch of different things. First of all, like we talked about earlier, having Tatum on Gafford and Lively, and then putting Porzingus and Horford either on

Derek Jones Jr. or PJ Washington, I'll show you guys a bunch of clips of like Josh Green, PJ Washington, Daniel, Derek Jones Jr. struggling to know what to do in those ball screens. When they pop, they miss a three above the break. Or like Josh Green at one point like drove and missed a bad floater in the lane because he didn't know what to do when he popped on the ball screen. When they tried to roll to the basket, there's just a lot of traffic in there and they're not great vertical spacers. That caused issues. In the drop coverage, both Horford and Porzingas had drop coverage possessions where they got awesome contests on Luca and Kyrie driving downhill. Jaden Hardy had a couple of bad possessions in drop coverage driving against Boston's drop

coverage where he had bad misses at the rim. Excellent defense from Boston's from Boston centers. The switching. That's another great way to cover a ball screen as long as your big guys can defend in space against someone like Luca or Kyrie. Porzingis gave up a couple of step back threes to Luca, but Horford in particular, they didn't want to switch with Porzingis. Luca just kind of dragged him out a couple of times and he had to, but Horford was just magnificent on switches against Luca. It did a lot of damage to Dallas's ball screen. So in the regular season, and Dallas averaged 1.01 points per possession in ball screens, including passes. They got 0.89 last night. So substantial dip in their production and one of their most important

play types because of all of the work that Boston did defensively. One of the things, too, is like when guys defend well on switches and when you can defend in your drop coverage and when they don't know what to do with the role man in terms of PJ and Derek Jones Jr., that allows your other players to stay home. So like another big kind of story. last night was the two big storylines from last night from Boston defensively was they were taking away the lob dunks and they were taking away the corner threes.

The lob dunks, in order to get those lob dunks, a couple of different things need to happen. In straight ISO situations, Luca needs to get deep penetration so that he can manipulate the rim protector to step over and help so that he can throw the lob to the big man out of the

basket. On ball, the switching defenders were just keeping Luca further away from the basket, not allowing him to manipulate the rim protector. In those ball screens, the lob, it's just really difficult to find those opportunities unless they're like in the last series where it's lively and Gafford picking from the top of the key and then rolling hard so that they have a head of steam and they can get their one, two down and jump nice and high so that Luca can give them a pass with such a big window for them to finish.

Going straight vertical from under the basket is just a lot harder. It's a smaller window and you need to generate more. you need to manipulate that rim protector more. And so putting Tatum on Gafford and lively basically neutralized the lob game in pick and rolled. As far as the corner threes go, in order to generate corner threes, you have to force those help defenders in the corner to actually help guard the action. And they just didn't need to because of all the things we just talked about. Because of the fact that they weren't a threat to kick back to PJ Washington or Derek Jones,

on the pop because when those guys would roll hard, they weren't the vertical spacing threats that Gafford and Lively are. Because Tatum was holding up underneath the rim against Gafford and Lively, that allowed them to guard that action basically three on three, right? With Luca and his defender, with the screener and his defender, and with Tatum in the center, all just kind of working in the middle of the floor. That allowed those corner three point shooters to be accounted for by Boston's off-ball defenders because they did not have to come into the action to help stop it because they were having success guarding it three on three. And so by virtue of doing that, you take away the corner threes, you take away the lob dunks,

and then all of a sudden Dallas's pick and roll attack falls apart. Christop's Porzingis, as I said last night with Colin, I thought last night was just an excellent showcase of everything that makes him a ceiling razor for this Boston team. The three-point shooting, he hit threes in pick and pop. I've got examples of all this on film. He had threes on picking pop. He had threes spacing the floor.

There's a long one on the right wing where Luka was kind of sinking down to the nail. And it was just a swing pass. And Porzengis hit like a 27 footer, right? Trailing threes in transition. I've got that in the film session where Porzengis is just trailing the play as everyone else is driving. And then he just gets a little pitch back and knocks down a 25 footer on the left wing. He was amazing spacing the floor as a shooter. Beating switches.

There was a stretch there in the second quarter. or like every time down the floor, Porzingis was getting a smaller guard on him in those ball screen switches, just walking him down to the elbow and getting great looks in post-up situations there at the elbow in scoring. And then his rim protection as well.

Like obviously highlight plays like him blocking Josh Green in transition when he tried to dunk on him. But he was just really good in his drop coverage at the rim, bothering shots for Dallas. I thought he was incredible. Jalen Brown,

physical ball pressure on Luca up the, floor. This is a big part of just like being a pain in the ass and setting the tone and making a player feel uncomfortable. He just picked up Luca full court and made him work on his way up. He had two separate possessions where he ripped Luca clean either right after half court or before half court and got run out dunks the other way. Those are not only is that points on the scoreboard, but that adds to just the level of discomfort and the lack of confidence that Luca displayed in in this particular game. I thought Jalen Brown really set the tone

with what he did on the defensive end of the floor. Also had a big stretch of rim protection in the second half where he was in help side making plays at the rim. Big block on Derek Jones Jr. On a drop step dunk attempt out of the left dunker spot, he was incredible. Next big note, Dallas really needs to reprogram their defensive instincts.

I'm going to show you guys a bunch of examples of this on film. But in the Minnesota series, it really in all of the other series is that they were playing in, they were swarming the ball, swarming SGA, swarming Jalen Williams, you know, swarming Anthony Edwards,

swarming Carl Anthony Towns because those guys just weren't surrounded by the requisite amount of shooting to make teams pay for sending all those additional bodies at the basketball. Every single time they did that to Boston last night, those guys made the right reads and generated quality three-point shots

and made them pay for it. In this series, they're going to have to reprogram the way they think about help defense. They have to stay home. because this team is such a good three-point shooting team that you're better off trying to bait them into ISOs. And even if they score an ISO, it'll probably be less efficient

than what they're getting out of their catch-and-shoe three-point shooting at this point in this type of match-up. And so, again, Dallas is really going, I'll show you guys some examples on film. All these possessions where a guy kind of gets a little bit downhill and then like three black jerseys will coalesce around him. And then it's just a kick out in a wide-open three from there. that's something that they're going to have to figure out.

Boston's bad stretch. So they go up 29 and then Dallas cuts it to 8. And, you know, I had all these Boston fans like, it's a game of runs. It's a game of runs. It's like, yeah, but, like, ideally, you don't go from being up 29 to only up by 8. I'm sure that you prefer to flatten that out a little bit

so that you regain control the game when they get it down to 17 or 18 points, right? like this is something that has burned Boston over the course of this season. They did blow leads against Golden State against Cleveland. I mean, they blew a 22 point lead in the fourth quarter against Cleveland and lost a game. And so like, I do think it like even though Boston won and it was super impressive in this game, it was concerning. And they did, they played really, really bad basketball over that stretch. They had, this is crazy.

As I was watching, I literally could not believe this. From 1 18 left in the second quarter. to 822 left in the third quarter. So what's that almost five minutes of game time there? Over the course of that span, they did not get the ball in the paint a single time. Literally once, they did not get the ball in the paint a single time. They just passed the ball around the perimeter and took bad three-point shots.

And in the process, over that span from 118 to 822, they cut the lead. So the following two possessions, Tatum did at the 822 mark in the third quarter, quarter. The first paint touch was Drew Holliday dribbled up the floor and took a terrible transition three that barely grazed the front of the rim. Derek White got the offensive rebound and got fouled. That's how we got to the line. That was their first paint touch over the course of that span, right? From there, I guess it was only a four-minute span, not a five-minute span. Anyway, from there, Tatum had a driving turnover on the next possession where he got in the paint, but he turned it over. than the following possession, they had another zero paint touch possession.

So two paint touches total. One was an offensive rebound foul and one driving turnover from the 118 mark of the second quarter to what does that take you down to like the seven minute mark of the third quarter? That was when the lead got cut from 26 to 14. Then from there, Luca and Kyrie had their confidence. That's when Kyrie hit that tough left shoulder fade. Luca hits a step back three. All of a sudden it's an eight point game.

From there, Joe Missoula calls a timeout. And for the record, right here at 8, it could have been a lot worse. In that same span, Dallas was not playing well. Kyrie missed two wide open threes and an open mid-range jumper. Luca took a really bad step back three against Al Horford. He got blocked. He kicked the ball away on a turnover a separate time. The role players missed a couple of layups in that stretch.

Like, given how poorly Boston was playing, Dallas could have taken the lead or pushed it a little bit over the course of that stretch. but thankfully for Boston's sake, Dallas wasn't playing very well at that point. But to Boston's credit, they righted the ship. Joe Missoula calls a timeout. As I mentioned last night with Colin Cowherd, I thought the main adjustment was just get back to driving and kicking. That was exactly what they did. They went right back to driving and kicking on six of their first seven possessions. After the timeout, they had quality driving kick possessions all from Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum.

Three of them, actually four of them were driving at Luca Donchich. All of them were just trying to get Luca and switches, beating him off the dribble, making kickout passes, and getting high quality threes from there. Again, there's a huge difference in Boston's offense between when they get paint touches before their threes versus when they just pass the ball around on the perimeter and get threes. When they pass the ball on the perimeter and take threes,

they go through cold spells and they lose control of basketball games. when they are deliberate about playing driving kick basketball, they can be frightening and really, really difficult to beat because of just the quality of the shooting that they have and the quality of the passing that they have when they start playing driving kick basketball. So again, you saw that for roughly, what's that? Roughly six minutes of game time, you get two paint touches,

you go from 26 point lead to an eight point lead, right? You go six of your first seven possessions after the time out where you get quality driving kicks, all of a sudden you have a 19 point lead, right? I think the Horford three, no, no, it was a Tatum three at the top of the key off of a, no, it was a Horford three. Because Jalen Brown had back-to-back driving kicks at the end of the run. One was that ended up in Tatum's hand on the top of the key

and then a Horford one in the left corner. All of a sudden they were up 22. They were literally up 22 because of just getting back to what makes them great, which is playing that drive-and-kick basketball. So again, paint to great is a cliche. You hear a lot in the game of basketball, and that is especially true for Boston. Again, I'm not trying to hyper focus on the bad stretch.

And I'm very impressed that they were able to regain control the situation and do what they were supposed to do, get the ball in the paint, make those driving kick plays, regain control. But they just have to be careful because, again, Dallas will respond at some point in this series. And if you have four or five more stretches like that in this series, this thing could drag out and Dallas could have an opportunity. If you limit those stretches, you're going to win.

I'll make it more. I'll just take it a step further. If you limit those stretches, you could win this series in five games. You can win this series in four games. That's the level of talent advantage that you have in this matchup. You just have to be deliberate about the way that you execute on the offensive end of the floor. Again, completely inexcusable for a team with as much talent and athleticism as this Boston team has to go almost five minutes of game time without getting the ball in the paint.

That's just something that can't happen. 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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football,

or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations,

stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look

Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode, with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now.

Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Adjustments for Dallas moving forward into game two.

On the offensive end of the floor, I have a bunch of different notes here because this is going to be a challenge. This is not easy. These are not easy, simple like, oh, just do this and then everything will be fine. These are a little things they can try to attempt to free up a little bit more opportunity for their players to get into the paint and to generate those lob dunks in corner threes. one, get the ball up the floor quicker so that you have more time to work for better matchups. We saw Luca getting hounded in the back court by Jalen Brown. You can either set back court screens to try to free Luke up so he can get up the floor cleaner or two, just have Kyrie bring the ball up the floor.

Have him bring the ball at the floor with pace. He's a little bit faster. Get yourself up the floor. You can run an off ball action for Luca to try to get a switch during the same sequence so that you can kind of work for those matchups. try to get Derek White on the Luca to start the possession. Another type of screen you can set to help free things up into a ball screen. What if you just run a RAM screen?

Now, what a RAM screen is is when you have a player pinned down, like set a screen down on your role man's defender so that he can come up and set the ball screen. So now imagine this. You have Derek lively on the floor. He's standing underneath the basket, okay? He's got Jason Tatum on him, which is the problem. problem because if he comes up into the screen, he's just going to switch onto Luca, right?

Well, let's say Derek Jones Jr. has Christops Porzingis on him. Okay. What he would do is Derek Jones Jr. would just run down and set a hard screen on Jason Tatum. Okay. If he sets a hard screen on Jason Tatum and actually makes good contact while at the same time lively sprints up to go set the ball screen, if he does that, Tatum will, in all, likelihood switch with Porzingis. And Porzengis will then go up to the screen with Lively. Then PJ Washington or Derek Jones, whoever sets that screen, can clear Tatum out to a spot up position.

Then you're in your traditional matchups where you have Porzengis in the ball screen so that Luca can attack and now Lively can roll hard to the rim. Did not see that last night. We'll hope to see that in game too. Just literally have whoever Porzengis is guarding set a hard. RAM screen or down screen on Tatum so that live Lear Gafford can sprint up into the ball screen and have an opportunity to actually be a vertical spacer in pick and roll. I think that's something they could do. This is all part of the pacing of it. You've got to get the ball up the floor

quickly so that you have time to do this kind of stuff. More hunting of the guards instead of hunting Horford. So one of the things that Luca did a lot is just bring PJ or PJ, or PJ, Eric Jones, Jr., PJ, Washington, whoever Horford was on, into the screen, get Horford on a switch, and then look to attack Horford. Horford is a really big, strong player who's a great positional defender. He's not a guy that's super aggressive. What he is, is he reads your body language. He beats you to spots and he takes contact in the shoulder and he makes really good contests. That's how he has so much success against guys like Joel and Bede, for instance, over the course of his career.

The power players, he fares really well against. but Luca can look to attack the guards. They did not post up very much last night. They only had five postups in the entire game, but they got 1.6 points per possession out of it. That's really good. So running more guard screens for Luca so that he can look to attack not in a ball screen

but through ISO and post-up situations with a smaller defender on him. I think that's a better option than trying to target, even like a Hauser who's 6-8 and can kind of absorb some of the contact. Like go after the smaller players if you're not, having success in pick and roll. So those are all some tactical things they can do. But here's the reality.

Boston is switching a lot. So Kyrie and Luca just have to be better. 0.5, 4 points per ISO is not going to cut it. They're going to have to win more of those battles by getting buckets and getting into the lane, drawing multiple defenders and making quality kickout passes. They were both. Luca's always going to fill up the box score. The guys at the top of the league typically do, but I did not think Luca played a good game.

He was abysmal on the defensive end of the floor, which is what we're about to get to right now. On the defensive end, rewire your thinking to stay home off the ball. We talked about that earlier, but you cannot afford to be swarming the basketball against Boston. They are too good at shooting and passing out of it and then knocking down shots to make you pay. So they need to do a better job of staying home off the ball.

Two, Luca just has to do a way better job of containing the basketball. I've got damn near 10 clips in here of Luca getting toasted off the dribble and bad things happening to Dallas's defense as a result. He just has to do a better job. And then lastly, I put in all caps. Just do a better job. That means everything that you're doing needs to be done with more pace, with more force.

Every close out needs to be harder. Every screen needs to be harder. Every cut needs to be harder. Every drive needs to be harder. You need to sit in a defensive stance better, slide your feet, better, help and rotate better. Everything just has to be way better for Dallas heading into game two. All right, on that note, let's get into the film.

All right, our first clip here, one of the things I thought was interesting with Boston switching, or Dallas doing some switching. Tatum ended up getting Kyrie Irving on him in this switch situation. And what you see here is Jalen Brown misses a three. But look, Derek Jones Jr. tries to get back in front and box him out. But this is Tatum just being way bigger than these guys. And he just cleanly gets the offensive rebound and makes a kick out past the Derek White.

who knocks down the three. You're going to see several examples of that, where Dallas getting caught up in some switches and some cross-matches caused some problems for them on the defensive glass, especially in the early portion of the game. Very similar thing here. As you can see on this possession, Gafford is actually guarding Derek White, and Derek White relocates out to the right corner. And as he relocates to the right corner,

as Jalen Brown makes this kickout pass, as Derek White gets his kickout pass, Gafford has to close. Because Gafford has to close, now Al Horford is under the basket with all of these smaller players on him. And Al Horford gets a big rebound that gets kicked out for Jalen Brown who knocks down, or misses the three, but it was another opportunity there. So again, offensive glass became a factor early because Dallas was getting into some cross matches off of switches and in transition. Here's one of the possessions where Horford switched on to Luca. So again, we get a ball screen. This was one of the things that I appreciated with Joe Mazzula too. This was a, this was

a dead ball situation where randomly, for no particular reason, Missoula switched Horford back onto Gafford and Tatum back onto Derek Jones. This was not their base scheme. They did the opposite of this, the majority of the game, but they randomly did it just to mix up the coverage. This is a great way to just keep an offense off balance. Horford switches onto Tatum. Jalen Brown just tracks Gafford into the lane and then watch the job that Horford does in ISO, sliding, contact, absorbing contact, staying in front, forcing him into a really difficult over-the-top jump shot that he misses.

Gafford does get an offensive rebound. And I put this in my notes too. I put that Gafford needs to do more work on the offensive class. I have one other clip in this film session where Gafford gets an offensive rebound. But this is another counter. I should have honestly put this in my list of adjustments, and so that's my fault.

But when Gafford gets switched or either gets switched onto a smaller defender or when Gafford and Lively just have Tatum or Brown on them in these matchups so that they can switch those ball screens, they have to make Boston pay on the offensive glass. They have to make them pay more. See how Gafford gets that inside position? They have to do a lot more of that in game two. You need to bully them, make them pay for putting smaller players on your center.

If they can't do it in the post, they have to do it on the offensive glass. So we get a transition attack here from Jalen Brown up the left wing. In the process, Gafford gets pulled in and help. Gafford's helping Al Horford relocates here to the right corner and gets a wide open three out of it. So again, a lot of the instincts from Gafford and lively to help underneath the basket are going to be, are going to actually be detrimental to Dallas's ability to defend in this matchup. Here's the first backcourt steal, or I shouldn't say backward this one was past half court, but the first deal that Jalen Brown got against Luca,

watch the job he does fighting over the top of the screen with physicality. Watch this. Splits the gap, forces a turnover. Gets a big dunk on the other end as a result. A lot of physical ball pressure from Jalen Brown in this game. So here's our first example of the problem with attacking Horford and Porzingis in ball screens when Horford is on him. Or excuse me, when they're guarding Derek Jones instead of Gafford.

So as you can see, Tatum's on Gafford. So Gafford's not going to set the screen because if he does, it's just going to end in a switch and then Tatum will be on the ball. So instead, they end up running off of Derek Jones's side. Now watch this. Horford's dropping, Jalen, or Drew Holliday is chasing. Look at Tatum though. Tatum is on Gafford.

Nothing's open here. So Horford's in his drop. Drew Holliday is chasing over the top. So Kyrie has no opening, right? Tatum is taking away the lob past to Gafford. Jalen Brown is staying home in this corner. Derek White is in position to easily get to this corner, so there's no corner three kickout. The only quality read here is Derek Jones Jr.

Who's going to have to take an above the break three, which is a lower percentage shot for him. And certainly a lower percentage shot than anything they get when they can get Gafford or lively actually into the ball screen. As a result, Horford forces Kyrie into this impossible shot that he airballs. So that's the first example on film of just how difficult it is for them to score in ball screens by virtue. of their ability to put Tatum on the center and Horford on a wing. Okay, now we're going to get a transition attack off of the airball by Drew Holiday. Notice the defense kind of coalesce around him, okay? Draws help from Derek Jones, kick to Jalen Brown.

Jalen Brown drives, gets into the lane, easy drop off to Drew Holiday underneath the basket. So again, just like, it's just so easy for Boston to just beat one guy off the dribble, make an easy kickout pass, beat another guy off the dribble, easy drop off pass. You got a lay up. That's going to be the story of the series. How well can Boston, how well can Dallas contain in space? Get a driving kick here from Tatum. Watch the defense coalesce around him on the move.

Crossover gets into the lane. Watch the defense coalesce around him. Kyrie steps up. PJ Washington, because Kyrie steps up off of Drew Holiday, PJ Washington digs down, or cracks down onto Drew Holiday. nice kickback pass from Jason Tatum for a great shooter for a standstill corner three.

Can't pack the pain against this team. You just can't do it the way you did in the other rounds. Here's another example of the pick and roll problem that we talked about earlier. So here we go. We have Lively's being guarded by Tatum so Lively's not going to be brought into the ball screen. Kyrie wants to go at Porzingis.

So Derek Jones sets the pick. Boston ices it, meaning they refuse the use of the screen. Kyrie ends up driving into the ice. Derek Jones pops to above the break. Notice Jalen Brown doesn't even rotate to him because that's what they want. This entire scheme is designed to force Dallas to tilt their offense towards above the break three point shots for bad shooters. Or I shouldn't say bad shooters, but mediocre and inconsistent streaky shooters. Here's another example of Dallas swarming in transition. Watch how many bodies go around Drew Holiday on this transition attack. Boom,

Three bodies around him. What happens? Kick to Derek White, open three, bucket. Just can't do that. You just can't do that in this matchup. You have to reprogram your entire approach to defense to staying home, and then the on-ball guy has to just do a better job of containing. Okay, so Derek Jones just missed a pick-and-pop three, right? So now, in this case, notice they get a little brush screen from Lively to get Tatum on to

Luca to start, right? Then Derek Jones sets the pick. as Luca gets downhill. Now, Derek Jones just missed and above the break three. So this time he's going to roll. But he's not a vertical spacer. And look at this. In the last matchup, when they would do this, this would be lively setting the pick, right? And then Derek Jones would be spotting up up here on the wing. So when lively would roll, these two bodies would not be there. This would be empty space. Or Drew Holiday would have to come further down. And if Drew Holliday is down here, that's where Luca can throw this skip pass to Kyrie here in the corner,

but he can't do that. Because Lively's sitting in the dunker spot, this area is occupied. Now Derek Jones is rolling in the open space is up here. This is now all wasted space, right? So now Derek Jones is rolling into the lane. He's not a vertical spacing threat. If that's Gafford, Luca might just be able to throw it up, but it's not.

It's Derek Jones. He ends up kind of settling into the spot under the basket. and when he catches here, he's trying to go up straight vertical against a player that's got damn near a foot of height on him. And he smokes a lay up. So I'm hoping these clips are doing a good job of demonstrating to you guys how Boston's kind of adjustment, I shouldn't say adjustment, but game plan of putting Tatum on the center, just kind of janks up everything for Dallas's pick and roll attack. Here's an example of Porzingis beating a switch. So we have Hardy on the ball.

Then they switched. Now, Lively's on White. Lively, I thought for the most part, did a good job on switches. As we said before the series, that's kind of what we did. expected. This is the problem, though. Porzingis just takes Jaden Hardy down, pump fakes a couple times, knocks down a jumper. That's just easy. Here's Houser defending Luca on a switch, swipes the ball away from him. Great work from Houser individually. It's in a turnover for Boston, though. Here's another example. Now Porzengis is on Josh Green. Tatum's on Lively. Watch what happens.

Ball screen. Josh Green pops. Luca gets into the lane. Josh Green's open. Doesn't want to take it, shoots this ugly floater off the front of the rim. See how Dallas literally does not know what to do to counter this issue at this point. This was just a play I included because I thought it was a really impressive play from Porzingis. This is a fake dribble handoff. So I want you to watch Lively closely right here. So Lively's on the ball. Watch as Porzengis dribbles at, I think it's at Derek White or is it at Tatum.

Let's see. It's at Tatum. So watch as Porzengis dribbles at, no, Tatum cuts actually. It is at Derek White. So watch his Porzingis dribbles at Derek White. Watch what happens to Lively. Watch Lively's attention as Porzengis is faking the dribble handoff right there. See, boom, right there for a split second.

He favors the dribble handoff side preparing for a switch. As a result, Porzengis is able to turn the corner and he gets into the lane and throws it down. Really impressive play from Porzingis. That's another great way to beat switching, by the way. There's actually another example of that later on in the game that Drew Holiday does. Here's that stop that Hauser got in the corner. again, 11 on the shot clock, straight ISO against one of the lesser perimeter defenders for Boston, and he just does a really good job and gets a great contest and forces him into a bad miss off the backboard.

In transition, this is a classic trailing three. So Gafford's attention, he's on Porzingus, right? Gafford's attention is on Pritchard and getting back into the lane. Look where he runs to. He runs to the free throw line. And then he goes, oh, shit, I forgot. I'm guarding Porzingis, who then settles into this trailing transition three. Most basketball coaches love a big that can shoot in transition

because it's just one of the biggest loopholes in a transition defense is you prioritize the rim, you prioritize the ball. And so as a result, a big trailing to play is almost always open. This was a nice block by Porzingis in a ball screen against Kyrie. So this is another example of a random situation where they mix the coverage. This time Tatum's on Kleba and Porzingis is on the vertical spacing threat. when these opportunities are there, you have to capitalize on him. The lob is open right there.

Boom, lob is open. That's got to be a lob. You got to throw that right up here so Gafford can dunk it. Instead, Kyrie takes this shot and gets blocked by Porzingas. Kyrie's shot selection was really bad in the first half. Second half, I thought he was just missing. First half, though, Kyrie was making a lot of bad decisions. Another ISO possession where we get a switch where Horford ends up on Kyrie.

right? Once again, Horford holds up really well on a switch on an island against Kyrie Irving. Watch this defense. Funnels him into the paint, gets a great contest, forces a miss. Horford's switching defense was amazing in this game. So at this portion in the game, this is when Jalen Brown starts looking to attack Luca Donchich in two-man game with Hauser. So Derek Jones is on Jalen Brown. This is actually the same play that they ran when Jalen got the dunk. I'll show you guys when we get to that clip here in a minute. But basically all that happens is, is Houser sets the pick.

Jalen Brown switches kind of like a soft switch on to Jalen Brown, and Jalen Brown just beats him off the dribble cleanly and gets a bucket. Here's another example of them swarming in transition and giving up an open three. So watch True Holiday Attack. All these bodies kind of coalesce around him. Easy kick out past to Houser, who it's the no dip jumper in the corner. Here's that exact same action that they just ran for Jalen Brown. This time they get the dunk.

So again, Houser sets the pick. Jalen Brown attacks downhill, crosses over on Luca, it gets the dunk. You're going to see a lot of examples of this over the course of the rest of this game. Luca was just so bad on the ball. He was just so bad. And he just simply has to do a better job. This is one of the stops that Pritchard got on Kyrie. Fast forward a little bit here.

Okay, so Pritchard on an island against Kyrie Irving. This is a matchup that Dallas has to win if they're going to win this series. And Pritcher just does a really nice job. absorbs contact, forces Kyrie into a tough layup and he misses it. Here's another example of the pick and pop situation. So this was the too big look that I talked about. What they would do is they'd put one of their bigs onto Lively, and then they'd put the other big onto PJ Washington,

and they'd had that same exact issue, right? Luca comes downhill, drop coverage, look at all this congestion in here because of Lively and Horford. Again, that is where this matchup screws everything up for Dallas. they can't set ball screens with their centers, so they have to put their centers in the dunker spot, which just causes everything to get screwed up with the spacing. PJ Washington's wide open, but he's a mediocre.

I think he's below 30% on above the break threes in this postseason. I think he was 29 and a half coming into the night. So that shot's probably not going to go in. Here's another Porzingis shot attempt against a switch. So we get ball screen, switch. Derek Jones is on Porzingis, swing pass, walks him down to the elbow, gets the ball back, strong with it, gets a little closer, knocks down the jumper. Here's Horford defending Luca on the switch again.

Screen, switch. When lively rolls, Jalen Brown stays with him. Look at this job. Absorbs contact, beats him to a spot, gets a great contest on that pull-up three, forces him into a miss. All right, we're going to get another Porzingis attack of a switch here. All right, so we have lively on Porzingis, Derek White with the ball. Porzingis sets a screen. Josh Green switches. Porzingis walks him down to the elbow post-entry. Pumpfate gets a little closer, knocks down the jumper.

Just did a brilliant job of beating that coverage last night. On the other end of the floor, nice stop from Tatum on Luca. Going the other way, a random double team from Luca. So again, instead of just getting matched up and playing defense, Luca's dribbling against his primary defender. Luca double teams for no reason. You can already guess how this movie ends. Swing, swing, Jalen Brown 3, knocks it down.

This is bad defense. Another backcourt rip of Luca just guesses, beats him to his spot, swipes him, goes up and dunks it. Here's another bad Luca defensive possession. He's guarding Drew Holiday. Drew just kind of dribbles at Tatum and then just cuts downhill on Luca, beats him drop off pass for Derek White. Luca just has to do a better job containing the basketball.

This is when Boston went up 29. Dallas tried zone for one possession. Honestly, it wasn't anything to do with the coverage here. It's past to Tatum and then they screen the top part of the zone and Tatum hits a contested pull up three. Now you're up 29. Here's another one of Gafford's offensive rebounds against Tatum. This again is something I think they need to do a lot more of a better job of in game two. Just making Boston pay for putting a forward on your center. Misses the shot, bullies gets inside position, gets the footback. 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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream,

this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking.

What the hell does George Bush got to do a little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at It podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know.

I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. I talked about the ugly stretch of offense from Boston. This was just one random example. So again, they went four minutes without getting the ball in the paint a single time. And over about a, what, a six-minute span, they got the ball in the paint twice total. But it's a lot of stuff like this, 18 seconds on the shot clock, just random contested jab step three.

A lot of just kind of bad process from Boston in that stretch. Timeout gets called, right? After Luca hits the step back three, here's your run. Here's the run that Boston fans told me as totally normal, 29 to 9. Notice out of the timeout what the job is here. Houser sets the pick, get Luca on a switch, get out of the way. Tatum drives on Luca, beats him cleanly, engages the rim protector. And again, when you engage the rim protector, you give Porzengis an opportunity.

Luca honestly fouls him by just bumping into his back there just doesn't get called. So it ends in a stop, but that's a really good process, although lively ends up getting called for travel. Same possession after the travel. Jalen Brown does the same thing. Bringhouser, set the pick, get Luca, drive right by Luca, get into the lane, draw a foul. Just Luca's inability to contain the basketball.

This time Jason Tatum does it in a ball screen, so it brings Kleba into the action, or lively into the action, gets downhill, beats lively off the dribble, gets into the paint, kick to Porzingis. This doesn't go in, but that's a really good look. And then in the process, All these things are connected.

So Lively's on Tatum, right? So when Tatum makes this pass, Lively ends up making an impromptu close out to Porzingis. So now no one's matched up with Tatum. So no one thinks to box him out. So Tatum gets the ball because Lively was the one who switched on to him, right? So that's an example of how getting into rotation can cause problems for you on the glass as well. Porzingis gets a dunk.

Another Tatum driving kick here going at Lively, beats him clean, help. A little overhelp too. You don't need to be sending three bodies at Tatum on the drive here. You're just going to give yourself a lot of issues. This one ends with Jalen Brown driving into the lane and drawing another foul. So again, that closeout opportunity, look at the closeout. He's got PJ Washington sprinting at him this way. So the rip through to the right is easy because he's just his momentum's carrying him too far.

So this whole sequence was generated by Tatum beating lively off the dribble. And those are both fouls, by the way, on lively. Like he's not vertical. He's going down over Brown. Here's another example of the difference in vertical spacing between Derek Jones and his center. Okay, so we're trying to attack Horford, ball screen. They basically are, it's a high drop with Drew chasing. It's effectively like a blitz.

Derek Jones is rolling, but he's just not the vertical spacer that lively or Gafford is. That's a dunk if that's lively or Gafford. Two more. Another Jalen Brown hunting Luca play, have Tatum's at the pick, get Luca, beat him off the dribble, swing, wide open three. and then lastly, Jalen Brown again, drives past Cleba, draws multiple defenders, gets Horford.

But this is what, so quality stuff from Boston, again, six out of the first seven possessions out of the timeout, you got quality driving kick possessions, right? That's all good.

On the Dallas front, though, that can't be a help from Gafford. That just can't. You got to force Jalen Brown to make a contested layup over Cleba before you just hard help and leave a shooter wide open like this.

So yeah, I hope that film session does a good job. of kind of breaking down for you guys some of the issues that Dallas was having with Boston last night. Obviously, some of the stuff with Boston's offensive process as well when it's good versus when it's bad. And then like I said, the adjustments for Dallas went over earlier. I won't go over them again, but there's some things they need to work on offensively and defensively to do a better job in game two. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. I'm recording a mailbag right after this that'll be out on Saturday morning.

And then obviously we're going live after game two with Colin on Sunday night. I will see you guys then. The volume. 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me.

I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Listen to Look Back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey,

or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it.

Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.