The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Game 2 Breakdown: How Heat rebounded, adjustments Nuggets must make | NBA Finals

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

Jason Timpf breaks down the most important factors from Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and the Miami Heat's 111-108 win over Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. How did Erik Spoelstra and Miami adjust from Game 1? And what must each team do in preparation for a vital Game 3? #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying.

Yep, that's me, Clivert 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, unfilled 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 IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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 put on 10. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. Coverage of the NBA Finals here at Hoops tonight is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? All right.

So for those of you guys who missed it last night, the great Colin Coward and myself went over the first two games of the NBA finals and all the storylines. We went for about a half hour. I thought it was really good. You can find that on our YouTube feed. This morning I had a chance to rewatch the game in its entirety and to pour over the numbers a little bit, learned a ton of stuff. So what we're going to do today,

there were three adjustments that I recommended for Miami coming after game one, and all three of them came to fruition in game two. So I'd like to kind of dive into that and talk about how it helped Miami steal the game. And then for our Chase three points segment, we're going to go over the three keys for Denver to regain control of the series as they go on the road to Miami. You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel.

So you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. So you guys don't miss any show announcements. And if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. All right, let's talk some basketball. So for those of you guys who listen to our film breakdown after game one, and that's kind of our cadence during the NBA finals.

I'll do an instant reaction, kind of just go over some of the surface level stuff, and then the next day when I really have a chance to pour over the film, we get into the weeds. And when we got into the weeds after game one, there were three keys that I wrote down for Miami. I said they had to avoid transition cross-matches because that's what killed them in the post-up area of the game for Denver, giving Yokic and Aaron Gordon way too many good matchups without even having to run action just by running up the floor and catching Miami in their transition cross-matches. The second key that I pointed out is I wanted them to try Kevin Love in the starting lineup just to give them a better chance to hang with Denver size.

And then the third one was I wanted them to lean on their zone defense more because I thought that actually was their most effective defense in game one. So let's kind of go one by one through those and talk about how they help. So first of all, transition cross matches. They just did a much better job, sprinting back, getting into the right matchup. Kevin Love being out there helps too because now you have three guys that are effectively tougher guys to target in post-up situations. Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love, and Bam at a bio. With only having two targets versus three, it's 50% less opportunity, even when you do get into

cross-matches to give somebody a matchup to attack. But they just did a better job in general. The best way you could tell is in the stats. Aaron Gordon had six post-ups for 10 points in game one. He had zero post-ups for zero points, obviously, in game two. So the heat made the adjustment. They removed that from Denver's offense. Secondly, Kevin Love. he helped on a bunch of different levels, and it went different than I expected. I expected them to put Kevin Love on Yokic and put Bam at a bio and help on Aaron Gordon. Instead, what they did is they actually put Kevin Love on Aaron Gordon and kept Bam at a bio on Yokich, basically just trying to take away those Aaron Gordon post-ups and help them in rebound situations,

because Kevin Love is such a great rebounder. It helped in a bunch of different ways. First of all, it allowed the Miami Heat to put Jimmy Butler on Jamal Murray, which was a huge part of Miami guarding the Murray-yokage two-man game so well, two-on-two without having to bring help, keeping the other guys out of rhythm, which we'll get into much deeper here in a little bit. It also helped on the glass. Kevin Love had 10 rebounds in 22 minutes.

That's obviously a huge factor in a series like this against a team so big. We talked earlier in the transition cross-match bit about how it gave the Nuggets fewer options for Aaron Gordon to attack. We call it matchup flexibility, just more guys that can guard more guys on the floor, right? He also had a couple of threes, and in his 22 minutes, Kevin Love, in Kevin Love's 22 minutes, the heat were plus 18. So that was a really, really smart adjustment from Eric Spolstra. And then lastly, if you guys remember, I said when I went over the film,

the times when Denver's offense looked most stilted, even when Nicolioch was out there, was against the zone. As a matter of fact, they had just six points in 10 possessions against the zone with Yokic on the floor in game one. So I was hoping that Spolster would use it more. And he used it a lot in the fourth quarter. only ran it three possessions total in the first three quarters, all while Yokich was on the bench. And then he broke it out for 13 possessions in the fourth quarter, all while Yokic was on the

floor. They only used it in dead ball situations and after made baskets. And when they first started using the zone to start the fourth quarter, Denver got, Miami got stops on five of their first seven possessions with the zone. During that span, they turned a two-point deficit into an 11-point lead. So the Spolester leaned heavy into the zone again. It ended up being what spearheaded the biggest run of the game for Miami. Now, on tape, there were two things that I want to point out that I think really makes Miami's zone work effectively against Denver. So, first of all, they're running a zone press up the floor as they're getting into the zone,

right? So the top two guys are picking up the ball handler and just making them work slowly up the floor. Why is that important? That eats up shot clock. So if he dribbles up into the zone and they get it. into their set with 19, 18 on the shot clock, now they have multiple opportunities to attack the zone, multiple opportunities to get the zone to flip side so that maybe a guy will make a mistake, right? But with ball pressure from that zone press, now when they get to the point where they're ready to

attack the zone, maybe there's only 12 or 13 seconds left on the shot clock. Now all of a sudden there's much less opportunity for Denver to start finding those entry points in the zone. It's a great way to disrupt rhythm that way. The second big thing, and I'm going to encourage you guys to go to my Twitter feed, and I shared a video. You guys know I have trouble being able to use footage on this format just by virtue of the way the rights work, but I can use it pretty liberally on Twitter. So go on Twitter, you'll see a specific clip that I posted that kind of demonstrates this particular concept. But what they're doing is they're taking, again, in a two-three zone. I hate calling it a two-three zone because the spolster's two-three zone is so versatile.

It moves around so much. It's more like an amoeba. And like with this little tweak that they made, which I'm about to describe, it almost looks like a one-three-one at times. But it is their two-three zone. Spolster just adjusts the responsibilities of the players based on the matchup. And everyone has responsibilities that extend far out of their area. And that's what makes it kind of like an amoeba rather than a traditional two-three.

But in a two-three, you have two top guys, right? Then you have two guys in the corners, and then you have Bametabio under the basket. One of the things that Miami was doing is they were having one. one of those top guys, drop down and front Yokic in the high post area, right? So the way that most teams like to attack the zone is they want to get the ball to the middle of the floor, which forces Bayamadabai to step up, which forces one of the wing defenders to drop underneath the basket, which will leave an open corner three, or if he stays, you can cut behind and get easy layup.

So everything comes down to getting the ball to the high post, right? That's the easiest way to attack his own that everyone has been talking about at every level of basketball, right? but if you front that high post pass, then you can't make that post entry and you have to attack the zone a different way, right? So one of the things that Miami's doing is they're dropping in the clip that I showed.

Gabe Vincent actually fronts Yokic in the post. So he's supposed to be a guard. He's not guarding up top. He's dropping down to the foul line and sitting in front of Yokic and taking away that pass. Kyle Lowry's in the other corner. And rather than staying in the corner,

he's coming up to Vincent's spot to take away that easy swing pass for a three. So if the swing passes aren't open for three and the Yokic pass isn't open, what is open? Well, the wide open skip pass on the weeks out of the floor, there's a shooter in the corner that's open. But that's one, an extremely difficult pass to make. Two, Miami can rotate out of it. The only way you're going to beat Miami with that pass is if you get it on a rope to the corner. And so it's a really interesting little tweak by zone pressing to eat up shot clock,

and then by denying that high post entry pass to Yokich by 4. fronting with the guard and then coming out of the corner to take away that easy swing pass, they've made it really difficult for Denver to enter against Miami zone. That's why I said it almost looks like a one-three-one at times because one of those guards is dropping back to the middle and so it kind of takes that shape a little bit. But that's the genius of air exposure, in my opinion. He didn't give Denver a chance to solve that zone throughout the game. He only used it three possessions in the first three quarters.

He ate up all the shot clock with the press, then he took away the easiest entry points of the zone. in that high post feed. That is what causes them to have the level of success against the zone that they have. So as we look back at those three, as we look back at those three adjustments, the transition crossmatches Kevin Love and more zone, Eric Spulster just did a really nice job after game one of identifying the things they did well and replicating those things and identifying the areas of weakness in addressing those things. I thought that was a huge part of how Miami ended up evening up this series.

So before we get to our Chase three-point segment, I want to talk about this Eric Spolstra presser comment that was going around last night about making Yokic a score. So for those of you guys who missed it, I think it was Ramona Shelburne basically brings up the idea of making Yokic a score and it disrupting the rhythm. And in her question, she literally brought up that it was overly simplistic.

So I didn't like Eric Spolster's reaction that much. She said, quote, first of all, I called it ridiculous. and then he said, quote, that's the untrained eye that says something like that. That's not how they play. They have so many actions that can get you compromised. So, for starters, I do understand why Eric Spolster is frustrated by that. He's like doing all these incredibly complex tactical things to Denver, right?

We just broke down some of them. The pivotal run of the game in the fourth quarter was with a zone defense, right? And even the zone we talked about has all these different like wrinkles to it, make it so complicated. So the simple idea of leaving Yokeach on an island one-on-one and making him a score, I get why that concept frustrates spolster because it's not really what's happening. But it's just an abbreviated way to describe the overall strategy that Miami is going with. And like, again, like, it's just a time saver. This show is a very unique format. Like, I'll sit here some days. Hell, we have shows where we go 45 minutes sometimes.

Now, most of them are between 20 and 30 minutes, but even if we just look at that, I have 20 to 30 minutes to sit down with you guys and break down everything in excruciating detail. So I can go into the detailed version of making Yokic a score. But most of these debate shows and most of these articles and all these different things, it's all about being concise in the way that you make your point. And so in a lot of these formats, people don't have the luxury of being able to take five minutes to break down what it means to make Yokic a score. And so while I understand spolster's frustration,

this is just the reality of the way sports media works. Sometimes you need to come up with these colloquialisms that effectively allow you to save time on the air, right? Like, it's like drop coverage. I say the phrase drop coverage a lot when I'm trying to save time, but even just within drop coverage, there's a million different ways to run a drop coverage, right? Like the guard has a half dozen different responsibilities that he can have.

The big man has a half dozen different things that he can do, different spots that he can occupy. the help side defense can be different in a drop coverage from team to team. Just in this particular matchup, Denver's backside help and pick and roll is way different than Miami's backside help and pick and roll. So, like, I'll say drop coverage to save time, but yeah, it's an oversimplification, you know? So, like, I want to cut Ramona Shelburne and a lot of these people some slack. Like, everything in basketball is super complicated when you dive into the minutia,

but it's unrealistic to expect that kind of minutia to always be broken down in detail, especially in a lot of the modern formats of these shows. And that's what I love about the format of this show. It's like I can take, like, there's no limit here. I can take as long as I need to break these things down and I can actually get into the weeds a little bit. But I wanted to cut those people some slack. So let's talk about what Miami is doing.

So Spolster's right. Denver's offense is a lot more complicated than just dumping the ball to Yokic in the post and hanging back and be like, okay, Yokit, your score now. Like that's not how it works. But when they do go to the post, they're defending him one-on-one. Right?

Like there was that Cody Zeller stretch where the end of the third quarter where Yokic is just attacking him again and again and again. And what they're doing on the help side situation is they're in position to help, but they're staying close enough to their shooters that they can rotate. It's more to just kind of shrink the floor on him. But what they're not doing is hard doubling Yokic that is giving up those passes that gets the defense in rotation. So guys like Michael Porter Jr. and Contavius Calvo Pope can get easy opportunity.

can get easy opportunities to knock down shots and attack closeouts, which is what allows them to build their rhythm. And then extending further to the Yokic-Murie action, anytime they run a two-man game, they're defending it two-on-two. They're expecting Jimmy Butler and Bametabio to stop that action. The other three players are hanging in a position where they can rotate to their shooters.

That is a deliberate tactical approach from Eric Spolstra to try to force Jamal Murray and Nicolioch, either in their two-man games or in their ISOs, or post-ups to score over the top, rather than taking those opportunities away with double teams, or defending the pick and roll three on two, allowing for easy opportunities on the backside that gets everyone else in rhythm. That's exactly what Eric Spolster is doing.

Yes, it's a lot more complicated than just making Yokic a score, but that is what's happening. Even in the zone, by virtue of denying Yokic the ball up top, they are preventing those easy opportunities on the weak side to stop guys from getting in rhythm. Everything about what Eric Spolstra is doing against Denver's offense is about, I know I can't stop Yokic. I know I'm not going to be able to disrupt his rhythm or make him feel uncomfortable. But Michael Porter Jr., Contagius Caldwell Pope,

those are guys like if I can rattle them a little bit, they'll start to miss the open ones too. And that stuff works. KCP and Michael Porter Jr. only generated three wide open. looks from three in last night's game. They went one for three on them. You guys might remember there was a play. It was against the zone in the late fourth quarter. It was right before Jamal Murray hit a three.

But there was a play where Jamal Murray like shovels a pass back to KCP at the top of the key and he just bricks a three long off the back room. And that's a play where it's like if KCP gets some easier touches throughout the game, then he rises into that shot in rhythm and with confidence and he probably knocks it down. but instead he's been disrupted throughout the game with the way that Miami's been guarding. And so now even that wide open shot that he gets doesn't go in because it's like he just didn't get that many of them. And so he wasn't feeling comfortable and confident in the situations.

All that stuff, again, we can argue about the semantics of what's happening, but it's very clear that Spolster is trying to force Murray and Yokic to score over the top rather than allowing the defense to get in rotation and create easier opportunities on the backside. 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 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 Jette.

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. Angie's list is now Angie, your home for everything home. Angie doesn't just get your home projects done. Angie gets them done well. With 20 plus years of experience combined with new tools to simplify the process, Angie makes completing home projects easy. With over 220,000 pros in their network,

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Today we're going to focus on three adjustments or specific areas that Denver needs. to be good at in order to have a chance to gain back control of the series as we had to Miami. So number one, the Denver Nuggets have to find a way to get easier opportunities for KCP and Michael Porter Jr. in their office, kind of expounding on that point that we just made. So so far through two games, MPJ and MCP are averaging 16 points per game combined in the series. During the regular season, they average 28 points combined. Michael Porter Jr. is shooting 29% in the series, and KCP is shooting 33% in the series. So the rhythm disruption stuff from Spolstra is really working.

And I'm not going to dive into the dynamic again because we just did. So a couple of adjustments they can make. One, they need to get out in transition more. They did have a better transition game in game two than they did in game one. They had single-digit transition points in game one. They had 21 points in transition in game two, although most of that took place in that second quarter run when Yokic was off the floor. So there's always going to, those transition opportunities are always going to be much easier to score than Miami set defense with how sophisticated they are in the half court.

So you've got to hunt those possessions every time you get an opportunity, which you have to defend in order to generate those transition opportunities. We're not going to talk about the Nuggets defense right now, but that was arguably the biggest thing that went wrong for them last night. We are going to get to that here in just a minute. run more two-man game with Michael Porter Jr. in KCP to keep them in rhythm. So they only ran seven possessions last night, or they ran DHOs or pick and rolls with MPJ or Contavius Cobble Pope running the action with Yokic as the screener.

That's not very often, right? And they'll run the vast majority of their two-man game possessions with Jamal Murray with the ball in his hands. And I get that. Jamal Murray's your star. You have to do that, right? But Jamal Marie finds himself in the tougher matchup here. He's being guarded by Jimmy Butler.

And Jimmy Butler's doing a really good job. Up until those last few garbage time threes that Jamal Murray hit at the late fourth quarter, Jimmy kind of locked his ass up, right? Now, that doesn't mean you stop running that action. You need to keep running that action. You need to keep Jamal Murray in rhythm as best as you can. But I would toss KCP and Michael Porter Jr. Several more of those a game just to keep the ball in there.

hands more to help them get into a rhythm. There's two, like, it helps in two ways. It helps them keep their rhythm, but also they're being guarded by lesser defenders. KCP, again, if you're putting Jimmy Butler on Jamal Murray, that means it's going to be a Gabe Vincent or a Max Struce that is guarding, or Caleb Martin that's guarding one of those guys in those situations. They might be able to get a better look against them, even though they're not as talented as Jamal Murray is. And then again, when you do get those catch and shoot threes for Michael Porter Jr. late in the game, when you are spamming Jamal Murray, Nicol Yochic actions, they're more likely to make them at that point because they've had more touches throughout

the game. So I think that's a big way that they can help keep those guys in rhythm. Just hunt transition opportunities and run more two main game with KCP and Michael Porter, Jr. having the ball in their hands. Number two, Denver has to figure out a way to score against Miami's zone effectively. So we talked about the zone run earlier, right? Miami gets five stops and seven possessions. They turned a two-point deficit into an 11-point lead. Now, they did score on four of their last six possessions against Miami's zone, which is what kind of bumped up the points per possession numbers.

But I thought it was fool's goal. The first one, Nicola Yokic was screening the top guy, and Jamal Murray got downhill, and Jimmy Butler was standing there waiting for Jamal Murray, and Jimmy just let him go right by him. And Jamal ended up engaging, bam, dropping it off to Yokich, and Yokch made a little floater. Like, Jimmy has a pretty good chance to contain that.

It was just a defensive mistake, right? Like, that's not something you can replicate. The second one was an Aaron Gordon three above the break. So, you know how we were talking about coming out of the corners to take away those easy swing pass threes? Well, in this possession, KCP was in the corner. Aaron Gordon was on the wing above the break. Duncan Robinson stayed in the corner, again, probably part of Eric Spolstra's, you know, decision-making process. Like, I'd rather give up an above-the-break three to Aaron Gordon than KCP.

in the corner, right? So Duncan Robin stayed glued. They threw the pass to Aaron Gordon. He was wide open above the break on the left wing, and he made that three. Again, a three that Miami's going to live with. And then the last two buckets that they got against the zone were both off offensive rebounds. So Miami actually got stops. They just couldn't finish the possession. So again, they scored on four of their last six possessions against the zone, but there was a lot of stuff in there that wasn't necessarily good execution on Denver's part. It was just guys making plays and Miami making some mistakes. So what are the adjustments that Denver can make to help score against Miami zone? So when they're, we talked about earlier, when you're leaving the weak side corner open,

the problem is, is that pass is really difficult to make. And you've got to make it on a rope, or there's no chance that guy's going to have enough time to take and make that shot, right? So that's a little bit unrealistic just to expect like, oh, we got to make the skip pass a bunch of times. Like, that's not going to happen. So a couple things they can do to create an easier passing angle to get an easy shot in that situation. First, of all, bring the corner guy up to screen for the shooter on the wing, right? So if the guy in the zone in the corner, the defender in the zone in the corner is coming up to take away that easy swing pass and the corner guy's open,

you just bring that corner guy up to screen that guy so that you can make the swing pass to an open shooter. Now it's in much easier passing angle. It's one pass away versus a skip pass, and it's in much more difficult rotation, right? Like if you make that skip pass to the corner, it's Bam at a bio that's coming out from the basket to dissuade the shot while Kyle Lowry relocates back down there and recovers and sends Bam back, right? But if Kyle Lowry's getting picked and there's a shooter over there and you make the swing pass, he's above the break. So Kyle's trapped on the pick and Bam now has to rotate not to the short corner, but all the way above the break, which is a rotation he literally can't make in time for that kind of shot. So using the weak side corner to screen the top guy in the zone to get a swing pass for a three. The other big one is just drive the zone.

Beat somebody off the dribble. Again, like in the zone defense, they're not double teaming you. They're just players are in spots on the floor, right? And so, yeah, you're not going to beat your man off the dribble and just get slashing layups because BAM's waiting there. But if you beat your man off the dribble, you engage a different defender in the zone while putting your defender out of position to do anything. that's where you can get opportunities for guys cutting, right? So there was a play that I posted on Twitter that I want you guys to check out. So go to my Twitter feed again.

And on this play, Caleb Martin is the top guy in the zone, and he's guarding Jamal Murray way up above the break on the left side of the floor. And Jamal just beats him off the dribble. And when he does, Duncan Robinson has to step up out of the corner. When he does, he leaves Jeff Green open. So Jamal makes a bounce pass to Jeff Green in the short corner who catches it. When he catches that, Bam Etabio has to step over to guard Jeff Green. And on this play, Christian Brown is in the weak side corner, cuts out of the corner and is standing right under the basket and he's wide open.

Jeff Green misses him. Just doesn't see him. Kyle Lowry's laid on his rotation coming down. He's wide open. Jeff Green makes that pass. It's an easy layup. So Denver blew that possession, but that's a great example of a way to attack the zone. Again, if you can beat your man off the dribble, you're going to engage a different defender,

which is going to start a chain reaction that's going to get you an open shot. So, again, you don't have to beat the zone by passing. Obviously, ideally, you want to beat the zone by passing. But with the way that Miami's guarding, one of the easiest ways for them to compromise the zone is just give the ball to somebody who can beat somebody off the dribble and just attack that man, then you have an opportunity to generate easier shots on the backside. The other one, attack the offensive glass with energy and force. So, again, like I talked about it earlier, the four possessions out of six that they scored,

you know, two of them were offensive rebounds, but that's something that can happen in zone. So the reason why offensive rebounding is easier against the zone is no one's matched up. So in a man-to-man situation, shot goes up. Everyone's got someone they're guarding. So they turn and they box out, right? But against a zone, there's a lot of times where people aren't guarding anybody. They're guarding an area, right? And so often there will be an area on the floor where, let's just say Duncan Robinson is on the left wing, and he's got two people in his zone area.

Well, he can't box them both out. And so there's often a lot of opportunities for free runs to the offensive glass against the zone. And so that's another way that they can help score against the zone is just when they're in that situation, attack the offensive glass a bunch. And then lastly, defend. Miami only ran their zone in deadball situations and off of made baskets in the fourth quarter. if you get a stop, you get to go against their man defense. And again, the reason why they do that is because a lot of times those semi-transition pushes, it's really, it takes more time to set up your zone than it does to set up a man-to-man.

So in that specific situation, you have an opportunity to go against their man just by getting stops. Which brings us to number three. Can Denver defend at a championship level three more times? Miami absolutely sliced and diced Denver in this game offensively. If I had to attribute one single factor to Denver for this loss, it would be the defensive performance of Nicola Yokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. All three of those guys were atrocious on that end of the floor in this game.

Miami scored an astonishing 1.47, so almost a point in a half, per possession, in pick and roll in 36 possessions. that's off the chart's good. You're not winning another game in this series if you defend like that. That's how bad it was. Now, on tape, it was extremely poor execution. There were two early pull-up jumpers

that Gabe Vincent got against Jamal Murray because Jamal Murray just didn't feel like guarding. First one was a step back where Jamal Murray was just kind of didn't even make an attempt to contest the shot. The second one, Gay Vincent was driving past him and kind of gave him a little bit of an off arm

to get to the middle of the floor and Jamal just turned around to complain at the refs about the off arm instead of guarding the shot. So Gabe Vincent walks into a shot. They were really botching the Max Truce ghost screens. That's how Max Trues got going. I think he hit four of his first seven threes. So like there would be a play where Gabe Vincent and Max Trues, Gabe Vincent has the ball. Max Trues just sets a go screen and runs to the corner. And Michael Porter Jr. and KCP just both stay with Gabe Vincent. and now Max Struz is wide open in the corner. Like, of course he's going to get his rhythm that way.

And then there was like another lazy Jamal Murray play where Aaron Gordon is guarding Jimmy Butler. Max Struce is at the top of the key. Struz runs a ghost screen to the corner. Jamal Murray just kind of jogs over to Aaron Gordon and stops and then just points over. Like, okay, Aaron Gordon, you guard Max Truce now. It's not even a screen. And Aaron Gordon's like, okay, and then like runs over, but he's too late. And the shot goes in.

Just laziness. And then mostly just in pick and roll, the big thing that I noticed in those 36 possessions was just giving up the pocket pass too easily. So again, drop coverage like we talked about earlier. And I talked about this a little bit last night with Colin. Like when I say they remind me the Patriots with doing your job. Like every coverage works when the guys do their job. It's just coverage just fall apart on execution, not based on the tactical approach. That's why like a lot of times when we talk about stubborn coaches who won't make an adjustment, oftentimes if you ask them like,

why wouldn't you make this adjustment? They'll just tell you the coverage wasn't the problem. It was the execution. So why would I change the coverage when, if they don't execute the new coverage, then we're in the same situation. Now, what I would argue is you've got to find a coverage that your team can execute. But execution is what breaks down coverages. And again, and this is where Jamal Murray was,

Jamal Murray in particular, was the biggest weak point in Denver's defense last night. And then I'd say, Yoke, which is probably the second biggest week point. But Jamal Murray dying on screens makes it. so that that ball handler is coming off of those ball screens free and clear. When he's coming off free and clear, that forces Yokic to come higher out of his drop. When Yokic comes higher out of his drop, that opens up the pocket pass. When the pocket pass is open and it's that easy, one of two things is going to happen. You're either going to hit BAM at a bio and he's going to go up and dunk it with two hands on Michael Porter Jr.

Plus the foul. Or the defender is going to step over to defend the action three and two, and that's when you're going to get all the openings. on the weak side as the defense is in rotation. So fundamentally, one piece falling apart, Jamal Murray dying on screen, super easy, breaks down the entire coverage. And if you guys remember before the series,

I actually said, I said one of the ways that I see Miami winning games in the series, and again, like I said a sweep was on the table, but I picked Miami, I picked Denver and six. I picked Denver in six because Miami just does this. They just, they just find a way to win games. They just do. And one of the ways that I thought they would win games in this series, if you guys remember, I said two things. I said Jimmy Butler matchup attacking.

And guess what? He was up over a point per possession. Post-ups, ISOs and pick-and-roll ball handler possessions last night. And then two, elite weak-side shot making. Because Denver, more often than not, has to defend pick-and-roll three on two. Because Jamal Murray and Nicol Yokic struggled to defend ball screens, so they need help. And Miami's got knocked-down shooters on the. the weak side. That's like the fundamental concept of last night's game. Miami defends all the two-man

game actions two on two, keeps their defense out of rotation, takes away easy opportunities on the weak side. Denver constantly has to guard those actions three on two. Now their defenses and rotation constantly, and they're getting wide open shots for shooters. That's how you end up with 1.47 points for possession in pick and roll. And so again, like, when that coverage falls apart, that's what keeps your defense in rotation. So simply put, Jamal Murray, Nicola Yokic, Michael Porter, Jr., they all have to defend at a much higher level.

Jamal Murray has to stay attached as he's running over screens so that Yokic can drop further back. When Yokic is in his drop, he has to be more active with his hands to make that pocket pass harder. He's got to defend BAM better in those situations. And then Michael Porter Jr., that guy in game one that was flying around, blocking shots, making plays, that dude didn't exist in game two. His defensive effort was at an entirely different lower level.

And so Michael Porter Jr. has to also bring that level of effort and intensity as a help defender. That will help them generate more transition opportunities, right, to help MPJ and KCP get going. It will help them avoid Miami zone because Miami won't set their zone unless they get a made basket. and it will prevent Mike Malone from having to do what he did at the end of the game, which is bring Bruce Brown into the game as a defensive presence, which lessens the amount of shooting that you have on the floor. So fundamentally, defense is what beat Denver last night. And that's going to be what Michael Malone is preaching nonstop over the next two days.

And that's the biggest adjustment that I expect from Miami going forward. Now, before we get move on, I do want to talk about this shooting thing for a second. because once again, and Denver fans are just the latest group to start pleading this case. But it's, oh my God, Miami is this is just outlier shooting. I can't believe this. They're making everything. This is historically unprecedented, off the charts, lucky shot making.

And you guys know how I feel about that. Like, I hate hate the way that we cover shooting in this league. Like it's just walking up to a slot machine, putting in a $20 bill and hitting a button and just praying to God that you. get coins at the end of the day. Like that's, that's not how this works. Like, it's a, it's a basketball game. Everything is intricately connected. In game one, Denver was flying around defensively and played with a ton more force. So as a result, all of Miami's looks were more rushed, more fatigued. In this particular game, Denver didn't play with any force

relative to what they did in game one. So as a result, now Max Scher's is getting his rhythm in wide open catch and shoot situations on ghost screens, right? In general, the lack of force that Denver played with makes it so that Miami is less fatigued, less rushed, and in better rhythm when they're taking those shots. And then guess what happens? When you start getting easy looks, you feel confident, you feel comfortable, you're in rhythm. Now guess what? That catch and shoot three that's contested also goes in because you're feeling great about yourself and you're in a great rhythm. Again, contested is way different. than bothered. Those are two completely different concepts. If I put my hand up on a shot and the shooter

is in rhythm and he's going to his muscle memory, he doesn't even see my hand. You know how I know? I've done that a million times. Okay? When you contest a shot and you're in rhythm, it just doesn't bother you. Now when you bother a shot, that means you've made him feel uncomfortable throughout the game. You're attached to his body. You're disrupting his base. Now that entire muscle memory gets disrupted. Now it doesn't even need to be a contest. you don't even have to bother them up top if you bother them down low. So, like, again, like, as we go into these things, it's so easy to look at the analytics and be like, oh, as we look at the shot quality based on the nearest defender,

like Miami actually outperform their shot quality by X percentage, and that means Denver, if they played this exact same game again, would have won. No! They play that exact same game again. Denver loses again, because Miami is comfortable again. Miami makes shots again and then makes the tough shots again. It is the lamest loser mentality form of basketball analysis that I see out there,

and I hope we stop it. Because at the end of the day, we are not slot machines. We are basketball players. And we make shots based on all of the things that take place in a basketball game. There is a tiny bit of variance. There is a tiny bit of luck. But the vast majority of it comes down to the things that are happening in the basketball game. All right, I'm off my soapbox.

My three points were brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. Unlimited 1.5% cashback is just. the beginning. Earned 3% on dining at restaurants, including takeout, and eligible delivery services. 3% on drugstore purchases, 5% on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, and 1.5% on all other purchases. How do you cash back? So Miami has changed the dynamic of the series a little bit. Denver seems to have lost a little bit of their confidence. A couple of their role players are out of rhythm. And Miami has two defensive looks that are causing Denver problems. And that's Jimmy and Bam on the Murray-Yokic two-man game and their zone defense. So

my prediction as of right now, for whatever that's worth, and you guys know, I hate making predictions. I'd much rather just react to the games. But if I had to guess right now, I think Denver wins game three and Miami wins game four. And then we come back to Denver at 2-2. But again, who the hell knows what's going to happen? I sure as hell don't. And I'm just excited to break it all down with you guys. So tomorrow, I believe at 2 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, I'm doing a video with Liv Moods, our resident Nuggets fan here at the volume. So keep an eye on that in the YouTube feed in the late afternoon tomorrow. And then I will be back as usual on Wednesday night after the final buzzer of game three with Mr.

Colin Coward. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel 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 acapella 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. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'll say it. 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 you. 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok.

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