The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - GAME 1 REACTIONS: Spurs-Blazers, Celtics-76ers, Thunder-Suns, Pistons-Magic | NBA Playoffs

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Jason reacts LIVE after Sunday's Game 1s in the first round of the NBA playoffs. He breaks down the matchups between Victor Wembanyama's San Antonio Spurs and Deni Avdija's Portland Trail Blazers, Jaylen Brown & Jayson Tatum's Boston Celtics and Tyrese Maxey's Philadelphia 76ers, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's OKC Thunder and Devin Booker's Phoenix Suns, Cade Cunningham's Detroit Pistons and Paolo Banchero's Orlando Magic. All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.  #VolumeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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 ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman. Multi-million dollar house, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife-Life 12

and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The Volume. Welcome to Hoops tonight here at The Volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. Hope all you guys had an incredible weekend. Well, the first weekend of NBA Playoff Hoops is in the books. We've seen everyone in the team's play. We're going to be covering all four of today's

Sunday games. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel. We're on our road to 150,000 subs. It would mean the world to me. You guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. If you're already subscribed, if you could like this video, if you could sign up for post notifications, that helps us a lot. Last minute at least, you guys want to get mailbag questions and drop them in the full episodes and we'll get to them in mailbags throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So starting with Spurs Blazers. So every year before the post season, Myself and basically everybody else who does this for a living starts to make predictions.

We take a look at whatever happened in the regular season, and we try to guess what will happen. But then we watch the games, and we see the dynamic actually in practice. And sometimes I'll have a prediction before a series and I'll go, yeah, I thought that would be a problem. And it turns out it's a big problem. We're going to see a dynamic like that that we're going to talk about in the Magic Piston series in the next segment. Other times I go into a series thinking a team can present a potential problem. And then I watch the game and I go, no, never mind, no problem at all. And that's how I feel about the Blazers Spurs series after tonight.

I was genuinely curious to see if the Blazer small ball groups, specifically the one that controlled the late game sequence against the Suns, could cause some problems for Victor Wenim and Yama on both ends of the floor. I was not worried about Victor Wembeyanama at all as a playoff player. I've talked about this a lot over the course of the season. I view Victor in like that Anthony Davis class of player where the playoffs just because it puts an extra emphasis on things that go beyond individual scoring, that there's a certain value on that stuff that those guys just bring every single night. And so there's kind of a guaranteed amount of impact. Like tonight Victor had it going offensively. we're going to talk about all the reasons why. But even if Victor did not go five for six from three tonight, he was going to be an awesome defensive player that caused all sorts of problems in every phase of defense, while also on offense being a guy who could roll out of ball screens and be a vertical spacer, beat switches underneath the basket with his size and his just large

target to throw entry passes to, he was going to bring a ton of value no matter what. That I was not worried about. However, I was like, maybe these Blazers small ball groups could, on the one hand, space the floor for Denny Avdia to get some of the drives that he was having success with against the suns. Then on the other end of the floor, maybe some switching, some switching with a bigger athletic group that shuts down some of the easy reads that the Spurs guards have in ball screens and try to bait Wembe into some tough ISOs and some of their guards into tough ISOs. It was just a guess. We never actually saw Victor Wemnon Yama versus the Blazers version

of Denny Avdia before tonight because Wembe missed every one of those matchups. But I was just curious. Enough that, I thought, even though I didn't think Portland could win this series, I didn't think they were a real upset shot at all, but I thought they could compete. And I thought they could push this to potentially a sixth game.

But as you guys will remember from my series preview, it was strictly the small ball groups that I thought could cause that dynamic. I thought Portland was drawing dead against Victor Wemnon Yamma with their centers on the floor. Like a team predicated on driving with Victor Wembaughamma waiting at the rim, that's not going to work. Asking your Biggs to guard San Antonio's perimeter quickness or Victor Wembe Nama in action, no chance in hell. But Portland Smallball Group looked formidable

against Phoenix. I wanted to see it against San Antonio. And after watching it in practice tonight, it was quite literally a non-issue for Victor Wemba. He annihilated the Portland smallball groups on both ends of the floor. On offense, he just got inside position on switches for easy lobs and posts. I thought San Antonio just through running quick action to cause Portland to like botch some of the switches that you would expect to have some success there. And then one of the most interesting dynamics of the game to me was as good as Victor Wem and Yama was, San Antonio's guards were great. I thought they had no trouble driving against Portland's perimeter defenders. Then on the other end of the floor, with exception of Denny, who was just an incredible player.

and I'm hoping that everyone starts to understand that this is not fluky what Denny is doing. He's just a very, very good basketball player who's going to just continue to get better as he continues to add little things to his game. Other than Denny and a little bit of Scoot Henderson, I thought San Antonio's guards and all their perimeter players just did a great job containing the ball against every other Portland driver. So the small ball groups didn't really have any success at all defending Victor Wembeyanama and the spurs.

and then on the other end of the floor, he would just guard Tamani Kamara or one of the other sketchy shooters and do the same thing he was doing with the bigs, sit at the rim, which created the exact same dynamic, and he shut down the Portland offense. I think it worked against Phoenix

because Phoenix also went small, so there was no rim protection. And Phoenix didn't have the ability to get dribble penetration the way that San Antonio's guards did. After watching tonight, I don't need to see anymore. I don't think Portland small ball groups

are going to cause much of a problem for San Antonio in this series at all. But then on the other, the other side of this coin, the center groups, the groups with Donovan Klingin and Robert Williams, like, they were out there shooting threes. San Antonio didn't care. Robert Williams made one. They didn't change their coverage. It wasn't something they were worried about. They tried putting their centers on Steph Castle and there were a handful of possessions where Steph would miss a spot up three or miss like a tough. fade away in the lane, but it caused other problems for them. All of a sudden, when they would put a center on Steph, you know, Victor Women Yama would have success against their smalls. Like

Luke Cornett did damage on the offensive glass on the other side of one of those switches, the pre-switched dynamics like that. Like there's two different ways to beat that. You can beat it with Steph, but you can also beat it with the big and it just wasn't working. And again, on that, when the blazes were on offense, San Antonio just didn't care about those bigs taking threes. Victor Wim and Yama was at the rim and it just caused all sorts of problems for extended stretches for this Portland offense. And then Wemby, like the problem with that sort of dynamic, when you have one of those slow fitted footed bigs on the floor, you can do one of two things. You can ask them to guard one of their guards, which plays directly into one of San Antonio's

strengths, which is just how deep they are and just these ball handlers that can get wherever they want to on the floor. Or you can have them guard Wemby in action. And that's a disaster. Because Wembe, when he does have it going offensively, the way he did tonight, he's completely unguardable. He's hitting transition trailer threes. Oh, you put

clinging on him. He's just going to walk into a slow down like hesitation dribble three with his left hand off the dribble off the right wing. Oh, he ran Robert Williams off of a screen into the left corner and hit a movement three. Like, he just is a freaky, large perimeter player that these

bigs have no shot to guard. but then he also can beat the smalls with quick isos. He also can do damage in the post and on cuts. He just cooked up that Blazers defense every which way. And like, look, we can talk about whether or not some of that stuff is sustainable. Do I think Wemby's going to shoot five or six from three every single night? That all was gravy tonight. The truth of the matter was,

Wemby's defense was a possession to possession breaking point for Portland when they were trying to score the basketball. That dynamic isn't going away. And what makes guys like this so valuable and what's so scary for Wemby long term and the best player in the world discussion is that will be there every night. There is no player right now among the superstar tier that has a higher floor than Victor Wemianem. Because that's not going away. every time you lace them up to play against the spurs, that dynamic is still there.

Him causing problems at the rim defensively. I was really impressed by several elements of the spurs attack tonight. I thought Darren Fox again, like, he's a guy that's going to be really one of the big swing factors for the spurs in this, in this playoff run. And like I said going into the series that Denny Avdiah was the best perimeter player, not counting Victor Wem and Yama. And I do believe that that bared out to be true tonight in this game. but Darren Fox was pretty close. Dearing Fox, I thought, did a really good job, consistently throughout the game,

especially early, pushing the pace. He got a lot of really good stuff in transition just by bringing the ball up the floor quickly. He was able to consistently get dribble penetration. He provided just enough over-the-top scoring. Darren Fox was awesome. Devin Vassell, man. Like, Jackson made this point in a text message to me during the game

and I wholeheartedly agree with him. When he was in a different version of this team that put more of an emphasis on his ability to break, break the defense down, you saw some of his limitations come to the surface. But as a chaos agent, when you've got Victor and Dylan and Steph and Deerran creating the advantage for the most part, and he's playing in transition or driving closeouts or second side action or off ball action, when he's working as a cog within the system that is already generating chaos, he is a really dynamic offensive play. Because he can hit transition trailing threes, because he can hit movement

threes, because he can put the ball on the floor and score from the midrange, because he does have just a little bit of extra juice off the dribble. And I need to shout out the entire team here because Devin, Devin was great, but I thought this kind of extended to everybody. I just thought the entire team with their activity defensively was really impressive tonight. This is a defense that like Victor gets the majority of the credit for and he deserves the majority of the credit. All you have to do is look at the numbers and look at how their defense falls off when he's off the floor. But I did think that they all did their jobs phenomenally well tonight. Really, really impressive playoff performance to start this run for the San Antonio Spurs. And again,

I think Portland's drawing dead. I said coming into the series, maybe these small ball groups could cause some problems. Maybe they could push it to six. I never really saw a real upset shot there, but I thought I could see a longer series. I don't see a longer series. I think this is a sweep to a five game at max type of series. I think San Antonio is going to deal with Portland quickly. Today's show is brought to you by presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet, the official sportsbook partner of the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic.

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Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to our first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts.

We're starting a trend. But this one's extra. special. So how did we actually come up with the name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, Jonas, and offered it up as a

potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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 Band 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. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Genschen went.

I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women. in sports. All right, let's move on to the Orlando Magic and the Detroit Pistons. The Pistons are in big trouble. I talked before the series that I thought it was a tough matchup for the Pistons and the reason was simple. Detroit's biggest advantage all season was their size and athleticism. The Pistons bullied you. They bullied you on the perimeter with their athletes getting up into the ball forcing turnovers, which was triggering a defense to transition attack.

They bullied you under the rim with size. They bullied you on the offensive glass. They just mashed you on rolls out of ball screens with Cade. Cade personally bullied you on his drives, just using size on any perimeter defender just to get downhill pretty easily, either through pick and roll,

through ISOs or in the post. That's how they won. Both on the margins and in the half course. And like regardless of whether it was the defensive transition stuff, the offensive glass, or the way they scored in the half court, they did it with size and athleticism by bullying you. And it worked the majority of the time. They really are way bigger and more athletic than most teams, even the best teams. They have real athletic size advantages even against Boston and New York and Cleveland.

So much so that even with their half quarter, court offense limitations, they were eight and three against those teams this year because they could physically mall them. Orlando, even with all their flaws, might be the only team in the league that Detroit has zero physical advantages against. The magic might even be a bit bigger because of what Franz and Paula represent on the wing. So it's a disaster matchup for Detroit because they can't bully them, really in any phase of the game. Not with ball pressure, not on the offensive glass, not with speed and transition.

Detroit logged 29 transition possessions last night, according to Synergy and got 30 points out of them. Because in the open floor, there's not really that much of an athleticism advantage, if at all, against this team. They can't bully them in the half court with their power play and pick and roll. even Detroit's paint defense, which was the fourth best in the NBA this year,

couldn't keep the magic out of the paint today. Because like I said, I'd argue Orlando actually has a physical advantage in the form of being a bit bigger. Now, I'm usually, you guys know me, I preach never overreact to game one. And for the record, I'm not saying the series is over. But what I saw today was an even more dramatic display of a dynamic I was already expected. that's why I say Detroit is in trouble. That dynamic is not going away. They're not going to be able to bully Orlando in any phase of the game.

And so that puts the emphasis on the half-court scoring battle. But specifically a version of the half-court scoring battle that emphasizes skill rather than strength. Detroit's half-court success that they did have this year relied a lot on strength and power. in Orlando, as flawed as they are, they actually have more aggregate offensive skill than Detroit does. They have more dudes who can make a play with the ball in an ugly physical game. For the Pistons, it feels very K. Cunninghamer bust. But Palo has proven to be a pretty consistently successful playoff player.

Palo kind of cooled off in the fourth quarter. It didn't matter. Franz Wagner just took over the fourth quarter tonight with balls. screens and post-ups. Brandum super effectively generated a ton of advantages, a ton of great shots. Jalen Suggs can hit a big pull-up three against drop. Anthony Black is talented as a slasher in this league and is really blossoming into a pretty pretty pretty good offensive player. Wendell Carter Jr. can hit picking pop threes and he can work along the baseline and like when he caught under the basket, power dribble shucked dudes off his shoulders and was able to finish. he was doing the bullying.

So in a lot of ways, like Orlando just has so many more ways to score compared to Detroit when you remove physical advantage from the equation. And Orlando has some physical advantages. We'll see the hard rock bet odds tomorrow morning, but I would expect Detroit to still be a slight favorite. I think betting Orlando is going to be great value. I personally right now would favor Orlando to win the series at this point. I just think it's a nightmare matchup for the Pistons.

Again, matchups are the key to the NBA postseason. I say this all the time. It suddenly shifts from how good are you in the regular season with like standings and metrics and stuff to can you beat this team? Can you score against this team? Can you get stops against this team? and here's the thing. I think Orlando would have almost no shot to beat Cleveland and almost no shot against New York or Boston in a series,

even if they were to beat Cleveland. I think Detroit would have a good chance to beat all three of them. I'm not sure yet who I would have picked them against or if they do advance who I'd pick them against and who I wouldn't yet. We'll see when we get there. But like, I think Detroit has a much better chance to beat any of Cleveland, Boston, or New York

than Orlando does. But that doesn't matter. You literally have to beat this team first. And they might literally be the worst matchup you could have possibly drawn in a first round series. Because they might literally be the only team in the NBA right now in the playoff field that you can't bully. There's similar dynamics like this all around the league. I've talked about it. I think Denver would beat San Antonio. But I think San Antonio has a much better chance to beat Oklahoma City than Denver does. last year I rooted for a Lakers team that was a more impressive regular season team than the Minnesota Timberwolves. But it didn't matter because Chubby Luca and Old LeBron and Skinny Austin couldn't score against Minnesota. And nobody on that team could guard Minnesota's drivers in space.

So they advanced. That is the most fascinating thing about the NBA playoffs. It's what makes this two-month stretch one of the most interesting things. that we see in the world of sports. I want to give Orlando a ton of credit. They have ridden these two favorable matchups against Charlotte and Detroit into a completely reinvigorated

amount of effort in buy-in. They look dead in the water. And all that criticism that was being heaped on them was completely legitimate. They looked like they'd quit on their coach. They looked like they wanted to go home. Palo had just played two of the worst games of his career. Pala responded with two absolutely monster games.

Everyone is bought in. Their guards were great. Their bigs were great. Franz closed the game. They play great basketball. I want to give Orlando a ton of credit. So how does Detroit avoid this catastrophe? Again, it's not over.

It starts with winning game too. First of all, Cade is going to have to be amazing. Help is very much not on the way. for Detroit with half court offense. You saw a little bit of it here and there. You saw, you know, that Danis Jenkins got some decent looks that he missed. Obviously,

Tobias Harris had his level of comfort whenever he was gifted some advantage. You know, we saw a Jalen Duren have like an ISO from the right elbow where he ripped through and got to the basket once. Like some guys can make some shots, but I don't think you're going to get consistent help anywhere for Kate in the half court against this defense.

So Kate is just going to literally have to be amazing. And he was amazing tonight for the record. He's going to have to be more amazing. Second of all, they have to win the battle against Orlando's offense. And it starts with keeping Jalen Dern at the rim. There were a couple of possessions where I thought he was a little too glued to Wendell Carter Jr. When he did pop. So I'd ignore him when he pops.

You got to concede that to a certain extent. Deeper drop coverage. I think you're going to have to lean into. trying to force turnovers with doubles and blitzes. Like you're drawing dead against this defense in the half court. Here is the dynamic according to cleaning the glass. An Orlando half court possession was worth 0.99 points per possession. Detroit's was worth 0.8.1.

It's an 18 point gap over 100 possessions. It's a huge gap. And again, that was with Orlando shooting 29% from 3. Like, I think they're drawing dead against this defense. in the half court because Orlando just has more dudes that can score when you remove physical advantage from the equation for Detroit, and Orlando has some physical advantage. So they have to find a way to juice the transition numbers as much as possible, even as inefficient as they were in transition tonight. But I'm worried, guys, I'm worried for Detroit. Again, Orlando shot 29%

from three. Cade was amazing for the most part, and it just didn't matter. Orlando was in complete control the whole time. Even when Detroit made runs, It just, you could tell like Cade would have a couple of plays where he'd get downhill and then he'd get tired because he has to do it all himself and he'd miss some pull-up jump shot. This is the first series pick and I don't, I've extremely rarely do this after one game. But this is the first series pick where I'm flipping my pick in this playoff run. It's not over. I still think Detroit has a chance to turn this dynamic. But I think Orlando's going to win because everything, because of everything I just laid out.

Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And we were thinking I'm originally calling it.

one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast

where people could call in and say, Hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite on Humor 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. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis, and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris, every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jenchian win. I mean, she went down at three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted.

She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lerner Rabakina is arguably. the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. All right, let's move on to 76 or Celtics. The initial tendency after a game like this is to focus on jump shooting differential. Like, oh, we just didn't

make shots and they did. And they're not. And they're There's definitely truth to the fact that Philly can shoot better than they did. Philly didn't make a single catch and shoot three in the first quarter. They made two in the entire game. Synergy logged him at 16 catch and shoot threes. They made two. Kelly Ubre and Vijay Edgecom had a bunch of good looks. They combined to go 0 for nine on catch and shoot three. Some of those were wide open.

So Philly will probably shoot better in every other game they play in this series. But I think that would be missing the point of what happened in that game. I thought Boston outclassed Philly in every year. single phase of the game. From the opening tip, they just kind of looked unprepared and unfocused. They lost Kda without, like their pick and roll defense made a lot of mistakes last night or earlier, I should say earlier today. Um, they lost Kada on two early rolls. They fouled them on the first one and then immediately gave up an easy dunk to him. They were really bad on their tags. Like Philly likes to bring their bigs up to the level and defend

three on two. So you have to tag and just all game long, they just made so many mistakes with their tags. They didn't get matched up in transition all game long. Second possession of the game, they leave Samhouser wide open. They do it again a couple possessions later with Derek White. They allowed quite literally 41 transition points to the Celtics according to Synergy. The only other NBA team all season to allow 40 plus transition points to the Celtics was the Washington Wizards. The Celtics typically averaged just 19 points per game in transition. which is the third least in the entire NBA. In Philly was so bad running back and getting matched up,

they gave up 41 in this game. Vouch came back because of the early Kada foul trouble, and the Sixers immediately gave up two quick, easy layups. One where Drummond just stayed glued to Vucevich. Typically with a guy like Vucevich, make him make one first. And then if he makes it, you can adjust. Drummond was just glued to him at the top of the key. Jalen Brown went right downhill and got an easy layup.

So then Nick Nurse is like, okay, we got to go small. So he puts Dominic Barlow in. So you're like, okay, they're probably going to switch, right? Nope. Like they immediately run stack on the next possession and don't switch it. And Peyton Pritchard gets an easy layup. Like just so many defensive breakdowns, avoidable, like simple defensive breakdowns from Philly in this game.

We talked in our series preview about like Tyrese should be able to get some clean looks against Boston's drop coverage. And instead of hunting Boston's bigs and ball screens, He was hunting Jason Tatum in switches. And we'll talk about it a little bit. I haven't looked at the postgame presser yet, but like I have to think Nick Nurse was like, let's test Jason Tatum's Achilles.

And that just didn't work. Like I thought it was a really silly strategy. And like it just put Tyrese maxi into these mediocre isos against Jason Tatum. And he got a couple buckets, but like for the most part, Tatum held up really well. Like, and if you're going to hunt Boston's perimeter defenders

instead of their bigs, which again, I think is part of how you should attack. Go after their slower wings. Don't go after Jason Tatum or Jalen Brown. Don't go after Derek White. There was a play where Kelly Ubrae was like, I'm gonna ISO Jason Tatum. I'm like, what are you doing?

Like that's the worst way to try to attack this defense. Tyres Max, he had a play with no passes where he tried to post up Derek White, a player who's taller than him and has a length advantage, a zero pass possession. He took a tough right shoulder fade that he made. missed. I think the first time he attacked a Boston ball screen was six minutes into the game when they were already down double figures. I just didn't think it was a very good processing

game from Tyrese Maxie. Paul George was a little bit better with the types of ways that he was attacking and some of the reads he was making, but he's just not as good as Jason Tatum or Jalen Brown. I just thought it was a really poor effort from Philly. And then on the other side of the things, I just thought the Celtics played an extremely good game on both ends of the floor. they found their actions that worked really well for them and they spammed them. They ran stack a million times in this game. For those of guys who don't know, stack is just simply a ball screen with a shooter back screening for the roll man as he's going downhill. So it's a three man action at the top of the key that makes it tough for you to run your drop coverage is, especially a high

drop because like what Philly does, if you bring your big up in a high drop and he's coming up to the level and then he's trying to backpedal, but he runs into a back screen, all of a sudden your rim protector is whoever's guarding that shooter behind him. And in this game, like Philly, for whatever reason, the guy who was guarding, and Maxi was the guy who was the trigger man a lot in these situations, but Maxi would be like guarding Peyton Pritchard as he's getting ready to set the stack or guarding Derek White as he's getting ready to set the stack and like just staying glued to him. And Philly gave up a lot of like wide open layups or easy lobs in that stack action. Boston just spammed it because Philly didn't really look like they knew how to guard it.

Jalen Brown did a fantastic job attacking Philly's guards in the middle. of the floor. He was ice cold in the first half, but he got crazy hot in the third quarter. One of the biggest reasons why I think this Boston team is just better than last year is Brown is just so much more polished and under control in his one-on-ones than he was last year. There are other reasons. Like, they're more athletic, and we're going to talk a little bit more about this later, but Jalen Brown is the biggest reason why I think this Boston team is better than last year. You basically can't play small guards against this team without putting your defense in a bind because Jalen is relentless about hunting those.

guys and he's just gotten so much better at it through a ton of reps this season is the number one option. I thought Boston's bigs were phenomenal on both ends of the floor. I thought they badly outplayed Andre Drummond, Adambona and Philly centerless looks with Dominic Barlow at the five. All three of them too, like including Vucevich, including Luca Garza. They ran their drop coverage as well. I thought Cato was fantastic on his roles. He's really turned into just a hell of a player, 13 points and 15 minutes in this one, despite the foul trouble. Vooch and Garza each hit a three at the top of the key. I just thought they did their jobs.

And the Celtics won their minutes with all three of their different center looks in this game. And the defense was fantastic. Again, I really do think Nick Nurse was like, let's test Jason Tatum's Achilles. And Tatum was like, all right, let's go. And he was awesome in ISO defense all game long. He was amazing on the defensive glass, surgical on offense. How about 25, 11, and 7 in his first playoff game back? watching that game this morning, it really hit home for me just how crazy all of this is.

Like we all watched the dude go down in a heap with a torn Achilles in a second round series last year. And he's not just back for game one of the playoffs. He was awesome in game one of the playoffs, doing all of the shit that he did last year. Controlling the defensive glass. incredible defensive versatility, playmaking out of simple actions at the top, splitting pick and rolls and dunking in traffic. He looked explosive. It just is amazing to me what he has managed to pull off in his Achilles surgery recovery. I thought Derek White did great work as the primary on Tyrese Maxie,

just applying this pickup point nice out near half court and forcing Philly to set their screens further out so that he could get underneath some of them. And just in general, did a great job with his back pressure, did a great job just, you know, communicating the switches with Tatum when they were targeting Tatum. The individual defense when Tyrese tried to attack him one-on-one, he got him like with a handful of moves. There was a one where he got an and one early in the game with a quick speed attack and semi-transition. But for the most part, Derek White did a great job as the primary. Other guys who got reps, Jordan Walsh did good reps on Tyrese. Their rotations were great. They actually helped more on some of their on-ball screens than I thought they would.

I thought they'd kind of deep drop and just defend two on two. They actually sent a lot of like nail help and like peel off help reads where like a guy would just see that Tyrese is turning his head and then just get back into the play from behind. Shireman had a really nice block like that getting into a play from behind. Like as a team, they were plus 19 and points off of turnovers. Like that's literally one of the big ways that Philly wins. They're top 10 forcing turnovers and points off of turnover's team.

That was like a non factor in this game. Boston dominated that margin. And they were great in transition. Houser especially. Synergy again, logged the Celtics at their second highest transition points total of the entire season at 41. I just thought they looked like the way better basketball team

and in far more facets than just spot-up shooting. So I think if you're Philly and you're just thinking, oh, we did all the right things, we just got to shoot better. I think you're missing the plot there. So it's a fantastic playoff to view for the Celtics. they were the most impressive Eastern Conference team that I watched this weekend. No surprise. I think they're the best team. But I think they're legitimately better than last year.

They're younger and more athletic on the perimeter, but also at center. Like, Kada really changes the feel of their defense. It's reminiscent of that Robert Williams dynamic from a few years ago where, like, you have a mobile vertical athlete at the rim. And he had a lot of really good vertical contests in this one. And again, like I talked about earlier, I just think Tatum Brown duo is better than it was last year. Tatum's injury kind of allowed Jalen Brown both the reps

and also just the dynamic of him shifting to more of like a 1A offensive option, which because of his ability to be extremely consistently successful, pressuring towards the middle of the floor and getting paint touches, that is actually made for a better dynamic. And Tatum is still seemingly nearly as good as he was last year, just operating more in that 1B role, which like it just is a really, really useful dynamic the way that they have that oriented. And again, like when Jalen Brown was struggling early in the game, Tatum was able to step up and take on more of the offensive load.

I just think, I just think this is a better version of the Celtics. I can't believe it after everything that happened. But I'm just more impressed by this team as a playoff threat this year. They're younger, they're more athletic, they're better at the rim, Dana Brown duo is better. I'd be super excited if I was a Celtics fan. On the Philly front, they just have to be way better in every facet. Their transition defense needs to be way better.

That was horrifically bad. They have to sprint back and get matched up. And then again, you can help your transition defense with better offensive process. Be like Boston. Be deliberate. Hunt Boston's bigs and ball screens more. Mixing complications like double drags.

Now Boston runs a deeper drop so it's harder to run stack, but when they do bring their bigs up, try to see if you can get backscreens on their bigs in drop coverage. Like we talked in the series preview about trying to get Tyrese in more dribble handoff situation. So like regular DHS, Zoom action where you start Tyrese in the corner and have the big kind of dribble towards him and he comes off a pin down and the H.O. So you can shoot off the catch. Just in general, Tyrese maxi shoots better off the catch when it comes to the three point shot

against drop coverage. Like do something to be more deliberate about how you hunt Boston's bigs. When you hunt ISOs, hunt them against. advantages. The Hunt Tatum experiment did not work. Don't dribble up the floor and hunt Derek White in ISO. Not unless you have like, especially in the

post, I should say. It's one thing if you get him shift the side to side and transition when he's on his heels, but like, against their set defense, you shouldn't be attacking Derek White, you shouldn't be attacking Jason Tatum, you shouldn't be attacking Jalen Brown. Hunt, Hauser, Hunt Shireman. Like, those guys are solid defenders too,

but you have a better chance there than you against Boston's better perimeter defenders. And then lastly, their bigs have to be better on defense and containing the ball. Way too many breakdowns in their ball screen coverages, both at the level with their bigs and with their low man coverages, just way too many super easy dunks and layups for the Celtics and ball screens today. They just got to play way, way, way better than they did. Thunder Suns, don't have a ton of thoughts here.

This was immediately the most lopsided matchup from the jump in today's slate. I talked about this in the series preview. I just think the Sun, the Thunder are just like a way better version of the Phoenix Suns. And so if you're, you're really drawn dead in a matchup like that, if you try to do the same thing as your opponent, but you don't do it as well in any category. Like, Devin Bookers is not as good as Shegilds Alexander, even though they're kind of similar types of two guards, right? Like their secondary ball handling is better. Their perimeter defenders are better. Their bigs are better rim protectors and they're more versatile in their ability to switch out onto the perimeter.

like they're just flat out better in every single way. And like there's also this test with O KC, which is just can you even handle their ball pressure? And Devin Booker and Jalen Green just immediately failed that test and couldn't handle the ball against OKC without turning it over, which of course sparked the points in transition for OKC. OKC had a ridiculous 34 points off of turnovers in this game. It went all bad like Phoenix's half court defense was okay.

They played Shea into a bad shooting night. their first shot defense was actually pretty good. They just couldn't control the defensive glass. O'KC killed them there. And when you get annihilated at the point of attack and turn the ball over that much and allow that many points in transition off of those turnovers, you're just dead on arrival against this Thunder team.

I talked about this all season. I know what happened to show up against the Lakers and so everybody thought was Lakers specific, but I just thought that was more of a motivation, like them trying to send a message thing. I thought OKC kind of kept it in second gear on defense most of this year. And every once in a while, you'd see them put it into that top gear defensively, and you're like, holy shit, that's, that's something different than what we're seeing in some of these other games.

And O.C. came out and threw one of their A plus defensive punches tonight, and the sun's just completely decomposed. Shea was able to get to the foul on a bunch to make up for his tough shooting game. And like, here's the thing. He's just an extremely talented brifter. He fell down every time a Phoenix player closed out underneath him. Every time he drove and a defender at his arm out, he would just hook the arm and rise up into his shot and lover hate the rules. And I personally hate the way the rules are interpreted, but those are the rules.

And Shea is not the only guy who takes advantage of them. Like Denny Avdia was doing the same exact thing tonight. Like Luca Donchich and Jalen Brunson did it all season long. Again, if you're going to get upset about it, be upset at the league, not at Shea. That's just the way the rules are right now. And Shea has the ability to raise his floor by having trips to the line through these grifts when he's not making shots.

It's part of what makes him more reliable night tonight. It's part of what makes Luca more reliable night tonight. It's part of what makes Denny more reliable. It's part of what makes Jalen Brunson more reliable. I'm not going to get critical of Shea in that case. It is very much a league-wide issue that Shea is just one of many guys who are very good at taking advantage of. I thought Shet and J.D.A. both looked fantastic.

AJ Mitchell was great in his minutes. He hit a couple of massive threes to help blow the game open in that second quarter run. had a couple of steals. OKC won by 35 in a game where they went five for 17 on wide open threes. So in many ways, it was just exactly the type of boring and dominant performance you should have wanted to see if you were an Oklahoma City fan. For the Sons, literally nothing matters in this matchup until you pass the initial test. You can't have conversations about where your offense can break them down

or like how to clean things up on defense if you're going to piss down your leg in turn the basketball over and allow them to have 35 points the other way. I said the same thing about the Lakers. Everyone would always talk about like, oh, what they need this better center or they need this better forward. And I said this on the show when we talk Lakers. Like, I don't care if it was, you know, if you had some incredible center. Let's just let's just say it's Rudy Gobert, Jaden McDaniels at the three and Aaron Gordon at the four. And you just have like awesome role players at the 3-4-5. If Austin Reeves and Luca Donchich can't dribble the ball at the floor without turning it over, you're dead on arrival against the thunder. Like that is step one.

Before you can even compete against this team, you have to be able to handle their ball pressure without decomposing. And the sun's failed that initial test today. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. First weekend in the books, we will have an episode tomorrow morning. I'm going to do a 10 big takeaways from the weekend. So keep an eye on the feeds tomorrow in the mid-morning time. We'll have a video coming out that kind of is a synopsis of the weekend. And then we're back live tomorrow night after the final buzzer of a couple of game twos. I will see you guys then. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We

created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to us. We get to ask other people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people. people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

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